Trembling Tongues

Solmania was the long-running project of graphic designer Masahiko Ohno, joined in later years by Katsumi Sugahara. Trembling Tongues is the first album to feature Sugahara, and it’s a strong collection of blasted guitar noise sonics – as with Hijokaidan, wrestling with an instrument as tactile and physical as the guitar renders the noise here particularly expressive, and Ohno’s doctored guitars, that often featured extra necks, attached microphones, and other interventions, cut across the five pieces here with plenty of energy, his playing responsive and spirited, sculpting miniature tornados out of feedback and distortion that puncture the thickness of the air.