Yoshihide Otomo

Ever since Otomo got into his minimal misuse of stereo equipment phase, a collaboration with Swiss toaster torturers Voice Crack was on the cards. Although Otomo's refraction of high end sinewaves around cranial interiors may not seem like an ideal partner for Norbert Mšslang and Andy Guhl's usual industrial clang, attempts have obviously been made to find a common ground. There's an intense focus upon the fine detail of the unfolding electronic fields, with the Swiss duo providing a constantly shifting foreground of spontaneous events to Otomo's sparer high frequency backgrounds. The melding of the two provides an extraordinary expansiveness to the sound, rich in imagistic associations. Particularly impressive is the fourth track, which conjures up visions of being inside an anthill on a tropical night, hearing the shrill whine of cicadas outside. The variety of Voice Crack's multiple, jerry-rigged devices needs little mention, but Otomo's sheer inventiveness with his frequencies, from electronic chatter to tones that pierce and waver like Keiji Haino's tuned metal bars, deserves praise. This is a fine piece of work by any standard, and ample proof that Otomo's prodigious workrate has done little to dull the quality of his output. (The Wire, Alan Cummings)