Awk Wah is the guise of Shark Fung, percussionist of Singapore noiseniks Amino Acid Orchestra among others. On his “Opera Box” CD, Fung gives us a solid collection of some rhythm-based weirdness, sure filled with drums, but mostly sounds of scraping and chattering noises as if he sent a contact mic down the bug filled secret passage from Temple of Doom.
Maybe halfway between a more nuanced Black Pus and the drum heavy Merzbow albums, Fung doesn’t give you too much to cling onto before he’s moved onto something else sound-wise.
As with some albums from percussionists, it could lead to being drum-heavy, but Fung doesn’t distract with his primary instrument and gives it a solid place in the tracks, but never overwhelming or narcissistic.
7/10
[...] “[...] a solid collection of some rhythm-based weirdness, sure filled with drums, but mostly sounds of scraping and chattering noises as if he sent a contact mic down the bug filled secret passage from Temple of Doom. Maybe somewhere between a more nuanced Black Pus and the drum heavy Merzbow albums [...]” – Andrew Murdock Livingston, Foxy Digitalis [...]