Kanpuu by Kayu Nakada/Tim Olive

This is the second Nakada/Olive duo release, following the 2021 "Entenka" on Tsss Tapes. This CD, the twentieth release on 845 Audio, is drawn from a December 2021 recording session in Kobe, Japan. Osaka electrician and sound-maker/circuit-breaker Kayu Nakada patiently called to life the exposed circuit boards of a half-dozen semi-defunct Roland, Yamaha and Zoom rhythm machines. Tim Olive used magnetic pickups, several radio bands and the sounds of a neighborhood sports event. The original recordings were edited/overlaid/arranged and mixed by Olive.

Ed Pinsent, The Sound Projector:
Another lovely gem from Tim Olive, a steamy session with Kayu Nakada, a fellow from Osaka. As it turns out, Nakada is an electrician by trade, one of those old-school circuit-bending types who knows how to meddle with a printed circuit board in various evil ways. We can see why Olive would be drawn like a magnet to such a fellow. When the pair got to the studio in Kobe in late 2021, Nakada had several drum machines in his bag. His method is to lay bare the circuit boards and begin “patiently calling them to life”, as the press notes inform us, making our man sound like a James Whale Frankenstein or a David Cronenburg Re-Animator of the music-gear emporium. Meanwhile, Olive was playing his magnetic pickups, his radio sets, and some pre-recorded sounds of a sports event that took place in the area. So there you have it – not a conventional musical instrument in sight, yet our two floating fin-flappers execute their moves with grace, dexterity, and artistic subtlety. Not the kind of wild, untamed noise that flattens the local corrugated iron buildings like a hand grenade, but enough non-specific grit and grind to satisfy your lusts for intoxicating boodlery. As ever, the sheer inventiveness and originality of these Olive-related projects always floors me; I don’t think he, or his compadres, have ever settled for a “normal” sound in the last 10 years. Of course, I suppose some of the success could be in the editing and the mixing; just half an hour of solid music and sound here, possibly edited down from much longer sessions. Even so, it means you are the recipient of condensed audio enjoyment as surely as a can of frozen orange concentrate emptied into your maw.

Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly:
We are dealing here with quite a bit of noisy music. Cracking electronics, radio transmissions going wild and distortion and feedback are never far away. But the two also know how to exercise control, change the mood and bring down the noise. They open up for details, otherwise lost in the mayhem of noise, and there is this beautiful introspective sound world. I am reminded here of Möslang/Guhl and their cracked everyday electronics, but the duo of Olive and Nakada exert more control, dynamics and variation. Great release!

timolive.org
Tim Olive