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A very pretty release on Chicago's Hefty Records, Mondii is Naohiko Sugimoto. Sugimoto's biography provides a neat sketch of what his music sounds like, as a resident of Chiba, Japan who grew up in Chicago. Chiba + Chicago = Techno + Postrock. Simplistic I know, but it does happen to neatly fit his music, which smartly circumnavigates the same spaces as the likes of Nobukazu Takemura, Susumu Yokota and Tortoise. Sugimoto says "I just want to try all kinds of sounds, instruments and structures to expand my way of expression and make a fresher sound", and that pretty much shows through in the resulting album. There's a liveliness to the sound, which can drift in and out of techno rhythms easily enough, though the rhythm parts - pretty much all of this music is both rhythmic and textural at the same time - are composed of numerous different found sounds, pouring water, crackles, scrapes, and on the brilliant opening track "Come Come", a sound which I can only really describe as creaking geese. It's a very cute loop, upon which Sugimoto gently layers swathes of delicate electronica. The other tracks are more beat oriented, in that no matter how glitchy they start, say the fragmented "Different Corners", most pieces eventually end up in a discernible, almost consistent, rhythm. There's still considerable skill to how this manifests itself though, as with "Woody"'s Takemura-like bright pointillism. And, as with all Hefty productions, it's beautifully designed. At 8 tracks comprising 36 minutes, it doesn't outstay its welcome, and I'd like to hear more by Mondii.