FUKUDA, HIIRAGI
SEACIDE (TROUBLE IN MIND)
Hiiragi Fukuda turned a lot of "heads" with his 2013 album "My Turntable Is Slow " - released on NY label Selection Records.
For many outside of his hometown of Tokyo, Japan it was their first introduction to the guitarist & experimental musician.
TiM hopes to carr y his name into 2015 with the release of "Seacide" - Fukuda's first foray into synthesizer music.
Orginally released as a criminally limited cassette on Sloow Tapes, "Seacide" is entirely instrumental & improvised, with Side A (the "synth" side) executed on a Yamaha monophonic synth, it 's hypnotic drones & pulses echoing out of his practice amplifier and carving out sonic territor y akin to NY pioneers Suicide as well as UK Industrial godfathers Throbbing Gristle.
Trochos's metallic heartbeat radiates a meditative spirituality while the back & forth sway of "Sharpener " conjures up images of 8-bit generated waves cascading over a computer-coded sea side.
Side B (the "guitar side") features Fukuda's stratocaster, with opener "Seashells" easing out a fragile, mechanical lullaby, while album closer "Breeze" features more of Fukuda's soulful finger-picking atop a jaunty bossa beat.
The album was recorded in just two days by Fukuda himself in his Tokyo bedroom, with a Boss DD-6 (as a Loop machine - it can record only 5.2 seconds) & captured sonically by a Sony TCM-400 onto a cheap cassette tape (made in indonesia).
This edition of "Seacide" comes pressed onto black vinyl & includes a download code. The album is also released on CD.
RIYL: Suicide, Les Rallizes Denudes, Ruth White, Matchess, Throbbing Gristle