The electric guitar has benefited greatly from the search for new musical
contexts. Electro-acoustic by design, with a far-reaching, innate affinity
for both natural and artificial sonorities, the familiar wood-and-wire
warhorse of rock, folk, and the blues has lent itself to many of the more
satisfying strains of modern sonic exploration. While few outside of Minamo's
native Japan heard Wakka, released via the poorly distributed Cubic Music
label, the duo's concert between electronics and electric guitar offers an
especially appealing example of electro-acoustic interplay grounded in
notions of ear-pleasing musicality. The electronics are presented as lovely,
liquid swirls, randomly skittering glints, and pebble-in-a-pond ripples, all
imbued with just enough melodic essence to be pretty but not overly
precious. Indeed, Minamo translates as "surface of the water," the
iridescent quality of which is certainly captured in "Burro" and "Mot." If
the electronic elements are fairly straightforward, Wakka's guitar component
isn't pinned down quite as easily. "Jocco" at first suggests the pure
textural approach favored by Keith Rowe or Kevin Drumm, though the slashes
of grit and grain are gradually imbued with a powerful rhythmic character--evoking
no less outstanding a model than the tape-loop tribalism of This
Heat's "Horizontal Hold"--through crafty sampling and processing. "Orwda"
sucks guitar, fidgety electronic loops, and the keening of some unspecified
instrument through the narrowing, churning maw of a dark-matter vortex,
leaving behind nothing but a feedback trail as evidence of six-string
passage. The beautiful, unexpectedly Labradford-like "Synapse"--a bonus
track appended to this Quakebasket 100 CD-R reissue (presented in a handmade
wood box, with a set of postcards and a bonus live CD-R, in a limited
edition of 100)--sets plangent chord figures against a backdrop of softly
writhing electronics, affording the guitar a more conventional, but no less
arresting, presentation. "Synapse" is a fine warm-up for the live disc, a
41-minute set wherein intimately recorded (acoustic?) guitar rubs against
soft oscillations, fizz, white-noise swells, low-res digital data/Dada
chatter, and other manner of improvised electronic effervescence. Live
Minamo isn't quite up to the level of its most likely model, Burkhard Stangl
and Christof Kurzmann's outstanding Schnee (Erstwhile), but it's is still a
great listen, well worth the tag on this pricey Quakebasket 100 collectible.
The guitarist's harmonics-dappled fingerpicking style recalls John Fahey at
his most mellow and mellifluous and is thus even easier on the ears than
Stangl's cut-glass angularity. While Minamo's more lenient disposition
allows for little of the delicious tension that makes Schnee so satisfying,
the incongruity between silver-toned guitar patterns and bristling
electronics provides more than enough interest. Quakebasket curator Tim
Barnes is to be commended for making Wakka available again, though the
collector-minded limitation is unfortunate, and the live album alone is
deserving of a far wider release. Of note, Barnes is bringing Minamo over
for a promising June 28th "Quakebasket Night" bill at New York City's mighty
Tonic, with maverick Australian guitarist Oren Ambarchi,
Ikue Mori, and Barnes himself. Hopefully such activity signals ongoing
commitment to Minamo, and Barnes may yet make available a "mass-market"
edition of the excellent Wakka/Live CD set.
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