Bo Ningen / Line The Wall

Bo Ningen
Line The Wall
(Stolen Records)
****
Sometimes the best approach to the perfect album is via the kitchen sink. Japanese language, British hardcore krautrock outfit, Bo Ningen, have known for a long time that subtlety’s a byword for grey dinner parties and elevator small-talk. Line the Wall’s a stiff affair compared to their manic eponymous 2010 debut but there’s still a familiar ragged and ebullient energy to this. In fact, the conventional melodies appear if only to bookend the buzzing improvisation that spins around them. Consequently, the experimental moments on this record are more like shining lights of inspiration where before they could sound droning and self indulgent. Take the opener, Soko which after a crunching Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitar salvo, transforms into an orchestration of echoing shoe gaze riffs and vicious drumming. Halfway through we get Chitei Ningen Mogura, where what begins with a meandering chill-wave intro splits into almost four entirely distinctive songs. While they retain a great deal of their usual anarchy with nine minute grunge bombardments (Daikaisei Part 2) or piano melodies replete with whale song (Natsu no Nioi). Line the Wall’s still lurches towards a more mature sound for this daring band.
Thomas Norton