POIL UEDA

Poil Ueda DUR ET DOUX Franco-Japanese hybrid blends ancient and modern forms. Junko Ueda, Japanese singer and satsuma-biwa player (a kind of multi-stringed lute), works within an ancient tradition of epic storytelling. Her sonorous vocalising, whose extended notes stretch and utilise Buddhist chanting, describes warding off ancient spirits and the trials of medieval warring factions. As unlikely as it might seem, Ueda’s vocal acrobatics somehow seamlessly mesh with French band PoiL’s brand of highly charged chamber rock, adding to the drama of this short but remarkable tour de force. Clashing metallic guitar riffs, quaking synths and air bursts of tangled polyrhythms are forged into knife-edge arrangements whose theatrical gusto and cumulative impact are not dissimilar to late-period Henry Cow and the acerbic sensibilities of the Rock In Opposition vocabulary. Their…