Ueno - "Sui-Gin"

Ueno - 04 - Untitled (Room40 2008)

Ueno - Sui-Gin / Room40

The sound of a precocious kid working out simple melodies has been part of the charm of Japan's increasingly popular duo Tenniscoats (and, to a lesser extent, the Maher Shalal Hash Baz music collective they are a part of). Last year, Saya and Takashi Ueno best used their musical marriage to great effect on two discs: Totemo Aimasho was put out on New Zealand's Room40 and the live disc Tan Tan Therapy for Sweden's Häpna. But while his fidelity may not be in question on the actual marriage side of things, he's definitely been diddling on the music side with a string of solo records devoted to his exploration of the 12-string guitar. Breathing through a Moog Ring Modulator this time, Sui-Gin (or "Mercury") continues in the same lineage.

It's easy to question the validity of a record like this, which is willfully difficult to listen to straight up. But like the hidden brilliance of Snöleoparden from earlier this year, the methods behind the madness reward patient listeners. Admittedly, this is a whole hell of a lot harder to get into: Ueno leaves his four-track recording sessions from Tokyo mostly unaltered in the transition to a full album of nine songs; there are tons of overdubs, but you would never know it listening to how smooth and foreign it sounds. "04 - Untitled" is the best demonstration of what little echo emits from the ring modulator, providing a depth in the scrabble of notes that Ueno is filtering out, but each untitled track runs a similar pattern: Take the bare minimal simplicity of the pop plucks that make Tenniscoats so heralded and reduce them in an almost Imagist way. What Tenniscoats say in 97 words, Ueno says in 56. Or less, as it were.

But then, that's why it's only half of Tenniscoats, right? It wouldn't be a Ueno record if it were accessible even to more experimental listeners. It's true, Sui-Gin is a test of patience to the untrained ear. But it's also a reward to appreciators of the avant-garde looking for a taste of what's on the radios of UFOs buzzing Planet Earth these days. Who's to say Ueno might not very well be a modern Will Smith?