Fans of abstract techno will love the latest from Atau, a Japanese electronica artist whose primary claim to fame is his virtuosic command of the BioMuse, a musical instrument that creates sonic representations of the body's various tides, pulses, and beats.
Biorhythms opens simply, with a recording of a heartbeat, then segues, naturally enough, into a track entitled Arteries of Tokyo, which apparently combines the superamplified sound of blood rushing through corporal arteries with that of traffic rushing through urban ones; it's an elegant conceit, if not an ultimately musically compelling one. On "Delull" things start to get funky and polyrhythmic, but "28 23 33" consists entirely of blips programmed in superimposed rhythmic patterns. "F M R" is a sop to the raver crowd: a thudding house beat with artfully tweaked samples and drum loops. "Surge" gets seriously abstract, only to be followed by the lush and orchestral "Adagio," on which sweeping chord washes ebb and flow soothingly, lulling you into complacency until the crushing industrial beat of "Otaku" brings you up short. "Alias to the Next Time" winds up the program with a quiet but somehow shrill, eerie, and strangely attractive collage of synthetic sounds. Whew. Is it relaxing? No. Exhilarating? Yes. ~ Rick Anderson