Space Streakings

Space Streakings, a quartet from Japan, generate their abrasive and thoroughly modern sonic textures via Captain Insect on bass and programming, Karne Bazooka supplying vocals and alto saxophone, Karate Condor operating turntables, and Screaming Stomach covering guitar and trumpet. Those stage names reflect the group’s insouciant stance toward composition, resulting in uncategorizable pieces that have baffled commentators inside and beyond Japan; the musicians themselves have christened the style ‘Cyber-punk-techno-core’. Their 7-inch single ‘Sexual Aesthetic Salon After School’ offers a representative case, issued together with a comic book. Skin Graft Records issued 7-Toku in 1994 under the guidance of producer Steve Albini. Impressed enough by the ensemble’s unruly post-rock approach, he crossed to Japan to oversee the sessions. Merging live instrumentation with abrasive, looping electronics, the album became an uncommon Japanese export—a striking original listening encounter rather than a rote replica of Western models.