clutnuckle

the best so far, without a hint of doubt. utterly uncompromising; perhaps taking a few tracks to fully sink into place, but once it finds its home it never leaves. keiji's emotive voice is such an amazing centerpiece, and it's always been one of my favorite things about his works (hitherto i've really only heard his vocal-based work), but the balance introduced here with the guitar onslaughts & whatnot just adds a new layer to my appreciation for the artist's work. the final track on the bonus version sticks out like a sore thumb when taken in context, but otherwise, it's a very fathomable piece of droning noise bliss... albeit, you can hear it done way better by those who specialize in the genre of harsh noise, but keiji's excursion into that territory is by no means bad.

startling, really, in the strictest sense of the word. i've just come to terms with my true feeling of the misunderstood/shunned Japanese noise/drone/avant-scene, and that feeling is that it is one of the loneliest forms of music that i've ever heard. keiji's work here is utterly defining of that quality. it sounds sad, it sounds enlightened, and best of all, none of these emotions are created out of thin air, nor are they artificially tacked on in order to give the album a false sense of emotional baggage. they come from the source that is the artist.

in terms of looking at things from a historical AND musical perspective, scaruffi ranks among the finest critics. his philosophies and some of his rationalizations for why certain artists are great/poor baffle me to no end, but as far as pure, distilled information goes, he typically delivers in a great way, albeit it's typically poorly-translated and he arbitrarily chooses how to tag things in a sometimes unreadable manner.