Missing Volume

By the time of Missing Volume, Yutaka Tanaka, aka S·Core, had mastered one particularly compelling thread of international noise – a submerged, claustrophobic sound, not as in-your-face as much Japanese noise of its time, closer perhaps to the immersive worlds of musique concrète and drone music. Missing Volume was one of Tanaka’s final albums, and also the last release on the American label, Zabriskie Point, which released similar music from the likes of G*Park and Hands To. Missing Volume is static and unyielding at first blush, but the combination of percolating, grey-tinged sound masses, and uncertain, unplaceable incidents, is incredibly compelling.