In a lot of ways, this review feels completely irrelevant. I mean, it?s KK Null. The guy has over 100 albums and makes electronic noise. What?s there to discuss? Wikipedia says he likes Butoh dancing… so there?s that. But basically, Tokyo?s Kazuyuki Kishino (aka KK Null) is an entity unto himself when it comes to sonic expression. And a prolific one at that. So far, according to the discography page on his website, he?s already got two records out in 2009, including a collaboration with Los Angeles noise composer John Wiese. I?m sure there are others to come or not yet listed.

2008?s Oxygen Flash is not Kazuyuki?s first album for Neurot. The label also handled 2003?s Atomik Disorder and the 2001 offering from his more straightforwardly musical band Zeni Geva, 10,000 Light Years. Kazuyuki also has his own label, Nux Organization, and has put out albums on Important Records, Crucial Blast, Alternative Tentacles and many others over the course of his career, and while Oxygen Flash borders on unlistenable, the experimental drive behind it (and I mean really experimental, not just putting guitar riffs in awkward time signatures) is admirable. The nine unnamed tracks go from aurally welcoming to punishingly abrasive, with high pitched electronic frequencies urging a visceral response from any and all who hear them. It?s one of those records that, were you to hear it under the influence of any sort of hallucinogen, you?d end up ripping your eyes out of their sockets.

I?m not entirely sure how one gets started listening to this kind of thing, or who comes home after a long day at the office and puts KK Null on to unwind, but if you believe that good art makes you uncomfortable, Oxygen Flash is bound to meet that requirement. It?s like when you go to the Guggenheim and see the single-color canvasses and think to yourself, ?Oh, I could do that. Anyone could do that,? not realizing that you didn?t think of it first, you can?t do it and the person who did is a genius. Kazuyuki?s careful, sometimes subtle sometimes bludgeoning manipulation of sound has made him an experimental icon, and I honestly don?t think Oxygen Flash is meant to be judged on the level of, ?Is it good or not?? Its provocative sonics are outside the jurisdiction of such easy classifiers, and to look at it that way seems to be the only sure sign you didn?t get it.

You probably won?t like the way it sounds, but Oxygen Flash feels more like it was meant to be appreciated than heard anyway. And again, it?s not like anything said about the record one way or another is going to matter. It?s KK Null.

KK Null on MySpace

Neurot Recordings

Tags: Japan, KK Null, Neurot, Tokyo, Unlistenable genius

This entry was posted on Friday, August 21st, 2009 at 10:32 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.