Review: Mahōgakkō by Hakushi Hasegawa
“In like a lion and out like a lamb” perfectly describes the album Mahōgakkō by Japanese artist Hakushi Hasegawa (they/them). The 35-minute album features themes of nature, longing, and chaos, with a complimenting set of ethereal music videos. This is Hasegawa’s first album with the label Brainfeeder and it demonstrates a strong musical growth from previous albums.
Hakushi Hasegawa has the midas touch of rhythm. Every chord stab, drum hit, and inhale falls cleanly into the dynamic grid of triplet, 16th note, and quintuplet groupings. The rhythmic content is complex and precise, yet flows naturally and is essential to their sound. In Hasegawa’s earlier releases, Air Ni Ni and Somoku Hodo, the rhythm dominates the arrangement. The grooves are creative and change from section to section. Rhythmic hits interrupt the groove at the end of these sections, demanding the listener’s attention and acting as a bridge between the varying grooves.
Mahōgakkō starts with the song Departed which is reminiscent of Hasegawa’s older albums. However, as the album progresses, the rhythmic complexity is reined in and controlled. In songs like Mouth Flash (Kuchinohanabi), The Blossom and the Thunder, and Boy’s Texture, the grooves are stable and easy to follow. The rhythmic complexity is still present, but it’s used as accents and sits in the groove, rather than dominating it. This helps bring attention to the vocals and keeps the arrangement interesting, while not being overwhelming.
The vocals on Mahōgakkō don’t fit into the typical pop vocal mold. They aren’t bright, focused, and commanding, but rather soft, layered, and flowing. The vocals are panned wide and often get “buried” in the other elements both frequency and volume-wise. This “buried vocals” sound is one that I’ve come to associate with styles like house music where the groove takes priority over the vocals. While this is not very common in pop music, I believe it fits well here and provides energy and intensity to the music.
The flowing vocals provide a nice contrast to the rhythm and intensity in the groove. The vocal lines are calm and melodic, providing stability to the chaos underneath. The final song of the album, Outside, has a beautiful vocal arrangement that is both hard-hitting and comforting. Songs like Outside and Forbidden Thing (Kimmotsu) showcase a gentler side of Hasegawa and showcase their growth as an artist.
The structure of Mahōgakkō is made up of full length songs separated by shorter transition songs. The tracks Repeal (Tekkai), NENNEKOKOROMI, Mahōinter (v2), and Enbami contain moving soundscapes, distorted dialogue, and Hasegawa’s signature cartoon-like voices. These tracks are important to the album. They build depth by creating auditory imagery and soften the transition between intense and soft tracks.
Hakushi Hasegawa’s cartoon-like character voices are a signature sound that can be seen across all their albums. They’re playful and unique; the characters build familiarity across the varying tracks. The many music videos for this album are essential to understanding the project as a whole. Most of the videos contain animated humanoid figures that match the character voices very well. The pacing, colors, and imagery are all very deliberate and add context to the tracks, with the video for Outside (Soto) being particularly impactful.
Hakushi Hasegawa is a bold and innovative artist that deserves to be on everyone’s radar and Mahōgakkō is a large step in their promising path forward as a musician.