You know when you find yourself repeating the same thing over and over, all the while knowing that you really should be doing something else, and yet can’t stop?

Well, this is the exact situation I find myself in with regards to Japanese electronic music recently: I just keep going back again and again for more of the odd hybrid of bass music and juke that seems to have found favour over there.

Hey, at least I’m not hooked on porn.

What kept me hooked on Toshiyuki Kitazono‘s Sixteen was not so much the mentalist snapping of the drums or the near-incoherent structure of the song, but the very, very deeply buried meowing that loops throughout half the track. Yes, it takes that little to snare my attention.

At first I thought it was the vocals of another song that was playing in the room. Then I thought I was imagining it. Then I listened really hard, pulling a strained expression, trying to hear deeper, man. And there it was, just a faint purring.

Why does this mater Well, it doesn’t, I suppose – it’s just a weird noise amongst one of many in the song. But it also tells a bigger story – Toshiyuki Kitazono is a producer of no little talent, and these small flourishes are the sign of a musician who knows how to put a great slab of rumbling, twitchy dance music together.

And that’s exactly what this is: a big, impressive, wobbly chunk of dance music that bears repeated listens. And samples a cat. Maybe. Great.

MORE: tri-answer.com