When you notice the words ?sound artist,' ?Raster-noton? and ?no-input device? on the same promo sheet, you almost certainly can expect mini-crackles, micro-pops, lots of hiss and the whole gamut of lowercase electronics. The No One Pulse duo from Hong Kong does anything but disappoint those expectations.

Though far from original the two tracks on this 3? cd, both exactly ten minutes long and blessed with the entirely nondescript titles "#2" and "#4," are nonetheless fascinating exercises in creating a lot of atmosphere with the most minimal of means. Doubtlessly emanating from the laptop it never becomes really clear whether the sound sources have been pre-recorded and treated later on, or created from scratch. White noise and distortion are avoided, though, and No One Pulse let their machines gently purr and drone in a seemingly improvising way.

With this kind of music references are bound to be legion. The aforementioned Raster-noton and the motionless sine wave mindscapes of Sachiko M and the no-input philosophy of Toshimaru Nakamura indeed seem major influences, but reminiscences of the endless subaqueous repetition of Cranioclast and the fragmentary dub of Chain Reaction cannot be chased away either.

This way too short teaser will not change your world and chances are you may have heard this kind of meandering soundscaping a thousand times before. But its insistence on uncovering beautiful sounds certainly makes you beg for more. 7/10 -- Vincent Romain (29 August, 2007)