5. Sachiko - You Never Atone for [There]

Gorgeous cover, right? One of the few covers this year that really made me look twice, thrice, etc etc. I don't have a lot with female singers besides the odd Nico like one, and while Sachiko doesn't really qualify as a singer singer, she left me mesmerized when I first heard her vocals, sighing like torch songs for a world of ghosts.

Sachiko hails from Japan and when you hail from Japan and play music, you obviously play in a psych monster unit of some sort. Sachiko's psych union is called The Overhang Party, who by the way just released a magnificent double album if overblown psych/stoner jams iz yr thang. Besides that she stretches her vocal chords in the all female group Vava Kitora. You Never Atone for is her solo debut, a record of contrasts, again. A record by a woman who understands the depth of music. Where to take it and how to do it in a way that instantly mesmerizes. Like an avant-everything edition of Nico she's haunting you while being totally beautiful at the same time, resisting is useless but giving in might be fatal.

The album lures you in with it's first two pieces of sheer magic, 'Raijin Song I' and Raijin Song II'. Beautiful, wordless mantra's that float by at exact the right speed to get numbed by them. Effective is an understatement. Easy to fall in love with too. As far as I can tell she only uses vocals on this heavenly couple, looped to magical extent, treated with stardust and alladat evocative shit. It's two of the most beautiful moments in music in 2006, no joke.

After that, another story. Or a different chapter, equally evocative but in lots of different ways. 'Fire Yith' boasts a heavy electric vibe, more aching to Keiji Haino than Taj Mahal Travellers. Again Sachiko's vocals play a big part but the sheer terror that they transcribe here is the exact opposite of the 'Raijin' chants. Imagine planet Tangerine Dream being attacked by little Keiji Haino comets. Ok lame metaphor but whatever man, it's shockingly mystifying anyway. A little bit easier on the nervous system is 'Never Go Down Yarai-Zaka', eleven minutes of twisted vocal loops gliding through thick layers of electrocuted ambience that feels like a collaboration between ambient night crusader Deathprod and the aforementioned Nico. 'Saika' and 'Yama-Keburi' creep through even swampier fields of vocal drones, eerie sheets of minimal cries out of darkblue depths, it doesn't take much to feel a kinship between this track and the murkier than thou Double Leopards drones.

Look at the cover again, if you feel attracted by it in any kind of way, hunt this album down and you will find the link between gorgeous solitude and the fire that rages in everyone of us.