s w e e t b e a t s
july.21.2004 - #1269
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artist : Toshio Nakanishi and Kensuke Shiina
album : Blair Witch and Ghost of Bush Project
year : 2004
label : Postage
genre : Lo-Fi
catalogue : PRA0001
url : http://www.emigration-japan.com/postage/bwbg/the_album.html
quality : CD lame VBR 3.90.3 --alt-preset standard
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01.Robot(Africa) 05:30
02.Dub Ya 04:43
03.Miami Beach Rumba 03:18
04.Atta(Where Did He Want 2 Go) 05:18
05.Pearl Harbour 2001 01:19
06.Pm and Damage Down 04:45
07.Spin Doctor 03:24
08.Gions Protocol 01:24
09.Bomd-Da-Bag-Dad 04:58
10.Chiraq Iraq 01:10
11.8 Billion Dollars More 04:35
12.I Enigma 02:03
13.Nand Robot 02:19
13 tracks | 44:46 mins | 64,3 MB
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AS WITH MOST INDUSTRY-GENERATED buzzwords, "electroclash" is a
dog's breakfast of a musical term, covering the gamut from the
over-hyped and howlingly appalling Fischerspooner to the blistering
rocktronics of Primal Scream's last album. But it's undeniable that
something curious is shaking in the nether regions between rock and
electronic music.
Spectacularly swift media frothings will undoubtedly drool all over
vaunted new combos, who will inevitably crash and burn. When the
feeding frenzy is over, though, a fistful of innovators will emerge
still standing. The smart money is on UK artist Trevor Jackson and
his elastic Playgroup project, Belgian weirdo's Soulwax/2, and New
York's LSD Soundsystem, who have provided the most enduring and
irreverent record from the scene yet with Losing My Edge. That two
of those acts have already licensed tracks from Susumu Mukai (under
his Zongamin alias) is proof enough that the 29-year-old multi-
instrumentalist has got something intriguing going on. They feature
on his first full album release, but it's the quality and diversity
among the 10 other contributions that make Zongamin such a
captivating listen.
Opening up with a cover of Arrow's "Make Love Not War", with its
fuzzed-out surf guitar and cartoonesque bursts of celestial vocals,
should throw a few of the bandwagon-chasers off the trail. "Serious
Trouble" initially conjures up images of the Gang of Four in a
foodfight with the Tom Tom Club refereed by the Big 200, but by
stealthy use of matchbox shakers and pneumatic bleeps, it manages
to disappear into a breakdown so meandering that it feels as if it
may never emerge.
There's an undeniable 80s aesthetic on display in several of the
tunes, including "Spiral", "Painless", "Double Dossier" and "Tunnel
Music". Although this would ordinarily have me heading for the
hills, there is more than enough strangeness and humour to balance
it out. "Street Surgery 2", which is sandwiched between two
stomping hulks of tunes, couldn't be more of a contrast. Whimsical
and gentle with a fruity scratch break, it delivers enough space to
allow those around it to work.
There are also good-humoured punky bursts, moody sketches,
whistling ditties and enough live action to remind you that Mukai
is a bass player by trade. Fortunately, that doesn't stop him
taking on everything from pulsing synthesizers to kitchen spatulas
in order to achieve his warped musical vision. If the trend-
obsessed music media deem it as part of the sound of the moment,
Zongamin wears it better than most.
Toshio Nakanishi and Kensuke Shiina's Blair Witch & Bu$h of Ghost
Project may take some judicious tracking down on the Internet û the
album is unlikely to gain a release outside of Japan. It's worth
the search.
Political cut-ups are invariably dreary affairs that amuse only the
creators and instantly achieve novelty status. However, as half of
Major Force, Nakanishi has impeccable credentials in the
cut'n'paste arena and the mysterious Shiina has never failed to
impress with his sporadic loungy releases on the Western market for
labels such as Pussyfoot. Beginning and ending with perverse twists
on Kraftwerk's "The Robots", the duo send a musical bullet straight
to certain world leaders and corporate media with an album's worth
of subversive and sophisticated, funky, free-range sound.
It features the whine of Blair, the sneer of Bush, while President
Chirac comes across sounding like Barry White. In fact, the only
voice that truly grates is that of rapper/poet Lord Banzley, who
threatens to completely ruin a couple of the tracks. On "Dub Ya"
and "Atta (Where Did He Want 2 Go?)", Toshio's distinctive guitar
playing comes to the fore û and the tracks inhabit similarly humid
and exotic atmospheres to My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, the 1981
Brian Eno-David Byrne album. --http://www.listener.co.nz
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s w e e t b e a t s
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greetings to: dps, diss, bcc, cqi, kw, sour, its, om,
drum, just, nuhs, cmg, soup, chr, dh, ms, tr and ube.
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