Staff Reviews

Nisennenmondai - #N/A

Review by Paul Stephen Gettings

You are left wishing they’d at least tried some studio trickery to sweeten the pot»

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'#N/A' (literally, Nisennenmondai with Adrian Sherwood) is a new studio album which sees the cult Japanese trio filtering their epic motorik jams through the mixing desk of the legendary dub producer. Nisennenmondai are three girls from Tokyo, Sayaka Himeno (drums), Yuri Zaikawa (bass) and Masako Takada (guitar), who have been playing instrumental music together since 1999. From their initial beginnings as a noisy no wave band openly referencing influences such as Sonic Youth, DNA and This Heat, they have since honed and streamlined their sound into a more minimalistic pulse with an emphasis on the hypnotic possibilities of repetition, creating a sound that can be likened to 'organic techno'. Much beloved by other musicians including Battles, Prefuse 73 and Chris and Cosey (Throbbing Gristle), in recent years they have made more connections to dance culture, in particular with their 2015 collaboration live and on record with electronic producer Shackleton. Recording their new album with Sherwood has resulted in them sounding bigger than ever before, with a greater emphasis on small rhythmic details and subtle dub touches, reminiscent in places of the classic Basic Channel sound. This international edition of the album includes 2 bonus 'live dub mixes'. Whilst Adrian showed considerable restraint in his production job on the studio album, on a subsequent live date at Tokyo's Unit club he was recorded deploying a wild array of FX tricks, dropping in splashes of cavernous reverb and space echo delay to the performance of two pieces from the band's previous album N'.
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