Yet another solo electronics album from Japanese guitarist and experimental musician KK Null. Again it's full of the glitchy zip and zap of his "cosmic noises", which are somewhat aggravating at first, but if you stay with it, can be enjoyable in a mad scientist's laboratory gone haywire / crash landing flying saucer sort of way, especially when you get to the more rhythmic parts. At the same time though, we'd much rather KK put his efforts back into his genius heavy rock band Zeni Geva, as we're not sure we really need another one of these solo discs that sound like he's playing video games in the recording studio...
Fans of Japanese avant-drone guitarist and electronic experimentalist (and sometimes heavy metal dirge-master, when playing in his band Zeni Geva) Kazuyuki K. Null are a happy bunch of late, as his recent "Datacide In Year Zero" cd-r on Crucial Blast (reviewed here last time) is now joined by another new K.K. title, a collaboration with Seattle musician Bill Horist. Null recorded much of the disc's source material, then gave it over to Horist to manipulate and structure (and add to as well, as Horist himself is a textural guitarist akin to Null). The results are, to go along with what Beta-lactam Ring has been saying about this release, kinda in the IDM vein: skittery, bleepy instrumental electronica with crunchy, squeaky (guitar-generated, we'll assume) noises and beats. Like Null's sci-fi sounding GeV cd on Staalplaat, this isn't nearly as "ambient" as some of his past work, though it has its mellow and mysterious moments, amidst many fairly chaotic ones. Indeed, at times this can be harsh (the heavy, grinding "Gravitation"), at other times quite lovely (the acoustic-y "Luminous Lullaby"). In general, you get pulsating, bleeping soundscapes out of which some recognizably human guitar playing will surface, which is what makes these pieces more interesting than your average IDM, I'd say. Null and Horist aren't really breaking any new ground, but they've created a varied and enjoyable disc for fans of quirky computerized electronic music and avant guitar utilization. Pretty cool.
What might you expect from a collaboration between KK Null, mastermind behind Japanese heavies Zeni Geva, and UK tuba doom duo Ore (you read that right, TUBA DOOM!)? Probably not this. Two tracks of hushed, delicate, droned out ambience. Moody, muted and morose, long tones unfurling gradually in a field of sculpted soft static, and distant keening melodies, slow shifting textures, drifting serenely, over a surprisingly tranquil sonic sprawl, a sort of blackened, nocturnal drift, deftly processed electronics, the mournful moan of the tubas, stuttery rhythmic pulses, all blurred into something downright dreamy and hypnotic. The flipside is even more minimal, the processed tubas transformed into lush, layered swells, pocked with glitch and crackle, and wreathed in field recordings of birdsong, a strange mix of ominous thrum, and pastoral ambience, the sound gorgeously lustrous and thick, the low end massive, a dark slo-mo swirl, that gradually gathers subtle momentum, beneath an increasingly dense cloud of singing birds, that begins to mutate into a tangle of psychedelic squiggles, that is soon subsumed by the churning bass tones and strange skittery fields of clipped static and glitchy electronics. Haunting and sinister and at moments harrowingly heavy, yet somehow still darkly dreamy!
Probably super limited too...
Our pal Mason Jones (formerly of San Francisco space rockers Subarachnoid Space) is known for his Japanese connections as well as for his talent for heavy-duty, effects-laden experimental electric guitar improv. So we're not surprised to find him on this cd live in Japan, teamed up in three separate sessions with three different drummers: Tatsuya Yoshida of Ruins, Shirahata of Up-Tight, and Komatsu of... we're not sure, Mason help us out, is it Bloodthirsty Butchers?
Anyway, in all cases, it's darkly psychedelic, freely unfolding guitar/drums jamming, sometimes moody and droned-out, sometimes building up into a howling sonic miasma... when dueting with Yoshida (the only person on here who also uses his voice as an instrument) there's an expected element of progressive spazz.
As with all aRCHIVE releases, painfully limited and in fact already sold out at the label.
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More metalcore. This time it's a weird mix of shrieking hardcore and old school Suicidal Tendencies style funkiness. Weird but cool.
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Incredible improvising rock/funk/freejazz combo - "club music of the 21st century." Members of Ground Zero, Ruins, Omoide Hatoba, Children Coup d'Etat participate. With turntables and psychedelic rock guitar. The live tracks are absolutely killer. One of Allan's top ten for 1995.
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Dark feedback frenzies, primitive plodding drums crashing away, reverby Reynolsian vocals: this is some *intense* electric guitar heavy improv psych, a lot like Keiji Haino's Fushitsusha. It's the brainchild of Nanjo Asahito, who shares Haino's prediliction for wearing all-black clothing and sunglasses at all times (and for wrangling from his guitar loud clouds of post-Neil Young blackness). Never one of the most prolific of modern Japanese underground psychedelic bands, Nanjo's Ohkami No Jikan here present what's basically their debut album, though they've been around for quite some time, making only some rare compilation appearances previously. But, the members of the band, in particular leader Nanjo, keep busy in other projects -- in Nanjo's case, the legendary High Rise, Toho Sara, Musica Transonic, Mainliner, etc. Actually it doesn't say anywhere on here who's on this besides Nanjo, though unless he's overdubbing everthing he's got at least a drummer and another guitarist in the band. Three tracks (one of 'em over 30 minutes long) of timelost, slow-moving, heavy rock drone, brutally beautiful and moving. Of the three new Japanese releases on Fractal, this one *doesn't* necessarily feature Acid Mothers Temple's Kawabata Makoto (although maybe he is on here), but in comparison to the colorful krautrock worship of the AMT disc, or the hard driving proto-metal of the Musica Transonic one (which features both Nanjo and Kawabata), this is the deepest, most primal of the three.
Another amazing cosmic sonic artifact from Japanese reissue label EM, this one a legendary album of galactic analog synth wizardry, originally released in 1978, created by composer / sound designer Matsuo Ohno. He's most famous for his sound design on the animated television show Astro Boy, on which he was assisted by none other than Takehisa Kosugi from seventies fluxus dronelords Taj Mahal Travellers. With the help of Kosugi, Ohno recorded this his first non soundtrack release, a sprawling collection of super abstract cosmic drift, often classified as new age, but really so much darker and mysterious. Separated into 8 parts, beginning with zero and ending with infinity, the record unfurls slowly, almost as if it were in fact the sounds of the universe, as pictured on the record's cover, with some strange all seeing eye hovering amidst the stars. The sounds rumble and whir, smeared into long stretches of deep thrum, and spaced out shimmer, there's plenty of gurgling buzz and dense rumbles, crumbling distortion, and strange little squiggles of sci-fi effects, if anything the sounds here are way more academic, and sonically seem to hew closer to experimental tape music. The swoosh and whoosh of most analog synthscapery is relegated to the background here, with Ohno coaxing all manner of strange sounds from his synths. His experience in sound design is evident throughout, as much of this plays out like some lost soundtrack, the score to some strange experimental film, or how we imagine some seventies planetarium light show would sound on LSD, streaks of melody, shards of chordal thrum, lots of reverb and echo, the vibe is definitely futuristic, but not kitschy, instead, it's ominous and haunting and fantastically otherworldly. Essential listening for analog synth obsessives, but the sort of thing that should appeal to fans of dronemusic and spaced out abstract psychedelia as well.
And as if the record proper wasn't enough, also included is a bonus 3" cd that features a rare recording originally released as a super limited flexi-disc, which was created in honor of the 1970 World Expo (as in Expo '70!), and features 6 popular songs of the time, from all over the world, America's contribution being "My Darling, Clementine", recreated using nothing but animal sounds, which had been captured on tape. A trippy bit of outsider tape music for sure, one that in some strange way foreshadows the dogs-singing-Christmas-carols and Jingle-Bell-cats kitsch that would prove to be so weirdly popular decades later. But this is not nearly so goofy, instead, it's strange and wonderful, the animal sounds wreathed in echo and delay, bizarre and beautiful, and again, recorded with the assistance of Taj Mahal Traveller's Kosugi.
Gorgeous packaging as always, a full color gatefold sleeve, with reproductions of the original artwork, a big booklet too with liner notes in Japanese and English, the 3" bonus disc, house in a miniature replica of the original World Expo flexi-disc sleeve. Wow!
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Boredoms guitarist Yamamoto's trio has made their poppiest record yet and still it kicks ass, never sickly sweet at all, just excellent chiming guitars alongside a whole lot of that genre-twisting racket we already love Hatoba for perfecting. This is the US version of the import, and it has an extra song NOT on the import.
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This is Omo's, second major label effort, not scheduled for US release. Their records keep getting better and better, this one reaching new heights of toothy melody and sludgy sweetness, along with their usual tour through the murky depths of rock's weirder edges. Yamamoto (of Boredoms), Tsuyama and friends explore new post-rock-electronica realms...
Japan's Otomo Yoshihide is a noisy, sampling-mad composer and performer, yes, perhaps best known for turntablist chaos in his notorious Naked City-ish outfit Ground Zero, and also for his "onkyo" experiments in groups like ISO and Filament, where he's been known to "play" the turntable without records. But, he's also a jazz guitarist. Of course, noisy and experimental in that mode too, a lot of the time. But with a definite love of the standards. Some years ago, Otomo's New Jazz Orchestra did a whole disc dedicated to Eric Dolphy's Out To Lunch album. And there was Ground Zero's Plays Standards, before that. And Otomo has also covered Mingus, Ellington, Coleman, and others. Now with the stripped down ONJT+ unit, he's got two new discs tackling two more of his favorite jazz touchstones: "Lonely Woman" (from Ornette Coleman's 1959's The Shape Of Jazz To Come) and "Bells" by Albert Ayler (originally released as a single-sided 12" by ESP-Disk in 1965).
Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Trio consists of the man himself on guitar, with Mizutani Hiroaki on bass, and Yoshigaki Yasuhiro on drums and percussion. The "plus" part of the name is due to the presence of two special guests as well: Sachiko M with her sine waves, and Jim O'Rourke on EMS synth!
The Lonely Woman disc consists of 6 individually tracked interpretations of that composition, the two lengthiest tracks that bookend the disc featuring the full quintet, two more with just the core trio, and two that are solos from Otomo alone, one for electric guitar, the other one for "broken acoustic guitar". So it's sort of a "Lonely Woman" suite, varied throughout, but also like one extended rendition of the tune, a worshipful (but adventurous) "Lonely Woman" tour de force, achingly gorgeous and moody and often noisy too, both outright and subtly, with much electronic crackle, hiss, and whine especially when Sachiko M and O'Rourke are involved.
It's clear from Otomo's personal, quite interesting liner notes in the cd booklet, that this disc is really more of a tribute to his free jazz guitar hero, the late, legendary Masayuki Takayanagi, than to Ornette. After all, Takayanagi did his own Lonely Woman album. And exerted a huge influence on his would be "apprentice" Otomo. So this is definitely recommended as much to fans of Takayanagi as to those of Coleman or Otomo...
On the other disc, there's two takes of "Bells", one by the quintet, one by the trio. Albert Ayler has always been a horn player beloved by avant-guitarists (Marc Ribot especially, but also Keiji Haino and Sonny Sharrock come to mind) and "Bells" makes a good launchpad for Otomo and Co. to get LOUD and go way out. Particularly since Aylers' wonderful folky melodies have already been proven to withstand (and compliment) any such abuse, by the composer himself. This disc is an intense freakout all right, but with a high degree of listenability due to its loveliness at heart. That Otomo wrote liner notes for this about a served head (Mishima's) he saw a picture of in a newspaper as a kid, and makes some kind of a connection to Ayler, is also interesting...
Both discs, quite recommended, come in beautiful digipacks, with similar art, abstract pink jellyfish / balloon / breast images.
Japan's Otomo Yoshihide is a noisy, sampling-mad composer and performer, yes, perhaps best known for turntablist chaos in his notorious Naked City-ish outfit Ground Zero, and also for his "onkyo" experiments in groups like ISO and Filament, where he's been known to "play" the turntable without records. But, he's also a jazz guitarist. Of course, noisy and experimental in that mode too, a lot of the time. But with a definite love of the standards. Some years ago, Otomo's New Jazz Orchestra did a whole disc dedicated to Eric Dolphy's Out To Lunch album. And there was Ground Zero's Plays Standards, before that. And Otomo has also covered Mingus, Ellington, Coleman, and others. Now with the stripped down ONJT+ unit, he's got two new discs tackling two more of his favorite jazz touchstones: "Lonely Woman" (from Ornette Coleman's 1959's The Shape Of Jazz To Come) and "Bells" by Albert Ayler (originally released as a single-sided 12" by ESP-Disk in 1965).
Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Trio consists of the man himself on guitar, with Mizutani Hiroaki on bass, and Yoshigaki Yasuhiro on drums and percussion. The "plus" part of the name is due to the presence of two special guests as well: Sachiko M with her sine waves, and Jim O'Rourke on EMS synth!
The Lonely Woman disc consists of 6 individually tracked interpretations of that composition, the two lengthiest tracks that bookend the disc featuring the full quintet, two more with just the core trio, and two that are solos from Otomo alone, one for electric guitar, the other one for "broken acoustic guitar". So it's sort of a "Lonely Woman" suite, varied throughout, but also like one extended rendition of the tune, a worshipful (but adventurous) "Lonely Woman" tour de force, achingly gorgeous and moody and often noisy too, both outright and subtly, with much electronic crackle, hiss, and whine especially when Sachiko M and O'Rourke are involved.
It's clear from Otomo's personal, quite interesting liner notes in the cd booklet, that this disc is really more of a tribute to his free jazz guitar hero, the late, legendary Masayuki Takayanagi, than to Ornette. After all, Takayanagi did his own Lonely Woman album. And exerted a huge influence on his would be "apprentice" Otomo. So this is definitely recommended as much to fans of Takayanagi as to those of Coleman or Otomo...
On the other disc, there's two takes of "Bells", one by the quintet, one by the trio. Albert Ayler has always been a horn player beloved by avant-guitarists (Marc Ribot especially, but also Keiji Haino and Sonny Sharrock come to mind) and "Bells" makes a good launchpad for Otomo and Co. to get LOUD and go way out. Particularly since Aylers' wonderful folky melodies have already been proven to withstand (and compliment) any such abuse, by the composer himself. This disc is an intense freakout all right, but with a high degree of listenability due to its loveliness at heart. That Otomo wrote liner notes for this about a served head (Mishima's) he saw a picture of in a newspaper as a kid, and makes some kind of a connection to Ayler, is also interesting...
Both discs, quite recommended, come in beautiful digipacks, with similar art, abstract pink jellyfish / balloon / breast images.
Man, it took a while - a REALLY long while - but we finally got enough of these suckers to list. By now, many of you are familiar with Japan's amazing Onna, whose self-titled anthology on Holy Mountain turned many a head not all that long ago (we made it Record Of The Week). Though they first emerged in the early 1980s, the band was clearly carrying on a psychedelic tradition in the vein of many of their countrymen from the previous decade. But even calling Onna a "Japanese psych" band doesn't describe just how strange and awesome this band is. Katawa was released in 2007, and though the sound is drastically different from the band's catchy first single, this is still clearly Onna, which always operated under the leadership of guitarist/singer Keizo Miyanishi. The same unsettling themes still seem to be present - the cover here being quite similar to the anthology but not so grotesque this time around - with the hallucinatory lyrics printed in both Japanese and English... so if you were wondering what Onna might be singing about, wonder no more. The lyrics work perfectly for these songs, pained and sexually deviant laments performed with just acoustic guitars, voice, and lots of feedback. The results are creepy, poetic, and just plain weird at times, tending to focus on lost love, nightmarish delusions, and a general sense of hopelessness.
Opener "Salamadra Salamander (The Three Sisters)", which you might remember from the comp, is 13 minutes of rhythmically strummed acoustic guitar and wandering vocals with a dose of electric feedback shrieking above in the atmosphere. Mournful as hell and spacious sounding, it is also murky and ultra depressive, droning on in a sort of Jandek way with lyrics focusing on, um, the narrator's three penises... Damn. The total weirdness here could have come from any time within the last 45 years or so, but it also stands as a definite legacy of Les Rallizes Denudes, especially in the vocal department, as Miyanishi shifts from low moans to high pitched wails. "The Prophet (After Pushkin)", which sounds like it may have been recorded in a live setting, features a discordant acoustic guitar strummed with a heavy hand and bursts of controlled feedback that surface and recede like an earsplitting sonic wave. The song is sort of sour sounding, but also kind of pretty in its own miserable way, with lines like, "Tormented, I stumbled through a gloomy waste". With a super atonal and out of tune guitar adding a sparse, strangely piano-like sound, "Estelle's Making Herself Up" comes off like a Japanese version of the blues that gives a nice glimpse into someone's sad, demented soul. You almost feel like you're spying on Miyanishi as the sounds of a chair shifting gives things a strangely intimate feel. The mood so far is shaken up a bit on the next number, "Silver Dove", with upbeat, folky strumming and lyrics that seem a little more hopeful, but still reeeally fucking weird. "Morning Blues (Moaning Song)", sounds a bit like '60s proto-punks Godz on a bummer before the album closes with "Bamboo Otoko," where a scarlet beast comes around and crushes Miyanishi's balls. So, by now you should probably know whether or not this one's for you. Hardly the easiest stuff to digest, but patience yields some amazing results for the adventurous listener. Nice gatefold mini-lp style sleeve.
Certainly one of the best things about working at a record store is coming across new bands that give you that undefinable, but very real feeling in your stomach where you can't imagine having ever gone on without THIS band. Even better is discovering something from the distant past (not too distant in this case), something whose existence could have eluded you forever had good fortune not smiled down in the form of a reissue.
Onna were the Japanese duo of Keizou Miyanishi and Mafuyu Hiroki, whose 1983 7" has thankfully been rescued from obscurity by the mighty Holy Mountain label, and has been blowing minds left and right here at aQ. One of the coolest things about this record is just how surprising and unexpected it all was, the whole "1983" part in particular. With a nod to the past but no doubt out of place in the early 80s, Onna were without question inhabiting a world of their own. The most obvious point of reference soundwise would be legendary psych/noise enigma Les Rallizes Denudes, especially in the vocal department. This is a very good thing for anyone who loves those somewhat lazy, partially detached, Japanese sung vocals of groups like LRD and LSD-March.
The use of a drum machine keeps these two songs pulsing like a mechanical heartbeat, which when combined with the fairly free form guitars, definitely gives this record its own vibe. Side 1 begins with a meditative two chord lament before noisy, white hot guitar squalls begin creeping about in the distance as simple and repetitive bass lines keep the foundation strong and focused. The second track introduces catchy psych guitar chords with a machine modified quasi-girl group drumbeat, the bass again holding things down nice and steady. The heavily reverberated strummed guitars bubble about as fake cymbal explosions recede and return over and over again, until a prolonged fadeout is replaced by a locked groove note that keeps this record spinning endlessly, just as it should.
The lack of information on Onna only adds to the mystery (and just a note, they are not affiliated with those other Japanese psych monsters Christine 23 Onna). PSF has issued an album by the group called Katawa, which we will definitely be paying close attention to after this 7". Until then, the only things we have to judge the duo by are the perplexing ugly/beautiful cover featuring an androgynous female figure lying naked on a bed (is she sick and decaying? is she just hanging out in bed? waiting for a lover?), and more importantly, their music, which we cannot recommend highly enough. Seriously, how many 7" singles would receive this much of a write up? You know this one is a winner.
PS for the non-turntable-havin' folks, apparently these tracks are also to appear on an upcoming cd collection Holy Mountain's putting out with other Onna stuff...
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Japanese female dream-rock trio, of violin and bass and voice, as last heard on the Tokyo Flashback Vol. 4 and Land of the Rising Noise Vol. 2 compilations. Ethereal atmosphere from a group who, as Jim puts it: "drifts in and out of aural existence with a haunting array of delicate tonalities."
Love her or hate her, Yoko Ono is the rare kind of artist that is hard to be indifferent about. There are those of us who love nearly everything she does, and there are at least one of us here who can't stand her at all (though perplexingly, that said person is a HUGE fan of Harry Pussy whose singer's vocal style is wholly copped from Yoko's, so go figure.). While this is not a new reissue, we recently found out it was still available, and if you were ever going to buy only one Yoko Ono release, this is definitely the one!
This double album, Fly, released in 1971 after the concurrently released Plastic Ono Band solo debut lps with husband John Lennon is a widely varied but creatively inspired affair with an amazing back-up band (featuring Ringo Starr and Klaus Voorman) that covers both straight-ahead rock numbers as well as mind-melting experimental realms. The sixteen minute proto-krautrock groover "Mind Train" is a definite highlight, sounding like Yoko fronting Can or Faust, but this disc also covers tender acoustic pieces, outsider blues, femme folk, fluxus noise experiments, as well as her trademark howling scream jams, some full throttle noise, others more restrained inner turmoil. But for all its variation, it flows together like a complete piece that grossly engages and vulnerably assaults in equal measure. Probably not for everyone, but highly recommended nonetheless!
Remixers make each song sound like themselves: Cibo Matto, the ABA Allstars (Adam Yauch aka MCA, Mario Caldato Jr, Cibo Matto and Sean Ono Lennon), Ween, Tricky, and Thurston Moore, who features in his remix Masonna, Incapacitants, CCCC, Hanatarash, Aube, Monde Bruits, Gerogerigegege, Keiji Haino. There are also some cd-rom-able additional trax.
Plenty of artists we love have mustered beautiful, droney compositions through the act of decay. Look no further than the AQ favorites from William Basinski's sublime Disintegration Loops, the crumbling digitalia of Tim Hecker, and even our own Jim Haynes has his special rusting techniques with sound and image. So when it comes to an album called Entropy which comes from the Japanese drone 'n' field recordist Yui Onodera, we have to wonder how it measures up.
We gotta say this is a beautiful piece of grey-smeared ambience, but we're scratching our head over how this sounds like the world falling apart. This would be a perfect rainy day, contemplative soundtrack, but not exactly a meditation on entropy. Well, maybe except for the Loren Chasse-like crumbling of soil, pebbles, and leaves on the untitled second track which quietly tumbles into a series of evolving loops that blur into a sleep-inducing drone of oceanic waves and shimmering tones. The way this track progresses is how the entire record is situated -- a very calm, sedate, yet hypnotizing collection of drones and tones that float out of stacked guitars and processed field recordings. The fourth track is pure drone bliss straight out of the Chalk / Coleclough axis of smeared dronemaking precision; and the sixth has more of a Popul Vuh two-note melody oozing out of Onodera's shoegazing guitar chords, which have been filtered, layered, re-recorded, layered again, echoed, reverbed, and back again. Onodera has produced some great recordings for Mystery Sea and And/OAR, but this one was actually something he released back in 2005 through his Critical Path imprint. Even if this doesn't inspire the idea of entropy for us, Onodera has still made a fantastic and beautiful drone record here. Check it out!
Oh, OOIOO! No one makes spazzed out splashes of sonic color with more energy and spirit than you. While Yoshimi will always be best known for being a member of The Boredoms and the inspiration for a Flaming Lips album (Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots) we think her output with her band OOIOO over the years definitely stands on its own. Able to meld psychedelia into an infectious and dizzying pulsation of sound, OOIOO give us more of what we love with Armonico Hewa, which sonically falls somewhere between the circular and lysergic sounds of our favorite OOIOO record Gold & Green and the more tribal and repetitive groove of their last outing, Taiga.
So many folks have taken ingredients from OOIOO and gotten lots of mileage and attention out of it, for instance, we can't help but think that Gang Gang Dance owe much of their sound and visual aesthetic to OOIOO. Herky, jerky and no-wave, rich with the spirit and energy of vintage Plastic Ono Band. Folks who love OOIOO and Yoshimi will of course love this to death, but we also think this will totally hit the spot for Boredoms fans who miss the varied sound of records like Super AE. Also, be sure to see OOIOO live if they come anywhere close to you as they are for sure one of our favorite live bands around.
We have always loved Yoshimi, whether she's bashing the skins in the Boredoms, hanging out with Kim Gordon in Free Kitten or kicking up a serious ruckus in OOIOO, her main love these days. Hot of the heels of their latest outing Taiga comes this scorching remix e.p. courtesy of Yoshimi's Boredoms cohort Eye Yamatsuka. He takes the Roberto De Simone inspired standout tracks Uma and Umo and turns them into hot flashes of an African influenced late night rave that we wish we could be at. The other two tracks are the original versions from Taiga.
This is the second album from Osaka's OOIOO (say it with us: "oh-oh-eye-oh-oh"), an all female quartet led by Yoshimi (of the Boredoms, UFO or Die, Free Kitten, etc.) More melodic than their first outing, while heavier than last year's Green and Gold,
Oh, oh, eye oh oh! Drummer/trumpeter/vocalist/Flaming Lips mascot Yoshimi P-We's other main gig besides the Boredoms is back with their first album since 2009's Armonico Hewa. Over the years, OOIOO has honed both the playfully melodic aspects of their sound, and their sheer rhythmic prowess, into something simply magical. Gamel is something even more extra-special though, probably our favorite from the groop since their early outings Feather Float and Gold & Green near the turn of the millennium. As the name suggests, this album takes a lot of inspiration from Javanese gamelan music, in fact adding two actual gamelan players to the core group, OOIOO herein melding the tinkling, metallic (actual metal, not heavy metal) percussive sound of the gamelan with the band's usual tight grooves, vocal chant and electronic textures. They were somewhat "tribal" before, now OOIOO verges on exotica! It's gorgeous, dense, detailed, funky in a funky way, bright and colorful, absolutely captivating right from 10 minute opener "Don Ah" through all eleven kaleidoscopic tracks. Super recommended!!
Both the compact disc and limited double vinyl versions come in gatefold sleeves, the vinyl with a free download card.
This came out about five years ago as an expensive Japanese import -- now at last it's been released domestically at a much more affordable price. Thanks Thrill Jockey! Here's what we said about it before:
This is the third album from OOIOO (say "oh oh eye oh oh"), the Osaka based, all-female quartet masterminded by Yoshimi P-We (drummer/trumpeter/vocalist for the Boredoms, et al.) At times playful and childlike, Gold and Green abandons the grating, no-wave dissonance of earlier albums for a more textural, atmospheric and melodic experience. "Mountain Book" (which seems to be the musical accompaniment to the lovely artwork for this record) is the beautiful standout track on which they are joined by many guests including Seiichi Yamamoto (Boredoms), Yuka Honda (Cibo Matto) and even Sean Lennon: epic, hypnotic, dreamy psychedelia with piano, dulcimer, and tabla.
This Thrill Jockey version lovingly re-creates the original release's stunning packaging, a gatefold complete with a booklet of children's psychedelic fantasy artwork by Yoshimi herself!
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This is the third album from OOIOO (say "oh oh eye oh oh"), the Osaka based, all-female quartet masterminded by Yoshimi P-We (drummer/trumpeter/vocalist for the Boredoms, et al.) At times playful and childlike, "Gold and Green" abandons the grating, no-wave dissonance of earlier albums for a more textural, atmospheric and melodic experience. "Mountain Book" (which seems to be the musical accompaniment to the lovely artwork for this record) is the beautiful standout track on which they are joined by many guests including Seiichi Yamamoto (Boredoms), Yuka Honda (Cibo Matto) and even Sean Lennon: epic, hypnotic, dreamy psychedelia with piano, dulcimer, and tabla. As expected with any Shock City release, this comes in a stunning package, a gatefold complete with a booklet of children's psychedelic fantasy artwork by Yoshimi herself! You can expect a domestic release of this (sans the amazing packaging) someday in 2001 or 2002, perhaps...
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There's a palpable aura of giddy excitement whenever Yoshimi from The Boredoms unleashes a new OOIOO record. We've loved Yoshimi as long as we can remember. Ever since we first heard the Boredoms. OOIOO's last album "Gold & Green" is a perennial store favorite. And Taiga finds Yoshima and company reconnecting to that same primal spazzy sound while building all sorts of wild and chaotic momentum. Scrappy, peppy, unrelenting. Like being in some insane Japanese pep rally! Off kilter melodies, unique rhythms, pulsating percussion and so much blindingly brilliant musical color. Yoshimi talks a lot in interviews about how much color plays a role in her music making, and that usually when she makes a record she will tell her band about the kind of colors she is trying to create. This time out the beautiful and curious cover gives the listener a clue as to the sounds and colors contained within. Intriguing splashes of silver, black, red and pink all over the place. Yu can almost feel your ears filling up with all those different colors. While far away from San Francisco their kinship in sound to Deerhoof is uncanny, especially on this outing. Yoshimi sounds as feisty as ever even recalling Brigitte Fontaine at her most wild and free. Another wonderful, playful and creative gem from OOIOO.
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We just did an order directly with Japanese avant-garde rock/jazz label God Mountain (sorry, those first two Hundred Sights of Koenji cds are still out of print, for now) and picked up some old favorites, this being one of 'em. Optical*8 is (was?) the
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S.F. samplerist Ostertag & Japanese turntable wizard Otomo (known for their live performances with Mr. Bungle's Mike Patton as the trio "House of Discipline") take the music of "parents" Chris Cutler, Yagi Michiyo, and Herb Robertson and create "twins": diverse sampled progeny from the same source. An interesting study in nature vs. nurture!
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The prolific Otomo Yoshihide (on "records and cds") teams up with European free improviser Gunter Muller (on electronics, and "selected" drums - whatever that means), alto sax player Masahiko Okura, and the brilliant electric guitarist Taku Sugimoto. The several groupings of the above players documented here produce difficult but rewarding stuff, ranging from near-silence to cinematic "jazz" to other realms of unclassified beauty. Fittingly subtitled "Secret Recording 1", as this indeed has a sense of mystery to it.
That's Otomo Yoshihide, Keith Rowe and Taku Sugimoto. Recorded at LMCSound in London, the three iconoclastic guitarists team up for an excruciatingly patient exercise in restraint and controlled ferocity. High volume static crackle, lo-fi rumbles and anonymous shortwave radio transmissions (broadcasted in the trademark Rowe fashion through the pickups of his tabletop guitar) are situated against frail bowed strings resembling a grouping of fractured hurdy-gurdys. Pair that with subtle, minimalist textures unheard in much of guitar based music, very similar in texture to the muted piano characteristics of, say for example, Morton Feldman's works. Not for impatient ears, "Ajar" can be quite engaging for those adventurous enough...
A carefully crafted, sculptural sonic study in amp buzz and feedback and stereo soundwave interaction, one of Japanese experimentalist Otomo Yoshihide's more extreme offerings of late. The last few albums we're heard from this maverick composer and guitar/turntables improviser have been more on the jazz tip, including two live discs with his New Jazz Orchestra. Sure some noisy stuff got woven into those, along with quiet "Onkyo" sounds and plenty of trad. jazz standard-bearing, but here, though, there's nothing "jazz" at all (unless perhaps the existence of smooth-jazzer Pat Metheny's infamous and atypical Zero Tolerance For Silence album has allowed such metal machine music stylings into the jazz canon). Even Otomo's previous solo guitar album on Doubtmusic, while quite skronky at times, included lovely takes on Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo" and Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman". Whereas Modulation With 2 Electric Guitars And 2 Amplifiers consists of one track, 40 minutes and 16 seconds of the noisy abstraction the title suggests: droning hums, piercing tones, the crinkle-crankle of electrical excess. If Otomo's Fender amps were made of flesh and blood you'd imagine that veins would be standing out on their anthromorphic-amplifier foreheads, bulging with the constantly building pressure exerted by his feedback array... Though there certainly are parts of this disc that do achieve a sort of placid serenity, a steady state of soothing molecular vibrations. Of course it could be that by those points one's senses have been numbed, this disc when played loud enough having an auditory-overload effect. And Otomo does suggest it should be played loud ("at the highest possible volume"!), through speakers, "to obtain the desired results". This recommendation (or requirement) is made specifically because the conceptual, compositional goal here has to do with making music that exists as a physical presence in the space in which it is played, in three dimensions. Otomo explains: "Feedback sound issues from two amplifiers, each connected to one of two guitars placed on a tabletop.
Due to this stereo effect, the feedback mutually interferes, producing beatlike fluctuations, creating black holes into which the sound suddenly disappears, sounding completely different depending on the position of the ears, creating the illusion that the sound is coming from only one speaker when the listener is in certain locations, and so on, thus turning into truly interactive music.
Because these effects cannot be obtained unless the sound coming from the two amps mutually interferes, we recommend listening without earphones or headphones, through speakers, with the sound as loud as conditions allow. Depending on the positions of the speakers, the interference effect and sound image will surely differ as well." Of course, anybody could hook up a couple guitars and amps and make some noise, the key here is the "Modulation" in the title, something that Otomo has a deft hand (and foot on pedals) with, making this an interesting (if extreme!) listen -- unique repeat listens, in fact, as you experiment yourself with the positioning of both your speakers and your ears.
Yes, Otomo Yoshihide (Ground Zero, etc.) + Yoshida Tatsuya (Ruins, etc.) + Bill Laswell (Painkiller, etc.), that's right! A trio sure to intrigue any avant-Japanophile or Tzadik label lover. In fact, lots of folks will probably buy this on the strength of just one or two of those names alone, and why shouldn't they?
Otomo fans will be interested to know that his instrument here is the electric guitar, not the turntables for which he is better known, and he wields his axe with much muscle on Episome's five long tracks, which give free reign to Yoshida's limber drumming, Laswell's liquid low-end, and Otomo's slashing, slow-burn six-string. It's powerful, confident and moody amped-up improv from these three skilled vets.
Avantgarde Japanese pop vocalists Jun Togawa and Phew join our favorite turntable experimentalist's jazz unit for their second release on John Zorn's Tzadik label. It's very different from the previous New Jazz Ensemble disc, and is really not readily identifiable as an Otomo Yoshihide album. Most of the tracks heavily feature singing, and it's only at the very end of the disc that the Ensemble breaks into any sort of "free jazz" cacophony. More of a Japanese vocal album then, than a jazz/electronic thing, so Otomo fans who aren't as eclectically adventurous as the man himself might want to pass on this one.
Ooooh. Here we have the first of two volumes (both of 'em double discs) of live material being released this summer by Japan's Doubtmusic from ONJO. That's the unusual "jazz orchestra" led by turntablist/guitarist Otomo Yoshihide (who could be considered the Japanese John Zorn, his old band Ground Zero being the analog to Zorn's Naked City, though that doesn't do either of them justice, really). In jazz speak, ONJO's music wanders both inside and outside, it's avantgarde yet lush and listenable, full of melody and melancholy. Electronic textures intrude upon jazz standards, whispy vocals drift amidst gentle drones, and aggressive bouts of noisy improv burst forth to keep them far out of cocktail lounge territory.
Recorded on several dates in Berlin, Tokyo, Kyoto, and Nagoya, the ten tracks here were performed by five varied ONJO lineups, featuring a large number of talented musicians, familiar among them vocalist Kahimi Karie and sinewavist (?) Sachiko M, and a host of Japanese jazz cats and "onkyo" experimenters. The Berlin dates see the ONJO joined by Europeans like reed player Alfred Harth and trumpeter Axel Dorner. It's mostly all Otomo's own compositions, with a couple by cult Japanese '60s/'70s TV soundtrack composer Yamashita Takeo, as well as required readings of Eric Dolphy's "Out To Lunch", "Straight Up And Down", and "Hat And Beard".
These discs are packaged in the typical deluxe Doubtmusic style, with thick cardboard gatefold sleeves, and include lengthy, very personal liner notes from Otomo himself, going in depth about the ideas behind this music, the evolution of his "jazz" composition post-Ground Zero, as his feelings about the legacy of his former teacher, the late Japanese jazz giant Masayuki Takayangi evolved. He discusses his simultaneous immersion in both the quiet electronic improv scene called "onkyo" and also the resurgence of his interest in traditional jazz sounds, seemingly contradictory musical directions that he meshes brilliantly -- as can be heard here. Essential for all Otomo fans (especially those who love his ONJO album Plays Eric Dolphy's Out To Lunch!!).
And now the second volume of live ONJO avant-jazz action is here: "parallel circuit", two more cds to follow the double disc of volume one "series circuit" that we highlighted earlier this summer. It's again a wild hybrid of all the music that bandleader, turntablist and guitarist Otomo Yoshihide loves: the intense out-jazz "mass projections" of his former teacher the late Masayuki Takayanagi, groovy cult '60s Japanese film and TV soundtracks, traditional jazz standards, the genius of Eric Dolphy, and the minimal improv of electronics and silences known as onkyo music... among other things! And again Doubtmusic has put these discs in a thick gatefold miniature LP style jacket, which includes sincere liner notes from Otomo himself. The Orchestra (up to THIRTY-SEVEN musicians strong in one of the several lineups documented here!) was recorded live at venues in Japan and Germany in 2005 and 2006, performing compositions by Otomo as well as Eric Dolphy, Jim O'Rourke, Yamashita Takeo, and Charlie Haden. Any fan of ONJO's prior output will want this, it's got your daily recommended (by us) dose, and then some, of such divergent and delicious audio elements as lush big band melodicism, abstract electric drones, lovely female vocals (courtesy Kahimi Karie and others) and frantic noisy freakouts, as only the ONJO could deliver in one swank package!
As any jazz freak will tell you, Dolphy is GOD! Hard to deny. Especially once you've heard his swansong, Out To Lunch. Recorded in 1964, mere months before he passed away at the age of 36. Having done time with Mingus, Coleman and Coltrane, as well as having recorded numerous records as a band leader, Out To Lunch was definitely Dolphy's finest moment. Possibly one of the greatest jazz records ever. An album that was soft and sweet and almost traditional one moment, freaked out and completely abstract the next. A killer collision of traditional and free, combined in a way that somehow managed to please fans of both. Knowing all that, it would take a lot of balls for someone to tackle that epochal record in its entirety, not entirely surprising that it would be Otomo Yoshihide and his New Jazz Orchestra. Most of us are familiar with Yoshihide as an experimental turntablist. But he's also an ace guitarist as well as an accomplished band leader. So Yoshihide has decided to give Out To Lunch a modern makeover, and while we were of course tempted to scream "Sacrilege!!" it didn't take us long to change our tune.
There's really no point in just playing Out To Lunch, no matter what, you couldn't live up to the original, so some sort of reinvention is definitely the way to go. And Yoshihide manages to riffing true to the original while twisting these classic tunes into entirely new shapes. Where as Dolphy's group was a five piece, a pretty standard jazz ensemble augmented by vibraphone, with Dolphy handling sax, clarinet AND flute, Yoshihide has gathered an ensemble 15 players strong. And it's not just the number of players, it's what they're playing. Sure they've got the basics, but there's also slide trumpet, bamboo flute, tubes, sho, sinewaves, contact mic, no-input mixing board, computer and inside piano (!). And the songs themselves, while they retain the main melodic themes, Yoshihide and his ensemble take the songs WAY WAY out.
The opener, "Hat And Beard" is as close as this New Jazz Orchestra come to a straight up version of the original. The free bits are a lot freer, and during the quieter parts you can hear the sinewaves and no-input mixing board doing their thing. "Something Sweet, Something Tender" gets stretched out into long abstract stretches of dense drone. "Gazzelloni" is transformed into a super wild, ultra free psych jazz freakout. "Out To Lunch" is another -almost- traditional version, but the band manages to twist and stretch and all sorts of free weirdness. Finally, the formerly 8 minute "Straight Up And Down" is totally transformed into a near 30 minute experimental improv, any vestiges of jazz are shed in the first half, as the track continues to drift through a minimal sound world of shimmer and click, glitch and hum, the horns taking a back seat to the computers and sinewaves and mixing boards. So totally great. And a strangely poignant tribute to one of the greatest jazz records ever.
Super swank digipak packaging, emulating the original in design and color, instantly recognizable except now the blue tinted photo on the cover is of a Japanese train station. Includes liner notes from Yoshihide, Kahimi Karie and actor Tonoyama Taiji. Plus the disc has a clock printed on the face, and the back cover has a small whole cut out so depending on the placement of the disc, a different number shows through. So cool!
Last list we reviewed a fantastic disc by Japanese avant-garde turntablist/guitarist Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Orchestra, with the self-explanatory title of Plays Eric Dolphy's Out To Lunch. It truly was a brilliant, respectful yet fresh versioning of that classic jazz album. So we figured we should also bring in this other, self-titled ONJO release on the same label, from 2005. It's quite good too, just as we expected. Now, to our minds, pretty much anything Otomo does is at least interesting and is often much more than that, from minimal "onkyo" electronics to solo guitar improv to big band mash-ups to noisy droning rock. This we'd put in the "much more than that" category of Otomo output, especially if you appreciate his roots in jazz. Using all the experimental elements of the "empty" turntable glitchery and cut-up compositions that we've heard before in such Otomo ensembles as Ground Zero and I.S.O., ONJO makes some gorgeously moody "actual jazz" music. It's definitely an "easier listen" than much of Otomo's Ground Zero recordings, for instance, but no less amazing. (And if you're a fan of GZ's Plays Standards and/or ONJO's Out To Lunch then you have an idea of what this will be like.) Alongside Otomo's own compositions, this includes covers of jazz standards (and not-so-standards) by the likes of Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus, and even Jim O'Rourke. Some of these songs have actually been done before on recordings by Otomo's New Jazz Quintet (ONJQ) so don't get confused. ONJO is similar to ONJQ but, well, bigger. Making this an "Orchestra", there's 18 musicians credited, some non-Japanese names among them, including such well-known European improv folks as Axel Dorner, Mats Gustafsson, and Alfred Harth. And perhaps you've heard of Kahimi Karie, who whisperingly sings on three of these tracks?
The results of all their efforts here are really freaking lovely, from the pops and crackle of vinyl mixed into the quiet bits to massed horn blow-outs to smoky, romantic noirish atmospheres invaded by the sinewaves of Sachiko M and the John Zornish jumpiness of Otomo's arrangements. Nice nice nice... as is the packaging, in the digipack with die cut hole in cover revealing a bit of the cd booklet underneath that's typical of most doubtmusic releases.
Three part composition exploring noise, free jazz and minimalist structures. The basic conditions in which the performance of these pieces are executed: Do not respond to the sound of others / Do not form a course from the introduction to the conclusion / Avoid any popular rhythm, melody, cliche, etc. The first part, "Anode 1", buries a heavy percussive jam (six percussionists!) under an ear splitting assault of sine waves and high frequency test tones. Very much like the electronic works of Greek composer Iannis Xenakis. Parts two and three are intentionally less abrasive, exploring territories reminiscent of John Cage, emphasizing minimalist aesthetics and chance. Another wonderful electroacoustic piece from the amazing Otomo Yoshihide!
This is Otomo's second soundtrack for a Hiroshi Ando film. Blue, the film, is a live action version of a Japanese comic about two budding lesbian high schoolers destined for heartbreak. So it makes sense that Blue, the soundtrack, is correspondingly wistful and melancholy. Simple in its spare use of recorder, trumpet, acoustic guitar, pump organ, etc, and very, very pretty. Nothing like Otomo's other sampling/noise/jazz/whathaveyou outfits like Ground Zero, New Jazz Quintet, MC Hellshit... this is meditative, melodic, organic, warm, and quiet. Very nice, but not groundbreaking. There also appears to be a track from another soundtrack he did, this time for Tian ZhuangZhuang's The Blue Kite.
Japanese turntable/sampler experimentalist Yoshihide (famous for his jazz/noise band Ground Zero and his more recent/minimalist I.S.O. and Filament recordings) joins the "Composer's Series" of John Zorn's Tzadik label. Four pieces combine traditional Japanese and Western instrumentation (sho, acoustic guitar, violin, cello, piano, shamisen, etc.) with sometimes-piercing electronics and "sampling compostion" to hard disk recorder. Beautiful.
