Album Review

Madegg – Tempera

• 21st Jul 2012

The alter ego of 19 year old, Kazumichi Komatsu, hailing from Japan, Madegg crafts intricate, challenging, and sometimes downright bonkers music.

Those waiting to see how Carly Rae Jepson follows up Call Me Maybe are quite clearly not the target audience for this prolific teenager.

With five EPs self-released via bandcamp last year, and a further two released in 2012 so far, Tempura is the debut album that is the culmination of such studious efforts.

The ambience of the project is the most obvious factor, moody and surreal, seeming to float on the edge of your very own consciousness, initial listens may prove difficult, boring even, or possibly frustrating.

But allow the music to seep into your very subconscious, and the beats and bleeps slowly but surely unfold to reveal intricate arrangements, as layer upon layer of sound seem to come to life, like the natural wonder of organisms multiplying under a microscope.

Rest assured, this isn’t pop, at times it is barely even music at all, but those that relish listening to Aphex Twin will surely get a kick out of this as it tugs at the ethereal soundscaping you would expect of Sigurd Ros, tumbling both influences over in some kind of Twin Peaks-esque nightmarish delirium.

Justin Bieber may not be troubled by the young Madegg’s musical abilities, and nor may the charts, but Madegg is a prime example of what talent and technology combined can deliver to those willing to listen.

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