Mo*Te ‘Anti Is Anti Is Anti’ C-30 (New Forces)

Fumiyuki Nagura’s time as Mo*Te in the 1990s seems larger in retrospect; constituted by a handful of self-released cassettes and some choice extensions into the small label underground of the time, boosted by selective and highly treasured split releases: in both audio content and packaging those efforts are some of my favourite relics of that time. The work resonates the best features of that era: incessant harsh noise electronics with movement and innate understanding, utterly heavy in delivery and tinged with dark social unease.

Mo*Te’s surprising return in the 2010s has been sporadic but so far without misstep, shifting away from the cathartic insistence of the 1990s work and tentacling into new ideas without abandoning the project’s roots. A recent CD boxset reissue by Industrial Recollections and Audio Dissection collects Mo*Te’s early output on his own Uncut label, and is the perfect realisation/diffusion of the project at its best, also setting a backdrop for new work ‘Anti Is Anti Is Anti’ which casts a long shadow.

A side “Be Lacks Human Feelings” unleashes a brief storm of crisp fury before settling into rather placid waves of electronics, stabilising as a stereo split of two streams of live-to-tape noise which pool around a thudding heartbeat pulse which fades in and out throughout the piece. The focus is on mid-range saturated distortion textures, but flighty filter plumes also flock to the track, glaring from the sluggish grind of “Be Lacks Human Feelings” as its linear textures start to move, weave, and multiply; a few higher waves of fury peak during the piece but they’re quick, falling back into the unthreatening current of the piece. Those peaks of harshness betray the overall timidity of “Be Lacks Human Feelings”, missing the encompassing fervour of Fumiyuki’s 1990s output which the piece seems to want to tribute, but also wants to distance.

The second side is a recording of a May 2019 live collaboration with Freaks Idol, the rugged recording returning caustic flavour to the work but also charcoaling the piece quite severely –  meaning large stretches are reduced to near impenetrable cinder. Heavy flange, shredded feedback and vocals, and singed chunks of the duo’s noise barrage make it out of the tar pit to give the piece strong hints of what I’m sure was a fervent live set, but as with “Be Lacks Human Feelings” – although for different reasons – the collaborative piece misses, more than it attains, Mo*Te’s golden age sweet spot.

If ‘Anti Is Anti Is Anti’ is Mo*Te’s attempt to return to those halcyon early years, in looking back it probably misses why Fumiyuki’s drift into adjacent genre expression was needed. As a hit of regression ‘Anti Is Anti Is Anti’ marks what it set out to do, but doesn’t master the same wide-eyed solvent inhalation-fuelled insatiability which struck ‘Life In A Peaceful New World’ or ‘Taste Die Mad’. Maturation can be a bitch, but pretending it didn’t happen is rarely an option. ‘Anti Is Anti Is Anti’ is not a bad cassette, but it’s not a legacy note for Mo*Te, and not what the project now best has to focus on.