Mechakucha

Mechakucha

One Million Safe Hours (1999)

Portland, OR

Frenetic Records

.

Before we get to talking about the best records of 2007 I'd like to honor a piece of music I hadn't heard until this year, but was released in way back in '99. In the old days, before the internets, the only way to hear of new music was by word of mouth. I suppose there were mailing lists and that one guy who works at the record store, but those dudes try to sell you everything. You tell them, "I'm really mostly into, like, angular, abrasive stuff but, you know, in a smart way." He says, "O sure try this- " and hands you some tech-metal virtuoso bullshit. You always needed a reliable filter, a trustworthy kindred spirit. And those were a rare type, I think I knew one or two. And how many like-minded ears did they know? Prolly only two too, and I was one of them. So news traveled slow. Like really slow. And in this case of Mechakucha, about Eight years slow. But it is still here, now, and that's what's important.

.

If I ever describe a record as "disciplined" and you need a reference, this is it. The meat of One Million is a vast supply of off-beat and atonal riffs bolted to even more unlikely riffage on either side. And then submerge it in thick growl. Technical achievements normally fail to impress me unless they are accompanied by superior achievements of Tone, as Mechakucha does here.

.

Next to nothing is available on Mechakucha. I've done searches on it's members and and only a handful of results showed them to be involved individually in ensemble live projects, possibly jazz-based. So if you know of any information, please let me know. It's difficult to accept One Million Safe Hours as a sort of singular event, with no evolution, a fluke project Mechakucha as a trio created and then walked away from without consequence. Maybe another eight years and we'll know.

.

Listen to the opener, "Episodic De Ja Vu"

.

Only five bucks at Frenetic Records.