Detailed Reviews [Naoki Ishida - 2007 - "Fazing Redust"]

Prolusion. "Fazing Redust" is the debut release by Naoki ISHIDA, from Japan, and by the way, is a fully-fledged CD.

Analysis. This album has nothing to do with progressive music, so would have been omitted if it hadn't appeared out of the precincts of that renowned progressive recording company InterMusic / Poseidon Records. It's quite another matter why the label's management has ventured on issuing such in all senses doubtful material as this. While seemingly avoiding any musical conventions, this homebred opus just mirrors its maker's failure, both as a composer and musician, depicting him as a solo pilot to nowhere, evoking nothing but a total feeling of indifference and boredom. Not exactly Ambient or Electronic, not good enough for new-age contemplations, not even so-called 'acid' (no machineries here), this is something both very slow and so to say extremely mono-dimensional, since there are either two instruments in the picture, synthesizer and acoustic guitar (Evening Primrose, Fazing Redust, Untitled and Cliche), or only the first of these (Tranquility Bug, It Started Certainly In a Sense and Structure of Iki O), appearing almost exclusively in the shape of drones, most of which in turn are sequences, and no layers! In other words, apart from the guitar, everything was recorded at one sitting, on the same synthesizer. Please also do not expect anything especial from Ishida's guitar playing, which in most cases only comes to eliciting simplistic chords. For sure, there are also subsidiary sounds, the problem bearing an almost catastrophic character, since most of those aren't 'your' typical spacey effects, but are noises that sound usually like someone chaotically moves several small objects, such as pens, clips, buttons and so on. The tracks with no guitar involved (one of those, Structure of Iki O, lasting for twelve minutes!) are especially repulsive, besides the noises revealing usually a single sequence that seems to be pursuing itself throughout, like that esoteric snake which bits her own trail. The only positive aspect of this disc is the absence of a drum machine, though on the other hand it would have somewhat enriched this sonic wretchedness, as an extra voice.

Conclusion. Like a narcissist who will certainly not die of modesty, Ishida describes his creation as a blend of acoustic Jazz Ambient and serious Electronic music with elements of Minimalist and traditional Japanese music, summarizing all these absurdities as "digital folk, his own unique style, free and unpredictable". His 'creation' is nothing other than pushbutton music, well, with a touch of acoustic in places, something so heavily primitive and tasteless that it would only be excusable if he were a child making his first experiments with music.

VM=Vitaly Menshikov: December 27, 2007