June 26, 2007
Boris with Michio Kurihara | Rainbow |Drag City | Japan
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Michio Kurihara plays guitar in the exceedingly talented Tokyo psych outfit Ghost. Boris is a Japanese band perhaps best known for their collaboration with fellow doom rockers and labelmates Sunn O))), the results of which a friend recently called "the most dark, evil-sounding piece of music I think I've ever heard."
However, Ghost does not create pure revivalist folk-psychedelia, nor does Boris always wield the hammer of the gods in slow motion. Kurihara and Boris' willingness to experiment is evident on their new joint effort, Rainbow.
This willingness had me thinking again about the double-edged sword of Japanese experimentalism: while globally, heavy bands are often known for performing within tight genre conventions, diverse Japanese noise and rock acts such as Merzbow, Boredoms and Acid Mothers Temple do not edit themselves. This leads both to an unrivaled freedom of aesthetics and a glut of recordings--sometimes it seems that the tuning of a guitar would be considered an occasion for a limited edition release (I wouldn't be at all surprised if this has actually happened).
Happily, Rainbow, is not a throwaway record, though it does often sound nonchalant. It switches genres from track to track, leaping in the first three cuts from the catastrophic half-time of "Rafflesia," to the coolly and quietly swaying indie rock of the title track, to the Can vs. Moody Blues freakout "Starship Narrator." Despite the stylistic diversity, there is a consistency of vibe. Rainbow is stiched together by the needling lead lines of Kurihara and glued together by the production style, which is generally spare and classic sounding.
Kurihara's solos at times recall Neil Young's with Crazy Horse, and like that band, Boris leaves him plenty of room to stretch out, stinging the ears and at times wringing the heart.
The album's climax, the punishing "Sweet No. 1," is an example of Boris in full metal groove, with vocalist/guitarist Takeshi wailing Ozzy-like over a propulsive rhythm accentuated by a reverbed snare drum tuned to the key of the song. It's a challenge that Kurihara rises to, his fuzzy wah work revealing speed that his earlier solos merely hinted at.
Chops, however, are a small part of the equation when it comes down to a record's relevance for a listener. Rainbow is a record made by rock omnivores, playing freely and letting their influences spill out as they may. For some, that spirit will make this album a classic--a sort of distillation of all things rock. Other tastes may find it to be a mostly pleasant mix of familiar flavors.
June 13, 2007
Fennesz Sakamoto | Cendre |Touch | Japan
Cendre is a long-distance collaboration between ethereal-noise guitarist/laptop artist Christian Fennesz and electronic pioneer, composer and pop musician Ryuichi Sakamoto. Working from their respective homes in Vienna and New York, they have generated a charmed and haunted third location somewhere in the fiber-optic maze that lies between them.
Fennesz's greatest talent may be creating sounds that destroy the distinction between the digital and the organic--sounds that suggest the listener's own post-modern condition, thus updating and fulfilling Pirandello's Futurist art of noises. Sakamoto, of course, is a legend and still composes with all of his signature lyricism and elegance. The two balance one another: Sakamoto's piano melodies amplify the human core in Fennesz's semi-alienated soundscapes, while being reined in by them. Sakamoto’s piano works have always reflected the influence of Satie and Debussy, but often emote much more directly than those composers’ works. Yet Sakamoto is also a mindful player, at home with the minimal. On Cendre he leaves open spaces for Fennesz's noise to breathe and move, allowing these textures to play on the emotions as well. The result is a meditative collaboration in which figure becomes ground and ground, figure.
In its interplay between the overt and the occluded, Cendre is a recording of greater depth than Fennesz’s acclaimed Endless Summer and greater intrigue than Sakamoto’s lauded solo piano disc BTTB.
June 08, 2007
12 Girls Band | Live From Shanghai | | China
DVD
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If Chip Davis (Mannheim Steamroller) and Yanni had a commitment ceremony, adopted thirteen (yes, thirteen) Chinese girls, and musically brainwashed them in a twistedly banal "East-meets-West" musical Pygmalion experiment, the results would grow up to be Twelve Girls Band. In this live video, recorded at the foot of the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai, the carefully coiffed, conservatory-trained twenty-somethings perform compositions with titles such as "Glory" and "Shining Energy," playing traditional Chinese instruments over a schlocky, high-energy background of synths, drums and guitar. The compositions seem methodically cleansed of all locality, revealing no roots--the type of emptily grandiose, "universal" music that sounds at home only at an Olympic ceremony or motivational seminar.
The only dazzling aspect of this video is the gleaming nighttime city of Shanghai, whose shining spires symbolize its return to the international stage. However, as beautiful as these shining surfaces are, Shanghai's real interest lies below, in their shadows: the unseen streets where people live, eat and listen to real music. That sort of humanity is completely absent in "Live From Shanghai's" glory and shining energy.
News | Bunnys and Sharp Five Tracks for D/L |
Hit this link now--you've only got until this weekend to download two cuts of splendid eleki (Japanese 60s instro-rock). Terry Terauchi, the master of idiom, shows off his precision picking on "Flying Guitar" and the Sharp Five bark out the gnarly-toned "Golden Guitar," a track with some serious back-alley attitude.
If you're new to eleki, these tunes are a great intro. Also check out this eleki page from our archives.