Nisennenmondai
It’s all things dance in this week edition of Unknown Pleasures, as Getintothis’ Patrick Clarke presents the best in unheard sonics from Barcelona, Tokyo and Amsterdam.
This week’s Unknown Pleasures begins with a twelve-minute Japanese electro epic in the form of Tokyo trio Nisennenmondai‘s latest effort A. Naturally. The first track to surface from March’s upcoming Live at Clouds Hill, it’s a mesmeric barrage of live drums, guitar and bass, twisted and contorted toward an unabatable end of psychedelic electronica, and more akin to Sonic Youth playing krautrock than the majority of modern dance, yet inherently centered on an inherent eye for the groove.
Forming over fifteen years ago at university in Japan, the three have garnered quite the cult following through their legendary live shows. Those sets are driven by the impellent, insatiable drums of Sayaka Himeno, and likewise her quite magesterial ability is the spine on record – a ferocious, sangfroid core about which Masako Takada and Yuri Zaikawa let loose with spikes and jabs of feedback and distortion, and its an end product nothing short of spectacular.
Amsterdam’s Polynation take a softer side to electronica on the more ambient-leaning Dew, a tender blend of warm vocal samples and the hypnotic ebb and flow of a spacious weave of keys. The product of duo Stijn Hosman and Hessel Stuut, the tune appears as part of the impeccable 25 compilation from label Atomnation which boasts a wealth of similarly rich offerings and is well worth a look itself.
Hosman and Stuut can boast a highlight though, ever the more remarkable given that Dew is their very first outing on the label. Recalling College‘s Drive soundtrack along the way, the quality of the cut ultimately betrays their youth as a musical pairing, and is as sure a sign as any of something bright indeed to come.
Polynation‘s labelmate Sau Poler is slightly longer in the game, and no less absorbing in his flourishes of ethereal house. Juun, from last month’s lily-white Paradoxes of Progress EP also appears on Atomnation‘s 25, it’s slightly older cut Isolated that really ascends -a bright, bewitching cut of Bonobo textures and Gold Panda aesthetics shot through with a beat of faultless subtlety.
That’s not to underplay, however, that recent EP, which takes a heavier slant toward house. From the looming grooves of opener For NYC and the irresistible midnight palpitations of Mental Invasion it’s a sign of undisputable talent, and both an artist and label to embrace.
