How come it got such a withering review from Alan Cummings in The Wire?
The art and liner notes started to take a very cynical, sardonic approach. I was extremely wary of “tributes”. I still am: in my opinion most of them are the work of people trying somehow to align themselves with something greater than what they themselves are capable of. Putting “tribute” in the title was intended as a piss-take on this mentality. The music was indeed catalyzed by one single track of Takayanagi’s music, but in no way did we seriously intend to simulate or pay homage to it. I thought that if I made the cover art as gratuitous and puerile as possible it would disconnect the “tribute” from the work itself. The CD artwork and title were total red herrings. Mission accomplished: Alan Cummings totally fell for them hook, line and sinker, surprise surprise. He was totally offended by it and I’m glad. When I read the review I was in Austria with a free jazz Luttenbachers line-up and I fell on the floor laughing my ass off. The fact that he was so blinded by disgust that he co
