Staff Reviews

James Ferraro - Sushi

Review by Noel Gardner

James Ferraro’s public persona is pretty inscrutable, so it’s probably best to just rate his tunes on their own merit. In the case of Sushi, about half the album is worth hearing.»

Buy now from:

since his early days with the skaters back in the mid noughties, ferraro's forays into hyperreal pop cultural meltdown have continued to confound, confuse and excite in a three-pronged attack. 'far side virtual' took ferraro's obsession with nowness to new levels, constructing one of the bravest records this century that polarized listeners like a true punk statement. new lp 'sushi' takes off in another direction - his straightest release in a while - it hits like a sashimi platter, condensing ferraro's various interests over the last few years into a series of accessible bite-sized packages. ferraro borrows from 'far side virtual's tinny sound palette, but leaves that record's conceptual baggage the door; 'silica gel's ambient impulses are present and correct, but sushi is substantially punchier. in ferraro's words: "sushi is designer, sushi is my obsessions, my darkness, it's just my life squeezed into my music". something that heads for the jugular - and the dancefloor - to this extent is a welcome addition to ferraro's masterclass in modernist manipulation of pop mores.
description from www.roughtrade.com