February 22, 2007
Radicalfashion | Odori |Hefty | Japan
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This is in part a solo piano record: "Suna" evokes Claude Debussy, while "Thousand" brings to mind Phlip Glass; yet it is also an electronic record: the former composition ends with a haunting string sample, while the latter clicks and stutters its expressive, glitchy pointilism.
Radicalfashion (aka Hirohito Ihara) excels at turning jarring sounds into something sweet. "Ballet" uses record surface noise to soothing effect, while crashing metalic waveforms only accentuate the beauty of a repeating marimba-like figure as it grows in harmonic complexity. Even the eerie "Shousetsu," which sounds like it takes its rhythmic ticking sample from a shortwave "numbers station," eventually reveals itself as a wrenchingly beautiful piano piece.
Fans of Japanese experimental, minimalist and electonic music won't find that this record breaks new ground. In terms of timbres and techniques, there is nothing particularly new about Odori, but in Ihara's hands these sounds and methods transcend the "experimental" and move into the emotional.