OBA MASAHIRO
Prot
PGT04
Symbolic Interaction 2008
09 Tracks. 45mins39secs

Staunch pastiche’s accrue in Oba Masahiro’s debut effort Prot and swiftly erode, enabling him to build out from a zero point with renewed vitality.  A grating swirl of heavily processed sound surfaces at first, with keyboard and percussion putatively detectable in the mix, occasional sunbursts of cymbal breaking through.  Masahiro then bleaches and reduces the same basic palette in a long, breezy susurrus that seems to have no obvious limits or durational boundaries; you’re just a part of it and then it’s over.  Continue Reading »

RUDI ARAPAHOE
Echoes From One To Another
SIC015
Symbolic Interaction 2008
12 Tracks. 49mins58secs

Wide open spaces, delicate and precise soundscaping and moving atmospherics all define this somewhat mysterious and haunting delivery from Japanese imprint Symbolic Interaction. The fruit of the labour of Rudi Arapahoe, Echoes From One To Another is an ambitious piece of work on more than one level. Inspired by Dante Alighieri’s fourteenth century epic poem The Divine Comedy, which takes the narrator through the various stages of the afterlife as seen by Christians at the time, the album, which stretches over fifty minutes, is in itself a stunning and memorable journey through stark atmospheric textures and emotions.

Describing himself as a composer, sound artist and storyteller in equal measures, Arapahoe is credited here for concept, sound design, field recordings and ‘antique electronics’, and is supported by a host of additional musicians contributing piano, guitar, harp, violin, synths and vocal performances. Continue Reading »

IZUMI MISAWA
Speaking Behind The Raindrops
SIC007
Symbolic Interaction 2008
10 Tracks. 43min45secs

Izumi Misawa stirs the atmosphere with hypnotic suggestion whereby vibration, tremors, repetition – whether of a musical rhythm or a spoken phrase – and special tone colors affect the mind through various levels of pressure on the senses.  These cycles of wistful instrumental sketches and flights of elytra often seem innocent enough, and even seem caught in the web of a giddy eclecticism, but the mood is one of serendipity, and the impassioned whirling is not without its justifications.

The tracks are of a patient, unhurried, un-mechanized mind.  A frenetic succession of scratched fragments cracks the proceedings open before a lurching procession of wobbly, spasmodic beats settles them down, at which point they are wedded to beatific textures, shimmering keyboards and disparate shards of found sound that provide moments of dizzying disruption. Continue Reading »

LOWRIDERS DELUXE
Future Deluxe
SICO11
Symbolic Interaction 2008
11 Tracks. 57mins48secs

Ten years in the making, this debut Lowriders Deluxe release sees long-term friends Mark Streatfield, Joseph Auer, Simon Thomas and Clive Burns collaborate on a full length release for the first time. London-based Streatfield and Chicago-born Auer, who, having spent part of his life travelling the world, has now settled down in Tokyo, founded the excellent Rednetic imprint in 2002 and have since continuously delivered some of the finest electronic music around. Both have also released countless solo EPs and albums, the former as Zainetica and, more recently, Cyan 341, and the latter under his own name. Simon Thomas is also a regular on Rednetic as Utility Player, whilst Clive Burns is best known as the guitarist with alternative outfit Deep Valley Orgasm.

Lowriders Deluxe takes these four away from their usual respective grounds and into a series of elegant ambient pieces reminiscent in part of the lush sonic landscapes of early Orb, Global Communication or Future Sound Of London mixed with hints of classic Warp or early Rephlex electronica. Continue Reading »