TIP OF THE TONGUE 30 AUGUST 2009
Tetuzi Akiyama & Gul 3
Nero’s Expedition
Monotype Records MONOLP-001
LP
OUT OF STOCK!
Hand-numbered edition of 250 copies in cool screenprinted/pirated/recycled sleeves that pair avant Japanese guitarist Tetuzi Akiyama with a trio of Swedish improvisers: Johan Arrias on saxophone, electronics and no-input mixing board, Leo Svensson on cello and organ and Henrik Olsson on drums, electronics and piano. This monster is about as far removed from a polite ‘improv’ session as you could imagine, with dense psychedelic/Industrial walls of steel that are almost Borbetomagus-esque wrapped around the kinda violent feedback manipulation of Masayuki Takayanagi’s mass projections, non-jazz saxophone action that sounds like the metal-on-metal squeal of subway trains and punishing Dead C style amp destruction. Nero’s Expedition goes way beyond any kind of conventionally ‘interactive’ improvisatory style, favouring instead a simultaneous headrush of grimy machine noise, harsh drones and a soup of F/X with fog horn tones rising and falling in arcs of almost-melody. Even the more ‘restrained’ tracks have a violent free-metal edge, with Akiyama in the mood to just bleed over anything that steps into his path. Then it all dissolves into a final sparse death-dirge blues. Totally fantastic and up there with Don’t Forget To Boogie as the apex of the Akiyama catalogue this far. Highly recommended.
