Kentaro Hayashi is a mastering engineer based in Osaka. He has worked on several Merzbow releases in the past but last year he also released his first album of his own. Peculiar went pretty much the radar outside of Japan, despite including remixes from both Jim O’Rourke and Merzbow himself. Opal Tapes in the UK have now given it a proper vinyl release (on hefty double vinyl), available since April. It’s an incredibly versatile record, dabbling not only in noise, but combining it with elements of early techno and dubstep to create very atmospheric compositions despite the difficult idiom.
