Jani Ho deforms traditional experiments in electronic music; and instead, gives us challenging rhythms teetering on the edges of industrial, electro, and braindance channels.
A hazy, unexpected joyride
The press notes advise us that “these recordings were made initially at Bunjil Place art centre in July 2021, in Narra Warren, Victoria, Australia. The impressive architecture and the name, Bunjil Place, were inspired by stories of Bunjil (also referred to as ‘Bundjil’) by our First Nation’s people.” With that in mind, the following EP captures the essence and depth of these stories in audible form.
A half dozen tracks are featured on this all too short of a release that literally buzzes by mysterious ambient and drone segments (ref. opener “Tanderrum”), rattling the senses with noise and modular synthesizers, Octatrack, and two drum machines to boot. It’s a hazy, unexpected joyride.
Jani Ho deforms traditional experiments in electronic music; and instead, gives us challenging rhythms teetering on the edges of industrial, electro, and braindance channels—ref. “Land Of Wurundjeri” is a primary example while its neighboring sibling “Manna Gum” slows the pace ever so slightly, coming across as a distant and morphed revision of “Land Of Wurundjeri.”
We’re still not really sure where Jani Ho will take us. As the EP progresses with a smoldering mechanical pulse, sounding very much alive and processed in a live environment, “Ngarngavideo” continues the EP’s intensity. Its swarm of modular blips ‘n bleeps are ever-present while a hypnotic flow subtly shifts and changes course.
Perhaps that’s the intent of Bunjil Place; to create bewildered electrical activity without presets or conformity. Instead, the talented artist lets detuned melodic rhythms extrude themselves until its closing couplet, “Djeembana” and “Barring Buluk” provide just enough shade, acidic glitch notes, and technoid shadows to keep us on the edges of our seat. A seriously baffling trip that unravels itself as huge, ever growing pulsating brain.
Bunjil Place is available on Detroit Underground. [Bandcamp]
