Release Date: 10 June 2022
Song Count: 18
Rating: 8.7/10
Description:
And here it is: the one breakcore album I'm reviewing for this month, as I apparently seem to only do these on a monthly basis now.
Jokes aside, working through the colourful assortment of personal requests that I've gotten of albums and artists to check out, today we've got Shoebill, a mashcore producer from the UK, with their second and most recent full-length album, hikikomori days. Named after a subgroup of people who confine themselves to their own home for extended periods of time and fully withdraw from social interaction, one could imagine the record being filled with melancholy or an overall sad mood fully seeping into it when looking from the outside - however, that is not what hikikomori days is in the slightest.
Shoebill's specific style of breakcore is what is frequently described as "mashcore", where countless samples from all sorts of places are chucked and played around in a chaotic manner to match the equally chaotic beats and production, and this record is no exception. Everything from popular 2010's songs to common sound effects are permitted and used in bulk across the 18 tracks to great effect, and it overall leads to a general listening experience full of aural stimulation, creativity and fun. Even with the constant appearance of similar drum samples being used for the actual main breakcore side of the music, the songs more than succeed at standing out amongst each other simply through the sheer amount of additional samples and snippets used in tandem.
The way these seemingly overwhelming parts move along together and match each other's pace comfortably also increases the sense of coherence the tunes have, as to have the feel less like random clusters of incomprehensible noise and more like unexpected yet fitting pieces of a musical puzzle that are intentionally arranged to construct full-on tracks - albeit without sacrificing the usual amount of controlled chaos the breakcore genre brings in naturally. It all comes together as one 67-minute long record that is of great enjoyment once one can either get behind the barrier of the genre being less approachable, or even finds themselves drawn into the aspects that push others away within the music.
Though I was wary at first on what to expect from Shoebill's output due to preconceived notions on a lot of more modern breakcore music declining in quality compared to older music in the scene, what I found here absolutely blew those expectations out of the water. This batch of songs is both very well produced and contains practically everything one could ask for in an album like this, whilst also never going stale throughout its runtime or dragging on for much longer than it should. Would very much recommend this to fans of the niche genre who wish to experience something fresh, fun and modern all at once.