Meteor Circuit is the Japanese duo
Nerve Net Noise's fifth album, but their first domestic U.S. release. Their music is unclassifiable analog electronica, and if anything, this CD pushes things deeper into the world of weird. Why? Because it seems Kumakiri Hiroshi and Tsuyoshi Nakamura (aka
Tagomago) have decided to think of their music as an avatar of pop instead of sound art. With anyone else it would result in music more easy to grasp; with them it just makes things more impossible to describe. As usual, the body and spirit of
Nerve Net Noise is found in Hiroshi's homemade synthesizers. Equipped with multiple oscillators that cross-modulate themselves, these machines can be set on their own courses, and that's exactly what happened during this recording session. Knobs were turned until something judged interesting was happening; the "record" button was depressed and the synthesizers were allowed to stretch their phases, Hiroshi turning a knob or moving a lever from time to time to create changes.
Tagomago edited, mixed, and added effects afterwards (although his interventions are very difficult to pinpoint). The result is a set of six pieces of crude, raw, harsh electronics. Pulses sketch beats, repeating patterns evoke melodies, intersecting waveforms and hazardous circuitry produce glitches and other unexpected developments. "#1" has a cute kitsch flavor, but that may be simply because it is the first track. The 18-minute "#5" surprisingly ranks among the more gentle pieces, its evolving cycles dragging the listener into a clumsy, sickening mantra. The closer, "#6," goes the other way, diving into orgiastic noise akin to early
Merzbow.
Meteor Circuit is one strange, unique experience that will probably appeal only to fans of the Serge modular, the Buchla box, and the VCS-3. ~ François Couture