The grey electronic buzz of first track “Snow and Pollen” might refer to the abnormal weather conditions of recent years it portrays the emptiness of an irreversibly mutated climate. In her ritualistic solo work, Phew’s vocals exist liminally between utterance and deadpan, English and Japanese, echoing but reaching nowhere. Through the feedback of old synthesisers and drum machines and a trembling guitar, New Decade projects a stony void rather than lively provocation.
Phew’s voice is always bonded with the metal hum of technological civilisation. During Japan’s economic bubble in the late 1970s and 1980s, musicians in the underground developed science fiction-esque techniques with amplified sounds, manipulating new audio equipment that became available then and there. In her first return to Mute Records in 30 years, Phew projects a wavering identity through the sombre dronescape of New Decade.įrom her days in Aunt Sally, Phew has been a glowing figure within the obscured histories of Japanese post-punk and noise. Even as things take a strange turn, Phew’s music continues to resonate at its own frequencies.Īs a celebrated figure within the lineage of Japanese post-punk and noise, Hiromi Moritani’s sound explorations have spanned over decades – starting in Osaka’s No Wave scene in the 1970s, collaborating with Ryuichi Sakamoto as well prominent members of krautrock, all the way up to working in isolation underneath the dystopic energies of the last two years.
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