POIL UEDA (AS POIL UEDA)

On this collaborative album PoiL joins forces with Japanese vocalist and satsuma-biwa player Junko Ueda. Is avant- prog and traditional Japanese court music an awkward mix? In lesser hands, maybe, but somehow PoiL and Ueda seem to make it work seamlessly from the off. For their part, PoiL pull no punches here, serving up an instrumental backdrop that veers between sinister, abstracted soundscapes and the kind of gutsy, gleefully contorted avant-rock we've come to expect from them. Meanwhile Ueda's powerful, throaty vocals and biwa seem to glide over and seep into every nook and cranny left by the band. The result is music that is at times ethereal and enchanting, at others aggressive and alien, but consistently engaging and bursting with detail.

At barely over 30 minutes, you'd be forgiven for feeling a little shortchanged, but there is so much densely packed music within that runtime that I'm personally quite thankful that this album doesn't push its luck and risk tipping over from exhilarating to exhausting. Mind you, a second release from this collaboration would certainly not be unwelcome.