Anime fans may remember Deathnote, a project by Tsugumi Ohba that ran as a manga series from 03-06 and a television series from 06-07 about Light Yagami’s conflicting relationship with a book that can kill people, so long as he has their full name. Light carries out sort of a Dexter-style mission to kill criminals and immoral people. But all these mysterious heart attacks and accidents doesn’t go unnoticed by authorities, and they launch a special task force (which Light ultimately joins and tries to dismantle) to find the killer. This constant teeter-totter between doing good things for good and bad things for good, but getting lost and doing bad things for bad was the inspiration for HAIKU’s newest single “Immoral.”
A progressive and wavey track with a heavy emphasis on melody, “Immoral” comes as a follow up to “Complexion” and the latest in HAIKU’s wavier work. HAIKU tries to separate his wavey work with more bass-driven, dark house music, and this has been communicated with the artwork for these tracks—with wavey music getting more anime-inspired artwork, which really illuminates the fact that HAIKU draws his inspiration from TV and film.
Having drawn from films like American Psycho and, well, Psycho for tracks in the past, I’m really excited that the Michigan-based producer finally gets to lean on those anime roots with what’s sure to be his biggest single to date, “Immoral.”
HAIKU told me he also draws a lot on inspiration for these tracks from artists like Deathpact, Radiohead, My Chemical Romance, Nine Inch Nails, and his more immediate circle Sully and Peekaboo, who he credits as big inspirations and huge supporters of his who he wouldn’t be here without. HAIKU plans to release quite a bit more music this year. Music of both the pretty and wavey variety, as well as the dark and bass-driven variety, so everybody oughta keep their eyes and ears out for more gas in the future. And some words of advice when it comes to a “psycho” like HAIKU, don’t let him know your full name.