Exhibition Of The Samples

Perfect, mechanized music, but not for everyone:
Each time I listen to this album, I realize I've forgotten how good it is. The musical brainchild of Japanese musician Riou Tomita, RIOU is, quite simply, some of the best minimal techno I've heard in a long time. RIOU shares some similarities with KK label-mate Lassigue Bendthaus, but RIOU tends to be even more bare, inhuman, and stripped down than their German counterpart. Some of the songs on this album are so devoid of human qualities that they are practically unlistenable (the first track springs to mind), but the album really succeeds with the tracks that are pulsing, living beat machines that drive the listener's attention forward on waves of pure adrenalin, such as the tracks "P.O. Box 167" and "Onoreno," both of which sound like they've been taken from a soundtrack to a porn film featuring only robots. This is an album that should appeal to fans of Lassigue Bendthaus, Pan Sonic (nee Panasonic), Dissecting Table, and the film "Tetsuo: The Iron Man." Listen to it when you're feeling particularly inhuman.