Started in mid-1980s as a Japanese version of Godflesh, Zeni Geva have achieved a cult status among the fans of avant-garde music from Japan over the next 15 years or so. Although they haven't released any new material since 2001, there's a re-recording of their best earlier stuff released in 2010, which I present to you. (The solo discography of their core member KK Null is considerably larger, but that's beside the point). The band members describe their music as "progressive hardcore", but in fact it's a mix of everything, from doom metal to japanoise. One thing can be said for sure: any of their albums isn't an easy listen, but it's quite impressive.
In one of KK Null's interviews, he explains that "Zeni" is an old Japanese term for money, and "Geva" comes from German "Gewalt". So, "Money Violence". In responce to the interviewer saying that it sounds like an anti-capitalist statement, he answered: "No, it comes from a cartoon which I watched in my childhood. It's a very serious, dark cartoon". I wonder which cartoon he was talking about? I'd like to watch it too, even if I haven't watched any sort of anime in ages. There apparently is a dorama under that name, and it indeed looks like a dark and serious one, but I couldn't find anything named "Zeni Geva" in any of the anime databases...
The Japanese band Doom might be not as known as the other pioneers of avant-garde thrash metal like Voivod, Mekong Delta, Toxik or Watchtower, but they're as crazy as only a Japanese band could be. Like in case with many other obscure 80's metal albums I've posted here before, I discovered "Complicated Mind" via the Vibrations of Doom collection of classic albums, and was completely amazed by it. Sure it's not the music I'd want to listen to on a daily basis (just like in case with Voivod), but as an example of a very interesting release from a band who decided to break the rules of a rather hidebound genre, it shouldn't be missed.
Later on, they have moved father away from thrash, especially on their 1992 release "Illegal Soul" which is a kind of weird indusrial/noise rock, but their trademarks always remained the same: dissonant chords and solos, weird time signatures, and repetitive lyrics in clumsy English. And yes, I agree with those reviewes a that one of the best assets of Doom is the guy on fretless bass. Their albums are surprisingly hard to find on the net, but at least the links on dark-world.ru are working.
高円寺百景 aka Koenji Hyakkei were one of the few bands that can be safely called the worthy successors of Magma. The Zeuhl subgenre of avant-prog, started by Magma, gained any significant following only in France and Japan, most importantly such bands as Ruins and this band (which was started as a side project of a member of Ruins).
This album has everything we love this genre for, including (but not limited to): throbbing bass, complex rhythm patterns, and the lyrics sung in a made-up language. This album is their debut one, and it isn't as avant-garde as the subsequent ones, such as "Angherr Shisspa". Still I wonder how many people have bought it solely because of it's cover, expecting it to be some nice and easy-to-listen Asian music :)
Since I have a lot of things to do beside posting here, don't expect me to review more than 1-2 albums per month in the next half an year or so. However, while I'm at it, let's post a forgotten classic of the Japanese industrial scene - the one and only 7'' single of Chu Ishikawa's first band named Zeitlich Vergelter. Their line-up consisted of Chu Ishikawa (of Der Eisenrost, who later became known for his OST for Shinya Tsukamoto's "Tetsuo" movie), Maki Fuji (Soft Ballet) and Neu! Rosen Von Verderber (Neurotic Doll), and their sound was strongly influenced by Einstürzende Neubauten.
More than 30 years later, the significance of this release is mostly historical, but fans of early EN and other industrial/noise bands of the same period would likely find it quite enjoyable. Thanks to this blog (a very interesting one, by the way) for posting it! Beside these two tracks, ZV have released two more ones: "Shauder" on the DEAD TECH compilation and "The Third System of Transit" on the first NG compilation from Trans Records.
If you're into industrial music and the culture surrounding it, you most likely know about Shinya Tsukamoto and his experimental movies, most notably "Tetsuo: The Iron Man" (1989) - an infamous low-budget "body horror" / cyberpunk movie that still has a potential to shock many viewers even in our day and age.. The OST for Tetsuo (and many other Tsukamoto's movies) was composed by Chu Ishikawa, who's also the founding member of a band called Der Eisenrost. Any information about them is quite hard to find (even their official site has only a very brief biography in Japanese), but their only LP titled "Armored Weapon: Live Documents '93-'94" (judging from the title, it's a collection of live recordings) is impressive. They'd really deserve to be called "Japanese E.Neubauten" if only they've released more albums like this.
As a side note: I think I should do a better work reviewing my less obscure favourites that are available on Youtube as full albums. At least I haven't yet heard about any blog taken down for copyright violation because it posted an Youtube video...
Title: Live In Khabarovsk, CCCP "I'm Proud By Rank Of The Workers"
Genre: Noise, Experimental, Free Jazz
Country: Japan
Release date:1988
Track List:
Live At Trade Unions Palace Of Culture Hall, 23/03/88
Live At Soviet Army Officers House Hall, 24/03/88
At first it's hard to believe, but Merzbow did visit USSR with a live program in March 1988. He was invited to a festival of experimental music (mostly free jazz) that took place in Khabarovsk, not so far away from Japan. The other Japanese guest on that festival was Kazuo Uehara, an ambient/new age composer from Tokyo. In order to get Merzbow allowed to perform, the organizers kept the nature of their (yes, back then Merzbow was a duo of Masami Akita and Kiyoshi Mizutani) music in secret, as well as the visual/erotic aspects of their art.
Even if the festival was supposed to be attended by open-minded people who were used to experimental music, and the program itself wasn't too "noisy" compared to other works by Merzbow, the first performance was stopped due to the negative reaction of the audience (some even thought that the musicians were drunk). The second performance that took place the next day was received better. Nothing is known about the third (and the final) performance, and it wasn't recorded either.
While this CD is mostly a collector's item, and it's not nearly as harsh as most other Merzbow works, it's a valuable historical document. This is also a recording of some of the most massive noise performances of that era (in front of ~750 and ~1000 listeners, respectively), and certainly the first noise/industrial music performance of such scale in Soviet Union. There's some additional info taken from the release notes:
"Track 1 - Live at Trade Unions Place of Culture Hall 23 March 1988
Masami Akita plays electric bowed instruments, tape, radio
Kiyoshi Mizutani plays piano, low feedback US MP guitar
Track 2 - Live at Soviet Army Officers House Hall 24 March 1988
MA plays drums, tape
KM plays piano, guitar
Recorded live at AMUR Jazz & Experiment Music Festival, Khabarovsk, far east of Russia
Live PA recordings by Russian staff
Remastered from original live recording
Same materials released on Live in Khabarovsk, CCCP LP on ZSF Produkt, 1988
Artwork By - Ad Suprex , Mamoru Murayama , Merzbow
Percussion - Vitaly Lookyanov
Piano, Guitar [Us Mp], Balalaika, Noises [Metal], Tape - Kiyoshi Mizutani
Recorded By - Igor Karpenko
Remix - Merzbow
Tape, Noises [Metals, Cccp Radio], Drums - Masami Akita
MERZNOTE
- In March 1988, little after period of Perestroica, suddenly we
invited from Khabarovsk and played live three times. This CD contain our
first and second performance. Our first performance was stopped by
organiser reason 'Too wild'. So, we played by use normal instruments on
next performance. Russian people is nice but they didn't understand us.
Reason they invited us, they expect every Japanese band having very
hi-tech equipments. But we bring only some pedals. We were too low tech.
But they want to get our pedals. We exchanged pedals with Russian
souvenirs. They paid Russian currency but it's useless in outside
Russia. This CD tracks are original long version. I used tape which
include some Batztoutai materials on live background. We used Russian
radio and junk box which we found at there.
(from 'Merzbook: The Pleasuredome of Noise' by Brett Woodward, page 107)"
Following a good tradition of posting dark electro/EBM albums which were made available for free by the bands themselves, here's an EP from a Tokyo-based project 2 Bullet. They're among the best known Japanese industrial/electro projects here in post-USSR, and Dee Lee (the mastermind of the band) is well aware of it. Hope I'll see them live one day; the only Japanese band I've seen live so far are their friends Gothika (a/k/a Euthanasie).
Last.fm biography:
"2 Bullet is an industrial band from Tokyo, Japan. It was formed in 2003, and currently features among its members K (vocals), Dee Lee (guitar/programming), Romy (vocals/bass) and Kentaro (vocals/live performance).
N.O.N.E. (a.k.a. Non-Chang) had previously left the band and was replaced by Aki, but Aki left in late June 2007, and N.O.N.E. was available to take up bass duties as well as keyboards, however on 29th December 2007, N.O.N.E once again left the band. In July 2009, Romy joined the group to enhance live performance and play bass.
The band name “2 Bullet” relates to the idea of balance of power, and conjures up imagery of two people pointing a gun at each other. This also implies the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction. The band themselves are anti-totalitarian, and perform live in military camouflage and warpaint, in a similar vein to bands such as Funker Vogt. Their motto is “In a revolution, one triumphs or dies”"
Artist: Al-Kamar Title:Abstract Spread Genre: Post-Black Metal / Depressive Rock Country: Japan Release date: 2011
Track List:
Float World
Black End (Miku Hatsune - Clean Vocal)
Pessimism
Vanity Moon
Nothingless (x2)
Hypocrisy Luna
Hollow Revenge
I became interested in this project mostly because it uses some synthetized vocals by Miku Hatsune (Vocaloid 2 pack). Yes I know there are death metal bands using dogs and parrots as singers, but it's the first time when I hear about a metal band using Vocaloid. Apparently it's music made for hikikomori and by a hikikomori who couldn't find a real female singer for his project :) However, it's just amateur stuff and I can't take it seriously TBH. If you want some really good depressive black metal/shoegaze, you'd better listen to Amesoeurs or Dernier Martyr...
Another release by Kesson Shoujo, and a lot more noisy than "Childhood In Housing Complex". Some vocals (sung in Japanese, most likely a synthesized voice) are also present. The overall aesthetics of this release can be most precisely described as "childish"... but not only in naive and cute way. Just look on this artwork, which may look childish, but not cute at all:
Kesson Shoujo was an ambient/experimental/noise project from Japan, who later changed name to わたしのココ. No wonder they decided to change the name, because Kesson Shoujo apparently is also a name of some futanari manga. No, I'm not interested in dickgirls :3, but I'm interested in good music, and I found "Childhood in Housing Complex" to be a quite good release. It is absolutely not noisy or harsh at all, just nice and cute minimalistic ambient/electronica...
If you aren't into Japanese harsh noise, steer away - this release will just rape your ears. Basically, it is extreme noise mixed with anime samples taken from Lucky Star, The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya, etc. The band member(s) obviously have some sense of humour, I must admit. I know there aren't many people who actually enjoy such noisy stuff ^_^, but in case if you do - visit the official page of UGU netlabel. There you can find a lot more noise/lolicore available for free.
