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Mochipet, "Uzumaki"

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The music of David Y. Wang, who has releases on Bpitchcontrol,Tigerbeat6, and Violent Turd, suffers from a case of nostaglicschizophrenia with a touch of sentimental aural influenza, and as aresult some technique-obsessed modern day electronic music listenerswill undoubtedly have trouble with Uzumaki. Well fuck them.Fragmented sounds and fractured samples litter this short album likebeer bottles on a public beach in a way that reminds me of the good ol'days circa I Care Because You Do and Tango N Vectif.Whether intentional or not (as many patients are often unaware of theirillnesses), Mochipet has created a charming little retro IDM disc, withoccasional fits of childlike grumpiness mixed with carefreeplayfulness. "Labha" starts off almost innocuously like a symphonyorchestra tuning their instruments over a bed of subtle digital errors.Unable to restrain itself, it ultimately erupts into a hardcore technodrum assault, truly setting the tone for the rest of this dizzyingrelease. "Adosa" almost sounds like a tender love song or lullaby for aspecial someone with its clean guitar plucking, even with itsskittering sliced snares and cymbals. Of all the tracks on Uzumaki,"Alobha" stands out with a quirky melodies battling with one anotherover spastic beats that would make most breakcore producers blush likeschoolgirls. On the remix front, Schematic's poster boy Otto VonSchirach provides a typically unbalanced, uneven remix of the track"Polka Electronic Death Coutry," where hysterical samples,pitch-shifted soul hooks, and speed metal riffs and groans do battlefor control, ultimately leaving no clear winner and not offering much.Component artist Xyn, however, brings the album to a close with a farmore coherent reworking of "Doboro," offering up something akin to anupbeat version of Boards Of Canada, if you can imagine that.Considering how many IDM acts these days spend more time harping on theprocess than the melody (*cough* Autechre *cough* *cough* RichardDevine), I imagine many jaded electronic music listeners will get awell-deserved simple pleasure from the enjoyable sounds of Uzumaki.

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