CD, Electr-Ohm, 2009
www.electr-ohm.com
Japanese experimental artist and Electr-Ohm label head Sunao Inami releases “Disinfectant”, his seventh album under his own name. The album is composed of tracks recorded live in Tokyo in May 3rd 2009 which have been cut up and remixed with the intention of to creating new material whilst maintaining the live feel inherent in the original tracks.
“Intro” gently opens “Disinfectant” with deep drones and digitised blips that carry through into the early stages of “Waiting in the Grain” where arrhythmic beats criss-cross each other while metallic scrapes grind in the background. Inami skilfully takes essentially industrial elements and restructures them into an experimental but nonetheless powerful mix of abstract rhythms, futuristic weirdness and glitchy distortion. The end result is a well constructed fusion of hard elements mixed with experimental electronics that is as captivating as it is entertaining with careful control over both elements. By the time “Instrumental” hits the 10 minute mark, Inami has already hit his stride, assaulting the senses with a wonderful balance of abstract cut up oddity and torrents of cascading experimental rhythms. From here on out, he is in full-on experimental mode and really lets loose with his electronic arsenal; hard digital beats fly from all angles, cut up samples splutter in the background and all sorts of glitch madness underpins the whole thing in gloriously impressive style. “The Man Who Sold the Calculator (Live Remix 1)” continues with screeching radio interference and distorted and cut-up voice samples, pairing them with a pounding relentless militaristic rhythm that gets increasingly ferocious as it progresses into the shorter “(Live Remix 2)” of the same track.
After a short interlude of high pitched oscillating sci-fi tones in the form of “Watch That Circuit” Inami offers a steady beat matched with creepy background atmospherics with “Skew”, the mood heightened by the simple yet insistent beat pattern that forms the focal point of the track. The theme continues into “Slew” but this time with a more percussive beat resulting in a lighter and warmer feel throughout with short interludes of dark atmospherics. This lighter and more playful mood is carried through to “Wall of Tokyo (Live Remix)” and “Urchin (Live Remix)” which take a bouncy house rhythm and mix it with cutup voice samples and the oscillating sci-fi effects heard earlier on “Watch That Circuit”. It is not until “Beatnik Elektronik” that he starts to move back towards the frantic glitchy, vocal cut-up, full-on beat workouts seen during the first half of the album. Becoming even more frenetic throughout “You Daren’t Look Behind You (Live Remix)” the album closes with the clanging atmospherics of industrial toil battling with bursts of electronic beats as “Keep Turn the Red Knob” slowly disintegrates into the ether.
“Disinfectant” sees Inami gradually building pace, layering arrhythmic beats and creating an increasingly ferocious maelstrom of abstract industrial electronica throughout the first half of the album. After the short tonal interlude that is “Watch That Circuit” he ventures down a more rhythmic route before gradually moving back to the earlier more frenetic pace. It all comes together to form a carefully orchestrated and well paced journey incorporating several forms of electronica.
[8/10]
— Paul Lloyd