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| Nisennenmondai - Fan |
| Nisennenmondai
(literally "Year 2000 Problem," i.e. Y2K Bug) are one of those "buzz"
bands that are known (outside Japan, at least) for their
fans...Battles, Lightning Bolt, et al...more than their releases. It's
not difficult to see why: their brand of loud, repetitive, hypnotic
sounds strongly reminiscent of the trancier end of Krautrock inherently
works best in the flesh, and hearing this stuff through headphones, or
in your living room, will naturally have less impact. Which is not to
say there's no point in picking up their catalog, especially their
recent releases: they've settled on a powerful, driving sound that
blends minimalism with brute force (much has been made of their
physically diminutive stature as contrasted with the hugeness of their
sound, but not having seen them, I'm going to hold off on exploring
that particular dynamic.) Considering their chosen direction, it shouldn't come as a shock to discover Nisennenmondai have some fairly arty goals. They've named "songs" (tracks, really) after such droppable names as The Pop Group and This Heat, and have a hypnotic, noisy, aggressive yet laser focused sound that dares the listener to describe it as "annoying." And to be sure, "annoying" would be the first thought of many. Nisennenmondai obviously don't worry about listeners' patience, a fact emphasized by their latest release, "Fan," a 35 minute, one track rumination on the sonic intricacies of, well, fans. At least I think so. One can never be too sure with these arty types. That said, we all have memories of being little kids, and being (albeit momentarily) fascinated with the way a portable fan could make your voice sound like it was underwater (or something.) Fan (the track) starts off with eight an a half minutes of what sounds like an oscillating fan as conceived by Kraftwerk. Intriguing, and the challenge is thrown down: I'm not kidding when I say the intro is only eight and a half minutes of this one idea, with only minor alterations. Like their spiritual forebarers Neu!, Nisennenmondai are about momentum, hypnotism, and enjoying the tiny sonic details thrown into stark relief by an unchanging background. Making stuff like this requires discipline: bassist Yuri Zaikawa doesn't show up until the 16 minute mark, and guitarist Masako Takada pops up not long after. When they do finally appear, their contributions are minimal, to say the least, but profound.Those who stick with it are rewarded with a hypnotic, weirdly relaxing groove that straddles a very strange line between flatly mechanical and, well, funky. That funkiness is confirmed when drummer Sayaka Himeno finally joins in with a pulsing disco beat that brings to mind Wire's epic "Drill," so much so that I half expected Graham Lewis to start shouting "dugga dugga dugga!" halfway through. As the rhythm drills (sorry) relentlessly onward, one can't help but imagine the interior of some Studio 54-esque nightclub populated with a throng of dancing robots. Which may or may not be what Nisennenmondai were aiming for, but to worry about that would be to miss the point. Fan, like all good, groove oriented dance music, is a paradox: intense background music, music that can suck you in without truly changing or offering anything significantly different from moment to moment. If purchased at Tokyo's Disk Union, it comes with a bonus CDR which contains a six minute remix (more of a condensation, really) that takes that intensity to a whole new level. What could be described as the musical version of drinking too much coffee is obviously not for everyone (although as it turns out, both the main EP and the remix make for surprisingly effective workout music,) but in the right frame of mind, Fan is irresistible, standing up to repeated plays and offering a sonic wake up call. |