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"Strewth"

Synaesthesia
In a blind taste test, 4 out of 5 people said this was a new RyojiIkeda album. Subtitled "an abstract electronic compilation fromAustralia & New Zealand," here we find various characters churningout digital mulch for your vibrational pleasure. From Xenakis-stylemicromachines to feedback clock chimes, to the VST sausage grindersthat are so popular these days. Speaking of which, there is an alarmingtrend among many musicians of this genre to put out a product thatcould be sold under anyone's name. It is an unfortunate by-product ofmodern audio software that a lot of music emerges with the same zipperysheen. Unlike previous comps coming out of the underside of the world(such as the "set reverb unit to 20, touch your guitar haphazardly andmoan" —a.k.a. "NZ noise" output so widely revered a few years back)this one doesn't establish a regional flavor to the glitch. That said,what we have here is an enjoyable collection of volume swells, feedbacksqualls, clipped rippage and single-ball-bearing-inside-a-water-towermoments. Standout cuts for me were Candlesnuffer, Oren Ambarchi, andNetochka Nezvanova.

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