Pssst. I know it seems unlikely, but somebody who
goes by the name Hidenobu Ito has just made
the best album of 1999 IMO. Bedroom In The Cage (NS-COM;
available through Dutch East--www.dutch-east.com)
is one of those all-over-the-map records where musical schizophrenia
makes perfect (non)sense. You may detect reference points
(John Cage, musique concrète, Oval, MOM, Stock, Hausen & Walkman,
Bob Fripp [?!], Mahavishnu Orchestra [?!], the Mego-tists, etc.),
but Ito never slavishly mimics any of the above. He puts his
distinctive spin on every genre he tries. Throughout Bedroom
Ito displays a playful sampladelic sensibility and a knack
for discombobulating compositional (anti)structure. After
4 listens to Bedroom, I am convinced that Ito is a true original--
one of the few working in any style of music today.
Dave Segal
Managing Editor/Alternative Press
Reviews/BPM/Reissue Redux/Origins Of Cool
Secret Ions on WCSB Thursdays 9-11PM EST www.wcsb.org
np: tone rec- coucy-pack [sub rosa]