Micro album reviews 01
----------------------
(album reviews which are short, not reviews of short albums!)
Yes, yes, since my separate "Three Albums per Month" gemlog got
merged into my single gemlog I've dropped the ball somewhat, and I
still need to write reviews of three albums I bought back in July[1].
Nevertheless, here's some relatively short and simple reviews of
three *other* albums. This might become a recurring format, we'll
see. These are all electronic Japanese albums from last century.
I downloaded all of them from YouTube via youtube-dl - the first
time in my life I've done so, and funnily enough I did it only
a week or so before the recent RIAA/GitHub/youtube-dl kerfuffle.
These are old and relatively obscure albums, and I know of no way
to legally purchase DRM-free digital copies without doing business
with an evil MegaCorp - if I did, I'd have done so. I don't feel
bad doing this for albums which are more than 25 years old, as I
don't believe it removes any substantial incentive from the artist to
continue doing art. Frankly, I find it kind of weird that a video
platform like YouTube has become such a widely used vehicle for
music delivery. I guess/hope the underlying technology is smart
enough that when the accompanying video is just a static album
cover there is almost no overhead, but still. Anyway, onwards...
Osamu Kitajima's "Benzaiten" (1974) [2]
This is maybe the least "purely electronic" album on here, because
in addition to having electric guitar and bass alongside
synthesisers, the whole thing is a fusion of electronic and
traditional Japanese music. I actually don't know if some of
the traditional sounds are actually made with authentic wooden
instruments or whether they are good modular synth imitations.
This is also probably my favourite of the three. It took a day or
two to grow on me, but it certainly did. I now regularly get some
of the singing/chanting sections stuck in my head (especially from
the second track "Taiyo"). I like listening to this at the start
of the day. Fun fact: the bass playing on this album is by Haruomi
Hosono, of Yellow Magic Orchestra fame.
Tetsu Inoue's "Ambiant Otaku" (1994) [3]
Yes, "ambiant" rather than "ambient", it's the French spelling,
apparently. This is a quite minimalistic ambient piece, which is
quite unusual, at least by the standards of my limited knowledge of
the genre. There's not much in the way of rhythm or melody to the
whole thing, just a constantly and subtly shifting soundscape. At
times it feels almost organic. But this certainly isn't "New
Age" music, there's no waterfalls or bird or whale song in there.
The sound is unashamedly digital and high-tech. I'm pretty sure
there is some FM synthesis in there. Some people online seem to have
really profound reactions to this music, and other stuff by Inoue.
To me, though, this is just nice, inoffensive, relaxing background
music to have on while reading or something. Nothing amazing,
I guess this is just not really my thing. It's fairly quiet
music, so best listened to at home in a quiet room - it couldn't
be appreciated in a noisy environment, so not one for travelling,
unless you have good noise cancelling headphones, I guess.
Susumu Yokota's "Acid Mt Fuji" (1994) [4]
Another fairly minimal and ambient album, but this one has much
more emphasis on rhythm, with the fairly standard repetitive beats
of techno music. You might find yourself nodding your head in time
with this, which is fairly well impossible with "Ambient Otaku".
Funnily enough, this album actually *does* feature recordings of
animal sounds, but the strong echo effects and overall "dark" feel
of the sound again keeps this very well out of New Age territory.
Again, I'm not really sure this is my thing. It seems like the only
really beat-driven electronic music that I have much tolerance for
is downtempo / chill out stuff. Despite having a similarly low BPM,
this album just doesn't have the same characteristic sound.
[1] gemini://gemini.circumlunar.space/users/solderpunk/gemlog/purchases-2020-07.gmi
[2]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZgUHBEP-rM
[3]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hld-bcNg7nI
[4]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSY1tyuR3WQ
