Dustin Wong & Takako Minekawa – Savages Imagination. Album review.
Let’s see my notes! Well, at first, who is Takako Minekawa?

Do you remember the J-pop explosion in the 90s? Exactly I think the members of shibuya-key movement, e.g. Pizzicato 5, Cornelius, Kahimi Kane, Fantastic Plastic Machine, Towa Tei, Maki Nomiya and others. Among them Takako Minekawa made the wittiest music. Her particular experimental electro-pop was influenced by the 60s French Yé-Yé and Brazilian Tropicalia movements, Pet Shop Boys and Kraftwerk, house and the fashionable electronic dance music of the 90s, for instance the Ninja Tunes’ artists. And her music was nevertheless unmistakeable Japanese. It was very playful and silly parade of sounds and moods. Between two catchy pop songs always was something peculiar, but funny abstraction, but often also inside the catchy pop melodies. Her records were released between 1995 and 2000, and there was a hit in 1996, Fantastic Cat

After 13 years silence she came back last year with a common album with Dustin Wong. He is a Hawaiian born half Chinese/half American guitarist. He grew up in Japan and went to college to the US. There he founded an experimental guitar duo with Matthew Papich (nowadays: Co La): Ecstatic Sunshine (2004-07), and a Deerhoofesque art rock band: Ponytail (2005-11). After the break-up he has begun solo career, and makes experimental guitar albums. And now here is the next Minekawa & Wong album. And it’s (or at least, I like it) better than the previous one. The music is very playful and silly parade of sounds and moods. Inside the songs, between two peculiar, but funny abstract electro-pop melodies, always are catchy pop tunes. Unfortunately many people averse to the phrase „pop”, and same time they consider „rock”, „metal” and  „punk” as positive things, when there are many load of shit under the label of „rock”, „metal” and „punk.” This is pop, because this is not rock. Rather alternative disco a la Mouse on Mars.

And here is another strange thing. The „Savage Imagination” comes the Beastie Boys in my mind, while this is almost entirely instrumental album. And this fact has been observed after I listened to it many times! Well, their rate of creativity is equivalent with the mentioned boys.

LP and CD out on 22 September by Thrill Jockey Records (US)

CD and digital on Plancha Records (Japan)

And finally let’s see the cats!
A rabbit tail long interview with Takako Minekawa Tovább / Read more »

Extremity on the cube. A gay professor of literature
has made one of the most interesting cover albums ever, titled
Why Do the Heathen Rage?
(Electronic Profanations of Black Metal Classics)
The cover art looks as if it was designed by a Satanist Tom of Finland.
Because of it one of the label main distributors
has refused to carry the record.
Out now on Thrill Jockey Records (US)

The Soft Pink Truth is the solo alter ego of Drew Daniel, one half of Baltimore-based electronic duo Matmos. Mr. Daniel has taught the history of electronic music at the San Francisco Art Institute and a sound art seminar at Harvard. He now teaches in the English Department at Johns Hopkins University. He has written a book about industrial-experimental-electronic band Throbbing Gristle; released a similar album in 2004: Do You Want New Wave (Or Do You Want The Soft Pink Truth?) which consists of house covers of classic hardcore and punk songs; produced remixes for Björk, Herbert, Grizzly Bear, Dat Politics and more. And he is a black metal fan.

Black metal is a very special subgenre of heavy metal. It was born on 1 November 1982 by British band Venom. That day the band’s second album titled Black Metal was released. Strange fact, but Venom’s music was fast, harsh and primitive rock and roll rather than heavy metal at that time. It stood nearer Motörhead or Ramones, than Judas Priest or Iron Maiden. As special features their lyrics had dark, occult and devilish themes. But Venom’s music and texts were refined and gentle compared with the subsequent, more and more extreme bands. Today’s black metal bands’ music is just like a mix of noise of coffee grinders and sounds of a pig-killing. Unfortunately some bands and many fans take the Satanist rubbish seriously. But the blackest black metal bands are adherents of white supremacist and Nazi ideologies. The words beget acts. In this case their fruits: violence, church arson, suicide, murder. All these in welfare states of North-Europe mainly. And they say always: I did it only in self-defence.

And then this man resolved to make a peculiar electronic black metal tribute album. And who was the first man whom he invited to cooperate in this? Antony Hegarty (Antony and the Johnsons). By the way, the others: Jenn Wasner from indie-folk rock duo Wye Oak, Terrance Hannum from drone-metal band Locrian, his Matmos partner M.C. Schmidt, Irish composer and  vocalist Jennifer Walshe and more.

And the music? Well, it’s not an easy pop album. A Mix of electro-industrial, drum’n’bass, trip hop, house and EBM. It came Kraftwerk, Björk, Madonna and Leather Strip to my mind. Some covers are spiced with samples of house hits. The album requires a good piece of sense of humour. At first it was very strange, but as I listen to it repeatedly, so like it increasingly. But „Who in the world wants to hear this?” Nobody, basically. Black metal people aren’t going to like it because it’s faggoty disco, but actual dance music people aren’t going to like it because it’s weird people screaming about Satan.” (Drew said this in a Pitchfork interview.)

Venom + Sarcofago covers

The album not requires know of the original songs, but you can listen to those here. There you can read about some words about the bands: Venom, Beherit, Sarcofago, Sargeist, Darkthrone, AN, Mayhem, Hellhammer and Impaled Northern Moonforest.