[/end] - Frans de Ward on Vital Weekly
Mugen is one Alessandro Canova, who releases his own Pachinkostudio label. To date he six releases on offer, of which '[/end]' is the latest. He works with a limited set of soundsources: sine waves and white noise. That may sound a bit too much like Ryoji Ikeda, and yes, Mugen seems inspired by especially the 'Matrix' release of Ikeda, but luckily enough he finds enough ways of his own to create something that may indeed not be top-new and innovative, but nevertheless he has a couple of interesting pieces to offer. Maybe eleven is a bit too much, even when the tracks are rather concise, but sometimes the pieces are a bit ambient, hoovering in various frequencies available in his sine-waves, but there are also pieces of rhythm, and here Mugen seems to expand his ears to the world of minimal techno, such as in '[/dub]', which seems to be a pastiche of Pan Sonic rhythms and Ikeda sine waves. Mugen's sound might be a bit too late, but a couple of years ago it would have fitted nicely along the microwave tag - which nobody uses anymore, so that might be a bit of a dead-end. However, he presents enough variation in his pieces to make '[/end]' a very nice CDR indeed. (FdW) Vital Weekly
Fragile MP3 - Marc Weidenbaum on Disquiet
The latest free EP from 12k.com’s Term sublabel is a three-track live set by Alessandro Canova, who records as Mugen. The music was recorded like at Fabrica, the Benetton Research and Development Communication Centre, outside Treviso, Italy, on October, 25, 2002. With their lingering pulses of ethereal hum, these are among the loveliest releases yet from Term, which specializes in fragile sound works. The tracks are labeled Parts 1, 4 and 5. Two are about three and a half minutes long (Parts 1 and 5), and the third (Part 4) is a little over a minute and a half. Part 1 has a distant, white-noise groove like the locomotion of a nanotech train engine. Part 4 has, for its rhythm, an initial string of Geiger counter-like static, which gives way to extended long, round tones. Part 5 is distinguished by its opening, a light rupture of irritated beats, a cross between the locked groove at the end of a vinyl LP and the internal workings of a computer; eventually this beat-like material is joined by elegiac synth tones. Term says of Mugen’s music, “In 1999 Canova started experimenting with sine waves and white noise as his only sound sources, developing a special interest in a micro sounds aesthetic. Influenced by his studies on Asian arts he aims to create a meditative dimension: a contemplation of sound that lucidly expresses a refinement of the frequencies.” The Term label’s homepage is 12k.com/term, and the Mugen 25 October Live @ Fabrica EP is located here. (More on Mugen at pachinkostudio.com. More on Fabrica at fabrica.it.)
Drowning Venice - industrial.org
I have never been to Venice, and from what I understand about the water quality I have some pretty strong reservations about getting my head wet but this new disc from Mugen does urge me to at least consider dipping my toes in. Although it's quite obvious who's behind it (after chewing through "770"), it comes off almost like a compilation in that the approach is far from the tight focus of the previous disc. Twitchy digitizations make their expected appearance but surprise guests in the form of solemly chanting monks, Japanese exported noise terrorism and decade long amplitude envelopes deform the outline into something less easy to hold and place.
The disc runs for 37 minutes before running out of ideas though the first track plays a sine wave tortoise with rigamortis for the first minute or two. Once the events do actually get underway, it's via purely digitized waveforms, sharp yet sparse events that ring off like a dropped screw hitting the heat sink on a powered motherboard over top of a cooling fan being fed red meat. The second track is pure dark ambient, synthesized male voices bouncing off the stone walls of some underground corporate chapel. The third track slams the door shut, letting the inorganic machinations once again overwhelm through silence, textural blurblings and ultra high frequencies. Track 4 cracks the containment field, the force of the gushing forth linear segments leading to overt distortion, an almost grindcore approach to glitch that ultimately falls backwards into the realm of pure noise. A softer rythmic sensibilty permeates the next piece, short pink noise bursts tip toeing their way around undulating sheets of metal and vertical streams of LED generated light. Again, aggressive tendencies rudely push their way to the forefront, the sixth track a bubbling, caustic pool swirling around with the odd angry burst of sulphuric steam making a vain attempt to vent off trapped energy. Instead of release, rhythm eventually cements the distortion permanently into place creating a Pompei scene out of the remaining form. The final track here reverts back to control room machine language, a saturated fingers appearing over the top of the console but ultimately being glued to the phospor of the IDE.
"Drowning Venice" is far more noisy than I expected, more Japanese than American fuck-shit-death noise but still about as far along the polarization from polite "clicks and cuts" to tweeter shedding as possible. The noise initially kicks the door down but I personally prefer the gritty creep of later tracks where inhuman calm slowly disintegrates. The dark ambient piece is a bit of an oddity, satisfying yet unexpected in this context and I would have liked to have heard some further integration of this approach with the other aspects to lend it more overall cohesion. Taken as a whole I feel the previous Mugen disc "770" was more complete but this is still a rather interesting and at times challenging path to follow.
770 - industrial.org
"770" is like waiting for the other shoe to drop in zero-G or trying to string a shortwave antenna from your 10th story balcony to an orbitting spy satellite - i.e. seemingly insurmountable time and distance.
The disc itself contains just over 45 and a half minutes of terse tones and slight rhythmic incidents spread over 7 incrementally entitled tracks. The seven peices definitley were sourced from the same supplier but the exact route through the system does vary quite a lot. The first track uses a small section of repeating decimated white noise, quantized delay fading out on the 1 - 2 - 3 plus sharp bursts of high frequency and touch tone dub sine waves to build up a very slowly but constantly tightening perimiter of silicon chill. "771" inverts the positions of the sines, using them as a steadily wavering but ineffective shield against the watery ricochets and lumbering low frequency forms that puncture its skin periodically. The next track again makes the focus more overt rhythmics, MIDI delay here converting sparse cyclical hum, momentary cosine and click incidents into a building sense of motion. "774" lowers the octave range, a just slightly angular note progression forming condensation droplets much like brittle D+B but with a less vulgar and far more distant focus. The fifth track sweeps the Q over an obese, grumbling rapid fire bass line, to the point where it seems like the filter edge is alternatively slashing open and being devoured by a faceless maw. The second last track is particularly staid, parallel feedback and ground hum being abolished by a strangulated Nerve Net Noise alarm circuit. The distorted bleating and accompanying low end warbles make one of the most intriguing contructions here as the glacial tempo is just fast enough to foster expectation but when the third or fourth beat arrives very late you have to exhale to relieve the built up stress. It's really quite involving, the whole disc is in fact but unlike the rest which offers a sodium pentathol like soothing, this track makes it impossible to lose conciousness for me no matter how late the hour. The final track is rather Sputnik (the satellite not the band) but seems to be based around a similar grid as the previous track, woolly wow and flutter brushing up against sections of passing communications equipment until the board finally burns out in a bright flash.
I could see a lot of folks stacking this carelessly with the clicks and cuts scene but here Mugen does not suffer the tricky indulgence of other such material I have come across. The structural integrity is such that its two dimensional rythmic spires can support a vast canopy of shimmering tone and undulating noises. The only thing that I have heard recently that I can compare it to really is the extremely satisfying Alphonse de Montfroyd EP "Silence" though here you will find more exceptions and less frequency constants. "770" is a notable achievement and most definitely worth the download from mp3.com or better yet as a trade direct from Pachinkostudio. Quite high up on the repeat play stack for me these days.