Otomo Yoshihide

This is an early document in the chronology of freaking out by Japanese musical deviant Otomo, here heard in a duo with a partner who sticks mostly to toys. The two have a single track in which they duet on sax and guitar, an almost stock free improvising combination, but other than that they improvise in real time, with no overdubbing, on a spread of homemade instruments, turntables, cassettes, toy drum machines and mixers. Players that work in this milieu tend to refine their activities a great deal as they go along, thus it is instructive to hear these experimenters at what was an early stage in their career. There is already a great presence of mind in the way pieces unfold despite a superficial randomness and almost broken-down sound. There are quite a few very short pieces and these are uniformly successful abbreviations of what might have turned into long drawn out yawn sessions. Otomo in particular traveled a long way since this material is recorded, but listeners who enjoy his work will certainly find this recording of interest. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide