(02.27.07) Sometimes I get an album that just tickles the back of my brain in the right way. You know, that area of the brain where you get your sense of sharpness and the feeling of hypnosis from. Fair enough, I’m hardly a qualified brain surgeon and my cranial geography may be off kilter but still I’m pretty sure you know what I mean.
Used Up And Empty is a live recording created and improvised by Sunao Inami and if I could afford the plane fare from Japan I’d get him to come over to Leeds and play in my front room. The recording ends up as one very tasty long track that subtly changes through hypnotic IDM to noise to breakcore and even funky techno at the end, all very pleasingly segued together using Reaktor and analog equipment. It’s perfect for closing your eyes and letting the music take you on a journey and spark your synapses into life. Not unlike a more IDM Silk Saw in the 4th Dividers era, which is praise indeed as that’s one of my favourite albums, the sound having that lovely grindiness you get from mild time-stretching and samples being torn to pieces.
Sunao manages to perfectly balance hypnotic and dynamic keeping everything going long enough to be mesmerizing but changing enough so it flows and never becomes boring. A talent in itself.
And then as if that wasn’t enough, you also get a bootleg MP3 featuring another 45 minute live performance. This makes me a very happy man. I like bootleg recordings as there’s something supremely honest about them. You’ll never get any overdubs on a bootleg, and the sound of the room adds nicely to the performance.
This being my introduction to Sunao Inami, and Electr-ohm, for that matter, it’s safe to say it’s got my interest piqued. If he ever plays Britain I’ll be right down at the front!
Used Up And Empty is out now on Electr-ohm.
