Naoki Ishida, Tone Redust (Quasi Pop)

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The Japanese artist Murakami has a theory about the current state of his own culture, which can easily be extended to cover any Western society. He calls it "superflat" and means that his fellow citizens are refusing to grow up and deal with reality, instead drifting along in a state of empty happiness, indulging in childlike play through their obsession with manga cartoons, Hello Kitty and ridiculous TV game shows.

I wonder if fellow countrywoman Naoki Ishida is thinking along the same lines (Is it ironic that her own label is called "Kitten Recordz"? Or totally not?). On the one hand, Tone Redust is "common" enough folktronic field recording music. It is very competently done and makes for an undemanding, enjoyable listen. But if we view it in the context of the superflat, then the cover art (beautifully executed by Mai Seike) may hint that we are sniffing in the right direction. Child-like pencil sketches of happy faces and sad faces share the canvas with horsies and flowers and cars. But also cigarettes and what looks like a straight razor. And something else that looks like a sperm. Inside the envelope, the CD itself is a blast of fresh, primary colours.

The music of Tone Redust is one great, circuitous playpen filled with bright and shiny distractions and the absent-minded strumming of an acoustic guitar, keeping us gently occupied until, with irregularity, the flick of a Bic reminds us that this is an adult world after all. Or an adult dream. Throughout the piece - given six titles despite the fact that there is hardly a pause between any of the tracks and the entire album is of a whole - an electronic mural rolls by in the background, like the kind of repetitive backgrounds used by lazy animators in cheap cartoons. And throughout, Tone Redust has an outdoor ambience - but where exactly? Wooden wind chimes are regularly disturbed, so I end up imagining a balcony in an apartment building not in the middle of the city, but not far outside it either. There are simply no aural cues to help identify which way is up and which way is down, if we are in an urban space or somewhere else altogether.

I believe that this ambivalence is part of what makes Ishida´s album so successful.

http://www.quasipop.org