Yutaka Hirasaka is a guitarist/producer from Tokyo who has been releasing music for about the last four years. Even though he’s only been at it for a short while, he’s given us a lot of interesting projects in that time. Just this past January, we were treated to a project called In the Moment. Now he’s back with a new project, Bed Hair.

The idea behind Bed Hair was that Hirasaka took a part of June of this year to wake up and immediately head to his desk and grab his guitar and tap out a few beats. He didn’t think about it too much, just played loose and let the inspiration grab him first thing in the morning, before he even had a chance to brush his hair. Different artists work best in different scenarios, but after listening to Bed Hair, I think it’s safe to say that Yutaka Hirasaka works well in the mornings. Not many artists are able to make guitar-driven instrumental hip hop work on a high level, but Hirasaka does it with ease on this project. That’s because the grooves of his beats and the structure of the song are given a lot of weight, and his guitar playing in kept within the song, tasteful and layered, only occasionally breaking out for a big moment in a solo. The way that Hirasaka is able to marry these two worlds of instrumental hip hop and instrumental guitar music and make them both dope reminds me a great deal of one of my all-time favorites, Tommy Guerrero. Their styles aren’t the same, but there is a lot of overlap in approach, especially in the way that nothing takes precedent over the song itself. When you take a step back, you have a collection of really gorgeous instrumental songs on Bed Hair that are easy to listen to, smartly written and structured with great grooves, and with enough nuance that you can keep going back for more with each listen.

Bed Hair is another excellent effort from Yutaka Hirasaka. He’s not only been prolific in his short career, but he’s clearly been putting in the work and making sure that his music is of the highest caliber. He’s an excellent songwriter, producer, and instrumentalist, and he’s really learned how to put all of his skillsets together to make some great projects that are easy to listen to and enjoy.