Meteor Circuit
NERVE NET NOISE
$12.99
Nerve Net Noise is the synthesizer duo of Tsuyoshi Nakamaru and Hiroshi Kumakiri, who confused and irritated just about everyone with their 160/240 CD, published by the Meme label several years ago. Each Nerve Net Noise album is an astoundingly thorough exploration of one aspect of what their rough and barely controllable homemade synthesizers can do.
Meteor Circuit explores rhythms and beats, but it’s no minimal glitch album, and neither is NNN a “noise” band; they are after something much more elusive and beautiful than mere obvious full-bore screech. With a strange new angle on electronic improvisation, they twisted knobs until their machines produced rhythmic pulses, then hit record and let the instruments decide what would happen next. The “natural” imperfections of the synthesizers’ circuitry determined how each piece would evolve with little or no interaction from the artists. they then edited the works into a coherent, intense and (it must be said bluntly immensely bizarre album.
There isn’t anyone else doing quite what Nerve Net Noise is doing, and no convenient genre or style that they fit into, which is why they are one of Intransitive’s very favorite groups. Following two albums on Kazunao Nagata‘s cult Zero Gravity label and last year’s stunning Various Amusements CD on Hronir (and, of course, the infamous 160/240 on Meme), Meteor Circuit is the first Nerve Net Noise album to be published in the US.
Nakamura records more accessible techno-pop under the alias Tagomago. He also records using the alias Toki-Meki Science for Nobukazu Takemura‘s Childisc label. The band describes their sound as “electric noise music, but not academic, not mere noisy sound. We think that our music is not so much noise music as new kind of pop music“.
Nerve Net Noise “Meteor Circuit” CD (excerpts) by Intransitive Recordings
Praise for Meteor Circuit:
“These strange beats shift, alternate sounds, slow down and speed up, become more or less complex with each measure. Listening, I become completely mesmerized by this music; I simply can’t tear myself away, listening to these tracks for hours on end, bewitched by these cheerful oscillations. And they are cheerful; not funny or frivolous, but light on the mind; I never feel that the sounds are grating, impersonal or oppressive. Rather, Nerve Net Noise make a music that invites the listener to come closer, to become immersed in its alluring incongruities. In his liner notes, Hiroshi Kumakiri speaks of creating new life with their machines; I can’t attest to whether these sounds are indeed alive, but I can say that this music is without a doubt quite unlike anything you’ve ever heard before. Highly recommended.” – Incursion Music Review
“Japanese duo Nerve Net Noise… make the sort of experimental electronic “music” that really separates the men from the boys (or, shall we say, the insane noise geeks from everyone else). Imagine a nest of robotic birds, mechanically, repetitively chirping at one another, slowly building into patterns and rhythms that will drill themselves into your brain, causing either the euphoria of a trepanation (if you’re into it) or simply the pain of such. But it’s clear that the former is the intention. These guys aren’t trying to make assaultive music for masochists; they just hear things differently from most folks. For instance, we suspect they’d hear the beauty inherent in a malfunctioning car alarm. Is it perverse to like this stuff?” – Aquarius Records
“The new Nerve Net Noise release, Meteor Circuit is a musical equivalent (of Chelsea Girls and Takashi Murakami). On it, you’ll hear the sounds of level, repetitive analog synthesizers, at their most honest. No string section, no backing chords, just thorny rhythms with no production gloss. The rhythms change, nearly imperceptibly, oblivious and discreet. The machines apparently do most of the work. Nerve Net Noise… monitor the inexplicable rhythms created by their homemade synthesizer’s failures. They simply stop the recording when they feel the piece has ended. Nerve Net Noise is flat music that infers the world.” – Ink19
“CDs like this make me smile because they have dual uses: 1) listening enjoyment and 2) annoying the hell out of a captive audience. I imagine popping this one on full blast for a car full of guests while zipping along the freeway at 80 mph. No escape.” - Brainwashed.com
“Meteor Circuit is not, as may be assumed from casual browsing, a “noise” or “onkyo” album at all. They themselves never labelled their music, mostly discussing a synth ecology of sentient entities conversing with each other outside of (much) human intervention, so I am going to: this is the most minimal acid house record of all time, one that could possibly give Richie Hawtin nightmares. Nonetheless, this is most possibly the catchiest album I have ever heard. Highly recommended!” – Streetcleaner
“By building imperfection into the instruments themselves, pressing play and accepting the result with Zen detachment, Meteor Circuit… sounds rather like dysfunctional Ryoji Ikeda: there’s nothing wrong with Ryoji Ikeda, of course, but even its abrasive repetition can, if played at sufficiently low volume, disappear into the background, whereas there’s no way in the world Meteor Circuit could ever be listened to as “ambient” music. Compelled to follow the irregular (and irrational) mutations of deceptively simple patterns, our awareness both of minute detail and global structure is heightened – Meteor Circuit grabs you by the hair and jams its fingernails into your ears. ” – Paris Transatlantic
“I’ll be frank…this CD might really only be for real sickos. I have yet to play this for many of my friends, and I can’t think of too man who I could play it for who’d dance around the room to it like I do. However, if you’ve felt for years that noise needs to find a way to grow a sense of humor without having to be zany, or if you really like lock grooves and other things that go on and on, or if even if you dig stuff like Ryoji Ikeda but still laugh at jokes, please, please, please, give this record a try.” – Migidum Bligiblum
“If, in your life, you are only able to own one piece of recorded media, PLEASE make it Meteor Circuit by Nerve Net Noise!” – Greg Kelley, nmperign
“Despite a glowing review from Greg Kelley, this record is nothing more than a big, shitty fraud.” -BlowUp Magazine
