Tamagawa: "plus tard, le mem jour..."
Noecho Records

plus tard, le meme jour... features nine elemental guitar drones and ambient settings from Tamagawa, an unidentified (aside from ‘B.G.') one-man guitar-based project from Saint Etienne, France. Tamagawa's effects-laden guitar settings are covered in a hazy, ethereal cloud of reverb, which gives them a pronounced psychedelic character. There's a good range of material on hand, including sound sculpting (the cloud-like evocation “Par De La Les Nuages...”), meditations (“Principe Exogamik,” whose hazy, reverb-soaked guitar melody intones like a mantra), melody-based settings (“Bonheur Animal,” the brooding “Cellule Souche”), and, of course, drones (“Midi Brulant,” where synth patterns whoosh across a blurry base). The album even includes a pretty lullaby (“Principe Endogamik”)—albeit a rather psychedelic one—whose dreamy melodies one could imagine lulling an infant off to slumber. One misstep is audible: adding a downtempo drum machine accompaniment to “La Vache Bariolee” isn't needed when the ever-intensifying drone would burn just fine on its own. Some listeners may find the album too reserved, as B.G. never unleashes the full fury that his gear affords. But this is actually one of the most appealing things about the album, as Tamagawa resists the urge to strafe the ear with unnecessary shredding. A piece such as the pulsating “Brute Interne” consequently becomes more an ambient exercise in atmospheric evocation than a narrative piece that works itself up to a conventional climax.

March 2010