Tag: Japan

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PoiL Ueda – PoiL Ueda

This is a heavy, near-monstrous release involving Japanese singer and bassis Junko Ueda and the French avant-prog group PoiL.  From their Bandcamp site:

“PoiL Ueda is the result of a collaboration between Junko Ueda, a vocalist and satsuma-biwa player from Japan, and PoiL, a French rock/contemporary music band. The creation is based on the 13th-century Japanese epic tale “Heike-Monogatari.”

The composition is based on traditional epic singing accompanied by the satsuma-biwa and Buddhist Shomyo chant. Through the fusion of an ancient Japanese traditional music with a hyper modern European musical formation, this project offers the opportunity to discover a unique musical universe.

An innovative performance where PoiL’s unrestrained experimental rock blends with the mellow and sinuous voice, the compelling narrative, and the remarkable charisma of Junko Ueda.“

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Yukihiro Takahashi – Drip Dry Eyes (R.I.P.)

The eyes in this house aren’t very dry at the moment.  We lost yet another legend today.  This time, it was the shocking, though not unexpected, passing of drummer and composer Yuki Takahashi, who made his fame as drummer and singer of the Yellow Magic Orchestra.  He first gained fame with the Sadistic Mika Band, which would evolve into The Sadistics before moving on to making solo albums, then YMO, and collaborations with British artists Bill Nelson and Steve Jansen.  He leaves a massive body of work, most of which still needs an assessment outside of Japan.

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Music

Peter Brötzmann / Keiji Haino Duo – The Intellect Given Birth To Here (Eternity) Is Too Young

Two of the greatest legends in free jazz and psychedelic rock, Keiji Haino and Peter Brötzmann, join forces after a long while in this four-album noise-fest.  My understanding that the vinyl pressing on Black Editions, which includes a 3-inch CD, is long sold out, which is unfortunate, but a standard edition is available for $100, a bit high, but for these two, and for a four-LP set, it just might be worth the price.

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Music

Susumu Yokota – Baroque

Modern Obscure Music out of Barcelona, Spain, is making Baroque available for the first time ever on vinyl.  This disc was one of them many treasures the late Japanese composer Susumu Yokota released before his passing in 2015 at the age of 54.  The album presents some of the most listenable and engaging techno I’ve ever heard, making warmth out of electronic processing.  Though it’s sad to know he is no more, it’s wonderful to know that labels like Modern Obscure Music are doing their part to make sure Yokota’s work is never forgotten.

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Music

Otomo Yoshihide (大友良英) – We Insist?

I had the pleasure of watching Otomo Yoshihide perform live about 30 years ago in Los Angeles, and his turntable wizardry made me a lifelong fan.  It pleases me to see that labels are still carefully releasing his body of work, and this album is among my favorites.  The album is full of short snippets, records mixed together, sound samples layer one on top of the other, blended, stirred and shaken to make one of the best experimental music albums of the late 1990s.  A must for turntablists.

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Kawabata Makoto (河端一) – Sunday Morning

Kawabata Makoto is the leader of Acid Mother’s Temple, Japan’s greatest modern psychedelic rock group.  He’s also a wildly experimental composer, with this album being influenced by musique concrète and drone as well as the usual psych one expects from him.

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Ajate – Abrada

Ajate are a Japanese band who have the Afrobeat sound down.  They’re one of the best bands working in this style while seamlessly blending Japanese percussion, funk and soul into their milieu.

 

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Kikagaku Moyo/幾何学模様 – Kumoyo Island

Some very happy news today, as Japanese acid-folk-psych band Kikagaku Moyo have given us a fresh album.

From their Bandcamp website:

“In many ways ‘Kumoyo Island’ represents the culmination of a journey for Kikagaku Moyo. While their decade-long career can be summarized as a series of kaleidoscopic explorations through lands and dimensions far and near, there’s a strong intention in each of their works to take the listener to a particular place, however real or abstract they may be. In that sense, the title and cover art for the band’s fifth and final album draws you into a magical mass of land surrounded by water—but the couch suggests that ‘Kumoyo Island’may not be a fleeting stop, but rather a place of respite, where one could pause and take it all in.”

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Music

Midori Hirano – And I Am Here

According to Midori Hirano’s Bandcamp site, “this album was initially released on staaltape by Rinus Van Alebeek in 2015 as a very limited edition of cassette tape.”

It’s a gem of experimental music because Hirano’s background blends a classical music, a commercial music background, and what would end up being termed as “Japanoise,” the beautifully violent experimental music which exploded in Japan and worldwide throughout the late 80s and early 90s.  Hirano crafts 24 sound vignettes on this album, and the end result is something akin to John Cage going mushroom hunting with Aki Takahashi while listening to Hijokaidan on headphones.  Eclectic, but it works very well.

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Various Artists – Anthology Of Experimental Music From Japan

One of the most remarkable things about the series of compilations released by our friends at Unexplained Sounds Group is the great number of new artists they come into contact with, and serve as a launching board for.

Of all the artists on this compilation, only Ryo Murakami’s work rings a bell.  Masayuku Imanishi’s work sounds like a newsroom printing press staffed by Throbbing Gristle and Hélène Sage.  USG continue to release the finest in post-Industrial music.