Search - Ikue Mori :: B-Side

Fascinating, weird, worthwhile.

Allan MacInnis | Vancouver | 01/19/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Tzadik (John Zorn's label, which this has been released through) can be a strange world at times, and not always an inviting one; taking chances is dangerous, particularly if you have bought stuff on Tzadik before and found it completely unlistenable. I can't speak for everyone, but I think Ikue Mori's output on Tzadik is one of the high points of the label -- her Death Praxis, Death Ambient, and solo work has all been very interesting. A drum machine artist -- someone who has truly claimed that instrument as her own and figured out how to make some fascinating sounds with it -- Mori, as you probably know, began with Arto Lindsay in the trio (heck, what was the bassist's name again...? Uhhh) DNA, out of New York. On B-SIDE, we hear her soundtracks for the films of Abigail Child and a musical meditation (?) on Katherine Dunn's GEEK LOVE... The music is non-linear, rich, weird, and often startling -- but listenable; the instrumentation is usually some variant on electro-percussion, but there are also samples here, too, including the well-placed croaking of a frog. I think a bicycle horn pops up somewhere, too, but I forget. It's daring music, by most folks' standards, and not for the aesthetically impaired -- but, personally, I think it a beautiful and soothing disc, and often listen to it when falling asleep. Brain candy for those with no time for pop banalities."