ALL AMERICA CITY

I've wrote a detailed review for that, on a paper as always, but alas I cant find it. For now I'll make A short review, maybe I'll complete that, but I'm not sure at all. This soundtrack to an unpublished movie "yu gakusei", is a hard nut to crack. Very short pieces most of the time, yet very complex. There are many MIDI tracks, imitating some real acoustic instruments. These tracks are added by some real players on real instruments. The most impressive one for me is Hannse Giger on the contrabass, does some amazing things there. Dave Kerman here on the drums, adding some liveness.

Unexpectedly, the tracks that worked for me better are the electronic tracks. Verity of sonorities and sounds. The memorable ones comes toward the end. Especially 'Amaterasu'. almost the last one, its more melodic and longer, about 6 minuets, take its time to (beautifully) developed. The last track, 'on Raiko's P.O.V' got some water sounds (Bats-Bats like), and a voice from very distance.

In between those tracks, comes some of the the most controversial things I've ever heard: 'Yamatonadeshiko. 'a graphical notation composition, 30 minuets long, played all by "live" players, on acoustic instruments. For me, its way too long, and don't fit well to the album, or any CD at all? better listen to those things live, with the graphical notation screened. I've once attended to a concert of that sort and that was interesting and rewarding. Maybe other listeners (very advanced ones) would find some special moments here. For me personally, maybe I could dig it if it was shorter, 15-20 minuets maximum. Still, I appreciate the "courage" to do such a thing (and maybe apostrophes are redundant here).

In all, I've rated this album by 2 stars only, because it's a difficult album, with lots of MIDI synths, that I feel wont be necessary for most listeners here on PA. for anyone who like U-TOTEM/MTG, I still would suggest to grab it, in a very cheap price at "rotary totem" (James Grigsby's lable, guess he is aware to the situation?), and listen to it after listening to all other MTG\U-TOTEM albums. Still its rewarding, got it's moments, and would be appreciated for the work on that experimental effort.