Sugai Ken - UkabazUmorezU [Rvng Intl. 040]

Released in late October, 2k17 via Rvng Intl. is "UkabazUmorezU", the latest album effort created by Japanese sound artist Sugai Ken who caters a menu of 11 tracks on this longplay piece which are, for the most part, based upon a foundation of Field Recordings of local performing arts captured in Kanagawa, Japan which are altered and transformed through techniques of electronic synthesis. This said, the sonic world created by Sugai Ken incorporates both elements of traditional, partly ritualistic music, Ambient / IDM and a bizarre sense for humoristic twists and turns, leading tunes like "Wochikaerie To Uzume" into unexpected, comical directions whilst "Shinobine" brings us pure calmness comprised of some background noise and a looped birds tweet. With "Okera" Sugai Ken introduces the world to an amalgamation of ritual metal percussion tones, repetetive pads and swampy sounds of a seemingly modular origin, the short interlude that is "Mei" brings on some threatening, dark and obscured transmissions from the outerworld seamlessly transitioning into "Ganoubyoshi" whereas "Doujiri" fuses fairylike harp chords with bits of Abstract Jazz and quite a tongue-in-cheek attitude on which "Katsura" picks up to provide more of an uplifting, all embracing vibe related to blog hype genres like Glo-Fi and ChillWave in terms of its overall feel. "Kugutsa Biwa" once again gets into what might recognized as strange communication signals of extraterrestrial lifeforms according to underground 70s sci-fi flics which as well goes for the follow-up that is "Sawariyanagi", a tune based on a series of highly warped vocal cut ups, before the concluding "Suzunarikibushi" takes on a dancy, playful and frolicking sonic array for a farewell which makes us smile for a reason. Highly recommended, this!

Album artwork on Instagram!