greetings from japan, friends. The new autechre album came out here today I
believe, and I picked it up this afternoon... its distributed through Beat
Records here, and like most japanese releases has an extra, japan-exclusive
track: track 10, called "mcr quarter (recorded live at band on the wall,
machester 1998)". Anyhow, I'm not that great at describing in words the
sounds of electronic music, but I like the album definitely. But, I'm on my
third listen of the album, and only NOW am I beginning to really enjoy it.
It is more "difficult" than previous autechre material I think. I got into
autechre on Tri Repetae, and Confield is really nothing like their old
stuff at all. Its in the same style as EP7, which I enjoyed, and I think
this new album is even better. But it is still very abstract, and very
experimental. The beats are very difficult to figure out, and there's not
much of what you would call groove the album. Lots of polyrhythms and the
beats are hacked to hell... I guess they've taken the D out of IDM on this
one. But some of it is really gorgeous and I'm sure you'll probably all
rush out to buy it anyhow, right? So, don't worry, autechre haven't lost
it, but they also definitely haven't backed away from the cutting edge or
returned to their older, more accessible (imo) style. This album is pretty
far out, and I'm sure it will take several more listens before I can fully
get my head around it. The extra track, I hate to say, is REALLY good...
since its from '98, its their slightly older style, a lot more beat/dance
oriented... its a really hot rhythmic track. Whether its worth importing
from japan, I can't say. It also comes with a little 2" black sticker with
the warp logo and "autecher confield beat records 2001" in tiny print, and
a fold out insert (all in japanese) with a biography of autechre. I'm sure
this album will cause a lot of controversy on this list when it is released
domestically, but I for one think its good stuff. :)
I also picked up a promo flyer for the album, which has a release schedule
of Beat Records in it... I guess they are the distributers of Warp records
in Japan? Anyhow, on 5/26, Plaid "Double Figure", Prefuse 73 "Vocal Studies
And Uprock Narratives", and Two Lone Swordsmen "Furthr Reminders" will be
released here, and on 6/? it says Squarespusher's "Go Plastic". I'll be
back in the states by then, but I'm really excited to hear the new
Squarepusher.
let's see, other Japan stuff... I'm really into Nobukazu Takemura here. If
you haven't heard Child & Magic, seriously, go to Forced Exposure and pay
$35 for the import copy... I'm afraid it still costs a solid $25 here, CDs
are expensive, so its not THAT bad a ripoff and seriously the album is
phenomenal. Some of his newer stuff is available domestically for much more
reasonable prices. I'd recommend Scope, and any Child's View stuff you can
find. I saw Nobukazu and a woman named Aki Tsuyuko perform live and it was
MIND BLOWING. It was an electro-acoustic concert, so it was all about 3D
sound and total sound immersion, with projected visuals too... suffice to
say I was LOST for a good hour, totally lost in the sound... it was a
consciousness altering experience. If you can see him on his tour of the
US, don't miss it!! Aki Tsuyuko album Ongaku Shitsu is quite good too, kind
of experimental organ music... hard to describe, but very pleasant and
ambient and peculiar. I think you can get it domestically.
I'm also into a guy named Aoki Takamasa, aka Silicom. He has a s/t CD out
here, and also a DVD with music by Silicom and visuals by someone else... I
have the CD, haven't seen the DVD, but I've seen the guy perform live and
he's HOT. Kinda reminds me of Funkstorung, or Autechre live stuff, but he
has his own sound definitely. Dunno if you can get this outside of Japan,
but its quite good.
Also a guy named Matsu&Take, I saw him open for Freeform and Cylob earlier
this year and he was FUCKING AMAZING!!! I can't say enough good about this
guy, his set was really high energy glitchy IDM beats, but the craziest
thing was that he (as far as I could tell) was playing it all LIVE. He had
an ASR-X and his fingers were just gliding along the thing and twirling
knobs and you could HEAR the sound change as you saw his fingers move... it
was just incredible. I'm afraid he hasn't even released anything yet except
a mixtape that I can't seem to track down. :( But keep your eye out for
him, cuz seriously he ought to be huge.
Speaking of that show, I talked with Freeform briefly and he said he would
be putting out a new release on SKAM by the end of this year! So there ya
go, his live set was utterly killer. Go buy Pattern Tub now. :)
can anyone recommend one of the Boredoms remix albums worth buying? I know
one is mixed by DJ Krush, and one by Ken Ishii? Are they any good? Any IDM
heads in japan? Drop me a line! Peace
Tim
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