WIRE Magazine

With a name meaning Selection of dead trees, no one's expecting this Norwegian/Japanese quintet to be making toe-tapping dance tunes. But the name does perfectly describe their stark and at times ominously beautiful debut album. The improvisations are centered around the tense dynamic between Tetuzi Akiyama's relaxed, minimal, Country-tinged acoustic guitar and the unsettling electronic sounds generated by Toshimaru Nakamura at the no-input mixing board. The controlled and manipulated feedback isn't always a particulary comfortable sound, but when it settles into a cikada hum, with lazy guitar twangs, faint saxophone harmonics and sparing daubs of trumpet and tuba, you could almost be eavesdropping on a soporific, late-night, back-porch jam.