Who: 宇宙さん(uchu-san) (vocals) and 茄子さん (nasu-san) (drums)
What: Minimal girl punk duo
Well?
Kyouran mura translates to something like "Village of madness", and I personally think this duo of the oddly stage-named Uchu-san (lit. Ms. Outerspace) and Nasu-san (lit. Ms. Eggplant) are closer to madness than a lot of other willfully "odd" Japanese acts.
Nasu-san handles the drumming with an unschooled primitivism rarely found among Tokyo musicians. Over her hectic tom rolls, Uchu-san yells lyrics from the depths of despair only an overworked school administrator can know. There's nothing cute about this duo, and I'm happy to apply the over-used term "raw" to describe them.
There is a strange tension between the spiky Uchu-san and the amiable Nasu-san, which is one of the few things about their act which does seem to be managed. At one gig, Uchu spent a few uncomfortable minutes taking Nasu to task for getting married to her older salary man boyfriend because she felt sorry for him. She also
quizzed Nasu about her ring and how much it cost, seemingly bent on humiliating the Kyouran mura rythym section in public. However, when I quizzed them about this after the show, they just shrugged and said it was all part of the show.
The vocals are obviously 50% of the Kyouran mura sound and I can't always figure out what Uchu-san is on about. One song basically consists of her chanting "I don't need pot" (”はっぱは要らない!”) over and over again. (Might help you chill out! Just sayin'...) while another one consists of her apologizing to family members. Her vocal styling runs from straight up yelling to something more like the warbly crying of traditional Japanese music.
This youtube clip (from their regular joint at Muryoku Muzenji in Koenji) doesn't do them justice, but you get the basic idea.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
河野円 （Madoka Kono）
Who: Madoka Kono (河野円)
What: Tape player feedback
Web: http://www012.upp.so-net.ne.jp/i_ma_wav/top.html
Well?
Madoka Kono is my favourite performer amongst the new batch of "Improvised Music from Japan" schoolers. At its simplest, her performance is two empty walkmen, plugged into a behringer mixer, and jammed on record/playback mode. The position of the tapeplayers relative to each other and the speakers then creates a reverby feedback loop with a rhythm provided by the stuttering of the locked walkman motors. It's a simple setup with a complex sounding result.
Lately she's added more elements to her supremely minimal setup: up to two metronomes and two additional tape players. At first I was concerned that these additions detracted from the purity of her concept without adding anything compelling to the sound. However, I was recently lucky enough to see her play such a "maximalist" set at enban and it was very good. The extra tape players created a drone controlled by their proximity to the empty walkmen, and the metronomes, used very sparingly and at their slowest tempo, created interruptions in the feedback which periodically reset the sound allowing the feedback to reestablish itself in unpredictable ways. Even the metronome bell was used to great effect: the line between the sound of the bell and the consequent feedback was blurred creating an intriguing illusion of a prolonged chime.
Madoka describes what she's trying to do better than me here.
What: Tape player feedback
Web: http://www012.upp.so-net.ne.jp/i_ma_wav/top.html
Well?
Madoka Kono is my favourite performer amongst the new batch of "Improvised Music from Japan" schoolers. At its simplest, her performance is two empty walkmen, plugged into a behringer mixer, and jammed on record/playback mode. The position of the tapeplayers relative to each other and the speakers then creates a reverby feedback loop with a rhythm provided by the stuttering of the locked walkman motors. It's a simple setup with a complex sounding result.
Lately she's added more elements to her supremely minimal setup: up to two metronomes and two additional tape players. At first I was concerned that these additions detracted from the purity of her concept without adding anything compelling to the sound. However, I was recently lucky enough to see her play such a "maximalist" set at enban and it was very good. The extra tape players created a drone controlled by their proximity to the empty walkmen, and the metronomes, used very sparingly and at their slowest tempo, created interruptions in the feedback which periodically reset the sound allowing the feedback to reestablish itself in unpredictable ways. Even the metronome bell was used to great effect: the line between the sound of the bell and the consequent feedback was blurred creating an intriguing illusion of a prolonged chime.
Madoka describes what she's trying to do better than me here.
Friday, March 18, 2011
Lists #2: First five records listened to post-earthquake
Haven't been much in the mood for music in the last week. Too much news to filter, or rather, too much John Cage music to listen to. If you know what I mean.
Anyway, this morning, we decided to clean up the house a bit.
(Sample of the conversation:
Me: There's been a huge disaster. What's the point of cleaning the house?
I.: Let's clean up the house! )
When cleaning, music isn't optional, so I had to decide what to listen to.
#1: Charles Wuorinen, Time's encomium (Nonesuch)
Great piece of earlyish electronic music (the composer was born in 1938).
I love old computer/synthesizer music by composer boffins. Particularly on vinyl.
Somehow seems a bit steampunk.
#2: Television, Marquee Moon (Warner/Pioneer)
Started this on the B-side which is odd for me, but I had "Elevation" in my head. I used to think that he was singing "Television, don't go to my head" and that this song was the Television theme song. Eventually, I guess I looked at the title of the song. K.D. told me I should listen to this a long time ago, but I only really got into it when I. copied me the CD about 4 years ago. Nice to have it on record.
#3: Autechre, Ep 7.1 (Warp)
On record it's broken into to LPs, 7.1 being the first. My second fave Autechre record after Confield.
#4: Gregory Issacs, The Early Years (Compilation on Trojan)
"Sinner Man" is a great song. RIP Mr Issacs.
#5: Flying Saucer Attack, Distance (Domino)
Started on side 2. Skipped straight to "December Mist".
It's been a long time since I listened to it... it's hard to describe how
good this song is. "Good" isn't even the right word. Imagine sticking your head into a portal, maybe some kind of diver's helmet. Through the grimy visor, you can see and hear a murky, distant world.
Anyway, this morning, we decided to clean up the house a bit.
(Sample of the conversation:
Me: There's been a huge disaster. What's the point of cleaning the house?
I.: Let's clean up the house! )
When cleaning, music isn't optional, so I had to decide what to listen to.
#1: Charles Wuorinen, Time's encomium (Nonesuch)
Great piece of earlyish electronic music (the composer was born in 1938).
I love old computer/synthesizer music by composer boffins. Particularly on vinyl.
Somehow seems a bit steampunk.
#2: Television, Marquee Moon (Warner/Pioneer)
Started this on the B-side which is odd for me, but I had "Elevation" in my head. I used to think that he was singing "Television, don't go to my head" and that this song was the Television theme song. Eventually, I guess I looked at the title of the song. K.D. told me I should listen to this a long time ago, but I only really got into it when I. copied me the CD about 4 years ago. Nice to have it on record.
#3: Autechre, Ep 7.1 (Warp)
On record it's broken into to LPs, 7.1 being the first. My second fave Autechre record after Confield.
#4: Gregory Issacs, The Early Years (Compilation on Trojan)
"Sinner Man" is a great song. RIP Mr Issacs.
#5: Flying Saucer Attack, Distance (Domino)
Started on side 2. Skipped straight to "December Mist".
It's been a long time since I listened to it... it's hard to describe how
good this song is. "Good" isn't even the right word. Imagine sticking your head into a portal, maybe some kind of diver's helmet. Through the grimy visor, you can see and hear a murky, distant world.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Lists #1: Three websites for hysterical relatives
Several links for hysterical relatives to check so that they can see radiation montoring, etc (in Japanese, but better than nothing) ;)
1. http://doko.in/micro/ - Daily 24 hour radiation monoitoring of each major area in Japan. It's in Japanese so look for 東京都(新宿区) = Tokyo metropolis(Shinjuku ward) .
As of yesterday Tokyo is a flat line at around the background level
2. http://www.aist.go.jp/taisaku/ja/measurement/ - In Tsukuba (just north of Tokyo) , AIST (home of some nifty superconductor experiments) has a disaster prevention centre which posts hourly updates of the radiation measured there. Updates are a bit slow.
3. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/ - English news from a Japanese perspective
They may not spend as much time as western media covering the reactors, as they also have the task of covering the human misery caused by the tsunami.
Also, how about those amazing plant workers who are sacrificing their lives (if not immediately than probably from radiation sickness) to try to save their country from a second nuclear calamity (if I may group Hiroshima and Nagasaki). Amazing people.
Peace.
1. http://doko.in/micro/ - Daily 24 hour radiation monoitoring of each major area in Japan. It's in Japanese so look for 東京都(新宿区) = Tokyo metropolis(Shinjuku ward) .
As of yesterday Tokyo is a flat line at around the background level
2. http://www.aist.go.jp/taisaku/ja/measurement/ - In Tsukuba (just north of Tokyo) , AIST (home of some nifty superconductor experiments) has a disaster prevention centre which posts hourly updates of the radiation measured there. Updates are a bit slow.
3. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/ - English news from a Japanese perspective
They may not spend as much time as western media covering the reactors, as they also have the task of covering the human misery caused by the tsunami.
Also, how about those amazing plant workers who are sacrificing their lives (if not immediately than probably from radiation sickness) to try to save their country from a second nuclear calamity (if I may group Hiroshima and Nagasaki). Amazing people.
Peace.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Special #1: Our love will destroy the world @ Ikenoue Gari Gari
What: O.L.W.D.T.W, Suzuki Junzo, Cal Lyal vs. Tomo, Ezra Woolnough & Dave McMahon duo
When: Sunday 13th March
Thought that I'd do an occasional entry on a whole concert. Two days after touching down in Tokyo on 3/11, only to be greeted by Japan's largest earthquake since records began, Campbell Kneale played at one of Tokyo's shonkiest (in the most awesome sense of the word) character bars - Gari Gari in Ikenoue. Everyone was still nervy after Friday's quake, which made Gari Gari seem an odd place to put on a gig to me at first. Gari Gari has a flimsy look to it - a plywood shack created in a Tokyo basement. However, the genius of a post-earthquake gig at Gari Gari is that the floor is already so bouncy, that aftershocks can't be distinguished from people walking around.
Junzo Suzuki was up first with a solo noise-guitar set. It was deep, thick and nasty, appropriately like a force of nature, and one of the best things that I've seen him do.
Then Ezra and Dave (who often play at Gari Gari with Cal Lyall as Jahiliyyah) pulled out the single best thing I've seen them do - a cold ambient set with tinges of new age.
Tokyo's first Gaijin of noise Cal Lyall (or second perhaps, if you count Jim O'Rourke) and Tomo pulled back from the loud drone they practice with a drummer as Tetragrammaton. It was a choppy set of acoustic guitar and hurdy gurdy, which really took off when Cal started bowing his guitar.
Finally, Our Love Will Destroy The World topped off a night of surprising restraint with a set of utter excess. Campbell Kneale has reinvented his sound again, and it's great. Starting with duelling Tabla beats, Campbell whipped up a frenzy playing his guitar through what is possibly the best guitar pedal I have ever heard. The set ended with sounds straight out of Bad Comany's "The nine", which finally faded into some killer choral music. It was an ecstatic mash-up, and it worked perfectly.
When: Sunday 13th March
Thought that I'd do an occasional entry on a whole concert. Two days after touching down in Tokyo on 3/11, only to be greeted by Japan's largest earthquake since records began, Campbell Kneale played at one of Tokyo's shonkiest (in the most awesome sense of the word) character bars - Gari Gari in Ikenoue. Everyone was still nervy after Friday's quake, which made Gari Gari seem an odd place to put on a gig to me at first. Gari Gari has a flimsy look to it - a plywood shack created in a Tokyo basement. However, the genius of a post-earthquake gig at Gari Gari is that the floor is already so bouncy, that aftershocks can't be distinguished from people walking around.
Junzo Suzuki was up first with a solo noise-guitar set. It was deep, thick and nasty, appropriately like a force of nature, and one of the best things that I've seen him do.
Then Ezra and Dave (who often play at Gari Gari with Cal Lyall as Jahiliyyah) pulled out the single best thing I've seen them do - a cold ambient set with tinges of new age.
Tokyo's first Gaijin of noise Cal Lyall (or second perhaps, if you count Jim O'Rourke) and Tomo pulled back from the loud drone they practice with a drummer as Tetragrammaton. It was a choppy set of acoustic guitar and hurdy gurdy, which really took off when Cal started bowing his guitar.
Finally, Our Love Will Destroy The World topped off a night of surprising restraint with a set of utter excess. Campbell Kneale has reinvented his sound again, and it's great. Starting with duelling Tabla beats, Campbell whipped up a frenzy playing his guitar through what is possibly the best guitar pedal I have ever heard. The set ended with sounds straight out of Bad Comany's "The nine", which finally faded into some killer choral music. It was an ecstatic mash-up, and it worked perfectly.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Diversions #2: A very large earthquake
I'm not sure if it's tasteful to write about today's huge earthquake from Tokyo, given that we were spared the brunt here while near the epicentre, Miyagi-ken was hammered. Given that people in Christchurch are still suffering too, my tales of a slightly inconvenienced Tokyo are probably unnecessary. But despite the lack of damage to most of Tokyo, this was a major quake even here.
On the 7th floor of the building where I work, Tokyo locals were saying that it was the largest earthquake they had ever felt. It was the first time I've felt compelled to slide under my desk during a quake, and also the first time a quake here has been treated with anything other than nonchalance by the Japanese people who I work with. A few days earlier my boss had assured me that our building was one of the strongest in the university - built with thicker concrete to keep vibrations as low as possible for the experiments, but images of the CTV building in Christchurch played through my mind as the shaking continued to get stronger and books started falling of the shelves.
After the quake stopped, and after the first few big aftershocks, I decided to go home to help I. clean up the house, where plates and glasses had apparently been smashed. (She didn't tell me that a large shelf had toppled over right where my head would have been if the earthquake had have happened while I was sleeping at night).
The phone system was overloaded and useless (still is some 6 hours later), but email was still working a treat. I managed to receive sms's, have gchats with numerous people and write a bunch of emails all in spite of the non-functional cell phone voice network. It sure is nice to be connected when disaster strikes.
The Keio line had stopped running, so to get home I had to trek the 15 kms from Chofu to Koenji - mostly up Koshu-kaido ave. one of the main routes from Shinjuku to West Tokyo. There were no signs of damage anywhere - the worst I saw on my hike up Koshu-kaido was a few broken tiles on an old house, and a single pane of broken glass in an apartment building. Some 40 minutes after the main quake, the security at a Pachinko parlour apologized to their evacuated patrons and started herding them back in to the building. Shops were open, although mostly empty of customers. People whispered that it hadn't been "the big one". Despite this normalcy,
small signs appeared that it was not a normal day. Large queues formed to use the toilets at convenience stores as people walking home got caught short. Chofu's surreal mass communication speaker system came online to convey a message so distant sounding and echo-laden, that I couldn't make out a word.
The effect on Tokyo's rail system was an almost total shutdown. Half way up Koshu-kaido, a trickle of people walking in the opposite direction turned into a torrent worthy of Shinjuku station. Roads that were usually free of pedestrians were clogged with them particularly if they corresponded to train routes (Koshu-kaido follows the Keio line, Inokashira-dori follows the Keio-inokashira line; both where thronging like Centre-gai on Friday night). Some people wore hard hats which made me feel nervous (and slightly jealous that their companies valued them enough to provide them with protective head-gear!).
After three hours, I finally made it to Meidaimae and picked up my bike, which had a flat tyre. After pumping it up at a police station, it took me another 40 minutes to finally get home.
Apart from a nasty refinery fire and a collapsed roof in a mall, it looks like Tokyo escaped relatively unscathed this time. Tokyo locals fully expect the Kanto region to receive massive damage in an earthquake in the next 30 years though, so the respite this time is more cause for nervousness than relief. The aftershocks (coming once every 20 minutes at the moment) will probably cause some trouble for the trains over the following weeks. Still, after seeing footage of the Tsunami enveloping broad swathes of land in Miyagi-ken, thinking of the numerous dead in the latest earthquake to hit China, not to mention the unimaginable awfulness of Christchurch, I can't help but feel pretty lucky right now.
Added 3/12: I remembered that one awful part about my walk home was how crazy it seemed to make some people. The worst thing I've seen with my own eyes by far in Tokyo after the quake was a driver speeding through an intersection after the light turned red and nearly ploughing into a woman crossing the road. I've never seen such appalling driving before in Tokyo. I also remember an old man clutching a post on the pavement as a tide of people flowed past. I wondered who would help him. (My own pathetic excuse was that I was going the opposite way, and I doubt an Ojiisan would understand my funny sounding Japanese). A lot of other old people must have been lost and scared in the confusion.
On the bright side, Ganesha curry house is still standing despite being one of the flimsiest looking wooden stalls in Harmonica-street in Kichijoji.
Lastly, please excuse the lack of links; pretty bad form in a blog, but there doesn't seem like much point at the moment. And we've all seen enough tsunami porn already, right?
On the 7th floor of the building where I work, Tokyo locals were saying that it was the largest earthquake they had ever felt. It was the first time I've felt compelled to slide under my desk during a quake, and also the first time a quake here has been treated with anything other than nonchalance by the Japanese people who I work with. A few days earlier my boss had assured me that our building was one of the strongest in the university - built with thicker concrete to keep vibrations as low as possible for the experiments, but images of the CTV building in Christchurch played through my mind as the shaking continued to get stronger and books started falling of the shelves.
After the quake stopped, and after the first few big aftershocks, I decided to go home to help I. clean up the house, where plates and glasses had apparently been smashed. (She didn't tell me that a large shelf had toppled over right where my head would have been if the earthquake had have happened while I was sleeping at night).
The phone system was overloaded and useless (still is some 6 hours later), but email was still working a treat. I managed to receive sms's, have gchats with numerous people and write a bunch of emails all in spite of the non-functional cell phone voice network. It sure is nice to be connected when disaster strikes.
The Keio line had stopped running, so to get home I had to trek the 15 kms from Chofu to Koenji - mostly up Koshu-kaido ave. one of the main routes from Shinjuku to West Tokyo. There were no signs of damage anywhere - the worst I saw on my hike up Koshu-kaido was a few broken tiles on an old house, and a single pane of broken glass in an apartment building. Some 40 minutes after the main quake, the security at a Pachinko parlour apologized to their evacuated patrons and started herding them back in to the building. Shops were open, although mostly empty of customers. People whispered that it hadn't been "the big one". Despite this normalcy,
small signs appeared that it was not a normal day. Large queues formed to use the toilets at convenience stores as people walking home got caught short. Chofu's surreal mass communication speaker system came online to convey a message so distant sounding and echo-laden, that I couldn't make out a word.
The effect on Tokyo's rail system was an almost total shutdown. Half way up Koshu-kaido, a trickle of people walking in the opposite direction turned into a torrent worthy of Shinjuku station. Roads that were usually free of pedestrians were clogged with them particularly if they corresponded to train routes (Koshu-kaido follows the Keio line, Inokashira-dori follows the Keio-inokashira line; both where thronging like Centre-gai on Friday night). Some people wore hard hats which made me feel nervous (and slightly jealous that their companies valued them enough to provide them with protective head-gear!).
After three hours, I finally made it to Meidaimae and picked up my bike, which had a flat tyre. After pumping it up at a police station, it took me another 40 minutes to finally get home.
Apart from a nasty refinery fire and a collapsed roof in a mall, it looks like Tokyo escaped relatively unscathed this time. Tokyo locals fully expect the Kanto region to receive massive damage in an earthquake in the next 30 years though, so the respite this time is more cause for nervousness than relief. The aftershocks (coming once every 20 minutes at the moment) will probably cause some trouble for the trains over the following weeks. Still, after seeing footage of the Tsunami enveloping broad swathes of land in Miyagi-ken, thinking of the numerous dead in the latest earthquake to hit China, not to mention the unimaginable awfulness of Christchurch, I can't help but feel pretty lucky right now.
Added 3/12: I remembered that one awful part about my walk home was how crazy it seemed to make some people. The worst thing I've seen with my own eyes by far in Tokyo after the quake was a driver speeding through an intersection after the light turned red and nearly ploughing into a woman crossing the road. I've never seen such appalling driving before in Tokyo. I also remember an old man clutching a post on the pavement as a tide of people flowed past. I wondered who would help him. (My own pathetic excuse was that I was going the opposite way, and I doubt an Ojiisan would understand my funny sounding Japanese). A lot of other old people must have been lost and scared in the confusion.
On the bright side, Ganesha curry house is still standing despite being one of the flimsiest looking wooden stalls in Harmonica-street in Kichijoji.
Lastly, please excuse the lack of links; pretty bad form in a blog, but there doesn't seem like much point at the moment. And we've all seen enough tsunami porn already, right?
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Vegetus
Who: Vegetus is the solo project of 富樫てっぺい (Teppei Togashi)
What: Noise
Link: Vegetus myspace
Well?
In terms of buzz, it might be better to focus more on Teppei's duo with Amano Takuya オゼ (which they spell "Oser" in English, but is phonetically closer to "o-ze").
That duo has been playing some excellent gigs in Tokyo of late - see here for Working Towards blogs handy video of a gig I missed - and are even in line to be released on a PSF Tokyo flashback CD - approval from the old guard! In my opinion, although I'm sure Teppei wouldn't be so rude as to agree with me, Oze is managing to save Japan noise music from the increasingly stodgy old guard.
Vegetus, Teppei's solo project, is also a noise project of great listenability which for me is a welcome replacement for Merzbow (who didn't thrill me either of the two times I've seen him live) or any of the numerous pedal-noise acts I've seen in Tokyo in the last four years. What's more, Vegetus is just as vegan as the original shogun of noise, dances a lot better, and is a generally warm person.
Some might argue that in decades past, Japan's society was more stifling than what it has become, and that people like Keiji Haino and Masami Akita needed to have a tough exterior to exist on the fringes of such a strict culture. Perhaps approachability is just a luxury the slowly relaxing Japan of today didn't afford the first wave of noise musicians. Nonetheless, it's a welcome characteristic.
Here's a video where Vegetus projects noise from a balcony overlooking a lake.
What: Noise
Link: Vegetus myspace
Well?
In terms of buzz, it might be better to focus more on Teppei's duo with Amano Takuya オゼ (which they spell "Oser" in English, but is phonetically closer to "o-ze").
That duo has been playing some excellent gigs in Tokyo of late - see here for Working Towards blogs handy video of a gig I missed - and are even in line to be released on a PSF Tokyo flashback CD - approval from the old guard! In my opinion, although I'm sure Teppei wouldn't be so rude as to agree with me, Oze is managing to save Japan noise music from the increasingly stodgy old guard.
Vegetus, Teppei's solo project, is also a noise project of great listenability which for me is a welcome replacement for Merzbow (who didn't thrill me either of the two times I've seen him live) or any of the numerous pedal-noise acts I've seen in Tokyo in the last four years. What's more, Vegetus is just as vegan as the original shogun of noise, dances a lot better, and is a generally warm person.
Some might argue that in decades past, Japan's society was more stifling than what it has become, and that people like Keiji Haino and Masami Akita needed to have a tough exterior to exist on the fringes of such a strict culture. Perhaps approachability is just a luxury the slowly relaxing Japan of today didn't afford the first wave of noise musicians. Nonetheless, it's a welcome characteristic.
Here's a video where Vegetus projects noise from a balcony overlooking a lake.
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