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Andrew Liles and Kenji Siratori
Black Paper

Beta-lactam Ring Records

Posted: Wednesday, July 25, 2007
By: Matthew Johnson
Assistant Editor

Andrew Liles' new series of CDs, The Vortex Vault, is as ambitious and eclectic as the composer himself, including everything from archival releases to new collaborations spread out over 12 CDs. The first part is a collaboration with Kenji Siratori, the prolific and avant-garde author who's recently risen to prominence in the industrial scene by working with everyone from Portion Control to Nordvargr. On Black Paper, the first impression you get from Siratori is one of intensity; whether or not you understand Japanese, his growled speech on opening track "Barometer II" sounds angry and threatening. "VTR" is less emotional but no less unsettling; like Siratori's writing, it's cold and mechanical, with Liles' sampled mechanical sounds making things even more jarring. "Jaguar," on the other hand, is almost tranquil in places, with Liles building soft atmospheres by looping and layering Siratori's monologues and smoothing them over with judicious sustain effects. Perhaps the most intriguing piece, though, is the title track. A bit like Einstürzende Neubauten's quieter "floor pieces," it builds a gentle rhythm from clattering metal, with melodic accents provided by what sounds like a xylophone. Though its sound sources—including Siratori's muttered monologue, which pans back and forth across the stereo channels—its use of at least some structure makes the arrangements all the more uncanny. Between Liles' own sonic eccentricities and the fact that few English-speaking listeners speak Japanese, Black Paper is by definition of interest only to a select few, but for fans of the avant-garde it appears that The Vortex Vault is off to a good start.