Review Summary: Kill it with fire, but let it sizzle first.
Very little time passed after Xanadu's fiery EP before he was back on the saddle again with his debut LP.
Nemuri No Kuni retains the atmosphere and tension of his EP, but also adds new things into the mix.
We start off with the twenty-minute track
nemuri no kuni. The beginning doesn't go easy on us, blasting static feedback before curdling midway into screeching mic feedback. The thing that does set this track apart from Xanadu's debut EP is in the fact there is actual speaking. I am not quite sure what exactly is being said during the track, but it almost seems as if it is being sung; as if it were a lullaby. Interpreting it this way left me deeply unsettled and excited at the same time. A lot more tools are utilized in this track as well like distorted bells and sound fading. When I said that Xanadu had a "cinematic horror" to it, I meant it. The distorted bells are something that was used in many old horror movies during the golden age of cinema (including Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi).
The second track,
erosion, is only seven minutes long, but is much more adventurous. The tone and volume is slightly notched down, creating a "softer" feel to it, that doesn't stop the loud, distorted sound of wind passing by from being any creepier. Sounds of nature and birds can be heard if one is to really listen hard enough, so it seems most of this were nature sound effects. To say that the wind effect is creepy as Hell is an understatement. It reminds me of those old Japanese black and white films with wind sound effect. Sound wasn't what it used to be at the time so it would always sound horribly distorted.
The final track,
tarnished aura is the bulk of the album. Clocking in at thirty-one minutes, we start off with a small static before the volume is jumped up and down repeatedly. The sound effects will tend to change from loud static to wind distortion constantly. Most of the track is static, but pieces of the track contain what I can guess to be an echo of some sort. What that echo is, I don't know and don't want to know. All I know is I ended the LP feeling fantastically terrified.
Nemuri No Kuni once again reinvents the wheel for Power Electronics. By bringing distorted bell sounds, odd singing, and creepy wind noises; Xanadu's debut LP completely outshines his previous endeavor in every facet. It is creepy, it is inventive, and doesn't mind feeling gimmicky for the Hell of it. Power Electronics is a genre that relies on the ability to make you feel fear, not from any particular source, but in general. The idea is to bring out that primal sense of fear without doing anything other than making loud noises. When a Power Electronics album reminds you of things that scare you, and then continues to scare you just out of spiteful malice, it is a gem that should be treasured endlessly.
