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Japanese Telecom: wonderful surprise(s)

09/30/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you had found a perfect melody. Wouldn't you want to hear it over and over again and again to take inmost deep possess of it? Isn't this usually done with a great riff. Well why then does "Asian Amazons" after half a minute end to make way for the aggressive psychomotoric stimulans "Character Maps"? What does the artist want to express with "Game Player", the most seducingly dull computer utterance ever heard? Why is the "Rising Sun" accompanied by harsh FM noises. Don't "Kubi" and "Japanese Animation" form the greatest contrast. ...There seems no end to the questions the irritations of this album arouse. Who knows the previous works of this artist (under various aliases) may notice great progress and advance taken in this new output. For all others who don't know I have to recommend this as one of the greatest electronic music albums of all times - don't be scared by the relative inaccessabilty which even after many listens remains in the form of a certain capriciousness. Yes this record lives. (The remixes are a different situation) ...Interestingly, Japanese people I played the record to could not find anything Japanese to it. Whatever way the inspiration took place, the references remain cliché. But hence the surrounding design (songtitles etc; also regarding the artist's ambiguous play with German references, under an other wellknown alias), there is an intention behind this attitude which isn't interested in explicitness: what can be found in this work is not (as usual in todays's music) attempts at universally applicable statements (here towards modern eastern culture) mostly watered down through the limits of individual(s), but something much more valuable (to me it's invaluable): an artist's very personal impressions, thoughts and feelings packed into the universally understandeable language of very music.(Isn't this much more than you'd usually expect from today's (especially electronic) music?)"