release - world's end girlfriend - seven idiots

type: album

released: 13th september 2010

label: virgin babylon

genre: glitch, electronic, idm, post-rock

Katsuhiko Maeda has never been one to go for simplicity in his compositions. His works are invariably sprawling, multi-faceted beasts that blend complex song structures, strange electronics and beautiful melodies. At 79 minutes and 43 seconds, here is another epic that carries on several of those traits, but ignores a central element of his previous albums – subtlety.

Described by Maeda himself as 'irregular pop', this is a brash and outrageous homage to jazz, glam rock and psychedelia, filtered through robotic guitars and unpredictable drum patterns. Written originally with vocal tracks which were then taken out, the directions of the songs are intentionally hard to follow, seemingly changing course every ten seconds.

The Divine Comedy Reverse begins with clean-sounding fret-tapping as tinkling keys bring in romantic strings, saturated in electronics and closing with a synthetic flourish. Screeches, drums and horns decorate the background. At just over a minute, this is quite a lot to take in, but it's a good indicator of what's coming.

Les Enfants du Paradis contains everything this album does well – prominent guitars used for lead and rhythm, uplifting and buoyant Mega Drive electronics and a sense of ordered chaos. It's immediate and impulsive, mutating through its hyperactive, metallic textures and finally finding its groove at around five minutes to reach critical mass. It has beautiful, reflective strings in parts but overall it's a song that's meant to be fun.

There are songs on this album that are far more hectic. TEEN AGE ZIGGY is nonsense in musical form, totally over the top. It's weightless and shallow, lacking the resonance of some of his earlier work, inspiring only momentary feelings in its aural hedonism. Helter Skelter Cha-Cha-Cha is messy too with its chugging bass and big drums. Its horns are abrasive and snarling, but not quite dissonant.

This wild and fractured side to the album ends after GALAXY KID 666, when we are introduced to the album's centrepiece, the three-part suite Bohemian Purgatory, which clocks in at 25 minutes. Part. 1 begins with slightly distorted ambient followed by ominous piano and a tinkling, minimalist melody that's as sparse as the first songs were dense. It builds logically and uniformly, in a way not yet seen on the album, before jumping back to more erratic sounds. Part. 2 is more easily comprehensible, spending time pressing at the edges of each idea it has, blending them all into something akin to swing played with the instruments of electronica. The trilogy closes with some gentle lullaby tinkling, continuously disturbed by white noise and fragmented vocal samples.

After this, the album does get a bit more minimal. Der Spiegel im Spiegel im Spiegel leaves a lot of space open, breaking into silence a few times and allowing haunting piano keys to chime alone. They return at the beginning of The Offering Inferno, the penultimate song and the scariest. Sounds of violence have been used before in Maeda's music, and they are tortured into the music here with car alarms, breaking glass, laughter and the monotonous piano that still chimes at regular intervals. There is a sense of building intensity and power electronics come in and out of the mix, until the halfway mark when it loses all structure to become a glitchy, noisy assault of which only the Japanese are truly capable.

Closer unfinished finale shed is more like Maeda's former style, hymnal and mournful. It meanders but never leaves its territory for complex drum patterns and guitar solos. It tells us that we've come a long way in the album's CD-squeezing running time, and gives balance to the often overwrought sounds of Seven Idiots. The fade out is probably the most beautiful thing on here, and its inclusion is a sign that Maeda hasn't completely abandoned his graceful, peaceful side.

World's End Girlfriend - Les Enfants Du Paradis