Unpop

Album review

The title Unpop clearly suggests that this CD contains music far removed from VH1 or MTV status. Going much deeper, stronger, and innovative, Japanese electronic performance artist Yximalloo shrugs off any semblance of conventional rock, pop ,or even 21st century modern composition to create a retrograde landscape of tape samples, keyboard, vocal and percussion sounds produced on two- and four-track analog format micro-cassette recorded machinery. Listening to these sound sculptures for the first time might prove disarming, but those who know music history can hear a multitude of influences mixed together, rarely matched, and fueled by the heart of his desire to make unique music far beyond the pale. Among those previous icons either clearly heard or hinted at; the Residents, Chicago urban blues, post-punk N.Y.C. rock, Richard Teitelbaum, John Cage, Harry Partch, Morton Subotnick, Captain Beefheart, Derek Bailey, Fred Frith, Jad Fair (who contributed art work,) Japanese Noh theater, 1920s Greek music, absurdist comedy, African percussion, psychedelia, contemporary club dance and acid jazz, even British pop/rockers the Beatles and Cliff Richard. The macabre Residents type blues of "Peter Is Back" starts the program, while "Hamberged Angel" cements this eerie visage, and sets a thrash rock tone. A propensity for non-nonsensical lyrics is established on the longest track "Linie Voezo," there's an attempt at dance music gone terribly wrong on "The Poete," while "Any Sense" successfully achieves a club beat. Many of the pieces like the scattered and diffuse "Slick Hands," percussive "Plowed Land," and space beats on "Juju Lul" are pure sound art. But discernible references are heard on the tribal and spiritual "Qabala #1," the staged troupe stalking advancements during "Art of War," the suggestive vocal and bassline of "Sex & Sushi #1," early Eno elements in the Japanese vocal of "Full It Up," and the Pere Ubu type modified rock of "Lav, Success & Helth." Children's songs are incorporated in the pretty three-note, piano based arpeggiated and whirring for two versions of "Watabokkuri #2," while circular sounds used and discarded identify "Puja." You will hear much more than this, from beat jungle processed percussion, space beacon and ring modulated, clanging or clashing noise, some funk and counterpoint, quack and gasps, and even a "cover" of Donovan's "There Is a Mountain." Not so much many musics tossed in a blender as a purposeful attempt to find new arenas or vistas of expressionism, the eclectic stance of Yximalloo may not be for everyone, but that is not his intention. The result is a singularly minded concept, incomparable to anyone except perhaps abstract painters, and holding values that reflect a million aspects of modern life.
© Michael G. Nastos /TiVo