Review: Casino Versus Japan, Whole Numbers Play the Basics

Do you know what I mean when I mention the music that plays in the background of planetarium shows? OK. So, I picked up a CD the other week. Those of you who know me at all probably realize that they hate the music that I listen to. Well, this one is going down on my list of best albums I've listened to all year (including X&Y by Coldplay and the newest release by My Machine, check out the link in my links section). Seriously this album has blown my perceptions of "music". Most people would probably just call it "noise" rather than music...and I really wouldn't be upset with them. The description is not that far off.

Noise was how electronica started out with the 1956 release of "The Forbidden Planet", starring the incomparable Leslie Nielsen. The music for that film was created by an electrical engineer named Louis Barron who spent weeks creating circuits connected to speakers and recording equipment. Not a single "real" instrument was used in its production, creating a soundtrack that sounds very off-worldly and unreal. Spooky to many.

This feel has been reinvented, expanded, and personified in this album by Casino Versus Japan, a dude who probably sits in his basement with his computer and dreams. The ethereal soundscapes that he has produced take me to places that I remember from long ago...sometimes I'm not sure if I've ever really been there. Each track is laid with a beat that is interesting and unique, from every beat I've ever heard and from every other rhythm on the album. On top of that is layered soft floating melodies, sometimes so quiet that your ear must create some of the lines in your head.

Not a single word is spoken on any single track, which only allows Erik Kowalski (creator of the music) to focus on honing the harmony and tuning the layers of music. The album is like a seven course meal: Each four or five minute main track is separated from the next by very short compositions designed, I guess, to cleanse your aural pallette. I have no idea. I just really like this album.