Bleak Bliss: May 2018

Appi - Wie Ich Dir, So Do Mie

An obscure German LP of weird noise by an obscure, weird German named Andre Aspelmeier. He would go on to make friendlier electronic music as half of Incite/, but this recording shows his rough and feverish beginnings. Lots of short, noisy songs of homemade blurt recorded between 1986 and 1988, released on wax in 1988 on Music for Pressure, which I assume is his own label.

Appi - Wie Ich Dir, So Do Mie

Astro Twin & Cosmos - Untitled

Astro Twin is the duo of the "howling voice" of Ami Yoshida and the analog synth of Utah Kawasaki. Cosmos is Ami and Sachiko M (aka Sachiko Matsubara of Ground Zero, Filament and a host of Otomo collaborations). Both sets of collaborations appear to have been relatively short lived and "limited" to a live environment. If you don't understand Off Site then this might drive you to distraction ... always a good thing in our book.

I was going to post the only other extant Cosmos release but the recently created and lavishly stocked Erstwhile bandcamp has it here.

As a consolation prize, here's Cosmos Live in Vancouver in 2004.

Anyway ... as I was saying ... here's a Double CD released on F.M.N. Sound Factory in 2002.

Untitled

Masahiko Okura / Taku Sugimoto / Taku Unami - Chamber Music Concerts Vol. 1

It's chamber music Jim, but not as we know it!

This is how genii mess with your mind whilst simultaneously improving your life.

Triple CD released on Hibari Music, Slub Music and Load Factor.

Chamber Music Concerts Vol. 1

NRA - Untitled

This band has nothing to do with firearms and everything to do with intense free-improvisation by the trio of Tatsuya Nakatani (drums and percussion), Vic Rawlings (amplified cello and crackling electronics) and Ricardo Arias (amplified balloons). The band name is their initials. Not very clever in 2018, and probably not in 2005 (when this was released) either. It was put out as a CD by Free103point9, a label affiliated with a pirate radio station and performance space that existed in Brooklyn NY for awhile. Now, I know what you're thinking: "balloons"?! Just listen. Arias' contributions sound alternately like a bowed string instrument and like percussive textures, so the group makes more sense than you might expect.

NRA - Untitled

Wheaton Research - Living Under A Thin Film

This starts. At first you don't realise that it has. It has. It makes things vibrate that I'd forgotten that I owned. It turns out that I do own them. I don't know why I bought them. Things stop vibrating and settle into unsettling noise drones and the occasional broken instrument. The final track is "Song For Taku Sugimoto". It's Brent live in Chicago. Discogs says that it is played on a 20 string bass. It's not. That would be ridiculous. How big would your hands need to be. Very big I would imagine. I don't know. It's also got Jim O'Rourke, Kevin Drumm, Rob Bruff, Thomas Deater and Todd Carter (who was in TV Pow with Brent). I know that last bit.

CDr released on Bake Records in 1999.

Living Under A Thin Film

Wheaton Research / Entsounds - 3" Split #1 Of 6

20 tracks and 20 minutes of jumpy glitch pulses ... and I've never seen any others in the series (if they even exist).

3" CDr released on COTW.

3" Split #1 Of 6

Wheaton Research - Tokyo 02.00

Ostensibly, Wheaton Research is Brent Gutzeit and/or whoever else he is playing with at the time. This a series of live recordings from a visit to Japan that features Toshimaru Nakamura, Tetuzi Akiyama, Taku Sugimoto, Otomo Yoshihide, Kazumoto Endo, Daisuke Naganuma, Masaki Iwasaki, Shigeyoshi Hosoda and Brian Labycz. It closes with a Tokyo field recording. Unsurprisingly, it's very good!

CDr released on Brent's BOXmedia in 2000.

Tokyo 02.00

Sugimoto Taku - Myshkin Musicu For Electric Guitar

Although there is a 10 minute live collaboration with Kevin Drumm, Atsuko Ono, Michael Hartman, Michael Colligan, Brent Gutzeit and Tetuzi Akiyama, this is largely a solo outing. The notes hang in the air long after he has left the room.

CD released on his own Slub Music in 1996.

Myshkin Musicu For Electric Guitar

Pluramon - Render Bandits

Second (and, in my opinion, best) album by Markus Schmickler's instrumental rock band. Schmickler is joined by Joachin Ruckert and the legendary Jaki Liebzeit (of Can, duh) on drums, and Frank Dommert and Jan St. Werner (of Mouse on Mars) on electronics. Released by Mille Plateaux in 1998.

Pluramon - Render Bandits

Kevin Drumm & Taku Sugimoto - Duo

A subtle collaboration that is quite typical of the label aesthetic.

CD released on Atsushi Sasaki's Meme label in 1998.

Duo

Kevin Drumm • Taku Sugimoto - Folie Á Deux

Here, the two separate and communicate directly through their own improvised work. The more you listen, the more it rewards.

CD released on BOXmedia in 1998

Folie Á Deux

NRA - Untitled

Debut album of improvised ruckus by Tatsuya Nakatani, Vic Rawlings and Ricardo Arias. Released as a CD in 2004 by Nakatani's H & H Productions label. I wonder if the label name is a reference to this amazing thing?

NRA - Untitled

Taku Sugimoto - Kevin Drumm - Den

Taku Sugimoto on guitar with Kevin Drumm adding a bit of guitar and a lot of electronics. A genuinely refreshing release that makes the bad stuff go away for a while.

CD released on Sonaris in 2000.

Den

Stillupstepya - Stories Part Five

Stillupstepya's most confident album, 2001's "Stories Part Five" might also be the best album to come out on Ritornell. Ice cold laptop drone menace, interrupted by rude digital slashing so that you can't get too comfortable. The band's self-effacing sense of humor is made plain by the fabulous cover pic of the band posing like alien royalty in elaborate capes, cowls, shiny shorts and sunglasses.

Stillupstepya - Stories Part Five

EXIAS-J Electric Conception - Balance Of Chaos (2003.10.30-11.6 Live In New York)

From cryptic subdued improvisations through interludes of explosive noise rock and back again.

CD released on P.S.F. Records in 2004.

Balance Of Chaos

Stillupstepya - Interferences Are Often Requested - Reverse Tendency As Parts Become Nearly Nothing

For their 1999 album on techno-fetish label Ritornell, unpredictable Icelandic trio Stillupstepya present several tracks of confusingly mangled digital hum that are more irritating than ambient. Some sections sound almost exactly like my refrigerator. My husband hates it. I like it, but not as much as the excellent Stillupstepya album I'm going to post next...

Stillupstepya - Interferences Are Often Requested - Reverse Tendency As Parts Become Nearly Nothing

EXIAS-J Electric Conception - Avant-Garde (2002.11.17 Live At Aire-gin, Yokohama)

I'm not sure but maybe Electric Conception is the touring arm of EXIAS-J ... discogs has the membership wrong, this is the full EXIAS-J line-up and yes Nishizawa Naoto is back behind the kit.

CD released on P.S.F. Records in 2003.

Avant-Garde

va - Maschinelle Stratageme

Sort of a statement of purpose from techno label Mille Plateaux's abstract/experimental offshoot, Ritornell. Released in 2000 at the height of the inexplicable popularity of post-techno computer music, it features several established artists and a few whose entire existence began and ended with the "glitch" bubble. Music by Achim Wollschied (aka SBOTHI), Dean Roberts, Akira Rabeleis, Taylor Deupree, Sony Mao, Terre Thaemlitz, Oyvind Idso, Stillupstepya, Autopoesis, Kim Cascone (of course), Full Swing (aka Stephen Mathieu), Thomas Meinecke's Framus Waikiki (who?), Christoph Charles, and an improvisation by the group of Keith Rowe, Oren Ambarchi, Fennesz, Pimmon, and Peter Rehberg (aka Pita).

va - Maschinelle Stratageme

Sabu Toyozumi / EXIAS-J - Son's Scapegoat

When you are more formally known as the Experimental Improvisers' Association of Japan, I reckon EXIAS-J is less of a mouthful. Kanda Shin-Ichiro on piano, Kawasaki Jun on contrabass, Kondo Hideaki and Tanikawa Takuo on guitars and Tetsuya Miyazaki on electronics. Usually, Nishizawa Naoto handles the drums but, on this occasion, Sabu has nicked his seat.

CD released on Siwa in 2005.

Son's Scapegoat

Shirt Trax - Good News About Space

Bloodless and (purposefully?) unsatisfying digital yuck from Mark Fell, released by OR (a sublabel of Touch) in 1999 at a time. Skittery laptop nonsense that ought to appeal to fans of similarly anti-human artists like Farmers Manual, Hecker, Evol or Beautyon.

Shirt Trax - Good News About Space

Abe-Toyozumi Duo - Overhang-Party (A Memorial To Kaoru Abe)

A series of recordings that were originally released as a double LP on ALM-Uranoia in 1979. Kaoru Abe offers up various improvised performances utilising alto clarinet, guitar, harmonica, piano, marimba and alto saxophone in a variety of improvisations. Sabu stays in his impressive seat and simply does his thing!

Double CD reissue on ALM Records in 1995.

Overhang-Party (A Memorial To Kaoru Abe)

Kaoru Abe - Solo Live At Gaya

I appreciate that if you don't get free-form jazz/sax then you are having a bad week on here. Ah well!

If you do, then you will already know that Kaoru Abe was the epitome. Between 1990 and 1991, DIW released 10 volumes of his Solo Live At Gaya sets. In 1995, they brought them all together as an 11 disc box set with the true bonus of "Kaoru Abe and Yoshisaburo Toyozumi - Duo Live At Gaya" that features two sessions recorded in 1977 and 1978 respectively.

It's all in 16bit flac and weighs in at around 2.7GB. Deocliciano, I hope you've finally got around to buying a new external drive!

one

two

three

four

five

six

seven

eight

nine

ten

eleven

Toyozumi Unit - The Masterpiece

Kazutoki Umezu on bass clarinet and alto sax, Hiroaki Katayama on tenor and baritone sax, Haruki Sato on the old trombone with Sabu in his usual seat.

Simply gorgeous!

16bit flac rip of the (apparently) never reissued LP released on ALM-Uranoia in 1981.

The Masterpiece

Sabu Toyozumi - Kosai Yujyo

This is a collaborative process featuring a host of (almost exclusively) European artists which gives this a distinctly different feel to the previous Sabu projects that I've posted. There are sections that bring 200 Motels into my mind's eye ... I consider that a good thing.

Double CD released on Improvising Beings and INaudible in 2012.

Kosai Yujyo

Der Mußikant - Distanz

A 2005 CD that compiles songs originally released in 1980, 1981 and 1982. They were taken from the "Schöne Musik Für Schöne Menschen Aus Einer Schönen Welt", "Huch" and "Unerhört" cassettes by Der Lustige Musikant, "Kleine Seele Springst Im Tanze..." tape by Der Ewige Musikant, the "Veitstanz" 7" by Der Künftige Musikant, plus one song taken from a compilation LP. Of course, all of those "bands" are just Rolf Schobert under various pseudonyms, and they all sound pretty similar too: stark, austere yet jaunty synth-pop with a typically German silliness. Recommended for fans of the Tape Attack blog, or anyone interested in the sub-sub-underground of DIY bare-bones synth bands that sprang up in the wake of DAF, Suicide, and The Human League.

Der Mußikant - Distanz

Kaoru Abe & Sabu Toyozumi - Overhang Party / Senzei

There is little that needs to be said apart from that this contains previously unreleased material recorded live at Gaya in Tokyo in 1978. Much much more Live At Gaya coming soon ...

Double LP released on Qbico in 2004.

Overhang Party / Senzei

Yoshisaburoh Toyozumi - Sabu - Message To Chicago

When Sabu says that this is a message to Chicago, he really means it. It's a message of love and respect. It's a message to Roscoe Mitchell and Malachi Favors straight from the heart.

Naturally, Sabu is behind the kit and there's Ukaji Shoji wrestling with a baritone sax and Ryo Hara on piano (both of them were members of New Jazz Syndicate).

Originally an LP released in 1974, it took another 19 years before anybody thought that people who weren't there at the time might love this.

CD released on PJL in 2003.

Sabu - Message To Chicago

Sabu Brötzmann Duo - Live In Japan 1982

Obviously this is Sabu and Peter Brötzmann in full on drum and sax collapse construction. If that's not enough then I am wasting my time.

CD released on Improvised Company in an edition of 750 in 1999.

Discogs has this as an edition of 350. It's self evidently not. Even though 750 is a small edition, maybe the misreporting goes some way to explaining why it's on sale there for £212.85. I'm in a grouchy mood ... but just saying.

Live In Japan 1982

Bailey, Sabu, Brötzmann - Live In Okayama

Derek Bailey, Peter Brötzmann and Sabu Toyozumi. Peter and Sabu on the first, Derek flying solo on the second. All setting up the finale where all three wreck the joint. Free form jazz collapse at your pleasure!

CD released in Japan on Improvised Company in 2000 in an edition of 550.

Live In Okayama

Ambre - Nebka/Térébrant

Ambient 7" single released in an edition of 100 copies by Klanggalerie (the successor to Syntactic) in 2002.

Ambre - Nebka-Térébrant

Hayashi, Otomo, Toyozumi - The Crushed Pellet

Eiichi Hayashi on Alto and Soprano Saxophone, Otomo Yoshihide on Guitar, Turntables, Waterphone (?) and Small Objects (?!) and the legendary Sabu Toyozumi on drums. Just in case Yoshizaburo Toyozumi needs an introduction ... he's played alongside Anthony Braxton, Peter Brötzmann, Kaoru Abe, Hijokaidan and many more. It's all mighty fine!

Double CD released on Improvised Company in 1999 in an edition of only 550.

The Crushed Pellet

Jun Togawa Unit - 極東慰安唱歌

Saccharine synth-pop that was originally released as an LP on Yen Records in 1985. Some of it is great, some of it makes me wince, some of it makes me laugh out loud. Reason enough I think.

CD released on Alfa in 1993.

Kyokutou Ian Shouka

Tomokawa Kazuki - 未発表ライブ 10枚組Box

Did somebody say that they wanted some more? Then how about a collection of live recordings ranging from 1985 to 2009?

Ten CD box set jointly released on P.S.F. Records and Youth Inc. in 2013.

one to four

five to seven

eight to ten

Tomokawa Kazuki - 星のプロセス = Hoshi no Process

One thing is certain, Tomokawa Kazuki doesn't like to limit his talents: folk singer, artist, actor, snappy dresser and all around raconteur. And all of the rest. These three discs compile previously released tracks, live material and previously unreleased tracks. The guitar on the first track goes off a bit Pink Floyd ... if your allergic to such extravagance, don't let it put you off too much, there's gold in them there hills.

Triple CD released on P.S.F. Records in 1998.

星のプロセス

Gaspar Claus - Jo Ha Kyü

This is (in effect) the Occidental version that contains the same title track with two different First Contacts which I assume are the full recordings with Hiromishi Sakamoto and Otomo Yoshihide.

CD released on Important Records in 2013.

Jo Ha Kyü

Gaspar Claus - Jo Ha Kyü

Apparently, Jo Ha Kyü approximately translates to "beginning, break, rapid" in that all things should begin slowly, accelerate, and then end quickly. Gaspar spent three weeks in Japan recording with a treasure trove of musicians and (I'm assuming that) these recordings were then edited and mixed to create the magnificent title track.

On the title track there are: Eiko Ishibashi (vocals, piano and drums); Keiji Haino (vocals); Kakushin Nishihara (vocals and satsuma biwa); Ryuichi Sakamoto (piano); Hiromichi Sakamoto (electric cello); Sachiko M (sine wave); Otomo Yoshihide (turntable); Leonard Eto (wadaiko); Kazutoki Umezu (tenor saxophone); Kazuki Tomokawa (voice, guitar); and (obviously) Gaspar Claus throughout on cello.

On this Japanese digital edition there are also three additional "First Contacts" with Sachiko M, Eiko Ishibashi and Keiji Haino respectively that I again assume are the full recordings of their collaborations.

CD released on Modest Launch in 2013.

Jo Ha Kyü

Yasunao Tone - Untitled

Tone's career spans all the way back to the 1960s, when he was a key figure in the legendary and influential Group Ongaku and was at the forefront of radical Japanese avant-garde music and performance art. This eponymous album was released by the Asphodel label in 2003.

Yasunao Tone - Untitled

John Duncan & Carl Michael von Hausswolff - Our Telluric Conversation

John Duncan collaborating with Carl Michael von Hausswolff (aka King Michael I of The Kingdoms Of Elgaland-Vargaland) makes perfect sense. Even by the high standards rightly expected, this is a subtle triumph. Subdued and sparking drone meets spoken word noise.

CD released on 23five in 2006.

Our Telluric Conversation

va - Vatra/Brand

No idea what to make of this 1997 CD compilation, so I'm just going to leave it here for you. Five tracks by some people I've never heard of: NURR, Ivan Faktor, subREAL. One track by Sluik/Koerpershoek (you may have heard Ron Sluik's "Back to Burnsley" on Minimal Wave) and one by Kees de Groot (who made two cassettes of stark synth bloop in 1982). The disc ends with one long untitled track for which no artist is credited. What does it all mean? I haven't a clue.

va - Vatra/Brand

John Duncan - First Recordings 1978-1985 V1.2

... and just when you thought it couldn't get any better. This collection has a predominant focus on the early vinyl releases including his collaboration with Chris Carter and Cosey Fanni-Tutti and John's connections with the Los Angeles Free Music Society. Very recommended!

A glorious five LP and 7" box set released on the much lamented Vinyl-on-demand in 2012.

First

Recordings

va - Ohrenschrauben/Ohrensausen

Double CD reissue of two excellent industrial compilations originally released as two separate LPs in 1985 by HNAS' Dom label in Germany. The reissue came out on the related Dragnet label in 1990. Quite a varied line-up of tape-splice tomfoolery, austere electric buzz, ugly noises and who-the-hell-knows electronic weirdness. There's some truly great stuff on here, including wonderful songs by P16.D4, Vagina Dentata Organ, Whitehouse, Toll, Current 93, The New Blockaders & Organum, Nurse With Wound, Chrystal Belle Scrod, Smegma, The Haters, Sema, Asmus Tietchens, and HNAS in a few guises (as themselves, and masquerading as Duka Bass Band and Mieses Gegonge).

disc 1
disc 2

John Duncan - First Recordings 1978-1985

Wonderful collection of early tape releases from Mr Duncan receiving the loving VOD touch.

Triple LP released on Vinyl-on-demand in 2006.

First Recordings 1978-1985

John Duncan & Bernhard Günther - Home, Unspeakable

Here's a favorite of mine, released as a CD by trente oiseaux way back in 1996 and still profoundly shocking and powerful today. A slow-build of threateningly deep bass tones and bodiless clicks that demands full attention on headphones for the duration. The better your sound reproduction system, the more of this elusive music you'll hear. In other words, laptop speakers won't cut it. If you meet "Home, Unspeakable" at its level, however, it's one of those albums that you can hear hundreds of times and discover new facets with each listen. There isn't anything else that sounds like this.

John Duncan & Bernhard Günther - Home, Unspeakable

Kiyoshi Mizutani - Yokosawa-iri (12 Pieces Of Mixed Soundscape)

This is one of the most beautiful and life affirming set of field recordings that I've ever heard. Magical.

CD released on CMR in 2002.

Yokosawa-iri

Kiyoshi Mizutani - Scenery Of The Border: Environment And Folklore Of The Tanzawa Mountains

Kiyoshi Mizutani's work evolved into exquisite field recordings drawing true musicality from the world that surrounds us that we genuinely take for granted.

Double CD released on and/OAR in 2005.

Scenery Of The Border

Kiyoshi Mizutani / Hideaki Shimada / Kiyoharu Kuwayama - Gambetta

... and here they are joined by Hideaki Shimada who also recorded as Agencement.

CD released on Monochrome Vision in 2008.

Gambetta

Masami Tada & Morimura Yasumasa - Kokoro - Improvisation

Released on both LP and CD by Soh Gallery in 1998, this album is Tada's collaboration with "appropriation artist" Morimura Yasamasa.

Masami Tada & Morimura Yasumasa - Kokoro - Improvisation

Kiyoshi Mizutani & Kiyoharu Kuwayama - Interlude

A former member of Merzbow meets Lethe to create a suite of blissful otherworldly harmonic sound sculptures

CD released on and/OAR as part of the either/OAR series in 2011.

Interlude

Masami Tada - 異 I [Sound Encounter Electric LIVE Recording]

Recorded in 1995, released by Soh Gallery in 1997.

Masami Tada - 異 I [Sound Encounter Electric LIVE Recording]

Akio Suzuki - Gelbe Musik Editions 1999 - 2000

The final part of the puzzle that includes three previously released and rare CDrs: Suzuki Type- Glass Harmonica; ’75.6.30; and Tanabata.

Double CD released on and/OAR in 2014.

Gelbe Musik Editions 1999 - 2000

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