RICHARD PINHAS & MERZBOW: KEIO LINE

You'd probably expect Keio Line to be insufferably harsh, giving that Richard Pinhas collaborates with infamous japanoise leader Merzbow on this album, but you'd be wrong. This long album (110 minutes long) is beautiful and ethereal ambience at its best with experimental distortion and hypnotizing pulses.

The textures of this recording are many. It's occasionally dark and icy (much like Pinhas' Iceland album), and sometimes it shows a warmer side that sounds like the sun's rays hitting the earth and warming the beaches. There is also a strong spatial feel that is strongly accentuated by Merzbow's radio-static-like effects that appear occasionally. The guitar playing by Pinhas is mostly peripheral, but still very noticeable, and it adds a slightly organic touch to this very electronic sounding album (though the guitars also are synthesized also). "Merzdon/Heldow Kills Animals Killers" is especially interesting and sounds like an ambient soundtrack to a slow-motion rendering of a space-shuttle launch. Very warm, bright and beautiful with periodical bouts of explosive power.

I'm sure that as soon as most reviewers see the name "Merzbow", they'll turn and run from this album. Bad choice, sirs. This is one of the top ambient albums I've ever heard, and there's so much of it.