TUJIKO NURIKO
Blurred In My Mirror
(Room 40)
AOKI TAKAMASA & TUJIKO NURIKO
28
(FatCat)
· Two more from the Japanese version of Bjork.
Music critics like to call Tujiko Nuriko the Japanese Bjork, mostly because we’re lazy, and because we know that you are, too. However, if you think carefully about Bjork’s post-Debut recordings, even before Drawing Restraint, you will realize that she is already as Japanese as one can get, so positing
a "Japanese Bjork," leads to an infinite loop of semiotic recursion.
This is not a bad thing in itself, but it tends asymptotically towards Ryoji Ikeda’s more contrary works, rather than to these gentle pop meanderings, low-energy electronic updates of the mid-period Cocteau Twins sound (though without the vocal pyrotechnics).
Nuriko is certainly not as felicitous in her choice of collaborators as the Icelander – while Blurred In My Mirror involves half a dozen others, the result is annoyingly similar to the sound of her earlier, entirely self-penned
recordings, except for one reasonably good track, "Tablet for Memory," featuring a cold wave guitar accompaniment.
28, on the other hand, though not a big departure from the previous sound, manages a wider variation of the glitch and beats theme, as Nuriko’s voice jumps lightly between whisper and sing-song, making this her strongest album
since her 2001 debut.
TUJIKO NURIKO 3/5
AOKI TAKAMASA & TUJIKO NURIKO 4/5
TIMOTHY HECK
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