Kenji Siratori/Nordvargr/BSE - Hypergenome666- 2cd & book [Old Evropa Cafe - 2007]Japanese Cyberpunk/surrealist & cut –up writer Kenji Siratori is a becoming something of a minor underground celebrities of late, seemly pop up all over the places on all manner of noise and dark ambient related releasers. This two disk set brings together his collaborations with Nordvargr and BSE(Beyond Sensory Experience)- each disk taken in a collaboration a piece- coming with an 80 page booklet of Siratori texts- all inside a illustrated folder . Sadly it’s fair to say is rather of a mixed bag musically and package wise. The first disk with Nordvargr and entitled Antimaterial: Tragedy Rom Creature, it has some very effective and chilling dark and demonic touched sci-fi edge about it all. With Nordvargr manipulating all manner of slow moving synth dread, barely moving rhythmic matter and of course Siratori spoken word come vocal sounds. It often brings to mind a decaying and corrupted seas and landscapes of bent and melting circuit boards and crumbling high-rises, that bubbles and creep with strange half animal/ half machine demonic presences. A future world bent into a strange, dark and surreal picture. Nordvargr mixing together dark ambience, doomy sci-fi and atmospheric dark cinematics. Siratori sounding either oddly clinical and cold, or strange demonic and creepy. The second disk is taken up the BSE collaboration entitled Substance : Sympathy Cell Waves, where the first disk was very effective, this disk becomes very tired and uneffective quickly. The sound backing mainly consisting of looped and rather unoriginal bassy beat wonderings and uninspired looped ambience which seems to have as little substances or atmosphere as it does originality. There just seems to have so little thought or care gone into the backing here, it just feels very stayed and amateurish compared with the first disk. Also Little is done with Siratori voice, he’s just mainly fed through an effects peddle- his voice seemly striped of it’s early edge and creepy captivation. The other major disappointment here is the package which from the website write up claims to be something rather special. It’s basically a rather bendy and flimsy thin card sleeve that is easily damaged. That houses the two disks that are badly stuck onto a sheet of crape paper,the disk holders often falling off the double sided stick tape bases. Inside there's the paperback booklet of Siratori prose ,which for the most part come across as trying to be too clever and avant-garde for there own good. Siratori is often sited as been a modern William Burroughs, but where Burroughs even in his most extreme forms of cut-up made some sort of bizarre sense and painted wonderful surreal word pictures, Siratori often does'nt, repeating the same text over and again, with little rhyme or reason. That said some of text is effective enough- if he just stopped trying to be out-there so much. So an interesting look at this growing cult figure, just a pity that the second disk and package has such a thrown together and low quality edge about it. To find out more and buy direct drop in here. Roger Batty
|