This album opens with xylophone and toy piano sounds, and a heavily accented childlike voice that appears to be singing something about chocolate. It sounds like it could get way too cutesy for its own good, until you start to notice a few odd phasing and panning effects on the instruments, and an odd buzzing sound in the background.

Fortunately, the rest of the album, though odd and offputting at times, gets more interesting. The second song, "Pray For Rain", begins with a marimba pattern alongside various bells and odd manipulated noises. By the end of the track's 7 minutes, the marimbas play a lovely melody that seems to duet with some off the odd noises. The album's centerpiece, "Chairs", takes the album in an entirely different direction, consisting of sounds manipulated musique concrete style, with Izumi's occasionally reverbed and distorted vocals. On top of this, the track actually develops an odd drum machine beat (mostly bass and rapidly flicking hi-hat tones) and soft, fluid bass, creating a unique sort of avant-garde/pop crossover that might remind the listener of artists such as Tujiko Noriko. The majority of the remainder of the album is instrumental and doesn't quite achieve the avant-pop brilliance that "Chairs" does, but some interesting sounds and ideas emerge. The album ends on a very strange note with "Shizuku", which begins with the sounds of clocks ticking, adds some bleeps and pulses, and features some heavily delayed bongo drums towards the middle, before closing with the sounds of thumb pianos, more ticking clocks, and various other flotsam.

It's hard to tell exactly what's going on most of the time during this album, but ultimately it seems like a journey worth taking. 7/10 -- Paul Simpson (25 June, 2008)