Kobi - "Earplugged"
(EndofHum 2010, Endofhum-11)
Kobi - "Earplugged"
(EndofHum 2010, Endofhum-11)
From Aural Innovations #42 (May 2011)
This is some very far out experimental music (or sound, as many people would not consider this music) by a Norwegian artist who calls himself Kai Kobi Mikalsen. He is apparently quite popular in Japan! This CD comes in a thin large size DVD case with some interesting artwork. I quite like the cover but I am not so sure about the music. The bio describes it as death ambient. It is one 40min track that is split into several pieces but the first 5 min piece is just like some windblowing in the background and some strange static noise. In the 2nd piece he starts to mix in some more different sounds as it starts to evolve a bit but still not a lot happening really and then by track 4 it is more or less back to the way it sounded at the beginning. Track 5 sounds like a storm, door closing, but mostly it is a low frequency hum-rumble with some static like sounds. Very minimal. Track 6 sounds like distorted sounds that are hard to make out what the source is come to the front. At the beginning of track 7 and 8 there are some louder noises but mostly it goes back to the low frequency rumble or drone with this distorted broken glass sound with a strong frequency cut off or something that pops into the sound every now and then. By track 13 there is more sound happening but not very exciting stuff. This is music (sound) for quite a limited audience. Try to check it out if you dare.
For more info, visit: http://endofhum.no/kobi
Reviewed by Scott Heller