Japanese For
Beginners
Near the Parenthesis
n5MD Records.
Japanese For
Beginners is seamless almost to a fault. Led via piano but operating on a series of
keys, beats and ambient swells, Tim Arndt’s song-cycle flows like a continuous
bubbling-up of tear-inducing melodies and intricate drum-loops. The set feels
whole in a way that track titles, suggestive though they may be, can’t really
slice up. Was that ‘The Rose and Burial’ or ‘The First Surface’ playing? Don't worry, it’s
hard to separate.
Now if that sort of
homogeny doesn’t sound appealing, you've probably yet to give Japanese For
Beginners the benefit of the doubt. Here’s a record that dives straight into the lush details of Four
Tet’s Rounds and then stitches a series of emotional sonatas into the flurry.
Track titles, suggestive though they may be, can’t function on the level of
Arndt’s piano progressions, which build in momentum (‘The Listening Surround’)
and fall back into ambient pools (‘Country Of True Wonder’). It’s undoubtedly
“one-note” but in a classical sense that expands and contracts contently in the background. Was
there room for Near the Parenthesis to add more conflict amid the beautiful
elements at play? Of course, but then I might not have listened to it in a state of hypnosis all year.
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