Detailed Reviews [Metagaia - 2005 - "Phonogenix"]

Prolusion. "Phonogenix" is the first CD by METAGAIA; in fact a solo album by Haruhiko Tsuda, a former member of Japanese band Shingetsu, whose only live album from 1979 was released via Musea last year.

Analysis. There is no problem presently to entertain your vanity by having a CD with your name at the heading if you are ready to pay for its pressing, no matter whether you're able to compose music and play any instrument or not. Here is just the case. Originally a guitarist, Haruhiko appears as a 'keyboardist' on this set of homemade recordings, playing only simplistic chords and exclusively slow. Apart from guitar solos (available on a few tracks) and those of saxophone (on two), everything has been played on the same synthesizer with the use of a terrible drum machine, whose sound you can pretty precisely reproduce by putting galoshes on your hands and clapping them together. Two tracks, Divinity Rising and The Star of DOG, each featuring guest musicians on saxophone and electric guitar, are the best, if it's only possible to say so in this situation, because most of the stuff is just slow, monotonously droning passages of synthesizer, which is just what all of the other six tracks are about. This is one of the most uninspired and boring Electronic Ambient things I've ever heard.

Conclusion. There is a note in the CD booklet saying the material was recorded between 1995 and 1999, perhaps so that the listener will be imbued with respect for Tsudo, seeing it took so much time and effort from him to make this potboiler. I would have not reviewed this CD, but I was misled, as it was issued via Musea Parallele, Musea's sub-label, which has always been designated for Jazz-Fusion and related styles. But then, you've been warned.

VM: October 21, 2005