Yutaka Hirasaka is a Tokyo-based producer and guitarist who has been releasing music over the last ten years. Just this past December, he gave us a collection of previously unreleased material called Beee. Now he is back with new full-length album out on Inner Ocean Records, In the Moment.

Now, if you do a quick search online for downtempo or ambient hip hop and/or instrumental guitar music, you’re going to find a lot of forgettable music that is completely white noise that sits in the background. Basic beats, mindless noodling, and nothing much more. Every once in a while, though, you come across a gem like Yutaka Hirasaka and an album like In the Moment, and you’re quickly reminded that it doesn’t have to be this way. This music can actually be really good and enjoyable. The number one reason for that is that Hirasaka has put in the work, studying great artists and groups like J Dilla, Tortoise, and Kiefer, and he’s clearly picked up lessons along the way on production techniques, songwriting, arranging, and melody. When you listen to an album like In the Moment, there isn’t any wasted movement. Everything on this album is done with purpose. The beats don’t sit still, and the melody carried on guitar isn’t just endless noodling. Hirasaka is cooking up grooves that keep your attention at all times, and while he has a beautiful clean tone on the guitar, what makes his guitar playing really great is the way that it’s always been played within the rest of the instrumentation, making musical conversation, driving the melody, and providing structure all at the same time. It’s a slightly different style, but the artist Hirasaka reminds of the most is Tommy Guerrero, the way he’s able to bring all of these elements together and make this guitar-led instrumental hip hop all his own. In the Moment is an absolutely gorgeous album, but it’s also incredibly engaging and fun to listen to.

Yutaka Hirasaka has been at this for a minute, and he works in an understated fashion, but if you put in the time with his music, you will be greatly rewarded. In the Moment is thoughtful, soulful, and full of great grooves and beautiful melodies.