Thursday, Jul. 11, 2013 | 06:56
Nobukazu Takemura - Scope
In my list of 20 pivotal albums I include 'double articulation', a remix of a collection assembled in tribute to the philosopher Gilles Deleuze. artists include Scanner, Oval, Mouse On Mars, and a couple other like-minded artists. 'double articulation' took those already glitchy and fuzzy sounds and broke them down into something else entirely. Still musical, still moving (to me, at least), and very, very interesting. I hadn't heard sounds like that before, didn't even know they were possible as music.
Sometime afterward, I acquired Nobukazu Takemura's album 'Scope'. I don't know why, though my guess is i read a favorable review in Alternative Press (back when AP reviewed all sorts of things, and not just whatever they cover now). This is another 'Girlfriend'-type album for me. It is very moving and exhibits many of the hallmarks of what I want in an album (at least of this electronic glitch style). It has melody, it's not overly abrasive, it's well composed, and the method for making the sounds is simultaneously transparent and obscure: Takemura is moving the shuttle around on some CD, looping snippets of that, then applying effects. The source, however, is indeterminate. If the first 56 minutes are deconstructions of the album-ending 3-minute-long straight composition (sounding a lot like Bach), then he's doing something extraordinary since none of those sounds resemble these.
His following releases would expand on the last song, exploring simple, child-like melodies. He tones down the glitch-based compositions and mixes in more direct melodies. His next album, 'Hoshi No Koe', sounds like playground music, or something that plays from a Mobile over a crib. 'Scope' is music for concert halls, the rest is music for sunny days (don't get me wrong, the video for "Sign" is one of the most fucked up things you'll ever see).
I can get lost in 'Scope' in ways I don't in much other music. It isn't quite ambient, and not dancey, but contemplative and complex. It really is more like Classical music than your run-of-the-mill abstract electronic music, though its composition style precludes it from being categorized as such.
I enjoy other abstract electronic releases, but few come close to this level of execution. I stuck with Takemura for a few more releases, but they stray from this sound and never quite return. Not that I would have any artist lock himself into a specific sound or approach--that can get tiresome for all involved--but I return to Scope much more often than I do the others. And, like 'Girlfriend', if I knew where to look for other albums with that sound, I would explore them too.
