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Whole numbers play the basics (2002, Carpark) Hitori + Kaiso : 1998 – 2001 (2004, Attack 9) Milwaukee's Eric Kowalski, aka Casino Versus Japan, is something of an underground-undergound hit, in this country at least. Whilst you'll see online record stores and industry reviewers praise him in the warmest and fuzziest ways, few fans of the scene have come accross his work, and even many specialist record shops raise an eyebrow if you mention his bizarre nom de plume. His debut album 'Go Hawaii' sent silent ripples through a post 'Music has the Right to Children' scene, as rather than immitating Boards of Canada's genre defining masterpiece like so many others, he'd found himself a unique spin on the blissed out, techno-tinged electronica tip. Follow up 'Whole numbers play the basics' is best experienced as a whole - several tracks make up its 45 minutes, but skipping or shuffling them spoils the journey. His most recent output, a double CD of material that has been loitering on his hard drive for years, dabbles in edginess, ambience and melody and is a good starting point. Characterised by almost overwhelming synthesizer washes, Casino versus Japan's tunes ebb and flow, pulsate and wobble. Kowalski found the reverb knob and turned it up to 11 - this is music with humbling depth. I don't mean that in a pretentious way, but more a literal one. Clever use of reverb fills out these tunes and creates the illusion of space. Its like listening to a CD in a vast cave. Effortless, etherial, like whisps of smoke on a gentle breeze, the music herein envelops your senses before dissipating into nothingness, leaving you wondering if you actually heard anything at all. Underlaid with distant, crunchy hip hop beats that barely hold it together, this is music to float away with. Casino Versus Japan manages to descibe a world where everything is smooth and slow and easy. Not that it's all easy listening, though. There's atonal melodies and childrens voices that might disturb, annoy or smack of naivety or pretention to some listeners. But if you like your music to be ambient with a twinge of subtle groove, if you like to be wooed by fluidity and seduced by nostalgia, this is, literally, the stuff of your dreams.
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