This is the fourth album from a French producer who takes his name from the Japanese word for the horseshoe crab. Why he selected this name is a little curious since Kabutogani's brand of glitch electronica seems to draw its inspiration more from mechanical processes than from living organisms.
When I play this record I visualise a sanitised environment where lighting and humidity levels are controlled automatically and where human intervention is kept to an absolute minimum.
Then again, the Frenchman persists with the crab reference by naming one of the tracks after the 'Book Gills' that enable this ancient species to breathe. Perhaps he recognises the need to highlight the 'living' quality of the digitalised tones.
At a push, this theory could be extended to take in titles like Ducts and Airlock which could be construed as references to respiratory systems, albeit those of factories or spaceships.
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Nevertheless, the clicks, buzzes, blips and bleeps of other tracks leave no doubt that the machine is master here.
Since there are no voices or 'real' instruments to add warmth, there's an unmistakably detached and faintly morbid aspect to the textures.
That said, I would not describe the album as entirely bleak or overtly abrasive; there is even a vaguely rhythmic quality to the repetitive tones.
It is not an easy listen by any standards but there's something of the night about it that lures you in.
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