“Etxeko Improa” by Joseba Irazoki is just the fourth release from the Yoyo Pang netlabel, but it cements the label’s growing reputation for concision and refinement. As with the previous three releases, “Etxeko” is a single song — no extraneous material, no filler tracks, no near-anonymous remixes. By releasing singles only, the Yoyo Pang label has taken a format previously associated with the short-attention-span, mass-market listening audience and used it, to the contrary, as a means to package the experimental.
In this case it’s a mournful, six-minute, slow-paced guitar work, reminiscent of Mike Watt’s old duo Dos, with a riff that’s recognizable as having been derived from rock’nroll but that’s played with an intense emphasis on the tone’s fade and the strings’s texture — a kind of 21st-century blues. As Irazoki plays with skeletal plucking and fits of atmospheric feedback, the track begins to sound like an especially approachable Derek Bailey piece.
It’s available as an MP3 and an OGG file. More info on Irazoki at myspace.com/dogitarra and myspace.com/josebairazoki. More details on “Etxeko Improa” at the netlabel site, ambulatore.com/yoyo.