(03.22.05) Carsten Nicolai (aka Alva Noto, Noto) and Ryoji Ikeda (aka Dumb Type) must be very happy people at this point in their lives. It seems they’ve influenced a wide variety of people throughout the world with their microglitch sine wave frequency work over the years. With his original Transrapid release on vinyl in 2002, Nicolai went into deeper aesthetic with sound, beat, and an overwhelming influence over the younger producers that were listening to his work. This is highly apparent in Keiichiro Shibuya’s latest work.
There can only be one phrase that can thoroughly explain what goes through a person’s mind when listening to this particular album: Hip Hop laden sine waves shall blow a hole through your inner ear and embark onto a journey into the depths of your soul causing an epileptic seizure, of sorts.
Perhaps that was a little exaggeration, but you get the picture. Aptly titled by its catalogue number, (like all the releases from the Japanese label Atak) Keiichiro Shibuya’s Atak000 starts off
with a high pitched sine wave morphing into something that could easily make its way onto the latest work by Nicolai, the Transall series on the Raster-Noton label. Varied degrees of pulse crunching can be heard throughout the album, but the most notable tracks would definitely be “5’51” which has a steady syncopated glitch beat panning back and forth between the channels almost reminiscent of Autechre’s “777” track on LP5, and the track “5’32” which could be compared to, again, a Noto collaboration with Ryuichi Sakamoto (founder of the Yellow Magic Orchestra with Harry Hasuono) called “Vrioon.” During this track, while harmonies are played on the piano, a heavy glitch oriented beat is thrown into it double-fold and creates an atmosphere for the masses.
Overall, it’s not a bad re-enactment of an idol(s) work, yet doesn’t hold up cohesively to anything that sounds remotely close, although, it is a nice edition to the growing catalog of people producing on this label including Goem, Steinbruchel, and Kim Cascone. Another feference point may be reached with the collaboration effort of Shibuya with Yuji Takahashi on their 2003 album.
Atak000 is out now on Atak.
