Missing Link
Background Sound
Commotion
Twisting Other Side
Parting
Faintness Of The Outline
Spatial Crack
From The Outside
Apparition
Touches
Possessed Machine
Final Tuning

It was always going to be too good to last. There I was, on one of the hottest days of the year… where even the sun decided to shine on Scotland, reviewing away whilst the outside world sunbathed and frolicked. The things I have to suffer as a writer... or kind of writer… some fucker who puts his thoughts down. Anyway… I was fair cracking on, the words pouring out onto the computer screen, when I picked up this release. I looked at the cover. My heart sank. Fuck!! Oh fuck!! Fuckity fuck!! Fuckity, fuck, fuck!!! The third exclamation mark indicative of the way I felt at that moment in time. The sudden urge to get under the covers of my bed a possible prospect worth investigating more. I’ve reviewed the music of Contagious Orgasm before. Twice in fact. Both as joint projects. The memory still haunts me today. I’ve never been able to erase from my mind the screwed up electronics that CO and Telepherique and Zyrtax had subjected me to. I’ll admit that for the most part some of the music was actually ok… but I was in the mood for that sort of shit at the time of writing. Now though the time is not right. Maybe, but maybe, the circumstances are perfect to write it up. If I can tolerate this collaboration on a day like today then it must have something going for it. Sorted… but without the E’s and wizz. It’s a Pulp thing.

This latest recording from CO and mucker GA is a 12 track, limited to 500 copies in a fucking great coloured collaged cover, CD that is actually more accessible than previous collaborations. Which isn’t to say that it’s easy on the ear. Far from it. The usual Japanese weirdness shines forth with ever greater brightness. Mixing the avant-garde and experimental with more easily digested electronic genres the 12 tracks are a mashed up, beat fixated, noise dervish, cut & pasted, sample fucked hot pot of ideas. Every conceivable idea has been thrown together and chucked out like shit hitting a wall. Some of it sticks. Some of it slides down to the floor. Unless you have no smell or have an acquired taste for such things it stinks to fuck. Which isn’t being in anyway detrimental to the whole concept surrounding it. But by working within the bounds of such limited appeal music, no matter how creative, individual or ingenious you are you will only appeal to others of corresponding taste. At least on "Heartstrings" there are parts that can be called ‘tunes’ and very nice they are to. Some of the sound sculptures are actually easy on the ear. Until, that is, the break up the whole piece with some extreme noise or garbled gobbly gook which slightly ruins the effects. Full marks for the bongo sounds though. Bongos are sadly underused in today’s music.

Therefore if you enjoy the sounds created by two Japanese artists letting themselves go in all manner of bizarre freak outs then "Heartstrings" is the record for you. If electronic noise and tape manipulated voices with spaced out effects move you then "Heartstrings" is for you. If you are considered strange or called ‘fucking weirdo’ by family and friends then "Heartstrings" will be the record of your life. If you happen to collect music by all the assorted Japanese oddballs, and by God there’s plenty of them out there, or recordings found on the Roil Noise record label then "Heartstrings" should be added to you collections ASAP. I, on the other hand, am now going outside to enjoy the remains of the day. I’ve earned it. I deserve it. Until next time CO. The time can’t come soon enough.

ANM