by Kevin McKinney
For years, we’ve been putting off listening to an important piece of music. Maybe it’s by an artist with a thousand words in the “Legacy” section of their Wikipedia page. It could be an album by the Who, or Arcade Fire, or maybe it’s one of the Radiohead albums that came out after Kid A. Or it’s a big-name pop release that went viral two or three years back, one that was discussed using words like “salvation” and “ecstasy.” It’s a concept album, or a “song cycle.” When our friends talk about it, sometimes we admit we haven’t heard it yet, sometimes we just nod along: Yeah, there’s some good writing on that one; the singer’s got a real interesting voice. Is listening a to-do list?
If sometimes it feels that way, I invite you to join me in spending one more day with the box unchecked. You’ll have time for 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, but until then, I’m happy to suggest something with no “must” attached.
CDR is the main project of Tokyo’s Hikaru Tsunematsu, who’s put out hundreds of releases under dozens of aliases and as a member of a big handful of groups. This one, AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, is of the same cut as many of CDR’s albums, combining frenetic, blown-out Amen rhythms with melodies sampled from anime OSTs, j-pop, and Enya’s “Only Time.”
I’m hooked first by the melodies, some such a sugar rush they’ll keep you up at night. But AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA’s joy rests in its loving attention to sound at a granular level. Each song is packed with skips and glitches, Amen snares that roll into continuous tones, a single autotuned syllable catching and repeating itself ad nauseum. I’m tempted to say that in this album, the hooks aren’t the point, but that’s not quite true. Of course the hooks are the point. It’s just that AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA radically expands the idea of what we can call a hook in the first place. Here, as much as any catchy melody, you’ll find stuck in your head the texture of a bass drum, or a synthesized “pop” sound effect, the chirp of a pitched-up Think break “woo!”
Really, this is music rooted in a simple idea: when we hear a good sound, we want to hear it again. And again and again. And again again again again again until the song that holds it is pushed to rupture.In the end, I can’t tell you that CDR’s AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA is essential or terribly important. I can only tell you that all through May, it made me cackle and cavort around my bedroom as I sent the link to all my friends, eager for a reaction. And it made me a better listener, more receptive to music’s gifts, willing to let any pleasurable sound worm its way into my head, ready to play itself again and again. Maybe it can do the same for you.