Trashware

Trashware is a thrilling early set from Kohei Gomi, aka Pain Jerk. The album was released on Pure, a sub-label of Ron Lessard’s RRR, perhaps the most important label across the ‘80s and ‘90s for bringing Japanese noise to wider attention, though in interviews, Gomi has been at pains to distance himself from ‘Japanese noise’ as genre. On Trashware, Gomi repeatedly pushes his gear to breaking point, as he carves great loops from his base matter of coal-black, heat-mottled tones. Loops, a potent tool in Gomi’s armoury, surface occasionally, only to be beaten down by pugilistic slabs of gritty noise.