Kaneko Jutok & Kikukawa Takahisa - Wedged Night (2005)

While I would like to try to use this blog primarily for my own rips, rather than just leeching off the hard work of others (and having a blog that's interchangeable with all the other ones out there), I will also post some mp3s I picked up myself on some other blog from time to time, especially if the sounds in question are not available on 27 other sites, or if for whatever reason I think they deserve more attention. So here goes: a vinyl rip (I don't do those myself) of a great Japanese 'free rock' LP recorded in 2002, and released in 2005 by bijou label Siwa (but, like almost all of their releases, long out of print). And while I think of it: is anyone ever going to rip that Kan Mikami LP they did in 2009??

Listen up: my personal habit is, when romanizing Japanese names, to put the first name first, rather than the surname first, as is the habit in Japan. That's the way I have always done it on this blog as well. So I will speak of Kazuki Tomokawa, Kan Mikami, Keiji Haino, Toshimaru Nakamura, and not the other way around - unless the person in question systematically sticks to the traditional order himself (for instance: Yoshihide Ōtomo looks weird, and countless people on the interwebs in fact seem convinced that Ōtomo (oh yeah, I also like to mark long vowels with a macron) is his first name. It's not.).
Jutoku Kaneko (金子寿徳: Kane-ko Ju-toku), legendary guitarist behind Kousokuya (光束夜; -ou- is another way to transliterate -ō-, so pronounce it Kō-soku-ya, 'night of luminous flux') who sadly died at the age of 49 in 2007, preferred the transliteration Kaneko Jutok, so let's grant him that.
I don't know what Takahisa Kikukawa (菊川貴央), the drummer in 水晶の舟 (usually written Suishou no Fune, 'crystal boat', but the same thing goes for the -ou- in 'Suishou'), prefers, but for the sake of symmetry I'll put his last name first as well.

Two more remarks about Jutoku's name, for those who are interested in that kind of thing.
First off, what happened to the -u at the end of 'Jutoku'? You can read a very academic explanation on wiki, but long story short: i and u are hardly pronounced at all in certain word environments, so occasionally you'll see this reflected in the way people spell their names in rōmaji. Extreme example: Stomu Yamashta, actually Tsutomu Yamashita (山下勉, but more often in katakana: ツトム ヤマシタ).
Secondly: occasionally you'll find 寿得 instead of 寿徳 for 'Jutoku' (not on this album cover though, as you can see, nor on the flyer). Strange, because the dictionary I'm checking at the moment lists the pronunciation Jutoku for 寿徳 (along with 5 other possibilities, try it!), but only 'Toshie' for 寿得. So I don't know why the latter is used, since apparently it can't be read as 'Jutoku'. End of second remark.
One remark about the album title: the cover gives the Japanese title 楔夜, the characters for 'wedge' and 'night'. If you have paid attention very well, you will recognize the latter as the -ya in Kousokuya. I'm assuming this title is pronounced 'Kusabi Yoru', but have no clue what it's supposed to mean.
And finally, one remark about the track title 'Kirin'. It means 'giraffe' in Japanese (but I think it can also simply be a personal name, so I'm not sure what's intended here). They'll usually spell it キリン, in katakana, first of all because that's normal practice for animals, but also because the kanji are way too difficult: 麒麟. Just look at those babies.

Konnichi wa. Watashi wa kirin desu.

Do you see how I managed to write an entire post without saying anything about the music? There's other things in life, kids. Language, for instance, is also interesting. Have you looked up the name of this blog yet? I like to imagine the troops of Indoeuropeanists stranding on this blog and blinking in incomprehension. Makes me chuckle, don't know about you. To tell you the truth, the kind of ramblings I post here (like the above), are the sort of information I always wished I'd find online when looking up my favourite music. So I guess I'm hoping there are other kids out there who will be pleased to be thus enlightened. But for the ungrateful rest of you I'll just quote the blurb in full:
'Jutok Kaneko should be familiar to some as the man behind the long running deep psychedelic 'rock' outfit Kousokuya. Takahisa Kikukawa spent some time with Ché-Shizu, UZU and has recently been performing with Suishou no Fune. Both in Kousokuya and in Kaneko's solo work the line between composition and improvisation is a very blurry one so it's only in the loosest of terms that we say side one of this album is an "improvisation" and side two consists of a couple of "songs". The LP is issued in a one off limited run of 500 and comes in an appropriately black and black on black silkscreened cover with two screened inserts.'
Or in other words: if you liked the Vajra (and I'm hoping at least some of the 600+ of you who downloaded it did - and maybe even went ahead and actually bought it?), you'll probably like this.
So there.
192kbps.

Cremaster - 32,41 n/m² (2003)

Cremaster is of course a muscle somewhere down there in the scrotal area as well as a series of artsy films by Björk's boyfriend (what I've seen of them was terrible, just terrible), but more importantly it's the long-standing noisy improv duo of Ferran Fages (feedback mixing board and pick-ups; you may have encountered him in Ap'strophe, Atolón or Octante) and Alfredo Costa Monteiro (objects on electric guitar; you may also know him from his accordion work or his electronic compositions, or Octante again, or from I Treni Inerti). Today I'd like to present you with what is probably their hardest-to-find album, 32,41 n/m² (their fourth one, not counting that 3" on Sound323). Housed in a sandpaper cover, only 123 copies of this baby were made by the good people at Absurd in Attica. There aren't any left.
You're welcome.
320kbps.

Vajra - Mandala Cat Last (2002)

One of my favourite albums of all time, this: the 5th (not counting that 3") and by far the best album by Japanese supergroup Vajra (跋折羅), the mighty trio of hoarse acid folk troubadour Kan Mikami on vocals and guitar (三上寛), the uncategorizable but instantly recognizable percussion of long-time Kazuki Tomokawa associate Toshiaki Ishizuka (石塚俊明), and last but not least - Keiji Haino (灰野敬二)! (What? He needs no warm-up talk, he's freaking Keiji Haino!)
This 2002 release (on P.S.F., like all Vajra albums) is usually referred to as 'Mandala Cat Last', though that's actually a fusion of the Japanese title (Mandalaキ・『やっと』 - 'Mandala ki - yatto') and the English one ('Cat Last'), both of them for reasons unfathomable to me (and probably you) making the same awkward pun (yatto is Japanese for 'at last'). But enough of that, on to the music.
Vajra is a very unstable but thrilling mix of three masters, a cocktail of psychedelic rock, hypnotic blues, unhinged improv jamming, folk and traditional Japanese song forms all twisted and mangled, feedback noise and ululations - basically all the great skills that the members of the group have perfected over several decades each crashing head-first into each other. Are you excited? You should be. The third track here is probably one of my top 3 favourite songs of all time - every bit as spine-chilling the 100th time you hear it as it was the first. When the first one takes flight, you hope it will never end. The fourth one is a very simple yet moving a cappella take on an obscure Mikami song, コップは壊れるだろう ('Koppu wa kowareru darō', 'The Cup Will Break'), from way, way back (it first appeared on his 2nd album, 三上寛のひとりごと, 'Mikami Kan no hitorigoto', 'Kan Mikami's Monologue', 1972 that was). OK, let's have a look at that tracklist.

1.    オレには空が緑に見える (Ore ni wa sora ga midori ni mieru) - The Sky Looks Green to Me
2.    日本のコーラは甘い! (Nihon no kōra wa amai!) - Japanse Cola Is Sweet!
3.    猿は拝まない (Saru wa ogamanai) - Monkeys Don't Pray
4.    曼荼羅TOOT(H) (Mandara TOOT(H)) - Mandala TOOT(H)
5.    亡音 (Bōon) - Sound Deadening
6.    疑傷 – 武蔵へ – (Gishō - Musashi e -) - Playing Wounded - For Musashi

Transliteration is a bit of a problem on the last 2 songs here, since the titles there, as far as I can tell, seem to be freshly coined by (probably) Mikami himself, and you never know with those devilish kanji. The translations are reliable, they are by Alan Cummings, the number one (and only?) go-to-guy for freaky Japanese singer-songwriters wanting to see what their lines look like in correct English (see scans).
Listen.
320kbps.

Ground-Zero - Consume Red (1997)

Throughout the '90s, Ground-Zero (yes, with hyphen) was Ōtomo Yoshihide's behemoth band, a seething cauldron of jazz, rock and noise, of reappropriation and sheer creative energy. Their last concert took place in Tokyo in March 1998 and was released on CD a year later, entitled: 'Last Concert'. It culminated in a thrilling 40 minute version of 'Consume Red', the massive project initially recorded only one year earlier, where samples of a recording by Korean National Treasure Kim Seok-chul (김석철) playing the hojok or taepyeongso (a double reed wind instrument, similar to a shawm) serves as the backbone for a slowly unfurling but ultimately crushing group improvisation. What you get here is that original version, all 57 glorious minutes of it. The people involved (first names first):

Yoshihide Ōtomo (大友良英): turntables and guitar
Sachiko M[atsubara] (松原幸子): sampler
Yumiko Tanaka (田中悠美子): futozao-shamisen
Masahiro Uemura (植村昌弘): drums
Yasuhiro Yoshigaki (芳垣安洋): drums
Naruyoshi Kikuchi (菊地成孔): soprano saxophone
Mitsuru Nasuno (ナスノミツル): electric bass
Kazuhisa Uchihashi (内橋和久): electric guitar, effects

This beautiful monster was released in April 1997 on Creativeman Disc. (Japan) and on RéR (Recommended) in the UK. It was subtitled vol. 1 of the 'Consume / Consume Ground-Zero' project. 2 hard to find albums released within the following year contained remixes and reconstructions; they are entitled 'Conflagration' and 'Consummation', vols. 2 and 3.
Enjoy.
320kbps.

Azure Skies - Azure Skies (2001)

Azure Skies was a one-off collaboration of Jan Carleklev and Håkan Paulsson (both in Sanctum) and David and Samuel Durling of Mental Destruction. I don't know the latter band, but Sanctum's 'Lupus in Fabula' (1996) is definitely one of the better albums on Swedish industrial/ambient label Cold Meat Industry. Their brand of rhythmic noise with dramatic synths and some angry or melancholy vocals now and then rubs off on this project, on Ant-Zen.
The Sanctum guys also play in Mago, and Carleklev has a solo project named Parca Pace which I remember was pretty good. They are also in a number of other bands I haven't heard, as this is not really my 'field of expertise' or even major interest. But Sanctum and Azure Skies are potentially interesting to a (slightly) larger audience, I think. This is possibly what an industrial album made by the Neurosis guys would sound like. Maybe. You tell me.
(There are 3 different covers for this release, mine has some rocks on it.)
320kbps.

John Duncan - Tap Internal (2000)

John Duncan is one of the most extreme people in modern music, and yet he doesn't play in Dark Funeral. What he does do is create unsettling sound art and performances that often deal with the limits of human endurance, with sensory deprivation as well as violence. This is the same guy who shot a blank at a friend's face ('Scare', 1976), showed porno movies to an audience of women and then invited them to enter a back room and abuse him sexually ('For Women Only', 1979), locked himself and 7 other people (one of them an infant) into a dark room, naked and blind, without knowing for how long ('Maze', 1995), and, if rumours are true, had to flee to Japan after having sex with a corpse in Tijuana - and of course making a sound recording of the proceedings ('Blind Date', 1980), all in the name of art. Suddenly Dimmu Borgir don't look so frightening anymore. In recent years he seems to have calmed down a bit, which is probably a good thing.
'Tap Internal', released on Touch but now out of print, is one of his sound-only works, one 46 minute track of cracklings, buzz and rumblings, and somewhere in there, the beating of the human heart (the transparent front cover looks like an X-ray of the chest). More uncomfortable than most, this will probably go down well with people who enjoyed the Courtis & Marhaug album I posted recently.
Listen.
320kbps.

Anla Courtis & Lasse Marhaug - North and South Neutrino (2004)

The first collaboration between Norwegian noisemaker Lasse Marhaug (of Jazzkammer, etc.) and Argentinian Anla Courtis (of Reynols, as well as the hilariously named L'Autopsie A Révélé Que La Mort Était Due À L'Autopsie) was started as early as 1997, but wasn't finished until 2003. I don't know how intensely they have worked on it in the years between, but this is one finely crafted jewel of noisy musique concrète. Slowly developing extreme frequencies are joined by deep drones and blistering feedback: not a surprising fusion of elements, but when it's done as well as this, and builds so beautifully to its climax, there's no point in arguing.
'North and South Neutrino' was released in January 2004 on a great little Greek label called Antifrost, in a limited edition of 500 copies. The nice artwork is by Leif Elggren, by the way. This duo later did a tape release entitled 'Jordslev Hojaldre' (Quasi Pop, 2007), which I haven't heard yet. They have also released hundreds (probably) of other things, each, in all sorts of combinations, but of what I have heard of the rest of their respective output, nothing comes close to this.
320kbps.

Joe Colley - Disasters of Self (2010)

Experimental sound artist and noisemaker Joe Colley dropped this bomb last year (on Crippled Intellect Productions) to the unanimous praise of those who were lucky enough to hear it. A massive 3-LP box set, what you get here is even more special, as it includes the extra material that was only present in the "Artist Edition": 2 endless loop tapes that are meant to be played simultaneously, and a CD called 'Untitled EgoMix'. The only thing not included here is the DVD, but you're not missing out on much there. There are a number of very short tracks here; these are locked grooves (2 seconds each), just hit repeat to hear them as intended. What you get here is one huge and impressive set of, as phrased in the press release "fractured electronics, rich multi-level drones, digital bite, the sounds of decaying technology, analog twists and turns, and recording experiments and documents - plus some other aural surprises that I leave to the listener's discretion as to whether they can be classified as "pleasant" or "otherwise.""
The regular edition can still be purchased at a very decent price from the label, so if you have a decent turntable and a taste for intelligent noise, go for it. Check it out at this new link.
320kbps.

Adam Süssmann - Acoustic Guitar Solo (2004)

 

Don't be fooled by the title: this is harsh and uncompromising noise. Sussmann (I believe he has ditched the Umlaut, so this is another case of me trying to be hypercorrect) plays in Stasis Duo, whose untitled album was another one of the highlights of 2010 as far as I'm concerned (although much, much less hard on the ears than this solo outing - unless you have problems with sinewaves). What we have here is a very limited solo album on Document, the completely obscure and untraceable label who released some stuff by Matt Earle, Will Guthrie and Mattin on CDR some 5 years ago and seems to have vanished since. I think it was Earle and Sussmann themselves who ran it. I wonder if there's a link with Antboy, their catalogues have a lot of artists in common. Anyway, I thought I might as well save this one from total oblivion. The tiny paper in the cardboard cover says "adam sussmann acoustic guitar solo recorded late 2003 probert st sydney acoustic guitar microphone ebow no amplifier document 2". There's 2 tracks (24 minutes), one a fierce razorblade attack on your eardrums, the other more about sinewaves. Play it loud on headphones and let me know how that worked out for you. How's that for a happy new year? Enjoy.
320kbps.