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Nuou

For a time in 2007/08, with the Japanese economy depressed and the yen weak, while the UK economy was puffed up with misplaced optimism, and the pound infeasibly strong, it was possible for me to order items from amazon.co.jp at fairly reasonable prices, even accounting for intercontinental delivery. This happily coincided with a burgeoning interest of mine in Japanese music: I had just learned about The Boredoms and OOIOO, and, having bought what was readily available of theirs in the Anglosphere, I was keen to see what else I might obtain from Japan, and to try listening to some other more or less like-minded artists.

Among my first purchases was the album Mon by 'space rock supergroup' Rovo, and, while I enjoyed the music on it (lengthy instrumental pieces with Katsui Yuji's electric violin the leading 'voice'), the CD itself was 'bricked', making it wearisome to listen to. Even so, when their next album Nuou was released in '08, I bought that too - it was probably one of the last such purchases I made before exchange rates became less favourable again, closing that short-lived window of opportunity.


Nuou had, fortunately, been mastered more humanely than Mon, making it much easier on the ears. It's a fine album, but, to be honest, when I play it I usually seek out one track in particular, the third of the five on the album: 'Melodia'. This is a piece about twelve minutes long, where the first nine of those minutes constitute a leisurely crescendo, leading up to a glorious climax occupying most of the tenth minute. Thereafter the music quickly dies back down to a quiet coda, at length leading seamlessly into the following track, 'Agora'.

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