Bleak Bliss: November 2019

Omoide Hatoba - Vuoy

Jump to 1997, "Vuoy" came out on a Japanese major label, Polystar, co-released by Cornelius' Trattoria label. As you might expect, the sound is more more accessible than Hatoba's earlier albums but it's still solid and fun. For fans of Yamamoto's other band, Rovo.

Omoide Hatoba - Vuoy

MSBR - Structured Suicide

Extraordinary full-on engine roar coupled with his sense of humour via ultra-warped minimal techno.

C54 released on MSBR Records in 1993.

Structured Suicide

Omoide Hatoba - Livers & Giggers

A single, 37-minute track that collages all sorts of live recordings from 1987 to 1993. Released on CD by Japan Overseas in 1994.

Omoide Hatoba - Livers & Giggers

MSBR - Euro Grappling Electro

Of course this was next...

CDr released on MSBR Records in 1998.

Euro Grappling Electro

Omoide Hatoba - Mantako

The first Omoide Hatoba album to be released outside of Japan, 1994's "Mantako" was released by Public Bath, an American label (and now, book publisher) dedicated to underground Japanese rock, punk and noise music.

Omoide Hatoba - Mantako

MSBR - Euro Grappling Electro 2

Recorded live at Namba Bears on the 23rd of March, 2000.

CDr released on MSBR Records in 2002 in an edition of 100.

Euro Grappling Electro 2

Omoide Hatoba - Suichi-Joe

My favorite Omoide Hatoba album, a truly inexplicable experience that mashes together styles of music that shouldn't be in the same room. Don't try to make sense of it. Just enjoy the ride. Released in 1992 by Alchemy. Your eyes are not lying to you: that is an image of someone with the world's worst belt buckle playing golf on the cover. This album might have been made to intentionally irritate people. I love it.

Omoide Hatoba - Suichi-Joe

MSBЯ - Ultimate Ambience

Now this is way to tell the rest of the world that they were wrong and he was right. He's still right.

LP released on MSBR Records in 1992.

Ultimate Ambience

Omoide Hatoba - Black Hawaii

Second album by Seiichi Yamamoto's schizophrenic psych/funk/noise/punk ADHD-inducing rock (?) band. Released by Alchemy in 1992.

Omoide Hatoba - Black Hawaii

Molten Salt Breeder Яeactor - Ultimate Ambience 2

A belated complement to Koji Tano's opening gambit ...

CD released on 20city in 2000.

Ultimate Ambience 2

Omoide Hatoba - 大音楽

Debut album by Seiichi Yamamoto's indescribable Omoide Hatoba, as hard to pin down as Yamamotor himself. The guitarist is known as a member of the legendary Boredoms, of the techno/trance band Rovo, as the owner of the Namba Bears live house, for his writing and art, for solo albums that range from soft rock to Derek Bailey-esque free improvisation to John Fahey-style acoustic music, to recordings of noise, jazz, psychedelic rock, to collaborations with Solmania, Acid Mother Temple, Anla Courtis, Phew, KK Null, Jojo Hiroshige, Michel Henritzi, Chie Mukai and on and on... the man does it all. On this album, he seems to be trying to do everything simultaneously. Released in 1990 by Alchemy Records.

Omoide Hatoba - 大音楽

MSBR - Collabodestructivists

Joint work with Crawl Unit, Daniel Menche and Basic Noise.

CD released on Isomorphic Records in 1997.

Collabodestructivists

1/3 Octave Band - Fading Light from Distant Suns

Following a lathe-cut single in 1999 (yet unheard by me), this is the debut album of New Zealand drone/noise duo 1/3 Octave Band, released as a CDR by the legendary Celebrate Psi Phenomenon label. The title is an accurate description of the sounds contained inside.

1/3 Octave Band - Fading Light from Distant Suns

MSBR / Government Alpha / Notchnoi Prospect - Japanoise Action In Russia

It does what it says on the tin.

CDr released on Insofar Vapor Bulk in 2000.

Japanoise Action In Russia

1/3 Octave Band - Irregardless

Their 2nd album, self-released as a CDR in 2000.

1/3 Octave Band - Irregardless

Various - Japanoise

And here is a roll-call designed to drop jaws ... Government Alpha, Pain Jerk, MSBR, C.C.C.C., KK Null, Mo*Te, Incapacitants, K2, Masonna and a harsh blurt courtesy of Melt-Banana.

CD released on Little Mafia Records in 2003.

Japanoise

Various - Japanoise

Good old fashioned Japanese harsh noise. The only name here that survives the test of time is Government Alpha ... with others being the likes of UR‹S›GE, Moletown Crew, Creation Of Nation and Shibireru Amagu (yep, me neither).

C90 released on Mother Savage Noise Productions in 1996.

Japanoise

1/3 Octave Band - Navigation By Light

2005 is a wonderful vintage for New Zealand drone music. This particular ambient apocalypse, by the massive guitar/electronics duo 1/3 Octave Band, was recorded live and issued on Campbell Kneale's dependably stellar Celebrate/Psi/Phenomenon label. Soak it in, but be careful. There are sharp edges hidden beneath those sunset tones.

1/3 Octave Band - Navigation By Light

1/3 Octave Band - Festerville

I've updated the download link for this, 1/3 Octave Band's fourth album, released as a CDR on Freedom From in 2002. New Zealand drone that threatens to veer into noise abandon but never quite does.

1/3 Octave Band - Festerville

Various - Show 会 Volume One

The excellent Omoide Hatoba, Folk Tales (the brilliantly sloppy collaboration between Masahiko Ohno and Shinji Uemoto), Ohmiya Ichi's Daihakase (which is the slightly sunnier aural equivalent of Gasper Noe's "I Stand Alone"), 15 minutes of Dub Squad (which is a strangled diversion from Hasegawa Chew marking his transition away from Omoide Hatoba and Boredoms and into Corrupted), enjoyably sprawling demos from Soap-jo Henshi and the admirably forthright demo of The Goonzees (and where the fuck did they not go and why?). Well that was a long sentence wasn't it.

A marvelous pair of C90+s that came with the Show-Kai Volume One fanzine in 1992 courtesy of fantastically evangelical Public Bath.

Superb Superlatives Я Us

1/3 Octave Band - Apocalypse Now and Then

Third album of serrated-edge drone bliss by the duo of Bill Wood & Jules Desmond (who was also an auxillary member of Campbell Kneale's ultra-slow doom metal band Black Boned Angel, and several pop groups of no distinction). Released in 2002 as a CDR on the band's own Stinkbuzz label.

1/3 Octave Band - Apocalypse Now and Then

Garadama - Garadama

MONOLITHIC!

CD released on Alchemy Records in 2000.

OOPS! I've dropped a bollock. An anonymous dropped a comment into a couple of their posts. They have a Bandcamp page that is excellent and I completely and stupidly missed it (and to make it worse, some of it is also in physical format). They even have the Gomidama release (Garadama and Pain Jerk no less) that I have been looking for for years. So I am going over there to pay penance (aka money).

Link Removed

Moth Drakula - Untitled

A very early self-released CDR from 2003 by punk noise duo Moth Drakula.

Moth Drakula - Untitled

Garadama - Garadama II

Doom glorious doom with a slice of psychedelics on the side.

CD released on Fiend's Shrine in 2006.

Link Removed

Moth Drakula & Mutant Ape - Morbid Sails

Good 'ol high-energy harsh noise from one American unit, Moth Drakula, and George Proctor's Mutant Ape from the UK. This short split tape was released in 2005 by Swampland, a label run by 1/2 of Moth Drakula. The spirit of punk in its purest form.

Moth Drakula & Mutant Ape - Morbid Sails

Swarrrm / Garadama - Shaking In Agony / 阿鼻叫喚

Swarrrm are a great grindcore band with the vocals of someone with a terminal lung disease being strangled. Brilliant! Garadama wallow in a plentiful supply of doom.

A really good but un-lengthy CD released on Diwphalanx Records in 2010.

Link Removed

Various - Balls To The Wall Magenta

Alien technology does exist after all ... amidst all of the good stuff there is Coa, Noiseramones, OOIOO, Incapacitants and two (yes, two) collaborations between Melt-Banana and Otomo Yoshihide.

CD released on Dohb Discs in 1996.

Balls To The Wall Magenta

Coa - Your Chill Lobe To My Sound Sleep

Bouncing clatterpunk sandwiched between two much longer form psychedelic pieces.

CD released on Tokuma Japan Communications in 1998.

My Sound Sleep

Coa - Smell Me, Smell My Grand Father

It's actually quite a good chat up line ... worked a treat with my Nan. Mind you, we were always a close family.

NoMeansNo basslines, Albini growling and an Unsane cover ... guessed where you are yet?

CD released on Japan Overseas in 1996.

Smell Me

Various - Aiyoku Jinmin 21 Seiki

I can only imagine the smile on Mr L's face when he realised that Incapacitants has named a track "rrrrrrrrrRon". You also get Hijokaidan, Merzbow and Solmania counterpointed by the likes of The Nihilist Spasm Band + Aya Ohnishi, Christine 23 Onna, Seiichi Yamamoto and Garadama.

CD released on Alchemy Records in 2000.

愛欲人民二十一世紀

Ferial Confine - Meiosis

This is the 2003 CD reissue of a 1985 cassette by Ferial Confine, an early pseudonym of ambient done guitarist Andrew Chalk. The tape originally appeared on the legendary Broken Flag label, but this version was remastered and cleaned up for release on Daisuke Suzuki's Siren imprint.

Ferial Confine - Meiosis

Various - Land Of The Rising Noise Vol. 1

Big Black is dead. The Buttholes have disappeared up their own surfers and NoMeansNo were repeating on themselves. Even my natural enemy was co-opted and turned into a commodity that was supposed to be my new friend. Go postal or go underground? I didn't have access to guns and I had to wait for a while ...

So into a world of ingénues who shuffled around mumbling "yeah i know stuff", this is Omoide Hatoba / Agencement / Dissecting Table / Aube / Children Coup d'Etat / DMV / Angel'in Heavy Syrup / Merzbow / Tokyo Dowser / C.C.C.C. / Hijokaidan and Keiji Haino.

CD released on Charnel Music in 1993.

... aka nice one Mason Jones!

Various - Land Of The Rising Noise Vol. 2

Again, there is (what is now) the hook of Contagious Orgasm and Melt-Banana and a whole host of other Japanese artists that largely passed me by. Regardless, it's a brilliant collection that does what they all should ... surprise and entertain all of the way down.

I mean, Kadura's shiny shiny shiny boots of leather on the first track followed by Der Eisenrost lifting the beat from Polygon Window's "Quoth"? C'mon ... that's genius ... and then you get more.

CD released on Charnel Music in 1997.

Two

Ultra Fuckers - Untitled

Think of a really shambolic Bunny Brains trying to channel their inner Lightning Bolt ... and getting it wrong. Yep, that's how great this is. Brilliantly and deliberately hopeless. I'm not even being sarcastic. It's great! I don't have much by them so if anybody wants to fill my empty Ultra Fuckers hole ... please do!

CDr released on Monopolka in 2006.

Ultra Fuckers

Keiji Haino & Coa - You Should Draw Out The Billion And First Prayer

A match made in heaven ... all prayers answered.

CD released on Hören in 2000.

一億と一番目の祈りを導きだせばいい

Various - Land Of The Rising Noise Vol. 3

Excellent compilation featuring now well known people such as Acid Mothers Temple, Mitsuru Tabata, K2, Kazumoto Endo and Keiji Haino (in a great collaboration with Coa) and those with a more esoteric reputation like the splendidly screwed Ultra Fuckers.

CD released on Mason Jones' Charnel Music in 1999.

Three

Merzbow / Null - Babilonia

I'm assuming this needs no introduction so I won't bother ...

C60 released on ZSF Produkt in 1983.

Babilonia

Keiji Haino / Merzbow - Live 2004

This wonderful sounding gig is one of those where you really wish you were in the room. Personally, getting home afterwards would have been a problem.

Recorded live at Loft, Shinjuku, Tokyo 2004-07-02 and released as a CDr boot.

Live 2004

Rasenkaidan - 不思議なところ (Fushigi Na Tokoro)

Early Hijokaidan-related shoegaze goth rock recorded in 1979 and 1980, released on CD by Alchemy in 2006.

Rasenkaidan - 不思議なところ (Fushigi Na Tokoro)

Noise - Tenno

Noise were a shifting collective with a improv-noise-drone mission. In their latter phase, the core appears to centred on Tori Kudo and Reiko Omura (who later married). The only other aural evidence of their existence is a split with Inryo Fuen that was released on Cragale ... but I've never seen it.

There was reissued on Alchemy Records in 2005. However, this is the CD released on Pataphysique Records in 1997 that comes with two bonus tracks.

天皇

Cockc' Nell - Live In ヤネウラ 81.10

Effectively, another bootleg but this was given away for free (what?) if you bought something else from the label in a few record shops in Tokyo.

CDr passed on by Cragale.

Live In ヤネウラ 81.10

Cock c' Nell - Live in Shibuya Yaneura 1980.10.07

This is a bit of a mystery given that I can't find any mention of it anywhere on t'web. It's made the more odd by the fact that the label spent it's time bootlegging extremely mainstream artists, so what they were doing dipping their digits into obscure Japanese territory is anybody's guess. Anyway, it's yours if you want it.

Released on Ze Anonym Plattenspieler at some point.

Live in Shibuya Yaneura

Cockc' Nell - Boys Tree

The line-up is doubled to eight on this release and includes Tori Kudo. Originally a 12" from 1986, this is considerably more polished than the original single. Not a surprise given the five years that have passed ... this remastered edition also has a bonus track.

CD inevitably released on いぬん堂 [Inundow] in 2002.

Boys Tree

Cockc' Nell - Kokushineru

Who you may ask?

I say, you no longer have to ask.

So stop asking then.

This has the Dodo rare 7" released on Pinakotheca Records from 1981 (with the brilliant violinist Yasuo Kojima). To be honest, that would be enough but you also get another nine live tracks.

That'll be a good thing then?

If in doubt, don't ask.

CD released on the increasingly indispensable いぬん堂 [Inundow] in 2002.

コクシネル

Children Coup d'Etat - Shiva Of Barbeque / Technepas

Now, this Children Coup d'Etat may be the last that I will ever be able to post. I obviously hope not but if it is ... what a way to go out. A truly delirious and beautiful thing for the brain to behold!

7" released on Public Bath in 1992.

Shiva Of Barbeque / Technepas

va - ZK Samplers 1992→93

Japanese noise-rock compilation from the early 90s, featuring Surfers of Romantica, Ita-Roh, Yellow Cab, UFO or Die, Coaltar of the Deepers, Gaji, Korean Buddhist God, Ruffians, Convex Level, Dado, Koenjihyakkei, U. (which is one guy from Corrupted), Elekki Bran and others even more obscure.

va - ZK Samplers 1992→93

Harpy - Do Not Eat

More brain dislocation for the Radio Gnomes who sailed out too far and found out that the Earth isn't flat ... it's a helix. Sorry to break it to you like that.

CD on Stupeur & Trompette! in 1997.

Do Not Eat

Harpy - Speech On The Radio

The heart of Harpy is Kenichi Ito (who was in Aburadako) and Kyoko (who was in Kokushoku Elegy and OOIOO). This is a warped blend of Zappa anti-jazz and funk-punk orchestrated by lunatics on children's toys. And then there is the wonderful vocals of Kyoko coming across as a more weird Kate Bush with echoes of Elizabeth Fraser and Laetitia Sadier.

CD on Stupeur & Trompette! in 1999.

Speech On The Radio

Pärson Sound

Two-disc set of psychedelic fuzz from the legendary Swedish band Pärson Sound, mostly concert and radio performances recorded in 1968 and 1969. Pärson Sound would morph into International Harvester and Trad Gras Och Stenar, but this is where they started. Fans of Acid Mothers Temple, Vibracathedral Orchestra and Amon Duul 2 will appreciate Pärson Sound's high-volume jazz/noise/rock bliss.

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