Yaporigami: XIII
Give Daddy The Knife / Merry Works

Brace yourself when inserting Yaporigami's Xlll into your player. Yu Miyashita's ferocious mix of grinding electro and apocalyptic hip-hop, breakcore, and drum'n'bass beats might best be described as a sonic cyclone. There's little I can tell you about Miyashita beyond the fact that he was born in Japan and currently resides in Brighton , UK , but chances are your thoughts won't stray to biography while listening to the collection. After opening with the awesome, pummeling hurricane, “-14,” Xlll never looks back. The harrowing journey includes the seething drum'n'bass swarm of “Ouroboros,” the mangled electro of “Swedftgyh,” and the arcade-from-hell visit “Bahamut.” The ear-cleaner “Cdrcdrcdr” is so painfully brutal it'd make Merzbow jealous, and, by the time “Punq” and “Rocket 17” explode at disc's end, you may find yourself grateful the release is a merciful thirty-six minutes long.

August 2007