ERLAND DAHLEN
Rolling Bomber
HUBROCD2512/HUBROLP3512
Hubro 2012
07 Tracks. 35mins44secs

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Having worked with an impressive list of artists across a wide array of genres (from Arve Henriksen, Eivind Aarset or Nils Petter Molvær to Hanne Hukkelberg, Mike Patton or as part of rock band Madrugada), Norwegian drummer and percussionist Erland Dahlen steps out in the limelights with his first album as a solo artist. Released on the decidedly inspired Hubro Music, Rolling Bomber was recorded early last year in Oslo during three sessions with long term collaborators Jens Petter Nilsen and Hallvard Wennersberg Hagen, who both regularly officiate as Xploding Plastix, and was mastered by former Deathprod mastermind Helge Sten.

The album takes its name from Dahlen’s main instrument here, a vintage Slingerland Rolling Bomber drum kit dating back from World War II, which had the particularity of having some of its parts made of wood instead of brass, copper, nickel and steel which were all required for the war effort, resulting in its sound being warmer than traditional kits. To complement his sonic palette, Dahlen plays anything from musical saw, bowed cakeform with strings and megaphone to a vast collection of steeldrums, logdrums, tank drums, timpani, bells, kalimba and cuicas, upon which he adds discreet electronic touches.

Rolling Bomber is as varied and open as Dahlen’s career, taking from rock, ambient, drone or avant-jazz and. As he expertly blends them together, he defines areas of various intensity which range from haunting (Funeral, a piece remixed by Hagen), brooding (Dragon) or sombre (Pyramid) to poetic and dreamy (Flower Power), hectic (Monkey) and hypnotic (Piratman, Germany).

The scope of this record is matched by its textural richness. Drums, expectedly occupy an important place throughout, but the assortment of bells and percussions used here renders these pieces in a variety of tones, at times evoking spellbinding gamelan rhythms, at others the motorik drive of Krautrock. Dahlen’s use of the musical saw, an instrument which has been part of his range for years, on Flower Power and Germany, adds an eerie touch to the record, while Funeral, with its deep rumbling or grinding noises and sparse electronic touches, is by far the most atmospheric piece on here.

Rolling Bomber exists in a world of its own, without clear influences or roots, yet Erland Dahlen creates a rather impressive and consistent soundtrack as he finely balances his pieces between sheer energy and more delicate moments.

4.2/5

Hubro Music
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FENNESZ + SAKAMOTO
Flumina
TONE46
Touch 2011
24 Tracks. 124mins06secs

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Flumina is the third collaboration between Ryuichi Sakamoto and Christian Fennesz, following Sala Santa Cecilia (2005) and Cendre (2007), and, with twenty-four tracks spread over two discs, it is also by far their most extensive. The project began when Sakamoto was touring in Japan some time ago; opening each one of the twenty-four shows of the tour with a different improvisation, each played in a different key to cover the complete steps of the western tonal system, and documenting them all, he then sent his recordings to Christian Fennesz in Vienna for him to add textures and ambiences before the pair reconvened in New York to mix the record.

Very much like their previous work, where the balance between Sakamoto’s modern classical piano compositions and Fennesz ambient soundscapes fueled the creative process, Fennesz here replicates Sakamoto’s minimal melodic treatment and sparse performances, the difference being that, on Flumina, the compositions are all extremely bare and pure, at times sounding more like sketches than fully developed pieces. Instead of treated guitars distortions, Fennesz opts here for much more restrained atmospheric soundscapes, built primarily from electronics and synths. He still uses guitars extensively, but he chooses to work from much softer sounds sources and processes them so heavily that they retain very little of their natural aspect once incorporated into his overall soundscapes.

Sakamoto’s improvisations are all extremely intimist and delicate, at times almost grinding to a halt or going through intensely quiet moments, at others building from note sequences which, whilst arranged into clusters, are so complex or disconnected that no melody as such can develop. His pieces are like miniature impressionist narratives, their angles purposely blurred and out of focus to leave space for the mind to wander, and this is how Fennesz approaches his parts too, emphasizing Sakamoto’s performance with restraint rather than completing it. It is therefore easy to get lost in this record, the relative absence of distinctive features resulting in the whole record sounding somewhat uniform and indrawn, especially considering that it stretches over two hours, making it easy to miss some of its most wonderful moments, of which the cloudy aspect of 0320, the pastoral feel of 0327 or the medieval tones of 0424 for instance are only the tip.

This is rather quite a shame as individually, each one of these creations is utterly exquisite and tastefully set, Sakamoto’s sparse and elegant improvisations beautifully showcased against Fennesz’s impressionist backdrops. There is no doubt that as a pair, Fennesz and Sakamoto form an intensely creative partnership, and that they instinctively know how to respond to each other. The downfall of this record may be that they ultimately have stuck to the original idea a tad too closely and lost sight of its overall harmony and balance.

2.7/5

Fennesz | Ryuichi Sakamoto | Touch
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RADERE
I’ll Make You Quiet
FS001
Futuresequence 2012
05 Tracks. 46mins40secs

The solo project of Boulder, CO-based sound artist Carl Ritger, who has been experimenting with sounds and textures for the best part of ten years, Radere first materialised three years ago with a series of remixes, compilation appearances and collaborations, followed by releases on Full Spectrum, Install Sound or Moodgadget over the last couple of years. I’ll Make You Quiet, published in digital format, is the debut release from Futuresequence as it makes the transition, or rather expands, from blog to record label.

As Radere, Ritger creates sprawling organic soundscapes which develop over long periods of time. Built essentially from looped treated guitar textures, propped up by live instrumentation and electronics, his compositions are fluid pieces which often drift seamlessly from one piece into another. Whilst this is still very much a feature of this new album, Ritger voluntarily sets stricter boundaries for some of his compositions here to isolate them from the rest of the record and give them the chance to develop independently. Yet, I’ll Make You Quiet really works best as a whole as its flowing structures and changing tones resonate from one end of the record to the other.

If there is nothing quiet about this album, Ritger works his sounds until pretty much all sharp edges have been smoothened, leaving very little distortion or glitch. If there are any, as is the case on Stay Away from instance, they are polished in, worked into the grain of the overall sound as to never disturb the balance of a piece. A notable exception to this is the opening title track, on which Ritger chooses to leave the rough saturated texture of his guitar in full view and actually places it about everything else. This is no My Bloody Valentine, but it still results in quite a visceral moment.

There are brief hints of distortion on the opening seconds of Sometimes, I Can’t Make Full Sentences, but they are almost instantly swallowed by a dense nebulous cloud. Here, Ritger focuses almost entirely on low end sounds and noises, and while there are slight shifts in tones over the course of its nine and a half minutes, they are much subtler than on the sweeping cinematic …So I Left, by far the most overtly ambitious piece of the whole record, whilst also the shortest track on here by quite a margin. In fact, it appears almost as the pivotal moment of the record, placed as it is at its exact centre. As it eventually dissolves in a cluster of field recordings, it brings in the more muffled and rounded tones of Good Evening, Ghosts which slowly progresses, its overall shape forever morphing into something new, yet remaining almost untouched, slowly building up to the peaceful expanses of Stay Away.

I’ll Make You Quiet sees Carl Ritger refining his approach whilst continuously expanding on his sound, working it ever more precisely to allow it to evolve or remain untouched without ever losing any of its focus and retain all its atmospheric density.

4.1/5

Radere | Futuresequence

ROBERT ALLAIRE
Sacrament
Robert Allaire 2011
05 Tracks. 30mins56secs

Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD iTunes: DLD

Robert Allaire is a Los Angeles-based musician and composer who works primarily in the fields of electro-acoustic and electronic music, providing works for experimental films, shorts and animations as well as interactive media. Besides these, he also creates music for stage performances which often incorporate dance or theatre.

Sacrament was originally created for a dance piece of the same title by fellow LA-based choreographer Natalie Metzger. The piece was premiered in Los Angeles last year. For this, Allaire created a pretty atmospheric half hour soundtrack articulated around five pieces. Working from processed feedback loops filtered through the sound of his own heartbeat and breathing, Allaire offers here quite a sombre organic piece which shifts from the deep introspective calm of the drone structures of What Remains Of Something Forgotten or The Voice Of God to the more tormented grounds of Proselytism, She Rises Without or Deicide/A Thing Not Quite Remembered. Each piece has a very distinct feel, yet their is a strong undercurrent binding them together.

In its most contemplative form, the music is extremely fluid and diaphanous as the drones which form the core of What Remains Of Something Forgotten and The Voice Of God appear to constantly shift in tone and structure. The former, stretching over nearly eight minutes of gently morphing low-end sounds, is brought to life by soft muffled pulses in its second half. Slightly more contrasted and covering a wider register, the latter is at first centred around a warm recurring pattern which becomes progressively clouded as it moves down the scale and is shaken by a series of underground blows in its second half.

This opens the way for the seismic thuds and gritty glitches of closing piece Deicide/A Thing Not Quite Quite Remembered. Once again, the piece appears split in halves, the first sounding like a giant machine slowly grinding everything in its path, the second drifting back into an icy drone-like state over which tiny distortions are sprinkled. Before that, Proselytism and She Rises Without, take on a much more angular approach, their respective structures subjected to earth-shattering pulses, but Allaire approaches the two pieces very differently. Whilst Proselytism threatens to collapse at any moment, its progression impaired by clouds of statics and noises, She Rises Without appears much more linear as he develops an electronic motifs which accommodates glitches much more smoothly.

Whilst clocking at just over thirty minutes, Sacrament makes quite an impression, its desolate soundscapes and the way they are applied proving particularly captivating. Furthermore, if the soundtrack was originally conceived to accompany a dance performance, it actually works extremely well as a standalone piece and truly deserves to be recognised in its own right.

4.6/5

Robert Allaire | Robert Allaire (Bandcamp)
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Sacrament – Official HD Trailer from Natalie Metzger on Vimeo.

TATSURO KOJIMA
16g
AB039
Audiobulb Records 2012
11 Tracks. 60mins45secs

Boomkat: DLD

As digital music is steadily gaining ground, CD sales have been increasingly declining in the past few years in the same way as sales of vinyls and cassettes slumped when CDs were first introduced, but some record labels are still willing to commit to the format and dare investing into special projects. One such project is the new album from Japanese sound artist, graphic and web designer and mobile app developer Tatsuro Kojima, whose album 16g is being released by the excellent Audiobulb in an extremely limited run (50 copies), each CD housed in a unique, hand-made packaging, which counts an individual cover photo, a duplicate of which can be found inside, with at its back, a personal handwritten message, in Japanese, from Kojima. The picture is also numbered and signed.

The music is equally as delicate and artisanal. Kojima works from field recordings, primarily recordings of footsteps in the snow or on ice, upon which he layers gossamer themes, fragile sonic structures built from a pool of rich acoustic sounds and chimes, and tainted with subtle and elegant electronics. There are no set forms or patterns here, instead Kojima makes use of his vast palette with extreme care, at times favouring light shimmering formations (16g, 0818, Inside And Outside), at others opting for earthier tones (Hidden, Out Noise, 0504, Room) or textured drones (0002, Composition6).

Kojima often blurs the boundaries between acoustic sounds, electronics and field recordings to creates his soundscapes, but, either in their raw natural or processed state, it is their inherent refined aspect that he seeks here. Whether he sets up to develop a defined melodic line and give a piece a clear path or settles for much more fluid and ephemeral constructions, Kojima’s sonic miniatures are intricately woven self-contained pieces which, like the packaging, never seem to sound exactly the same twice. Despite their relative diversity in terms of style and approach, there is an impression of unity which runs through the whole record. It is at times as if Kojima was aiming to create a set of similar ideas using very different components and processes. Whilst this certainly keeps the mind alert, it also creates a false impression of continuity which, ultimately, results in 16g feeling extremely fleeting and dreamy all the way through.

With this album, Tatsuro Kojima has created a rather wonderfully evocative piece which, while making very good use of field recordings, relies on the very nature of the music and on the soundscapes used to achieve this. Its extreme fragility is perhaps made even more potent by the rarity of its physical presence, and by the uniqueness of each of the CD produced.

4.3/5

Tatsuro Kojima | 16g on Audiobulb | Audiobulb Records
Boomkat: DLD

SANTIAGO LATORRE
Eclíptica
ALP054
Accretions Records 2012
08 Tracks. 39mins13secs

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Two years on from his solo debut, Órbita (Accretions), Barcelona-based experimental saxophonist Santiago Latorre delivers a second slice of sparse atmospheric avant jazz for the Californian imprint. If jazz is undeniably part of the man’s lexicon, his extensive use of electronic textures and atmospheric soundscapes hint at much wider terrains. While this was already fairly developed on Órbita, Latorre takes this to a very different level with Eclíptica.

Infused with his fascination for outer space, Latorre creates here a wonderfully light and peaceful soundtrack, where acoustic and electronic sounds combine to form a whole. If he relies less solely on his sax, he expands his pool of instruments to incorporate piano, accordion, tuba and vocals, but he uses this richer sonic palette with extreme parsimony, applying touches with the greatest of care. On Eclíptica1, he builds a beautiful introspective theme from a stripped down piano motif set against a textured backdrop upon which resonate woodblocks, with only a hint of sax heard in the second half. There is an almost mantra-like aspect to the piece which never finds an echo elsewhere on the record, yet, if the tone changes with the following tracks, the mood remains contemplative all the way through. This can at times take on quite a dramatic turn, as is the case on the nebulous Eclíptica6, on which Latorre experiments with distorted instruments and minimal drone forms for part of the piece, before moving towards sweeping orchestrations in the latter part.

Eclíptica2 also opens on fairly rarefied grounds, but here, Latorre places an impressionist sax motif over the muffled hum of what could be distant urban noises. Things rapidly take on a much more elaborate aspect as percussions first, then accordion, are introduced. Whilst in some ways more straightforward, this principle is also applied to Eclíptica4, but here, accordion and piano occupy the bulk of the acoustic space, cast against a prominent drum pattern, yet, as the latter fades out, Latorre finds himself amidst a dense cloud of statics and distorted noises, which is echoed on the opening moments of Ban Ge Yue Liang which follows as a very similar urban hum to that found on Eclíptica2 serves as textured backdrop for piano and voice; Latorre is a hesitant vocalist, his tone balancing dangerously to add to the fragile aspect of the piece.

This is not the only place where Latorre adds voice to the music. On Si El Sol No Caliente, he weaves an almost prayer-like monotone incantation over a single drone, and if his performance is slightly more coloured on Eclíptica8, his tone remains extremely intimate, feeling at times as if he was whispering straight into the listener’s ear.

With Eclíptica, Santiago Latorre has moved into much more introspective and emotional terrains, and his widened sonic palette actually allows him to trim down his delivery to its bear essential. The album was recorded whilst Latorre was traveling through Taiwan with aim to reconnect with his inner self, and this introspective quest for peace and equilibrium filters through ever section of this very personal and poignant record.

4.2/5

Santiago Latorre | Accretions Records
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1982
Pintura
HUBROCD2510/HUBROLP3510
Hubro Music 2011
08 Tracks. 34mins32secs

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If all three members of 1982 come from somewhat diverse backgrounds, their common interest in improvised music and, in the case of Nils Økland and Sigbjørn Apeland especially, taste for traditional Nordic folk music makes it a very intriguing formation. Together with drummer Øyvind Skarbø, Økland and Apeland have, with 1982, formed one of the most unconventional improv groups around. Using traditional Hardanger fiddle (Økland), harmonium and Wurlitzer (Apeland) and drums (Skarbø), 1982 work from openly folk-inspired basic structures, but they rapidly expand beyond these to create music which is truly unique and original.

Following a first album released under their three names and entitled 1982, published on NORCD almost four years ago, Pintura (the Spanish word for ‘Painting’, a name inspired by a visit that Skarbø made to the Foundation Miró in Barcelona), was entirely improvised and recorded over just one session at the end of 2010. As the trio continuously move from sections influenced by traditional Norwegian music to more angular rhythmic pieces and delicate and haunting harmonium-led sequences, they weave a beautifully epic, yet incredibly detailed soundtrack articulated around eight untitled pieces. Following two utterly delightful dreamy miniature pieces which swell and contract almost imperceptibly through their respective courses, the first relying primarily on Økland, the second on Apeland, the trio cast a more potent and intricate piece with the ten-and-a-half minute sprawling narrative of the third improv, which seems as if split into tiny movements, led in turn by Økland, Apeland and Skarbø. Later on, track five sees the trio collate once again a series of ideas into one piece, but there is much more of a consistent progression here, first focused on fiddle and harmonium, with just hints of brushes in the background, then, as the piece becomes much livelier in its second half, relying on all three instruments in equal dose, slowly gaining momentum until it collapses entirely.

On the fourth piece, the trio, led by Apeland, who swaps for a moment the celestial tones of harmonium for the much earthier ones of the Wurlitzer, drift much closer to free jazz forms, and this is taken further later on on track seven as they step away from the largely delicate and ethereal themes which forms the core of this album to investigate much more abrupt and at times somewhat dissonant soundscapes and ambiences. Track six and eight by contrast are much more introspective, the former taking the shape of a fluid drone which barely covers clouds of recorded voices in the background, while the latter is based around a series of gentle chords over which a recurring fiddle folk motif gently ebbs and flows until the end.

Despite clocking a little shy of thirty-five minutes, Pintura appears somewhat epic, its seemingly fragile set up often developed into much sturdier structures. It is in part this continuous shift between ethereal pieces and rawer improv which give this record its balance, but it is ultimately the unique correlation between instruments on one side and musicians on the other which binds it together.

4.3/5

1982 | Hubro Music
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LEGO FEET
SKA001CD
SKA001CD
Skam 2011
04 Tracks. 73mins49secs

Amazon UK: CD US: CD Boomkat: CD | DLD iTunes: DLD

Over a year before their first appearance on Warp with a couple of tracks for the original Artificial Intelligence compilation, Rob Brown and Sean Booth had materialised, the time of an album, as Lego Feet. Infused with Detroit-style techno and futuristic hip-hop, this pre-Autechre output was the first, extremely limited, transmission from Manchester-based Skam, and has since been out of print and changing hands for small fortunes.

Twenty years on, this legendary album is finally getting a full CD release, with a second pressing of the vinyl due imminently. In its original form, the seventeen tracks of this album were presented with no title or information, although three appeared later on as part of the label’s Skampler compilation as Leaves On The Line, Northwest Water and Keyop. The actual pieces have been preserved for the CD version, they have been grouped into four parts, ranging in length from fifteen to twenty-one minutes.

This album is much more purely techno-infused that pretty much anything Autechre have produced since, but one can hear some hints of what the pair would produce for their debut album two years later scattered throughout. The major components which continue to fuel the pair’s sound to this day, techno and hip-hop, are heavily present here, but in much rawer form. At times, the similarity between these and early Black Dog is striking, but the pair’s experimental flair, although in its early stages of development, often pushes this album away from the dance floor into more subtle territories. Their soundscapes are minimal and elegant, but their beats often pack punches, as becomes apparent very early on and at regular intervals throughout, and if they are more straightforward than much of their later work, they are still complex affairs. Elsewhere, they become sparser and barely fill the gaps left in the sonic backdrop, or accelerate into hectic little structures which stumble over equally as frenzied electronic motifs.

The scope is quite vast here, from post acid squelches and smooth techno soundwaves to playful electro and bouts of hip-hop, all mixed up in various combinations to make the whole record work as a consistent piece. At times, Booth and Brown develop a particular theme for a while, taking the time to get into a particular groove and stick to it, yet at others, they jump from one idea to another without giving it a second thought, sometimes repeating the process in quick successions.

Although this album is very much of its era, the music has aged extremely well, and still sounds fresh and relevant today. While this may perhaps be in part due to the record’s lack of exposure over the years, it is nonetheless a strong testament of the pair’s visionary approach. Rob Brown and Sean Booth have moved on considerably since then, but this early document is undeniably extremely valuable as it lays the foundations of the work they would be producing for the next twenty years and counting.

4.7/5

Skam
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TOM ARTHURS/OLLIE BOWN/ISAMBARD KHROUSTALIOV/LOTHAR OHLMEIER
Long Division
NOT019
Not Applicable 2012
07 Tracks. 50mins26secs

A year and a half ago, clarinetist Lothar Ohlmeier, trumpet player Tom Arthurs and Icarus’s Ollie Bown and Sam ‘Isambard Khroustaliov’ Britton were invited to perform at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Amsterdam, Netherlands, but neither Bown, who lives in Sydney, nor Britton, who was due to be on his honeymoon at the time, were able to attend. Still, the four did perform together, in some way, as planned. Arthurs and Ohlmeier did make it to the festival and played together on stage against a backdrop of sounds generated by software developed specifically for the performance by both Bown and Britton, the particularity of the software in question being that it would generate sounds and music on its own accord and interact with the two live performers as they improvised. This was further complicated by the equation between protagonists constantly shifting between the four, or in case of Icarus, their incarnations, performing either in pairs or trio.

Beside the North Sea Jazz Festival performance, this record also documents part of a similar set at NK in Berlin. Subtitled Suite For Autonomous Electronics, Long Division is an intriguing document on self-generative music and a very interesting example of applied artificial intelligence. What results of these two sets is predictably intricate and difficult to grasp in one sitting. The balance between the two live musicians and the computer generated sounds constantly shifts, at times bringing out the organic interactions between Arthurs and Ohlmeier, at others leaning heavily on the side of the machines, but it is when all these elements are combined fairly equally that things appear to take on a different dimension altogether. This is perhaps best demonstrated in the closing piece, its first half especially, Arthurs and Ohlmeier combining forces to fight off relentless assaults of glitches and noise distortion. Before that, a similar set up delivers a marginally more gentle piece on the second track while the album’s opening piece is resolutely geared towards textures and noises, which take on various forms here, some extremely electronic and distorted, some sourced from the instruments, but Arthurs and Ohlmeier steer clear of any remotely musical components to instead work from silent blows and breathings as they attempt to emulate the fragmented patterns generated by Britton’s software.

The third, fourth, fifth and sixth pieces are all duo performances, and while the fourth provides Arthurs and Ohlmeier with a few minutes of complete acoustic freedom, the three other pieces display various scales of interaction between computers and musicians, ranging from sparse moments (the two involving Britton) to much denser and active constructions on the Bown piece.

Whether machines have souls may perhaps not be relevant here, but this experiment in self-generative electronics and how these can ‘interact’ with humans certainly poses more questions than it answers, and proves an intriguing work, which is made very accessible to all from the Not Applicable website for free – a £3 donation is suggested, a very small price to pay for a totally unique album.

The quartet will be performing Long Division live again at Kings Place in London on Monday 30 January. Visit the Kings Place website for further details.

4/5

Thomas Arthurs | Icarus | Not Applicable

BURNT FRIEDMAN
Bokoboko
NON33
Nonplace Records 2012
10 Tracks. 47mins11secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP US: CD | LP

It’s been ten years since Berlin-based musician Burnt Friedman first teamed up with Can percussionist and drummer Jaki Liebezeit on the opening release in their Secret Rhythms series, and this collaboration has generated three more albums, the more recent published last year, and four EPs, and has seen the pair tour together quite extensively. While Friedman continued to release solo records during that time, they remained, until now, quite different from his work with Liebezeit.

Bokoboko, a Japanese word meaning ‘uneven’ or ‘hollow-sounding’, sees Friedman adopt a similar rhythm-led concept to that of the Secret Rhythms series.With his latest solo record, Burnt Friedman distances himself from overtly electronic music to embrace a resolutely more rhythm centric sound reminiscent of his on-going collaboration with Jaki Liebezeit. Whilst he plays a wide array of instruments here (guitars, organ, synths, sampler…), the album’s primary structure is based on his extensive use of prepared oil and steel drums, pans and traditional drums. Liebezeit’s influence is very clear right from the start as Friedman opts for progressive hypnotic patterns with odd time signatures and non-linear evolutions, and emulate some of the Can drummer’s unique style, especially in the way he continuously replicates his themes as to create resonance.

This album marks quite a departure for Friedman’s solo work as he distances himself from overtly electronic music and embraces organic and acoustic forms much more drastically than on any of his previous solo outings, yet the occasional bursts of effects or processed textures which find a place amongst Friedman’s intricate patterns, at the beginning of Uzu or in the closing moments of Rimuse 3 for instance, appear all the more effective.

Once again, Friedman relies on the help of a handful of trusted Nu Dub Players collaborators (reed player Hayden Chisholm, guitarist Joseph Suchy, bass player Daniel Schroeter) plus David Franzke, who contributes field recordings throughout, and Berlin-based Japanese artist Takeshi Nishimoto who plays sarod, a traditional Indian string instrument, on two tracks, but their respective performances often appear to be pushed slightly to the back of the sonic field, with only sporadic elements allowed alongside the percussions. Only when the pace slows down and percussions become more sparse, on Deku No Bo or Mura predominantly, or on the opening sequence of the title track for instance, is there enough space for other instruments to filter through. Chisholm infuses Deku No Bo with wonderfully worm clarinet tones and breezier textures on Mura, while guitars also provide the latter with earthy sounds in its middle section.

Burnt Friedman has long been a fervent adept of rhythmic forms, and has, through his solo work or with Flanger or the Nu Dub Players, continuously striven to develop this particular aspect, but his on-going collaboration with Jaki Liebezeit has irremediably shifted the balance between rhythm and musical components towards the former. Bokoboko is perhaps not entirely as successful as the Secret Rhythms series, as Friedman at times struggles to maintain the interest over the whole course, but it is still, largely, a very successful record in its own right.

3.8/5

Burnt Friedman | Nonplace Records
Amazon UK: CD | LP US: CD | LP