Nariaki Obukuro found his groove — just not on the dance floor

Nariaki Obukuro wanted to make his fourth full-length a dance music album. The world had other plans.

“Crazy things were happening — war, inflation. I couldn’t dance,” he tells The Japan Times. “I’d go out and all I could think about was war.”

So instead of club beats, he turned inward. “Zatto,” released in January, marks a considerable shift for a rising J-pop insider under Sony Music Japan turned independent artist in London. Backed by musicians he met during his time in England, this latest release features raw grooves inspired by American soul, reggae and flamenco. Empathy ties it all together.