K2 – Variation: Pianoise

Just as with Astro’s Deformation Receiver, which I recently had the pleasure of reviewing from Dead Mind Records, Variation: Pianoise takes us back to a recording session that occurred several years ago in 2012. What K2—otherwise known as anti-fascist Japanese noise and experimental musician Kimihide Kusafuka—does here is almost like that famous MIT piano drop. However, Kusafuka’s approach here is admittedly a far more respectable treatment of the instrument, meaning His destruction was one of a much more figurative nature rather than literal, accomplished on a non-physical level with audio effects. The original piano sound has been processed, fed through a menacing feedback system, and basically deconstructed and ravaged in any sadistic way that you can imagine from a naughty noise boy.

The result is radical; Variation: Pianoise is essentially harsh noise at its most exhausting (in the best sense of the word) and at its most raw form. Both sides of the Variation: Pianoise EP are exceptionally lo-fi; they almost leave one with the feeling that these experiments were originally recorded on tape. They sound surprisingly Warm, which surely doesn’t deprive them of the primitive nature that K2 appears to have been going for. On the contrary, that warmth is pretty deceptive when you keep in mind the actual aggression of the sonic destruction at certain points within these two tracks. There are, however, some very special occasions when the true voice of the piano somehow manages to surface through all of the junk noise that piles up in layers on top of it. Those are magical, brief moments whose purpose seems to be to hook K2’s audience into listening deeper into his audio in search of other organic artifacts. Chasing these aural remains easily becomes something of an addiction.

For it’s short duration, there’s actually quite a lot of these artifacts, which should place Variation: Pianoise at a higher ranking among any noise fan’s 7″ collection. That sensible and traceable connection between concept, origin of sound, and the final result is something that makes Kusafuka’s pieces here stand out. If nothing else, the experience makes the process behind the creation of Variation: Pianoise of interest: What, exactly, could Kimihide Kusafuka have been going for with this creation? Questions aside, one thing is certain: It certainly would keep my piano teacher guessing.

(Heathen Harvest)