So I'm in a local favorite bistro having dinner with my parents,wearing my Mogwai T-shirt, and I'm on my way to the bathroom when theguitarist for the in-house jazz combo comes up to me. "Mogwai!" hesays. "My son's in a band, and they get compared to Mogwai a lot. Youshould check them out!" Who are they? "Yume Bitsu," he says, "on KRecords." I leave after dinner, never bothering to check out the band.A few days later, what should arrive in my mailbox as a new CD toreview? Yume Bitsu on K Records. A thought suddenly occurs to me: "Am Isomehow linked to this band karmically? Am I supposed to review thisband to complete some bizarre circle of events that will bring greatfame and fortune to some small family in eastern Milwaukee? Have I lostmy mind?" I chose the latter, but decided to review the record anyway.Yume Bitsu are sound collage artists. They get compared to Mogwai a lotprobably because they create epic instrumentals with rock instruments.It is NOT a fair comparison. To start with, Yume Bitsu, on this releaseparticularly, create their music vastly through recorded improvisation,where Mogwai are very structured, right down to each loud-soft-loudmoment. Secondly, Mogwai are Scottish. Yume Bitsu? Not Scottish. Andlastly, Yume Bitsu, on this release, chose not to name the tracks.Mogwai takes great pride in naming their tracks, I assure you. Allkidding aside, this record is really impressive. It's halfway betweenall out drone rock, and laborious post-rock. This release isparticularly disparate, though the band has always been difficult toassign to a specific genre. Each track, though, seems to take on a mindof its own, with the players merely translators for the higher power.Fitting, it seems, as the band claims the music comes from a channel ofenergy that is greater than the sum of the musicians. Guitars,keyboards, and drums blend and mate beautifully, creating music that isnot unlike Landing and Windy and Carl (name-watchers: if you like thosebands BUY THIS RECORD). I found myself constantly blocking the samethought in my head: "IT NEEDS STRUCTURE! IT NEEDS MORE STRUCTURE!" No,it doesn't. This music is just fine as it is, despite the fact that oneof its members' father tried to push it on me in a local bistro.
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