Funfair

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Nobukazu Takemura has developed a sound quite unique. The releases with his band, Spiritual Vibes, and then later as himself, on the Bellissima label, placed him at the front of Japan's ever growing underground music scene. On these releases he'd proved his outstanding ability behind the desk (production and arrangement) not to mention himself being a multi-instramentalist. 'Funfair' sees the sampling and electronics of the early records pulled to the forefront. There is still a strong use of that distinctive child's voice but this time it's broken, fragmented and then reassembled. The vocal elements bounce off each other as if they were in 'Funfairs' very own hall of mirrors. 'The Cradle of Light' and 'Pendulum' evoke early memories of merry-go-rounds on sun bleached days; there is the clash of programmed sheet music from three or four nearby organs. Yet the clipping characteristics of a CD player fast-forwarding pulls the music into the present. 'Sabure' offers erratic drill & bass against nursery rhyme melodies; the schizophrenic? or the observations of a bystander? Takemura employs coarse looped samples on the penultimate track 'After Image'. They swirl in a bright haze for almost ten minutes, like Philip Jeck's 'Loopholes' album there is a relentlessness about this work; all variations on a frequency should be explored. The album closes on an acoustic note more on a par with his jazz dance workouts. Building a subtle up-tempo rhythm that gives light relief from the sometimes quite intense previous tracks. With his first solo release Takemura deserves to be walking in the footsteps of Cage and Reich. He's placed his view of this world within the child's eye creating a fantasy place, that place, like the child sees it, is a surreal yet luscious one.