World's End Girlfriend - Hurtbreak Wonderland

World’s End Girlfriend. Hurtbreak Wonderland. 2007. 3.5 stars.

WEG is the solo project of Japanese virtuoso Katsuhiko Maeda who produces lush post rock songs tinged with neoclassical and break beat flourishes. Unlike WEG’s collaboration with Mono (see here), Hurtbreak Wonderland avoids sounding mournful and instead relishes in hallucinative fantasy, conjuring an Alice in Wonderland type of narrative as suggested by the astounding cover art.

The songs here are instrumental but are far removed from conventional rock dynamics, opting for wild pairings of melodic strings and intense electronic beats, creating a swirling experience similar to the work of Venetian Snares. Songs like “Birthday Resistance” and “100 Years of Choke” move from pleasant, classically inspired compositions into bombastic freak-outs, creating dramatic transitions that are often dizzying in their execution. Most of the album carries on in this fashion, as gorgeous piano, harp and brass fills are layered over the vivid drum and bass patterns.

Hurtbreak Wonderland is an incredibly detailed and eclectic album that consistently sounds organic and fresh, coaxing the listener to wander in its blossoming passages. Despite its technical prowess, some of the movements tend to drag on in spots, leaving portions of the album sounding unfocused. Maeda occasionally manages to anchor everything with his propulsive beats, but the surge of strings and keyboards is in constant lift, leaving some unresolved tension between the elements. Despite the often confounding juxtapositions here, Hurtbreak Wonderland is a beautiful and original record that clearly breaks new ground in the post-rock genre. The cornucopia of instruments and noises used here leaves plenty of room for continued exploration. In short, WEG has created a deep and dreamy effort that begs for multiple listens.

Birthday Resistance

Digg!

This entry was posted on Friday, April 25th, 2008 at 9:04 am and is filed under Reviews, Videos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.