va - Japan Bashing Three

A classic 2x7" compilation of what was, in 1991, a strange new thing: Japanese Noise Music. For historical context, consider that in 1991, the only releases that Solmania had were some self-released cassettes that were hardly distributed (if at all?) outside of Japan. The Hanatarash released two LPs and some tapes, and Boredoms' "Pop Tatari" was still a year away. Masonna had just released his "Shinsen na Clitoris" CD on Vanilla, a small handful of cassettes, and those one-off acetate singles that no one will ever hear (and in 1991, no one particularly wanted to). The most (ahem) "well known" band on this comp was Hijokaidan, who had been very active and prolific but still virtually unknown outside of Japan. 1991 was the year they released the "Windom" CD, which is an essential classic but did not have the international impact of anything that Merzbow would put out later... and speaking of Merzbow, he was still two years away from "Venereology" and five from "Pulse Demon". All this is to say that when Public Bath issued "Japan Bashing Three", it was intended as an introduction of four very obscure and extreme bands to Western audiences who would likely be hearing of them for the first time. This absolutely had the stun-gun effect it aimed for, and the vinyl format suited it perfectly. Each side is an enormous blast of raw noise... flip the 7", and it's just as shocking. This comp booted the door open for me, and probably for lots of other people who began sifting through record shops asking for "noise music" and getting the clerks' hard stare in return.

va - Japan Bashing Three