Dislocation - Carve Another Notch

Dislocation occupied a strange in-between space in the world of late 1990's Japanese underground music. They had one foot in free improvisation, one in gallery art/film performance, and a third foot in the noise underground. Band member Keishi Kiyokawa produced no sound at all; he was only credited with visuals and performance. Yoshinori Yanagawa's alto shrieks slice through the air in a manner that echoes his contemporary, Masayoshi Urabe, and recalls their shared saxophonic ancestor Kaoru Abe. The synth and "electronics" players lay down a bed of low-level chatter that seems more in line with David Tudor, Hugh Davies, or Brian Doherty than with noise monsters Merzbow or Incapacitants. Dislocation might be thought of as a free improvisation unit, descended from East Bionic Symphonia or Taj Mahal Travellers. There's a lot of strange empty space here, though, not the cathartic wail one might expect. Still, it's terrific stuff. The fried electric improv skree on "Carve Another Notch" was recorded in 1990 and 1993 and released in 1994 by Scatter. It features a subdued Shohei Iwasaki/Monde Bruits playing samplers on the first two tracks. 

Dislocation - Carve Another Notch

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Masayuki Takaynagi Angry Waves - Dislocation

Masayuki Takayanagi on guitar, Fumio Yasuda on piano and Hiroshi Yamazaki on drums. Dislocation is a perfectly appropriate title for this CD released on Jinya Disc in 2005.

Dislocation

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Dislocation - Inter/view

Improvised reeds and electronics sizzle, released by Contagious Orgasm's SSSM label as a CDR in 2000, with a lovely vellum cover.

Dislocation - Inter/View

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Sudden Infant - The Wicked Mothers

More warped dislocation ... the second track Pee Godzilla Pee is one of my very favourite things.

C20 released on Robert & Leopold in 2011.

The Wicked Mothers

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va - Come Again II

Released in 1993 as a CD on Furnace Records (a division of Kim Cascone/PGR's Silent Records), this follow-up to the triple acetate set features lots of very short tracks by artists from the Japanese noise underground. This reached a wider audience than the previous volume (likely because the label made more than 63 copies) and is a lot of fun. Short blasts by all the usual suspects and some obscurities: Merzbow, Aube, Masonna, CCCC, Jojo Hiroshige, Incapacitants, Nord, Monde Bruits, KK Null, Dislocation, Diesel Guitars, Solmania, Flying Testicle, Love and Sincerity, Agencement, Hanatarash, Tatsuya Yoshida, S*Core, Mortal Vision, and more. The centerpiece, though, is a hip-hop collage by the magnificent Violent Onsen Geisha, which is provocatively titled "Fuck Off RRRecords, Bye Bye Noise Music".

va - Come Again II

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Shida ‎- File 1: Mr. Chinhatto & Dedomen

This is one of the early tapes released on Akifumi Nakajima's seminal G.R.O.S.S. label. It's a C42 from 1993.

Shida at this point is Toyohiro Okazaki (who was also a member of Dislocation, Minotaure and Sandmachine). This is a strange peek into the Japanese noise underground of the early '90s. At first this confused me ... it's a low level recording with a lot of chatter. It is at about 10 minutes of Side 1 when somebody coughs straight into the recording device that gives it away. To my Occidental perspective, this is a live recording of a moment that would have otherwise been lost had it not been for Aube's documentary dedication. Once you figure it out and move past, the talk just becomes part of the event.

File 1: Mr. Chinhatto & Dedomen

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Shoji Hano - Tayhei Nipon

Solo drum album by Shoji Hano, with guests Keiji Haino (who plays guitar on two songs) and Yoshinori Yanagawa of Dislocation (who plays alto on one song). Hano is now known mainly as a free improv drummer who plays with Peter Brotzmann, Olaf Rupp, Billy Bang and other jazz heavyweights. But he was also sat in High Rise's combustible drum seat for a time, and plays in Dare Devil Band with members of Acid Mothers Temple. This album came out in 1991 as a CD on the evocatively named Package Records Corp. label.

Shoji Hano - Tayhei Nipon

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Culpis - Situation Vacant Columns

Incredibly, this is the only full album by Culpis! The trio of Michi Nagata on guitars, Daizo Nishimura on harmonium and Takuji Naka on reeds, makes one hell of a racket. They remind me of Voice Crack or Dislocation, an energetic and dense improv/noise clatter. I like this album a lot, and would have liked to have heard them do more... but other than "Situation Vacant Columns" (released as a CD by PARA Disc, the label affiliated with the Parallax record shop in Kyoto), they made two split CDRs with MSBR and nothing else. Nagata was also in the grindcore band Casket K. Takuji Naka went on to record with Tim Olive, Frans de Waard and Jason Kahn. The other guy hasn't made any other albums that I'm aware of. If you're only going to leave one album behind, this is a pretty good one.

Culpis - Situation Vacant Columns

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Various‎ - Noise Forest

Compilation released on Les Disques Du Soleil in 1992.

I only need to say fourteen words:

Merzbow. Chaotic Custom Cock Commandos. Solmania. Dislocation. Monde Bruits. Masonna. Violent Onsen Geisha. Incapacitants.

Noise Forest

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Jams "Twig" Haerper // Rubber O Cement - Houri Petri-Paws In Jointure Of Incus Jaws

More cerebral dislocation, this time accompanied by James Twig Harper (of Nautical Almanac etc).

I increasingly view Discogs as indicative rather than authoritative. It says that this release has 34 tracks, both mine and Mrs Inside's have 28. Feel free to correct us ... but, otherwise: here you go!

CDr released on Brutal Sound Effects in 2007.

Houri Petri-Paws In Jointure Of Incus Jaws

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Various - Sociometric Test

The mysterious Underground Organisation, Kinky Over Pollution (aka K.O.P., Kultur Operating Penis etc, Espiritu, Contagious Orgasm, Rabbit Eyes Rising and a collaboration between Dislocation and Merzbow.

C60 released on SSSM in 1991.

Sociometric Test

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va - Pure Will, Without the Confusions of Intellect

 

Here's a compilation of mostly improvised noise/electronics on Livevil, the same short-lived Japanese label that put out A Conclusion of Unrestrained Philosophy. This one includes longer tracks by fewer artists: In-Ex-Splue (a noisy Swiss improv outfit), Dislocation (an under-rated and unique Japanese band), PGR, Architects Office (once a ubiquitous presence on experimental/noise compilation tapes), and a terrific set by the duo of Junji Hirose and Otomo Yoshihide.

va - Pure Will, Without the Confusions of Intellect

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va - Come Again

If this isn't an ideal candidate for reissue, I don't know what is. "Come Again" was a triple acetate 7" set, released in an edition of just 63 copies by the legendary Vanilla Records in 1991. Along with "Japan Bashing Three", "Noise Forest", "Dry Lungs V", "Japanese/American Noise Treaty" and Banned Productions' "Ne" series, it helped launch artists who are now understood to be the most significant and influential in all of noise music. But with so few copies made, and then only as acetate singles, the only way the most people have heard this is as mp3s on blogs (like this one). Someone somewhere would do well to locate the original and remaster this music, then release it in a better-sounding and more widely available format. Until then, this is all most people have got.

Tracks by Violent Onsen Geisha (who records as Hair Stylistics), K.K. Null, Incapacitants, CCCC (here called Chaotic Custom Cock Commandos. Wow!), Merzbow (who is still going strong in 2016!), Dislocation (the multi-media improv group always seemed out of place on these harsh noise compilations, but it doesn't matter because they were so good), Aube (RIP), Monde Bruits (RIP), Masonna, Jojo Hiroshige (of Hijokaidan, and head of Alchemy Records, both going very strong today), Agencement (the violin and tape project of Hideaki Shimada, whose few recordings are all necessary and wonderful. While I'm busy telling people what to do, I'll also instruct an enterprising someone out there to produce a compilation of all the short tracks he's put on compilations), and finally a band called Shit Lovers, whose track "Please Let Me Eat Your Shit, SAVANNAH!" seems to be the only evidence of their existence.

disc 1
disc 2
disc 3

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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

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Various ‎- Herz Aus G.R.O.S.S.

Four tape set released on Statutory Tape in 1994. The label was a sister label of Ron Lessard's RRRecords which largely concentrated on bringing Japanese noise to hungry western ears. God Bless Ron!

This collects some of the best music on Akifumi Nakajima's G.R.O.S.S. label and everybody here is a legend. You can't go wrong really.

Aube / Monde Bruits

Dislocation / Mortal Vision

Club Skull / Thirdorgan

Shida / A.M.M.T.

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Aktive Stagnation - Was Sie Nicht Hören Wird Ihr Leben Verändern

Aktive Stagnation were a short-lived project when Christine lived in Austria in the late 80's / early 90's with "Maria Zerfall" and two people who called themselves Rastlos and Sorath. It's very pleasing industrial dislocation.

LP released on Modus in 1991 in a tiny edition of 60.

Was Sie Nicht Hören Wird Ihr Leben Verändern

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Dislocation - Instill / On The Move

C42 released on G.R.O.S.S. in 1992.

The audience doesn't even have the chance to get in the way. Make a jazz noise here ...

Instill / On The Move

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