Ryoji Ikeda — Test Pattern

Test Pattern shows the Raster Noton label at their more cool, calculated and concept based end of their catalogue. As Ryoji Ikeda builds sometimes dense, sometimes stripped down tracks of cold clinical and often noisy electronics derived from converting different kinds of data (text, sounds, photos and movies) into barcodes & then into a sonic form.

It’s stripped out the funkier and more deviate facets of recent records on the label to a make a classic slice of cranial sonic exploitation and minimalistic electronics-this is classic Raster-Noton territory that brought their name and label into the spot light in the first place. But that’s not to say this is not with out its rewards, surprises and often biting hypnotic clinical air as Ryoji builds complex rhythmic and textural structures from static, blips and blops. There’s almost always present a feeling of tension and anticipation, with noise eruptions that raise there heads here and there in slight burst to grow more volatile and larger towards the end of the album. The tracks for the most part are fairly interchangeable because of the narrow sound textures used, with the pace also staying fairly consistently upbeat and brain frying. So this is best taken as one long flow instead of individual  slices, as you get more hypnotised by the smaller textural and sonic patten shifts in it’s full length- feeling like your become part of a complex machine or circuit board.

It’s fair to say this isn’t for everyone you’ll need to already enjoy the labels more trademark and clinical Sonics, but if you do you’ll find this an enjoyable mind fry that will rewire your brain to its clinical rhythmic climate