The Hi-Fi Companion Deepfried Toguma Plasma, 2000 Buy it online Tracks 1: Aquarius 2: Carparts 3: Merci simca 4: Ostrich feathers (edit) 5: Suiso 6: Mellow pitbull 7: Tortoise 8: Slalom 9: Pole-star   Reviewed by Ian Grey	Just when its Portishead-spawned popularity had driven trip hop into a state of permanent artistic ossification and hit-seeking repetition, along comes the unpleasantly monikered Deepfried Toguma and The Hi-Fi Companion to breathe strange new life into the justly maligned sub-genre. Toguma programmer/producer Frithjof Toksvig and guitarist Martin Lind (they're Danish) absorb the sonic twitches of trip-hop -- swathes of swanky synth, lo-fi 60s-centric samples, 303 hyper-beats -- assimilate the more interesting compositional tropes of FSOL, Massive Attack and Fluke and then, very quietly, mold it all into oddly elegant soundscapes informed by a gorgeously glacial sense of melody. To most easily access Toguma's stealthy mastery of understated strangeness, crank up track six, "Mellow Pitbull" (somebody has to talk to these guys about names/titles). A George Harrison-like slide guitar gently weeps over a somber, highly processed, elegant polyrhythmic beat. From left-field (Toguma's home-base), comes an uncredited Arabic male vocal melody digi-processed to both eerie and catchy effect. But just as "Pitbull" is perilously close to behaving like a pop-song, it belly-dives into an extended ambient non-jam, then segues into a cross-talking trio for sarcastic drum n' bass snippets, oncoming traffic samples and what sounds like that spunky arpeggiated guitar riff from Manfred Mann's "Blinded by the Light." Amazingly, none of this mad hatter juxtaposition business ever derails the nearly indefinable mood of this extraordinary composition. Other standout tracks such as "Aquarius" and "Pole-Star" carry on Toguma's simultaneous amusement with genre usuals -- 70s-centric Fender Rhodes, cheese synth strings, stripped reggae sample beats -- and an obsession with subtly subverting them in seemingly limitless ways. Even the obligatory William S. Burroughs sample on "Aquarius" is digitally tweaked to uniquely melodic effect, creating what sounds like junkie Third World plainsong. The Hi-Fi Companion isn't a CD that impresses on first -- or even third -- listen. Rather, it's with repeat exposure that Deepfried Toguma's subdued brilliance creates a cumulatively addictive effect: when the CD ends, there's the sense that something curiously vital has left the room. Like any addictive substance, one hits play again for another hit. | April 2000 Ian Grey's work has been published in Time Out, Icon, Fangoria and many other periodicals. 1998 saw the publication of his book, Sex, Stupidity and Greed: Inside the American Movie Industry (JunoBooks). He is currently at work on an epic novel dealing with sex, pop music, family and mass murder, based on two lines from a mediocre Depeche Mode song. Mr. Grey likes to think that he will be among the very first to do this.	The Hi-Fi Companion isn't a CD that impresses on first -- or even third -- listen. Rather, it's with repeat exposure that Deepfried Toguma's subdued brilliance creates a cumulatively addictive effect: when the CD ends, there's the sense that something curiously vital has left the room.