CD REVIEW: "Hypernatural #2":
THE WIRE issue212 Oct, 2001

Yoshio Machida's first album, Hypernatural(1999), came in a black box with photos and a feather. His second, produced by Aki Onda, comes in an ingeniously wrapped sleeve which conceals as it deceives. Is that hair underneath the text cover? Unwrap it and you'll never get it back together again. This is a typical Machida ploy. His music and photographs - though this time the cover's by someone else - are slow to reveal their inner selves. The theme of Hypernatural #2, he says, is "transparent existence", or "the relativity and the continuity between phenomena in the area of unconsciousness and consciousness". That is, the eight pieces recorded here are akin to sonic investigations of chosen sites in time and space. No, the concept's not new, but Machida handles it intelligently and sensitively. In some ways, Hypernatural #2 parallels Hazard's Wind, and the work of John Duncan, Russell Mills and Ian Walton, in its sourcing of nature sounds. "Potential" ripples a metallic undercurrent through running water. Taped in Ghana, "Malaria" is reminiscent of Eno's field recordings for On Land. "Radiant Wind", meanwhile, is the sound of a gently struck Vietnamese gong borne away on a breeze. It's not entirely organic - Machida subtly employs piano and organ, and his interest in Koan software is evident.
by David Elliott