I hadn’t heard about German / Japanese artist Shira Tails or Catgirl before, but apparently she already released some stuff via German label Vomit Bucket Productions, like split with material with the likes of Kaeltiinbruch or Ataraxy – the latter being one of the projects by label owner Gag. Her material is mainly inspired by Japanese anime (cf. the artwork on het stuff), and usually it combines Harsh Noise, yet of an atmospheric kind, with some samples (of course taken from anime-material) and quieter moments.
Analog Love is little different, yet still based on the very same structures. It’s a one-song recording, having a total running time of twenty three minutes, starting with a sample from one or another anime and some Noise-distortion, including samples of rain and thunder, falling rain drops and distant winds. It’s like you can almost feel the sound of thunder, the smell of wet grass, the taste of rain drops, the lightning flashes enlightening the sky. But the essence is still based on sounds from Noise / Harsh Noise of the most dissonant and, from time to time, even mostly minimalistic kind. Chaotic distortion with a weird atmosphere appears when things turn more quiet (after about six minutes), eventually turning into apocalyptic and droning Noise Wall static, and then returning once again towards almost introspective Organic Noise (I just invented this terminology myself, but I have no idea how I would describe this stuff) at about ten minutes. Thing carry on the minimal-nihilistic way, and still the storm ain’t over. That duality reappears all the time: distracting / distractive noises that are spine-chilling, smoothly interacting with introspective, semi-emotional layers based on those storm-excerpts. The whole experience finally floats away in quietude, first by a very short, completely unexpected vocal sample, the esoteric way, then by the fading away of the storm. The bad dream is over; deep sleep is entering your essence…
A last word about the lay-out: the album gets released in a DVD-box with pretty sober but beautiful artwork, and with, for example, an ingeniously piece of semi-romanticism, i.e. an insert useful to express your love for someone, a how to do-alike thing… Difficult to explain, and I’d rather keep it mysterious – so is this project…
And a last quote, which embellishes the back cover: ‘when you can’t sleep at night, it’s because you are awake in someone else’s dream’. It’s a Japanese kudo, yet I think a fitting one!