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Jamie Saft, Merzbow - Merzdub - 21-Feb-08 10:32 PM
One thing Jamie Saft and Merzbow have in common is their experimental streak. Between them, there are fans of dub, fans of noise, or more unlikely, fans of both genres. This is probably why Merzdub is going to be one of those rare records that the listener absolutely has to get into, and make room for it to grow. The willing and patient is handsomely rewarded: On Merzdub, we find drugged-out and phuq'ked-up experimental dub pieces, brave key and tempo changes counterpointed with sweet riddims and, of course, varying levels of excitable Japanoise. All of that, in a melting pot. Depending on which track one listens to, the result can be achingly beautiful in an opiated, trippy sort of way (eg Conquerer), or it can verge on the ominous (eg Kantacky Fried Dub). Whatever you do, watch out for the filthy, skanky, Skinning JLO: Jamie Saft's vocodered voice with vocals of what sounds like a 'skinned' J-Lo, is going to have you worship the feet of these two experimental giants. Out-and-out Excellent!

Kylie Minoise - You Suffer - 10-Jan-08 05:08 PM
This only happens once in a blue moon, even if the syndrome is prolonged: You get tired of the same pop-trash repeated to death on the radio, you get sick of hearing commercialised dance music in visionless clubs, you want a powerful cleansing agent to rid yourself of the barf-inducing lyrics of some megasuperstar, or you just plain feel like some good ol' hurting in the ears. You put this one on. 60 minutes of sonic destruction that hurts so bad it's good. Guaranteed to erase any trace of maudlin drivel that pop music is determined to hoist upon you, and at points, even makes you thankful (at the back of your throbbing head) of the existence of predictable and 'safe' music. Kylie Minogue or Kylie Minoise? Either way, YOU SUFFER.

Merzbow - Higanbana - 02-Jan-08 05:52 AM
Higanbana is the Japanese name of Red Spider Lily, a red and fatally poisonous flower associated with death in Japan. It belongs to the species Cluster Amaryllis, which in turn is the title of Track 1: a red-hot inferno of screaming feedback sounding like scorched crickets, with low-fi bass growling in the urgent undertow. The 30-minute work of art feels like an unsettling journey into the toxic medulla of Higanbana, eye(ear)-opening and dangerous. Like a fuse burning itself out, track 2 is an unstoppable roar of fuzz, white noise and psychedelic pulsations that explore dynamics and sound channelling to its hushed end. The album features Ukons (Silky Feather) which appears to be a chook; and the ‘courtesy’ extended ‘by Hell’ hints at the macabre manner by which Ukons may have contributed to the uncredited sounds on track 3. Like a sick metronome, the mutilated clucks of Ukons count down as different frequencies of static, sirens, and squelches explode in disjointed phrases, on and on, without resolution. Indeed, none of the three tracks find peace in themselves as none ends resolutely. In this the last album of 2007, Merzbow once again makes a statement by defying complete comprehension.

Merzbow - Electro Magnetic Unit - 23-Dec-07 10:25 PM
Electro Magnetic Unit is an aptly titled release. Images of sparked static electricity and raw waveforms of power electronics spring to mind while the steel-like bastion of fuzzy, white noise creeps closer and closer to the listener. The approach on the mixes (with perhaps the exception of Mix 4) is slow and deliberate, like a storm of torrential rain that grows unrelentlessly heavier, burying ominous, looping and droning music in the background. As a result, this is perhaps one of the most hypnotic of Merzbow's works. A real shame it is so rare.

Ricardo Villalobos - Sei Es Drum - 14-Dec-07 05:58 AM
Mr Villalobos is at it again: polarising views with his latest musical outing, eliciting discussions on whether he is the future or demise of "minimal". Seriously, who cares? Not the genius himself. His self-unawareness and indifference shines through these seven quirky, almost demented, tracks that push "minimal" to the shorelines of experimentation.

Threading the pieces together is the commonality of latin-flavoured vocals, but ironically the vocals themselves thwart our efforts to pigeon-hole or understand. They vary from snippets of puzzling conversation (tracks 1, 5) to mantric refrains (tracks 3, 5, 6), to lazy and deliberate off-key singing. Phrases are chopped and trippy words tweaked into dub-like incoherence. The beats and basslines shuffle along, but occasionally break down into glitches and uneven tempos. Percussive tools such as hi-hats and side drums provide a strong counterpoint to the madness, but can also disappear all of a sudden, further unravelling and stripping down the tracks into shreds of barely-together music. What dope!

Music people, you want "minimal"? You got it right here. If you feel like locking yourself up in a mental asylum after (because you keep hearing a guy rapping “Baila Sin Petit” or a woman yelling “Chicken!” or "The goose is cooked!" in your head), then the tracks did their job beautifully. But if you want your minimal without an untidy and gritty side of evolving experimentalism, then maybe minimal isn’t, and never was, for you.

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