1. •  
     CommentAuthoroyibo
   • CommentTimeJan 24th 2024

    permalink

   https://heatcrimes.bandcamp.com/album/bubu

   Japanese sound artist and improviser popon began her musical journey as the singer in a punk band before swerving into more experimental territory. Now she uses an arsenal of electronic devices and small instruments to create blurry industrial noise jams that are as informed by Bristol's progressive bass landscape as they are '80s Japanese DIY sounds and children's music.

   "bubu" is ponpon's debut release, a fever dream of over driven textures, haunted melodies and frenetic, electrified beats. There's little indication of where the record might go from the oppressive atmosphere of terrifying opener 'Knock'. The track foregrounds blustery over driven ambience and sheet metal industrial grit, but dissolves sharply as 'Banana' takes shape, and ponpon's unique fusion of sounds eventually coalesces. Emerging from tweaky, pinprick percussion, a frenetic warehouse-strength belter appears, assembled from anodized hi-bpm rhythms that scrape against looping synth melodies distorted within an inch of their life.

   popon's production process is instinctive and mostly improvised. She takes field recordings from her environment and uses these textures - sheet metal lacerations or whooshing gusts of wind, for example - to provide a rough backdrop to sounds from her MicroKorg, Native Instruments Maschine, piano and small instruments. Occasionally, she adds her own voice or her niece's, and uses phone and tablet apps to fill in the gaps. Listening to the title track, it's hard to figure out exactly how she wrangles these elements into such tight, cybernetic grooves. Slithering slowly from a resonant bass hit and wrecking ball kicks, it's a cyclic rhythmic roller that wouldn't sound out of place on Batu's Timedance imprint.

   Lengthy psychedelic closer 'Sokkyooo' flips the script completely, bowling through children's voices with stuttered fractal noise and hypnotic dub techno throbs. This is where ponpon's spiderweb of influences begins to make perfect sense: her foundation might be abrasive basement noise, but she uses this as the fertilizer for music that bridges the gap between Merzbow and Peverelist.
   credits
   released February 24, 2023

   Artwork by Sven Harambasic
   Mastered at Declared Sound

   

♫