I liked this album alot. Wonderful experimentation. Jungle is like bathing after four wet days on the trail. Absolutly sublime. Attention artist: would make great studio music. I know it has found a spot in my studio. Enjoy with bliss.

Ritsu Katsumata approaches her hot pink electric violin the way Jimmy Page approaches the guitar, merging disparate musical styles -- classical, blues, gypsy, metal, and her native Japan -- with equal doses of aggression and mysticism. Recorded in NYC with an impressive rhythm section (fleet-fingered bassist Gbatokai Dakinah and the phenomenal Flemming Rothaus on skins), Jungle has a taut, downtown-funky-artsy feel, akin to things you may have heard by John Zorn, Soul Coughing or Bill Laswell...

Ritsu, the post-modern Goddess of Electric Violin, will probably never become your favourite CD and will probably never see the hind-site of the top-10 charts... But, somehow, I do not think that she cares to entertain the masses.."In her hotpink electric violin and deconstructed kimonos combined with haunting gypsy melodies [and an abundant sprinkle of Classical music, the Blues, Japanese folk tunes and Metal rock], and urban beats Ritsu redefines an old instrument's role in the modern world." She is an artistic nut that constructs and deconstructs the music using the bow of her violin as a scalpel and suture. In this deconstruction of sounds she creates a new beauty that is rare, attractive, raw, untameable and gloomily unique. This is not music for the weak, conformist pop-head couch potato. This is avant-garde stuff for the lovers of adventure and mental stimulation. Two extremely exciting CD's...

The music swelters and slinks..."Starsky" features sexy spoken word by Kaori Kubo that gives you the creeps when you know what she's really saying ("Bugs on my skin, crawling, laughing"). "Robot Dance" was inspired by rush hour on the Yamanote LIne. A driving spastic piece, images of an oncoming train certainly appear when listening to this song. While my favorite song is "Pissing" featuring surprisingly poetic spoken lyrics in Japanes and English, the entire collection is powerful and relentless. Not for the weak of heart, however. ...Jungle features musicians from Europe, who bring an ambient, psychedelic feel to Ritsu's violin sounds. While the drums keep a jazzier beat flowing, Ritsu focuses on dizzying arrays of effect-laden electronic sound oozing from her bow. "Karoushi" ( Death by Overwork) features a traditional Noh-influenced Japanese chant leading into a hard-edged trill of electric violin sounds. "Dub" features delay-laden percussion, with an ambient feel, influenced by "spontaneous combustiron in lower Manhattan"