We're clearly lacking substance here. I walk in the street and all i see are white tank tops, hip haircuts, gucci sunglasses and goofy shoes. People don't give a shit about charm anymore. I'm not bitter, i'm charming alright, but this craze around fashion and looks anhililates charm. As soon as people try to look like something the charm that made them attractive in a less superficial way disappears. I saw an old flame of mine a few weeks ago, he used to be really charming, as far as i remember, and there all i saw was a guy trying really hard to be cool. Sure, he looked hip, but he wasn't the boy I used to know.

Minamo is a japanese surname. And it probably stands for something I've failed to discover. I'm curious sometimes. Beautiful is compilation of live improvisations by the Japanese quartet Minamo. It's basically electro-acoustic experimental music, including deconstructed acoustic guitar parts, blips, and more or less bothering feedback. 

To be frank, I don't find Beautiful consistent enough. It's far from being bad and there are really interesting ideas, but most of the time it sounds too much like four guys fooling around to be really appreciated. Some tracks seem to be the product of a real artistic effort, with a starting point and ideas, but unfortunately, and it was predictable considering the nature of the recordings, Beautiful lacks cohesion and, well, substance. It's too vague and diluaded to be fully grasped and throroughly enjoyable, despite a couple of stand-out tracks. Beautiful is beautiful in an unconsequential way, even though "Clearing", the final track, shows that Minamo, when focused, can make impressive and challenging music.

-Barbara H

/sept 15th 2003/