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Sawako +, "Omnibus"
Paul Dickow's Community Library label, formed in the Spring of 2005, subscribes to a mantra of sorts: music without borders or community without geography. It's a costly mantra in the case of Sawako's first recording on the label. "Sawako +" is Sawako assembling various sound samples given to her by friends and musicians from all over the globe. If it weren't for its brevity, Omnibus would be a very unsatisfying grab bag of strange, random sound.Community Library
I like it when musicians have a purpose and go headlong into a project in order to see it realized. It's ballsy and requires a good deal of effort. Glitchy electronic music could use some effort, too. Entire albums sound like they could've been assembled in a day, maybe less, and that does nothing but make the music, the entire package, seem cheap. So with effort and concept in hand, I was willing to give Sawako the benefit of the doubt. At just over nineteen minutes long there isn't much to complain about in the first place. The longer tracks (the longest reaching five minutes) have the most going for them. Several pieces end in two minutes and others in less than a minute. So when a song is given some time to flesh itself out, it's almost a relief. Jumping between meandering sound samples, though each of them are appealing to some extent, is about as much fun as listening to the television while flipping through it at light speed. There's not enough material to catch on to and so none of it ever really sounds all that interesting. It just exists in that brief space and then goes away. In absence of "Aykmin" or "Datam," the EP is almost entirely forgettable. And if it isn't forgettable, then it's damn irritating. "Practice" features some lovely guitar playing right before it drops of the face of the planet. I'd do anything to extend that track another twenty or so seconds just so I could hear where that melody was going.
On the upside, the aforementioned tracks are almost worth getting the EP for. Along with "End Roll" and "Lapon," there's enough music here to pique my interest in Sawako's other work. However, it'd be nice if Community Library just made these tracks available as part of another release from Sawako or maybe as part of a singles collection. All I know is that more than half of these tracks don't need to be on the EP. I would've been far more satisfied with a four-track, twelve-minute release. The concept behind the project would sound far more intriguing than it does now and would give me hope for further short, but excellent tunes.
As it stands I'm weary of hearing another release like this one. I've actually just ripped the songs that I like to my computer and made them part of another playlist so that I can enjoy those songs without the other, less enjoyable aspects of Omnibus. Sawako does make a neat offer, however: if anyone thinks that they can craft a fine remix of this album, she encourages you to do so and send her the results. Like I said, I appreciate the concept and I appreciate that she stuck to the random qualities that such a concept would demand, but in the end it did more damage than anything else. Random is good, but sometimes I need a red thread to get me through an album. Sawako cuts the thread in half before I can even find it.
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