Medama Records – mr07
The remarkable series of releases from the trio of Keiji Haino, Jim
O'Rourke, and Oren Ambarchi continues with I wonder if you noticed "I'm
sorry" Is such a lovely sound It keeps things from getting worse, which
presents the entirety of an 80-minute set performed at Tokyo's
SuperDeluxe in March 2014. While the trio's 2012 performance was divided
into two releases (BT 011LP (2014) and BT 012LP (2015)), the single
extended performance presented here ranges widely over terrain both new
and familiar, from acoustic strings and collective chants to thunderous
power trio moves. Throughout all of its transformations, the music here
is some of the riskiest and most abstract the trio have yet committed to
record. Beginning with chiming percussion reminiscent of Haino's 1995
classic Tenshi No Gijinka, the first side is dominated by Haino's
impassioned vocals and performance on the bulgari, a traditional Turkish
string instrument. The end of the second side presents a special treat:
Haino's first recorded outing on the contrabass harmonica, from which
he coaxes bizarre, wheezing textures against a backdrop of spacious bass
and percussion. O'Rourke and Ambarchi rarely adopt here the classic
rock roles essayed on earlier releases. O'Rourke's bass, which takes
center-stage surprisingly often, is sometimes so heavily processed by
his array of pedals that it becomes a shifting electronic mass; at other
times his roving chromaticism suggests a sort of fuzzed-out free jazz.
Ambarchi spends much of the set exploring areas of tumbling free pulse;
and even when he locks into a constantly repeated figure on the set's
third side, he gestures as much toward Ronald Shannon Jackson's
stuttering marching band funk as toward any classic rock moves. When the
trio finally moves in the final quarter of the performance into an
extended passage of rock riffing, the payoff is immense, as they craft a
thudding one-chord epic reminiscent of some of the early Fushitsusha
classics before Haino returns to the bulgari, bringing the set back to
where it began. Continuing to explore new instrumental and dynamic
possibilities while remaining grounded in the trio's previous work, this
set also brings with it a unique pleasure for the non-Japonophone
listener: for the first time Haino sings many of his metaphysically
brooding lyrics in English. Gatefold sleeve with gorgeous photographs by
Jim O'Rourke, designed by Stephen O'Malley. Cut by Rashad Becker at
Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin.
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