CDレビュー: "Infinite Flowers" by TJ Norris :
igloo, MICROVIEW Vol.14 2004

Steelpan electronics has come of age and landed in Tokyo! Yoshio Machida livens the playing field that crosses what might be single-mindedly one of the few sounds indicative of the Jamaican islands by updating the sound with bubbly, velvet electronics and other assorted percussion and vocoded English speaking Japanese contortions and other hoot-like catcalls. Along with his collaborators Tetsuro Yasunaga (electronics) and Keiichi Sugimoto (guitar), Machida composes a heartfelt, warm record in his plantation of "Infinite Flowers." The beats are offbeat, the tones are effervescent and veiney, the roots are soulful without overdone, superfluous eccentricities. In his hands the steel drum calms and relaxes, rather than invigorates and incites flailing limbs. Though this is not a casual listen and far from slackﾉits quite bright, with an intangible sensibility. It takes the sounds collected from other cultures and designs them to sound like traditional Japanese harmonies on "Namaqua." This cross-breeding of turf makes for some curious and keen interculturalism that opens a pandoraﾕs box of shared aural ancestry. At times dizzying, at times methodical and trancelike, Infinite Flowers flows like a craggy mountain stream catching small pebbles and loose branches in its wake.