Makoto

Makoto Shimizu (清水誠), known professionally as Makoto, is a Japanese drum and bass musician, producer, and DJ from Tokyo. His work is closely associated with liquid funk, and his sound is often marked by clear traces of 1970s soul, funk, and jazz fusion woven into drum and bass production.

Shimizu has also been credited under several name variants, including Makoto Shimizu, Shimizu Makoto, M. Shimizu, and MAKOTO, as well as alternate spellings such as Makato and Mokoto. In recordings and DJ work, Makoto is recognized for bringing a melodic, groove-oriented sensibility to drum and bass, drawing on the rhythmic and harmonic language of classic soul and funk alongside the genre’s faster breakbeats and basslines.

According to Discogs, Makoto was born in 1977 in Tokyo, Japan. Discogs also notes that his interest in drum and bass was sparked by landmark releases from the 1990s, including LTJ Bukem’s Logical Progression (1996) and Goldie’s Timeless (1995), and that he went on to work as both a producer and remixer. Discogs further cites the downtempo single “You’re Divine” (2001), featuring Lori Fine of Coldfeet, as a widely known track, and describes Human Elements (2003) as his debut album.

Across his career, Makoto’s output has been linked with labels connected to modern drum and bass and liquid funk, including Liquicity Records, Con-Natural Music, Human Elements, Spearhead Records, and Shogun Audio. His catalog is generally understood within drum and bass as a meeting point between club-focused production and the musical vocabulary of soul, funk, and jazz fusion, a combination that has remained central to his identity as an artist.