Japanese Noise Project

Last Wednesday brought a visit to PSF Records where Hideo Ikeezumi has been running his PSF shop and label HQ for about 30 years. Set in an inconspicuous apartment in central-west Tokyo, the shop is packed full of releases from the Japanese psychedelic and avant-garde underground; some in limited quantities and unfortunately out of print for good. Amidst the digging and 360-head scans of the room, we were even lucky enough to find an originally packaged, Incapacitants cassette tape from their earlier days among other treasures. So as a somewhat historical vault full of stories, renowned passersby and seeing Ikeezumi as one of the essential historical figures in this story, we were more than happy to land the chance to have an interview.





While at PSF, we had a great conversation which extended from historical themes, personal anecdotes, future plans even to simple thumbs-up-thumbs-down or to-stock-or-not-to-stock ratings as we chatted through the years and perused the shelves of releases (top shelf being reserved for his favorites). I also picked up a back issue of G-Modern, the psychedelic, avant-garde, underground magazine which Ikeezumi edits, which features an over ten page interview with Keiji Haino. To add, I also came away with a live recording of Takayanagi Masayuki, New Direction / Call In Question which Ikeezumi straight pushed on me and told me I needed to hear.

Photos: Cameron Mckean, more on our flickr.

DeNoise turned out to be a rather busy evening for us but thought I'd go ahead and post two photos from the show. We came away with some great interviews. A kind thank you to Satomi Ito for lending us photos from her Flickr. There are plenty more photos there.

Astro collaborated with Kuruu Crew taking up synth and eventually nomadic vocal duties.



The Inpacacitants gravity was in effect with the tight circle that enclosed them immediately upon starting.



Thanks.

Last night, popped by the opening of a new space, Vacant, where film critic Masaya Nakahara aka Hair Stylistics (formerly Violent Onsen Geisha) was and will be screening selected films. Titled "Masaya Nakahara's Room," I believe its an on going series of screenings based on our brief conversation last night. I didn't get a chance to ask him what will be showing but we bookmarked an interview for the future and he was more than kind of enough to pass me a disc of some unreleased stuff from his previously finished subscription series of releases- can't wait to pop it in the player.

A few details of whats going this Golden week at Vacant:

May 4th -- Live
Yoshihide Otomo x Seiichi Yamamoto
Open 18:30/ Start 19:00 (schedule may change)
Fee: ¥2500 (advance), ¥3000 (same-day) + 1 drink

May 5th -- Live & DJ
Oorutaichi with YTAMO (from Urichipangoon), Takuma Watanabe x Muneomi Senju x Special Guest, Eiko Ishibashi with Muneomi Senju, Mao Yamasaki (Akichi Records)
Open 15:30/ Starrt 16:00
Fee: ¥2500 (advance), ¥3000 (same-day) + 1 drink

May 6th -- Live & Performance
Hasro & Bokka, Jun Takahashi x Kan Takagi x Fuyuki Yamakawa x Atsuhiro Ito
Open 17:30/ Start 18:00
Fee: ¥3500 (advance), ¥4000 (same-day) + 1 drink

Full info at Tokyo Art Beat:
Vacant Opening Event "Wrong Dance, Right Steps"
Venue: Vacant
Schedule: From 2009-05-01 To 2009-05-06

This Wednesday, we'll be heading out in full force to continue our chat with Atsuhiro Ito (Optrum) and Hiroshi Hasegawa in addition to capturing The Incapacitants' performance. Likely to be a rambunctuous evening full of (some first time) collaborations, performing live are:
Melt-Banana Lite
Kuruucrew + ASTRO
OFFSEASON (Atsuhiro Ito+HIKO+Kuropipe Stardust)
MARUOSA
Overload Collapse (Nicolas Fasnacht & Nikola Mounoud from Switzerland)
Evil Moisture (a.k.a Andy Bolus from Paris, France)
TOKAGE (Yann Grivet from Switzerland).

Opens at 17:00, starts at 17:30. All the above for 2800円 (advance) or 3300円 (plus drink) at the door.

A little over two weeks ago, we made it out to this show but running late, missed Muddy World's set although timely enough to catch Tetragrammaton (Myspace)- a quieter guitar and percussion based trio of Cal Lyall, TOMO and Nobunaga Ken.  While TOMO mostly relied on a soprano sax, a hurdy-gurdy gave the opening a Mediterranean-folk aesthetic, and along with Lyall applying a bow to his fretboard, set a brooding scene of orchestral drone. Eventual pick slides up distortion-charged strings began to pierce like a steel stringed violin and as the distant toms grew louder, riffs briefly appeared among the more short lived rhythmic episodes and premature build ups.



What brought the sense of centrality and cohesion to the unit was the eventual swelling from a series of cues-TOMO's monk-like chants, Nobunaga's tempered drum line and Lyall's bouts of frenetic guitar and nomadic fingerings.  In full measure, these appropriate cues summed to an abrupt and resonant end to Tetragrammaton’s performance.

This tour was centered around Campbell Kneale’s (formerly Birchville Cat Motel new project, Our Love Will Destroy the World. What marked Kneale’s performance was depth- the initial shimmering notes subsequently layered upon, the vocals set at a distance along with body movements which worked to contextualize the scope of the sounds produced.



That the vocals seemed low-level tracked wasn’t weakening but rather provided a platform for Kneale to expel his deepest screams. At one point well into the set, with arms out as wide as a pastor, staggering and belting out to the crowd, Kneale appeared euphorically enthralled- ebbing, flowing and swaying his limbs, at one point gripping the sides of the table and putting the microphone fully into his mouth. The over 40 minute set wound down with a bagpipe flute run through layers of delay before reaching ears. Well into those lighter notes, Kneale faded off into the distance, trailing off with his own monkish chanting until the only thing we could hear were heavy breaths.



Back when we interviewed Yamataka EYE, EYE referenced Merzbow as an earlier influence not so much musically but more so artistically.  EYE asked if I had ever seen Akita play drums and I briefly hesitated before answering because I didn’t even know Merzbow had a background in percussion.  After that, it became a distant anecdote and so towards the end of Kikuri, after Haino had played to a drum loop he programmed minutes before, Merzbow wandered back to the drum set and gave the performance a bit of an unexpected and rather folkloric turn.  While Merzbow largely improvised on the drum kit, an eventual and steady concreté build up sprouted as the most cohesive part of Kikuri’s set. Although, with full measures of power electronics and guitar, their performance was not limited to the facade their main instruments would suggest and as we saw, both musicians had an impressive number of tricks up their sleeves.





The familiarity with either member of Kikuri still fails to prevent my expectations from dissolving. With Haino eschewing pre-gig rehearsal with collaborators, one can never know what to expect. On this evening, the duo were more coherent and complimentary than one of those cataclysmic juxtapositions. From the start, Merzbow revved subtler bass tones that seemed elasticity tests while in the usual cross-legged pose, Haino reached for a 12 string guitar, abruptly entering with iron-wrangling notes over the digital hum. These surging drones became a launching pad for Haino’s lunar-bound adventures but soon enough, Merzbow’s motorcycle accelerations turned into heavier swirls that upped the tempo.  Haino momentarily abandoned his strumming for pick slides all the way up the neck in addition to harsh pulls and palm-massages of strings. Seated convulsion followed and Haino’s strum hand began to blur the naked eye.  Through an output of introverted howls and winds via Merzbow, the time eventually came for Haino to extend his arm to the mic for some stern syllabic yelping and heavy breathing.



While Haino synched up rhythmically, it was in that lull when Merzbow stood up and reached for his strumming apparatus- a rectangular halogen light casing with tightly coiled springs in the place of a bulb which he strums like a guitar. Just that there isn’t much strumming going on, rather scratching and rubbing with a hand held metallic puck.  Occasionally varied with wah and distortion pedals, it was in that treble storm that Haino stood up and went berzerk fighting some gravitational pull on his guitar.



Moving on to use his digital theremins, zipping and revving his hands to produce a new variety sounds and warped tones, Haino actually looked like a wizard casting a spell the way his hands locked. Haino then wandered back to the amp and pulled out a metallic disc of a small bag.



The contact mics picked up everything as he played it with a mini hammer, a bow as well as lettting it jangle and scrape against the floor. In the dark, dents from earlier bouts were visible. With Akita behind the drum set, Haino returned to his guitar, where things seemed to coalesce only to be brought to an end.



Ok, thats all for now.

Photos: Cameron McKean (B/W) and John Chandler (Color)
More on our Flickr set.

The lack of posting could be a kind reflection of how hectic its been over here although, the film has pressed on and in the recent lull of posting we've actually been active at shows (Optrum, Hair Stylistics was properly exceptional) in addition to writing (Eye Yamataka interview in Dazed & Confused, Feb09), research and of course, editing footage into the darker (...and then brighter) hours of the day. Two weeks ago, one of our familiar faces, Hiroshi Hasegawa aka Astro collaborated with Batur Sonmez aka Analog Suicide from Istanbul Turkey at Shinjuku Urga. It was part of Lunatic Scope Volume 12, a line up which featured Bastard Noise, Defektro and Government Alpha.

Even though our cameraman couldn't make it at the last minute, we still followed through on Hasegawa's invitation. Afterwards, I had a nice albeit brief chat which we continued over email and so I'll post some words I translated from Hasegawa with some images to go along. We'll cut part 2 of our interview with Hasegawa-san in the near future and be sure to post a clip on our Youtube and Vimeo channels. In the meantime....



My attention was initially drawn to what seemed the latest addition to Hasegawa's fold up table- a mysterious retro-looking box and what appeared to be gold-coated paper. Hasegawa's set was centered around two metallic (about A4 size) sheets; shiny and paper thin. On where their role: "well, those metallic sheets, I had attached contact microphones which worked to pick up the friction and vibrations when I shook or slid the sheets against each other." In addition to the pedal set up below his table, Hasegawa was in true analog-form running the smaller contact microphones through a high voltage, all-tube analog annihilator; essentially the 'box' on the table which all eyes seemed to gravitate towards at one moment or another (I have a weblink if anyone wants to know). "Since my performance is based around my [analog, ed] synthesizer and effector set up, I'm somewhat limited to what extent I can move my body so these sheets gave me some more freedom not only in terms of sound but also movement."



We briefly went on to discuss collaborations and how the evening went with both Sonmez and Reiko A. While Astro was enthralled with the sheets (and the occasional reattaching of the contact mics), he commented, "of course, I think its important to not only hear, but also to be conscious of your collaborator's sounds- its very much like a regular sign that is read." Meanwhile, Reiko A's dance performance, punctuated with fixed stares, corpse-like poses on the floor as well as firmly locked ones via angular jukes, was familiar of the Butoh aesthetic in broader strokes. "Yeah, I've been playing together with Reiko for quite some time and so we I can really read her signalspretty well. From that gathered sense of communication, I've come to more fully realize the importance of her signs and movements. I can observe the movements Reiko makes, and while they are natural reactions, from my sounds, and she's expressing in a physical way, its like a language that gives me a more composite idea of what is happening during the performance."


All photos courtesy N. Yamamoto-Masson, 2009

Hiroshi Hasegawa aka Astro (Live, Tokyo October 16, 2008) from JapaneseNoiseProject on Vimeo.

Hiroshi Hasegawa, performing under the name Astro, invited us down to Earthdom in Shin Okubo to catch one of his solo sets. With a simple table propping up his audio lab: an analog synthesizer set in half of a suitcase in addition to a small mixer and some effects pedals. Almost in a ritual-like fashion, Hasegawa started his performance by lighting incense cradled in a small dish. Hasegawa’s set was rather linear and structural with introductions of sounds, drones and pulsing waves that entered so appropriately, one could assume they were time, or planned. At slower tempos, improvisation can get a bit blurry however it was clearly in real time. Enthralled, enthused and focused throughout, when the incense burned out, the set ended.

We had a great, long talk after the set with Hasegawa about the origins and motivations for his music. Hasegawa continued by filling us in on what was going on around the time when he was growing up and experimenting with his first synthesizer (which he borrowed from Mikawa of The Incapacitants).

We’ll archive that for now, but we’ll show a little performance here.

If you've stumbled upon us from either of these video sites, or not, check out our profile pages and subscribe if you feel like it. Despite a little encoding bug, we're back on track and we've got plenty of clips to come.

Youtube: http://youtube.com/user/JapaneseNoiseProject

Vimeo: http://www.vimeo.com/japanoiseproject

Thanks.

Sunday night at the quaint UFO Club in Koenji, West Tokyo. One of Tokyo’s smaller venues hallmarked by walls inked with psychedelic swirls, furniture faintly echoing mod and a deep red velvet (or velour) curtain which opens and closes performances. We were there to film The Incapacitants, a rather rarity these days in Tokyo or anywhere else for that matter. I've chosen to focus on the Incapacitants as one of the key figures in the Japanese noise and avante garde community not only because of their lengthy discography going back to the early 80s, but also because of what Toshiji Mikawa (member of Hijokaidan) and Fumio Kosakai (formerly of C.C.C.C.) work to achieve.

The Incapacitants are loud. The sonic spectrum which they command quickly vary from excerpts distorted polemics, electronic pulses and heavy drones with a rhythm all their own. The power of their performance forces grimaces of curiousity in the audience if not actual spasmic dancing- in them too. Questions like, “What constitutes music or What is noise? Is this noise? Does sound (or I as a listener) have a threshold?” can be plausibly raised. Thats not to say their highly dynamic performance isn’t ordered in such a way to bring such an organized stream of sonic chaos via their technical work. In fact, few moments of an Incapacitants performance see them wandering too far from their equipment.



Mikawa and Kosakai’s performances are something of a journey for the two- attempting to arrive at either some kind of sonic threshold or meditative “Zen.” Yes, it is perhaps an exhausted statement that extreme sounds, by virtue of their harshness, produce some kind of mental and spiritual vacuum for the performer (and listener) that can be often referred to as a kind of Zen. But I think there’s more to it. With The Incapacitants, notions of compositional structure, melody, harmony, rhythm and crescendo are paved over as if they were an obstacle along the way. But to where? Is it a place where those conventional notions of ‘music concrete’ evaporate? Even, Is this noise? Is this music? Is it an untangling of forces that bound them not only musically but personally and socially? For Kosakai and Mikawa, performance is more of a transgressive act- not just arriving somewhere but going past that. The two musicians, government employees in their 40s, seemingly deconstruct structural forces which dominate their lives. To what degree the duo is consciously, or arbitrarily, navigating in that hellish squall of sound, is one topic we touched on. Our post show interview with The Incapacitants had the two generously, and rather cheerfully, explaining their performance, thoughts on “noise music,” composition and attitudes towards loving and no-so-adoring audiences alike. With Part 1 complete, we move on to Part 2.

A bit more background about the group, the Incapacitants are one of the oldest and well-known vocal based performance acts in Japan forming in Osaka in 1981 (originally a solo project of Mikawa). While drawing attention, respect as well as admirers, their performances and tours in Japan (including the extremely rare ones abroad) have become miniscule. In 1999, they had their first performance abroad (the Music Unlimited Festival in Wels, Austria) and in 2007, they were invited to the No Fun Festival in New York, curated by Carlos Giffoni (Myspace).

Thanks to Flavio for taking photos. Video: Vicente Gutierrez. Editing: Olivier Farmarchi. For our next clip, we're now going through footage from our interview and performance encounter with Hiroshi Hasegawa- the man is deep.

We've finally emerged after a long break (read: logistical fracas) with a clip from one of the first performances and interviews we conducted. This short one (about 40 seconds) is a lull in a ferocious set by Haino, O'Rourke and Kuge. Enjoy this preview of whats to come! Haino's flailing yet concerted control of feedback is only one of the highlights from this performance's reel.

When we finalize the subtitles to our exclusive Haino interview, part 1 of which was conducted after this performance, we'll get that uploaded here as well. While we didn't really clear posting parts of our footage on youtube with Haino and O'Rourke, and while this may slightly hurt our web visibility, we're happy only posting it here.

Ok, our next post will cover last night's (Sunday Oct. 12) exclusive evening [full performance and interview] at Koenji's UFO Club with the Incapacitants. We cannot wait to show you the raw, captivating power that was their set- it was absolutely one of the most engaging, dramatic and literally hands-on endings to any live performance I have ever seen.

That said (and viewed) its good to be back. This Thursday (Oct. 16) looks like an evening with Hiroshi Hasegawa.