Two years after her delightful, surprisingly playful full-length
Is (Is Superpowered), Japanese glitch artist
Kyoka released a more low-key experimental EP titled
SH. For these pieces, she constructed rhythms on Serge or Buchla modular synthesizers and manipulated them on-stage during several performances throughout Europe and Asia. Unlike her previous effort,
Kyoka's vocals are nowhere to be found on this one, unless they're severely obscured or deconstructed. While the full-length seemed like an abstract vision of dance music, this one is far more sparse and reserved, consisting mostly of intricate crackles and pops, with some dark atmospheric synth washes and hints of bass. Highlight "Smash/Hush" is overtly dub-inspired, and it sounds scattered and unsteady, with a jittery rhythm that feels on the verge of collapse. The beats on "Hovering" are much more up-front, but they also seem a bit broken, and despite the hall-of-mirrors feel, the track seems quite skeletal. While lacking the pop experimentation that made
Is (Is Superpowered) such an unexpected treat,
SH is still an enjoyable, cerebral listen. ~ Paul Simpson