so takahashi nubus press
de-bug - (february 2000) Irgendwo zwischen Ambient und Noise arbeitet Takahashi, hat bei Leuten wie Ikeda oder Oval gut zugehört, ihnen einige Tricks abgeschaut und versucht nun seinen New Yorker Kühlschrank zum singen zu bringen. Clicks und Cuts, gemischt mit tollen Drones und anstrengenden Noises, mal belanglos, mal erschreckend gross.
thaddi ***
Lotus Magazine - (spring 2000) The debut album by Yokohama native/New York resident So Takahashi sounds a bit like a compilation of different artists—and that’s a compliment. While some techno experimentalists spend entire recordings obsessing on a single stylistic theme—often yielding tedious results—Takahashi employs a nice range of moods and timbres, making Nubus a continually intriguing and surprising listen. While this variety will no doubt lure listeners back again and again, it’s Takahashi’s unique, minimalistic melodicism and deft production that will capture their attention in the first place. Combining elements of Coil, Autechre, Hafler Trio and countless others, Takahashi’s palette covers everything from nouveau ambience to noise deconstruction, 1970s experimental film music and techno bleepiness. If the artist’s masterful sample manipulation and sparkling use of found sounds are the building blocks of his work, it’s his outstanding sense of pacing and composition that holds it all together. We may very well be following So Takahashi’s work for decades to come, so jump aboard now.
lotus rating: 8
-Al Ritchie
hardwax – 1.21.00 abstract nice sounding electronica: ambient to subtle groovin tunes TIP!
www.informativos.net (january 2000)
Aunque los discos de JAKE MANDELL y MARUMARI auguran buenos momentos para
CARPARK RECORDS dentro de la electrónica mundial, es sin duda este "Nubus"
el merecedor de todos los elogios mayúsculos. Gran disco el de este japonés,
SO TAKAHASHI, originario de Yokohama pero vecino de Nueva York desde hace unos
años, músico que sólo había editado un CD-R denominado "1" de
mínima difusión pero que le llevó a poder compartir su directo con gente tan
importante, y diferente, como Arto Lindsay o Flowchart. Denominar a "Nubus"
como techno minimal sería la mejor manera de eludir una difícil papeleta pues,
francamente, es bastante complicado denominar el sentir de una música que,
según la filosofía de TAKAHASHI, intenta aunar su pasión por la música de
club con la música electrónica, pero se encamina descaradamente hacia el ruido
estructurado, un minimalismo impactante y cierto caos ordenado nada previsible.
Como si el "94 Diskont" de Oval fuera grabado por una banda de metal,
como si Autechre fueran ahora Napalm Death, "Nubus" es un tour de
force impasible y aventurero, una epopeya que el autor resume con un
"mechanics vs. organics", que no renuncia a la no electrónica (guitarras,
theremin, samplers de utensilios de cocina, su fax!) para convertirse, sin
quererlo ni pretenderlo, en el estandarte de la electrónica más radical y pura.
¿Ryoji Ikeda goes to pop? ¿Atari Teenage Riot comerciando con ceros y unos?
Depende.
Time Out New York (February 17-24, 2000) The nine tracks on New Yorker (by way of Yokohama, Japan) Takahashi’s Nubus are all named after PMS colors; but with the exception of a silent, six-second track being named for "warm grey," these pieces bear no obvious resemblance to their matching colors. Nevertheless, Takahashi does a fine job of balancing opposing textures and forms, as high-pitched tones filter and loop in shifting, unpredictable patterns. Some are as simple as the sounds you’d be asked to raise your hand to during elementary-school hearing tests, while others flare through brief periods of nearly painful frequencies. Where Takahashi’s intent aims – or whether there’s much intent at all – remains a mystery, but Nubus’s pleasant, endlessly changing sounds will be refreshing for those tired of endless loops.
- Mike Wolf
dublab (march 2000) So Takahashi’s debut, "Nubus" (named after an ancient Apple hardware breakthrough) is music that rewards close listening but doesn’t punish spacing out. If you listen closely to the slowly evolving, minimal lines of bleeps, you’ll hear a subtle tension between programmed rigidity and a human element, be it swing, funk or just error. You’ll also hear tracks constructed with the kind of care put into building a ship in a bottle, with equally strange, tiny and fragile results.
During the fourth track, "PMS 185C (M72, Y43)" I actually moved to put some music on, as though there were nothing playing already. This is perhaps part of Takahashi’s point, that we have become so inured to the sounds and blips of computers running in the background of our lives that unless we pay attention to them they disappear. The track then proves its point by disintegrating into the followup, "PMS 8240 C," which sounds like the same computer malfunctioning and striving in vain to self-correct. The heavily technical vibe lets up a bit on the sixth track, which loops a wordless female vocal into a glitchy, warm ambient piece; beautiful, but too short.
Nubus reminds me of the cheeky old Coil slogan: "When you listen to Coil, do you think of music?" When you listen to So Takahashi, you will think of music, but not the kind of music you’re used to hearing. Instead, you’ll hear an incredibly minimal set of compositions that refuse to follow in the footsteps of previous minimalists classical and electronic, and instead follow down the Nubus to new territory.
Dub Diagnosis: Ultraminimal computer funk- the sound of an Atari 2600 and a Mac Classic doin’ a bad, bad thang.
-R. Geary
Octopus (spring 2000) – So Takahashi est un artist japonais exile a new-york. Son premier album pour Carpark, "Nubus", rappelle le travail d’Ikeda sur les test tones, toutefois l’approche de Takahashi est moins rigoureuse et plus progressive. La palette de sons qu’il utilise est tres large; les morceaux de "Nubus" rappellent tantot Oval ou les bidouilleurs electroniques de tous bords. On peut d’ailleurs deplorer le manque reel de direction musicale. Ce premier album, bien que tres reference, reste un travail tout a fait credible entre experimentation et electronica.
- christope taupin
Plastiks(#40) – liep ik al met een opgeblazen gevoel (pijnlijk, wanneer een kindhoertje ‘blowjob’ verkeerd interpreteert) – ligt me ook Takahashi’s full debuut op de maag. Zijn ‘Nubus’ laat zich namelijk beluisteren als een muzikale intelligentietest. Altijd genant natuurlijk. Aan de squeeky clean geluidspulsen heeft het PMS bijwijlen een dankbare update van haar gehoorcontroles (‘PMS 8400C’). Hier en daar person creepy bleeps zich in een moelijke sequens als van een moeizaam startande motor, onder het boroeren van een aftandse fax (‘8420’). Maar in een schaars moment verraadt Takahashi dan toch gevoel voor soul. Er is het Curd Duca-moment in "orange 021", de low flows in ‘Warm Grey’, en ‘185’ drijft zelfs op een flinke – zij het geheel kaal geplukte – groove. Met ‘Nubus’ luister je eigenlijk naar een postmodern kunstwerk. Richting decontstructivistische postelektronica. Nu moet ik even gaan liggen. ***
- madb
Ink19 - NuBus spans the gamut of glitch music. It is slightly Ovular in substance, but very Ikeda-esque in form. Don't know what I'm talking about? Well get with the program, Mac! Glitch is the moniker given to all of these new reductionist electronic musicians. Like La Monte Young distilling music down to its primordial drone, this school of composers finds their sources in the skip of a CD, crackle in
a record, and hitch in the tape. If there is a ghost in the machine, these musicians have found and trained it. So Takahashi takes a more melodic approach than much of the Mego crew, and a less shrill approach than they do, as well. One could say that this is downright palatable. But it may sound too much like their printer for many people to digest.
- nirav soni