非攻 (Nowise Assault) begins with the voice of Dylan Thomas and Ruben Dario, stretched, altered, and run through vocoders, along with what sounds like a woman reading an instruction manual. It's only after the voices fade away that Nowise Assault begins; with processed tablas and a simple two chord progression.
718 is the pseudonym for Sun Lei; although he's been creating music for some time, this year had the release of his first two albums, Nowise Assault, and its companion 安 (An).
Nowise Assault is- let's be frank- an absurdly competent freshman release. He puts his best foot forward right off. The first full song, "Musician in Zairat," loops subterranean drums in a hazy dub mix, before filling up with indecipherable murmurs and scattershot electronic squeals. Even at its densest, "Zairat" is accessible; even at over fifteen minutes 718 doesn't wear out his welcome.
While "Zairat" is the highlight of the album, the others don't disappoint; "Appoint Eyes Ear and Heart" mixes chimes, bubbling water, and what sounds like breath at the end of a long tunnel. The hypnotic effect isn't broken until "Taoism or Calm," with its smattering of free jazz drums supported by distant bells and echoes of ghosts of hand drums. "Whose Best Right" might just be the first album to successfully incorporate the interference of GSM cell phones.
The rest of the album follows in suit. Hypnotic basslines thrive under the din; looped, reverbed pianos echo, reminiscent of Fridge's post-rock. The album closes with "Like a Rex," a blissfully dense mixture of synthesizer washes and microscopic glitches.
Nowise Assault is deserving of careful listening, and that's the highest praise I can offer to this type of music.
I wish I could be as positive about the sister release.
An is a single track spanning nearly an hour. The cover art lists movements, even if the tracks don't: "brainwave of headache part one," "brainwave of self-hypnosis part two." The music itself is a blend of white noise and muffled, rythmless beats. There is a gentle ebb and flow to the system, but the piece never breaks from this mold- nor does it build into anything memorable.
"Heart-beat," "headache," "relaxation," "self-hypnosis"- this could either be the product of insomnia, or an intended cure for it; but the CD never crosses out of background music.
But one unqualified success and one flawed, but audacious attempt in a year is better than most could hope for, and I have the feeling that 718 is just getting started.
Nowise Assault is out on Subjam records, and An is on Kwanyin. Both are a limited run - 500 and 300 copies, respectively.
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