|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CD
|
|
TERU 001CD
|
Yan and Teruyuki Kurihara are two thirds of Blue Tapes' Tokyo-based improvisational kosmische-techno wonders, Check!!! Blue Tapes released a collection by Check!!! in 2018 that proved well received by music fans of many affiliations, earning comparisons to luminaries as distinct as Can and The Future Sound of London. Now, Check!!! is no more, but bassist Yan and guitarist/producer Teru have streamlined that band's sound into something equally as beautiful, with the parent unit's eclecticism replaced by a newfound sense of purpose. The mesmerizing vortex of delayed and panned guitar notes that opens this new CD sets the tone for a largely instrumental, guitar-focused work that is deeply soulful -- almost bluesy -- while at the same time as hypnotic as the most intense minimal composition or entrancing ambient music. You could imagine Scrapbook being a great, lost Factory Records album -- its floating, delicate guitar tones nestling up close to Vini Reilly's The Durutti Column, while its more electronic elements are as elegiac as early '80s-era New Order. Scrapbook is resolutely graceful music, whether it is delivering spiraling, bird-like guitar vignettes, or slowly, painstakingly building through a one-note throb of bass guitar into a heavenly chorus of synths over the course of the 11-minute epic "F". Features Akiyuki Ishizaki from The Cavemans.
|