Monde Bruits - Purgatory

Shohei Iwasaki in full on Blast Off! mode. Absolute classic!!!

C46 released on G.R.O.S.S. in 1992.

Purgatory

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Various - Density 100

Double C52 compilation featuring four works by Thirdorgan (Akihiro Shimizu), Mortal Vision (Hiroshi Hasegawa aka Astro), Monde Bruits (Shohei Iwasaki) and Aube (Akifumi Nakajima).

Released on Akifumi Nakajima's G.R.O.S.S. label on Christmas Day in 1993.

Tape 1

Tape 2

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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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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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Various - MSNP

Oh, what a glorious tape! Macronympha, OVMN (Optimum Volume Maximum Noise), MXM (Joseph Roemer and Shohei Iwasaki with the latter being Monde Bruits), Rodger Stella's One Dark Eye and Slave Labor (David Gilden, Richard Ramirez and Joseph Roemer). Yeah bwoy as da yoot say.

C62 released on Mother Savage Noise Productions in 2010 in a probable edition of 30.

MSNP

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Monde Bruits - Psychosomatic Performance

Shohei Iwasaki captured live during two performances at the legendary Bears in Osaka in '91 and '92. Majestic!

C42 released on G.R.O.S.S. in 1993.

Psychosomatic Performance

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Deisel Guitars X Sian - Double Minds String

Deisel Guitars (the duo of Shougo Ogawa and Youki Noseyama) turn in something that is completely different to the previous tape. Yes, the drones are still there but they are framed in industrial shamanism and man does it ever work! Sian were a (regrettably) short-lived collaboration between Akifumi Nakajima (aka Aube) and Shohei Iwasaki (aka Monde Bruits). Their side simmers away at the ambient end of the noise spectrum and builds all of the way through its 20 minutes...

A spectacular C40 released on G.R.O.S.S. in 1994.

Double Minds String

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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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Fumio Kosakai

Legendary figure within the Japanese noise "scene" if you really need to call it a scene.

Some of his work involves his contributions to Bustmonster, C.C.C.C., Club Skull, Hijokaidan, Incapacitants and Uchu Engine.

These represent a closer view of the man.



This is a C40 released on Fumio's own Anciant Records in 1987.

Earth Calling



This tape was again released on Anciant Records in 1993. Discogs offers the tracktime of Side A as 23:54. This is an actual rip of the actual tape and the tracktime of Side A is 14.08. Fact. Just goes to show you can't believe everything you see on the interweb...go figure!

The Warm Garden



This CD was released on Japan Overseas in 1997. It's a four way split featuring Fumio alongside Nakajima Akifumi (Aube), Katsumi Sugahara (Solmania) and Iwasaki Shōhei (Monde Bruits).

Untitled



Collaborative work with Takahashi Ikurō on Pataphysique Records from 1998. You should know Takahashi Ikurō from his work with Fushitsusha, High Rise, Kousokuya, LSD March, LSD Pond, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, and Overhang Party amongst many others.

...Of Dogstarman

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va - Violent Ambient Vol. 1

An overlooked classic, "Violent Ambient Vol 1" is precisely what you want a mid-90's noise compilation cassette to be. Tracks by Trance, Monde Bruits, Pain Jerk, (In Spite of Flaming Creatures), K2, Merzbow, Seido, Cock ESP, C.C.C.C., Deisel Guitar, Hideg Roncs, Thirdorgan, Evil Moisture, Violent Onsen Geisha and Macronympha. Chocolate Monk unleashed this one in a little pouch made of sandpaper in 1994.

va - Violent Ambient Vol. 1

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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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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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Crack Fierce - Full Metal Confused

Hideki Kato's wonderful Crack Fierce. This is a CDr released on Patrick O'Neil's Solipsism in 1998.

This is on discogs but hey, what else do you need to know?

"Crack Fierce was started in Spring 1996, and ended in 1999. I don't remember distinctly Crack Fierce's last release, but perhaps it was "Full Metal Confused" or "Perspicacious Variance". I was influenced from very plentiful various noisicians and avantgardists, like TNB, Organum, Incapacitants, Aube, Thirdorgan, Monde Bruits, Macronympha, Skin Crime, BLJ/Richard Ramirez, etc. etc. etc., many extreme noise, and also influenced by European noise like Kapotte Muziek, THU20, De Fabriek, Das Synthetische Mischgewebe. Also spiritually respect 70's cult German Kraut like Can, Faust, Neu!, and a part of Canterbury prog-rock like Henry Cow, Quiet Sun, This Heat, etc. etc."

So, there you go ...

Full Metal Confused

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