My Way My Love is a Japanese noise trio, but not in the extremist mold of
Merzbow,
the Boredoms, or most of
Jojo Hiroshige's projects. The influences here are more along the lines of mid-'80s American indie kids like pre-
Goo Sonic Youth,
the Butthole Surfers, and
Big Black:
Yukio Murata's guitars in particular evoke those atmospheric interludes between the proper songs that were an essential part of
Sonic Youth's live sets during this period. Those interludes served a practical function for
Sonic Youth, allowing
Thurston Moore and
Lee Ranaldo to change guitars and tunings between songs, but for
My Way My Love, the lack of structure is apparently its own reward. Only a few of these 13 tracks can properly be classified as songs; several others consist only of a brief noise squall that peters out after a few seconds. The more organized songs occasionally work up a shambolic rhythm along the lines of
DNA's mutated attempts at dance rhythms, as on
"Sports," or a bracing hit of
punk fury like the salvo that lifts
"Super Fresh!" out of its dead-end slog about halfway through the song. A few more moments like that and
Hypnotic Suggestion: 01 would be along the lines of
Deerhoof's quirky blend of
punk anarchy and experimental
pop, but as it stands, it's mostly just a noisy drag. ~ Stewart Mason
