Cyclo is Carsten Nicolai and Ryoji Ikeda. Nicolai (aka Alva Noto) is obviously a firm favourite here. Ikeda, I’ve had my doubts about before, but this goes a long way to dismiss them. Because this is pretty damned great. It starts out with a high pitched squeal, into which glitchy clicks slice in a very physical way — they’re palpably bending the tone. In fact, this is a very physical record generally. The second track introduces a truly massive bass noise which you feel as much as hear. The album slowly builds in density and intensity, and by the end we’re utterly lost in a rich forest of buzzes, clicks, and peeps, skittering like crazy but each one connecting perfectly. I imagine this is extremely hard to do well, and here it is done very well indeed.
This music is best listened to quite loudly, and works well on headphones (especially if the dog is around, as it seems to upset her, unsurprisingly).
I bought this from Boomkat. They call it electronic.
dogrando writes about some records 