Kawabata Makoto • Jellyfish Rising (Funfundvierzig, 2005)

Just as much as the lateness of the hour affects what I decide to listen to (The Madcap Laughs seems awkward at 3:00 pm, but brilliant at 12:30 am), weather can also play a part. Temperature rises and out goes the Minimalism, or anything with too many notes...so, what to play when everything is a bother? Somehow Jellyfish Rising is an amalgamation of those two styles and fits perfectly.

Here Makoto is in full Gamelan music mode. Shifting tones from the guitar cascade over repetitive figures. It never really goes anywhere, but there is a feeling of sonic rushing around. Think of this as a more gentile version of The Monkey Chant, and you'll have a beginning.

On the occasions I was subjected to The Grateful Dead, or read various band members name dropping composers, I could never figure out what the big deal was. I'm sure Garcia must have had a voracious ear, but it never seemed to inform his fingers. And with Kawabata, it's the complete opposite. He wears his influence on his sleeve. When he's not destroying his guitar a'la numerous guitar Gods, or thumbing his nose at sainted rock albums with Acid Mother's Temple, there is a serious side that comes out. It's in these albums where he shines brightest. Yes, he's playing here like Steven Reich filtered through Jerry Garcia, and the cover is a hideous throw back to New Age album graphics, but the playing so beautifully becomes a oxymoron - simple complexity. The two tracks on the CD never get mired in flashy playing. It's all pulsing and flanging, no real guitar solos. Repetition is the key here, and it's in that you find yourself with room to think. Where albums like this tend to get bland in their desire to be cosmic or even worse, soothing, here there is no down side.

Please click on the review title for selected track: Astral Aurelia Aurita Laavarek