More intense Japanese hard-drive carnage from Neus-318! I discovered this Japanese CDR label a few months ago, and while much of their catalog is made up of kooky abstract computer noise and glitch collages, some of their stuff is straight up skullripping digital noise that leans towards the psychedelic ends of the Japanese noise scene. I scoured their catalog and picked up their most aggro, brain wasting releases for Crucial Blast, which Japanese noise fans should definitely check out.

An hour long split disc of brutal digital noise and whacked techno/beastscapes from the Far East: The Taiwanese noise artist Yingfan starts this off with seven tracks of mostly-harsh electronic noise, nothing high-concept, just constantly shifting speheres of brutal synthesizer overdrive, sheets of liquid white noise textures, ancient videogame terminal sounds, damaged computer sounds ricocheting off of distorted quasi-beats and abstract rhythmic loops formed out of bits of ultradistorted noise. There are a few moments where Yingfan injects some deep space synth tones and cosmic drift in his brutal noise attacks, which like several other releases on Neus-318 bear some resemblance to the psychedelic space-noise of groups like CCCC and Astro, but mostly Yingfan forges pure harsh digital chaos that is more in the Merzbow/Kazumoto Endo school of violent hard drive skree.

Neus-318 house band Daruin makes another appearance and offsets the chaotic loudness of the Yingfan side with four tracks that are for the most part quite a bit more subdued. These tracks (with titles like "Dance With Russian In China" and "Very Nice History Of Victorious Country" ) are tiny mutant panoramas of life inside of a hard drive, weird soundscapes filled with a teeming mass of chirping tones, glistening organic pulses, insectoid chattering, aquatic bubbling sound, and occasional blasts of looping computer noise that drift overhead. At times this is like listening to a field recording of an alien swamp filled with the sounds of unimaginable creatures that are made out of silicon, steel, and flesh; elsewhere, the music approximates a deranged Nintendo game disco soundtrack, a type of fractured low-fi techno/noise hybrid. Daruin definitely keeps me guessing with each one of his releases.

Packaged in a full color paper sleeve with weird abtracted Japanese paintings.