Zigoku / 地獄, by 99LETTERS

Zigoku / 地獄

by 99LETTERS

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256 Pi despite all the same sonic elements going into this as Kaibou Zukan, this set itself apart as a much more actively disorienting listen, fitting for the concept & title. getting a bit of Throbbing Gristle vibe out of some of this Favorite track: Wagakki Orchastra #1 / 和楽器オーケストラ#1.

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1.	Fue / 笛 03:46	buy track
2.	Shi / 死 02:54	buy track
3.	Kamaitachi / 鎌鼬 02:43	buy track
4.	Wagakki Orchastra #1 / 和楽器オーケストラ#1 03:34	buy track
5.	Nakimushinatori / 泣虫鳥 06:54	buy track
6.	Hotokesama / 仏様 05:14	buy track
7.	Souzou / 想像 03:08	buy track
8.	Koukai Sakini Tatazu / 後悔先に立たず 02:56	buy track
9.	Sotoduraoni / 外面鬼 04:05	buy track
10.	Ousyou / 王将 04:10	buy track

about

"Ultra-textured arrangements that radiate quiet power, locking listeners into a distorted landscape before evaporating without any fanfare."
Resident Advisor

"Both reflective and rapturous...focuses on altering the DNA of traditional Japanese instruments and building something new from it, without losing the essence."
Bandcamp Daily

Acclaimed Japanese musician 99LETTERS joins Phantom Limb for new album Zigoku / 地獄, seamlessly processing traditional Japanese instrumentation into pitch-black techno and quasi-industrial sound design.

“This album is made with the theme of human death,” 99LETTERS (Osaka producer Takahiro Kinoshita) writes of Zigoku / 地獄 [Eng: hell], his first album for Phantom Limb. “Even if I eventually end up in hell when I die, it might be a more peaceful place than I had imagined. The whole album may represent the world of death that I desire.”

Though the music of Zigoku / 地獄 is ostensibly programmed with dark, disorientating, disturbing sound design, 99LETTERS continues his now-characteristic practice of sampling, processing and disguising traditional Japanese instrumentation to develop a sound world both organic and unsettling. The very real presence of beauty, culture, and folklore remains throughout the record, in attendance as a kind of heaven to offset the willful hell of Kinoshita’s craft.

Appropriately - and in his typically cryptic language - Kinoshita speaks of human interference with reality and morality as key themes of the album: “Everyone has a good and bad person within them, which can be deceived by misinformation and superstition. The bad side can be ferocious and can easily hurt people. Sometimes I think that the present age is a complicated and difficult era to live in, and that this era may be hell.”

credits

released November 10, 2023

photography by Kevin Guen Yan
mastered by Alyn Sclosa

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about

99LETTERS Osaka, Japan

99LETTERS is a musician who uses traditional Japanese instruments in Japan. Based on the concept of gagaku techno, we are experimenting with music and video repeatedly.

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