Mono No Aware
Kitanai Yatsu

THE REVIEW

Decidedly chaotic industrial is this proposal from the Germans (really?) Mono No Aware - "Sensitivity towards something," a Japanese phrase on which much of the almond-eyed culture is based.
In this case, the something is absolutely undefined, analyzing the score of "Trip Noise" for example, it should be difficult to recognize anything in all that noise. It's here that sensitivity comes into play, and in the end, "Trip Noise," like "Strategisch Wertvoll," grabs, drags, and involves despite making so much noise that Alec Empire seems like a wimp.

The structures of the tracks are extremely simple: a heavily distorted rhythmic loop, keyboards that calling minimalist would be like calling a Bauhaus coffee maker baroque... and that's it.
Managing to convey emotions with such poverty of means is in itself a merit, and if this "Kitanai Yatsu" were a single with two original tracks accompanied by remixes, it would certainly become a masterpiece of the genre.
Unfortunately, the other tracks on the album settle at much lower levels, showcasing pad lines on the usual very minimal rhythmic architectures to achieve unconvincing results.

Not bad for a first release, although surely the German duo from the former GDR still has something to learn.
I'm eagerly awaiting their latest "Kika No Sekai"... (I'm not the one who killed Chicca?), it's been out for a while now...