30 July

Leo Dupleix & Toshimaru Nakamura — Futaride (2016, Off)

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This 2016 collaboration between French pianist and experimental musician Léo Dupleix and Japanese mastermind of the “no-input mixing board” Toshimaru Nakamura, yields four gilt-edged, science fiction electro soundscapes which are sure to be of interest for noiseniks and fans of the avant-garde. The title of the release feels entirely appropriate (seemingly, a portmanteau of the english words “future” and “ride”), as the sounds of this release catapult the listener forward, disdainfully chipping away at the space/time continuum, as unrelenting bursts of moving air hastening one into a temporal purgatory that isn’t quite the present and isn’t quite the future. The opening two tracks (pragmatically titled) “1” and “2” initiate the journey acting as mechanical neuroleptics whose blurry outburst begin to enshroud the listener in preparation for the impending cosmic exhilaration. The twelve minute long “3” is a seismic departure from the opening two tracks, featuring washed out and highly emotive string-like keyboard passages. Remarkably, the track had nearly ended before I realized the soporific and fascinating transformation that transpired: the duo manage to slowly fade in a host of electro-hisses and clangs that sound as if they’ve been culled from a lost Tarkovsky film. The strings are lost in the tempest by the 5:00 minute mark and all that remains is a cacophonous and structureless electronic nebula. At the precise moment that one finds themselves awash in sonic bliss, a blistering wave of what sounds like microphonic stuns the listener, marking the final two minutes of the track with a jolt. The closer “4” is yet another bastard offspring of a 1960s science fiction masterpiece. It is disquieting in its tenor and cinematic in its execution. The duo excel in their ability to riff off one another and on this release, masterfully craft provocative compositions that take place somewhere between the shop floor and outer space. Like the preceding track, the listener is taken on a hellish journey that descends into absolute disarray, only to be pulled from tumult before it is too late. It’s not industrial, it’s not electronic, and it’s not the future, yet somehow, in a seeming contradiction of terms, it’s all of those things.