ANOICE

Two years after forming, Anoice, a septet from Japan (who is a serious "importer" in the post-rock, experimental, minimal, math, metal, psyche-pop or shoegaze business) release a slim and credibly achieved debut album called Remmings. The album is great, there's a special heading, still the difference between generally great to superiorly remarkable is in the certain post-rock fanbase it's addressed towards. What's to expect, anyway? Post-rock/experimental music in all that takes a both more tranquill and modernly dark step towards ambient and electronic constructions, that creates snapshots of urban environments in its gestating, fretless, but also maybe full of lights and nocturnal-drifting moments, or breaks through the lens into dreamy, absorbing, virtual or harmonious alternative places. A further quality is the round, sort of aesthetic yet simple and pseudo-conceptual musical form, combining three major stylistic cups (Rock, Ambient and...soft Post-rock) that reach, in a state of variety, a few selected essences: melodiousness, etherealness, meditative trances and focused soberness. It sounds, true, a bit too much for just around 35 minutes, but who knows: if emotions and sensations exude out of the music, the point of over-thinking Anoice's artistry can be flexible. For sure nevertheless, the album has a simple, direct (if with induced variety) substance, below the hard work that was most definitely put in polishing the material.

At least from the perspective of this debut's fine, stylish making, the musicianship itself is an important subject. For many of the seven musicians, if not all of them, making music is something far from new; in fact, Takahiro Kido and Yaki Murata are soloists with five, respectively three materials released so far. Even more, two side-projects were created from Anoice, *moscow* by Kido, Takahiro Matsue and Todashi Yoshiwara, and *Cru* by Kido and Murata. Inside Anoice, all seven have multi-instrumental skills, Taku Tanioka being the only one with a less wide range, resuming just to guitars and mandolin. Programming also seems a specialty for most, and it is in fact vital when talking about all the electronic composures of this virtual-centric album. Kido & Murata are, again, the two that impress, with their performance on more than five instruments. Meanwhile, special instruments (bringing, of course, that extra special sound) are the viola, tenor sax, Glokenspiel or accordion, but only the first shines out of the meld in a strong way. All in all, rich music & play, no kidding!

Stated as influences are Radiohead, Sigur Rós, Arvo Pärt, Claude Debussy, Karlheinz Stockhausen or Harold Budd. The classical music references are ok as far as some componistic details reach into modern style and texture, besides, the sober "ambiance" infused by all the general effects and subtle brushes are impressionistic in some bizarre, cold way; meanwhile, a pop reference like Radiohead is totally arguable, as opposed to the the harmonies and surrealness of Sigur Rós, EitS or any other band from the melodic, sound-swarming branch. But all this is just straight data compared to when Anoice become themselves, by creating gifted, all-round, closely adorned music. It's then something post-rock by default, but also more than averagely touched.

Remmings contains five Untitled compositions that alternate with other four, so to say regular-titled, ones. The album's logic is normal, the individual aroma of every piece is even prevailing. The Untitled series are mostly ambient pieces, except #2, which is sound-mixed, experimental, silent, of a deconstructed minimalism; meanwhile, the third and fourth interventions bring one instrument in top spot, first keyboard ambiance, then a short, slow acoustic guitar pass. Moving on to the titled tracks, Aspiring Music works on a rhythm similar to Ravel's Bolero and sounds dark, postural, strong, frenzy, electric and at rare timings schizoid. Kyoto is rock, melodic and sensitive, while Liange is theoretically a moment of positive thinking, airy, urban, reflexive, inspiring and highlighted by the viola. Compared to the first part, a bit of the album's last half is mellower, especially through Three-Days Blow, which picks at first the acoustical air from the previous track and then edifying another melodic moment, tranquil until a soft, logical climax. But the last piece inspirits one more time, with clothed, synthetic, airy ambient, with piano cuts and post-rock undulations.

Remmings is overall a good-rate, artsy, worthy of note work. And since a second and third album is planned this current year, it can definitely be said that there's more to this adventure.

Released in 2006, the debut album from Japanese post-rock band Anoice is an aural voyage into ecstasy, euphoria and forbidden peace rarely experienced in 21st Century music. Whereas most new-millenium music focuses on overwrought, dramatic post-9/11 political psycho-babble, Anoice keep their focus on their strong suit: classically inspiried, ambient-infused melodic mayhem. The de-facto superstars of the band, Yuki Murata, Takahiro Kido and Utaka Fujiwara seamlessly create atmosphere after atmosphere of warbling piano, vivacious viola and emotive guitar, erstwhile forbodding the perception that this is esoteric music, only intended for a very small pool of iron-deficient psuedo-intellectuals to appreciate whilst discussing the current international APR trend. From the opening first untitled track, your swept into a 44+ minuet metaphysical oddyssy that would make Chopin blush, Rachmaninov cry and second-hand Mozart Eddie Van Halen wish he were still relevent. Mataku's bass is also commendable, from the opening seconds of Asprin Music, he makes you sense that he far more talented than he lets on, and Yossy's style of restraint-over-flash drums/percussion make you wonder why so many Mogwai-clones emphasize over the top, and often-times ear-deafening pounding of paegan-skins to show their proficiency. The second, third and fifth untitled tracks serve their purpose of setting the atmosphere of the proceeding song perfectly, and are classic tracks in their own right; however, it is Kyoto, Liange and the Three-Days Blow that make you stand and take notice of this shockingly innovative band. One must keep their eyes to Anoice's second state-side release as I'm sure it will live up to the very high expectations of Remmings. A must-have for any fan of Post-Rock or anyone interested in beautiful, aloof and sometimes aggressive music.

Hasheten-