O. Blaat is our old friend Keiko Uenishi, former tap dancer and early member of the downtown scene. She has been booking an unusual international cast of electronic(a), DJ’s and sonic manipulators for the Sub-Tonic Lounge weekly for a few years, as well as helping organize electronic(a) festivals upstairs at Tonic on occasion. Besides all that, she performs her own version of electronic music under the mysterious name, o. blaat. This is her first solo offering, where she works with a few other sonic wizards: Kaffe Matthews, (former DJ) Toshio Kajiwara, DJ Olive, Ikue Mori, Aki Onda, Eyvind Kang and Akio Mokuna. Christian Marclay once recorded Keiko’s tapping for his record “Footsteps” and has written some choice liner notes. The first half of this cd is called “Gaze” and her duo with Kaffe Matthews is first. Intense, crackling static, radio frequency transmissions, strong and well defined, refined, confined, yet fascinating, The duo with Toshio (sampler) is filled with streams of glitches, warped samples, electronic chirps and squeaks, short but sweet. The duos with DJ Olive slow things down to a more minimal, snail-paced detour, yet retain some more introspective consideration. “Hanging Sky” is a superb duo with Ikue Mori and Keiko, a mature, evocative, careful and exquisitely well-constructed. The duos with Eyvind Kang (monster violinist with a psychedelic soul, currently with Secret Chiefs III) start out softly yet soon expose eerie feedback drones. The second half of “Two Novels” is called “In the Cochlea” and it is an o. blaat solo work. A highly detailed piece in ten parts that unfolds like a story, one scene at a time, neatly magnified if you take the time to observe and let it happen. Very tasty, spicy little tales, quiet yet intense.