For the uninitiated, Kenji Siratori is a self-styled Japanese Cyberpunk writer and music-maker. Although to call his books writing is perhaps tenuous, given that they are cut-and-paste screes of random phrases and code which feature minimal punctuation and no narrative to speak of whatsoever. If his written output is voluminous, it’s nothing compared to his recorded work. The past couple of years have seen Siratori release in the region of 30 CDs, some solo, many in collaboration. His latest spell of truly prodigious productivity has seen the release of a slew of highly limited editions, of which ‘Paranoia Room’ is just one. A CD and book set (the disc is housed in a pouch glued into the book’s front cover, it’s limited to just 50 numbered copies.
The book is of interest in itself, a stapled 16-page A4 textual explosion, the contents of which is entirely representative of pretty much all of his work in the last 5 years. It begins ‘I compress the paradise apparatus of the human body pill cruel emulator corpse feti=streaming of the soul/gram made of retro-ADAM to the brain universe of the ultra=machinery tragedy-ROM creature system technojunkies’ reptilian=HUB acidHUMANIC infectious disease****’ and there’s no let-up from hereon in. Having read a number of his other works, I’m already experiencing a strange sense of deja vu. It’s the perfect anti-narrative for our confused and confusing techno-age.
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The CD contains just a single track, which is 36 minutes of nasty noisy electronica. You won’t find any tunes on ‘Paranoia Room.’ Arguably, you won’t even find any music on it. But for fans of extreme noise – Merzbow (with whom Siratori has collaborated on occasion) is an obvious comparison) – this is a boon. It may not be the most pleasant experience, but try reading the book while listening to the CD: if nothing else, it will wreck your head (and your hearing) and batter your senses with the full force of the postmodern experience.
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