mika vainio's "kajo"

[Sean Cooper <scooper@xxxxxxxx>]

shit howdy but the new mika vainio disc on touch is even better than i
expected. those who were drawn in particular to the latter half of his
previous touch release "onko" take note: "kajo" is up the alley of that,
but mixed together with the best aspects of mika's wavetrap release,
"ydin." in other words, lots of small pure-tone business combined with
random bursts of static, electroacoustic interventions, and bits of digital
processing (at least i think so; i'm no expert). unlike ydin, which i found
overbearing at times, "kajo" is subtle, texturally rich, and nuanced, and
it gets the balance of calm and calamitous just right, making for endless
and fascinating listening possibilities. i've listened it at a half dozen
times so far and each time still sounds like the first (that's usually a
compliment in my listening book). slides easily onto my top 10 of 2000 so far.

sc