Ryuta k has released music before on the net label Dark Winter as Ryu. Recently his third album, "In The Middle Of Late Capitalism", has been released there. The accompanying blurp on the website immediately clarifies how this Japanese artist thinks about music: "Musical things mean nothing to me. Rather music may be 'aufheben' for me." I think he means "aufhebend", which is German for "elevating". And if there is a label to be attached, he prefers "Post sampling kinetic nonhierarchical nonlinear nonequilibrium forth world muziq". Sounds like something abstract, although it doesn't help us much. What we get are five, rather long, abstract soundscapes containing a lot of heavily distorted, sometimes unrecognisable, vocals. Mind you, it avoids power-electronic excesses we are used to from, for instance, Sutcliffe Jügend. Neither does it fall under the banner of "babbling" as Kenji Siratori likes to do (as a note aside: I have decided he should stick to dark ambient, which he does well. Unfortunately he seems to have other ideas on that front). No, the vocal sounds are exactly that, sounds. Sounds that serve as raw material that are being woven into the music, as in "Potala Sympathy For Autism". Large parts of the opener "Hegelian Distress (Song For Ituji)" are also build around these kinds of vocal landscapes. And then there are of course, for want of a better description, the abstract soundscapes. You won't find Merzbow-like escapades here. It doesn't really turn into dark ambient, or into walls of noise. Although a track like "Newest Bolshevik District" comes close to the latter. Can I recommend this release? Difficult question. I find that the album neither attracts, nor repels me, even after repeated listening. My tendency to get some hallucinogenics and try again might be an indication of how stimulating I find this album to be. The middle three tracks, that sort of tend towards "recognisable" dark ambient and noise, are most to my liking. But "interesting" is still the best descriptor that comes up. Without wanting to sound euphemistic. Possibly it would be nice to mix a track at random in between other things. How much you will appreciate this will likely depend on how well you can stomach abstract sounds. I won't dissuade you on this album, there is simply too much... well, interesting stuff happening here. No, I'll remain neutral on this one for a change. - Originally written for the Dutch weblog IkEcht, English translation by the author.