Few experiences in Japan are as overwhelming as entering into a pachinko parlor. The noise within is overwhelming, a cling-claning nightmare of electronics and sirens, a noise show for every neighborhood in the country. It’s the sort of thing that’s easy to imagine being just too much — I’ve lasted, at most, ten minutes in one of these places — but also easy to imagine others finding solace in the noise, finding sanctuary in the clattering of metal balls and Dragonball animations.
If there’s a label that appreciates some good chaos, it’s Wasabi Tapes, who recently released Pachinko Machine Music by…Pachinko Machine Music. A side project of the always cacophonous DJ WWWW, the name sums it up well — this is a collection of songs made up of sounds you’d hear in a pachinko parlor, looped but overwhelming as ever. Yet, as DJ WWWW does on other releases, moments of strange beauty emerge from all that noise, even something as simple as a voice coming out of all that noise. Get it here, or listen below.