Come On Feel the Noise

Re-uploaded by request  08/19/2024

 

 

This started out being about some Japanese angels in heavy syrup, then it took on a noisy life of its own & became much more. Away we go…

In 1989, Mineko Itakura ran into Mine Nakao at a house party in Osaka, Japan, where Hanadensha (Boredoms bass player Hira Hiyashi's new project) played a gig for Japanese independent label Alchemy Records. The two musicians shared a love for psychedelic rock, so the following year, with the help of Alchemy chairman Jojo Hiroshigea, the all-female rock trio ensemble Angel' in Heavy Syrup formed with Mine – guitar & vocals, Mineko – bass & vocals, & Yoko Mandrake - drums.

Basically Jojo & Alchemy Records were the leaders in the Japanese noise music scene, so Angel' in Heavy Syrup, with their gracefully meditative psychedelic progressive rock style was an odd duck. They released their debut album Angel' in Heavy Syrup in 1991. Since there was a good market for their sound in the US, the album was released on Subterranean Records the following year.

Yoko was replaced by Tomoko Takaku on drums (as well as percussion & flute) with a second guitarist Fusao Toda added to augment the band's loud fuzzy guitar-based sound before recording their second album Angel' in Heavy Syrup II in 1993. The new quartet was a smooth, united band, with a new tighter-yet-improvised, mind-expanding, heavy guitar sound elevated by Mineko's angelic vocals. Each successive album was better than the last, but just before Angel' in Heavy Syrup IV (with Naoko Otani – drums) was released in 1999, Tomoko quit the band. Without a steady drummer, the band went into indefinite hibernation.

Angel' in Heavy Syrup – Angel' in Heavy Syrup, Subterranean Records SUB 74-2, 1992.
all decryption codes in comments

Tracklist –

S.G.E. (Space Giant Eye)

きっと逢えるよ (I’m Sure to Meet You)

僕と観光バスに乗ってみませんか (Why Don’t You Take a Sight-seeing Bus with Me)

Underground Railroad

My Dream

Crazy Blues

 

 

 

 

Angel' in Heavy Syrup – II, Alchemy Records ARCD055, 1993.

Tracklist –

Introduction I – Naked Sky High

Crazy Blues

きっと逢えるよ (Kitto Aeru Yo)

Introduction II

I Got You Babe (Sonny & Cher cover)

 

 

 

 

Angel' in Heavy Syrup – III, Alchemy Records ARCD072, 1995.

Tracklist –

Breath of Life

花と夢 (Flower & Dream)

Thirsty Land

僕だけが... (Bokudake-ga)

Water Mind

 

 

 

 

Angel' in Heavy Syrup – IV, Monotremata Records MONOCD04, 1999.

Tracklist –

First Love

Space Conquest

A Series of Water Mind ~ Rubens & the Cathedral

Voyage

Fate

 

 

& two bonus live sets…

Angel' in Heavy Syrup - Live at an Unknown Location

Tracklist –

Underground Railway

S.G.E.

I Got You, Babe

I'm Sure to Meet You!

Naked Sky High

Breath of Life, part 1

Breath of Life, part 2

Breath of Life, part 3

Flower & Dream/Thirst

Introduction I

Naked Sky High reprise

 

 

 

 

Angel' in Heavy Syrup - Live at Kilowatt, San Francisco, 1993.

58 minute set, no separate tracks or tracklist (HELP!!!)

These from friendly visitor Mike...
0:00 Breath of Life
12:00 Flower and Dream
17:36 Thirsty Land
24:54 (unknown - this is either a cover I don't recognize or an original that was never released on an album)
30:10 Crazy Blues
40:54 Bokudake Ga
44:36 Introduction I/Naked Sky High
52:18 Water Mind

 

 

 
 

Here the story jumps to Takushi Yamazaki. Takushi is the manager of Jojo Hiroshige's Alchemy Records  music store.

Takushi 'Maso' Yamazaki has been a busy Japanoise boy. He has been in, at one time or another: Acid Eater; Acid Maso Temple; Andromelos; Bustmonster; Christine 23 Onna; Eb.ersonna; Flying Testicle; Gokurakuji; Kinkakuji; Masomania; & South Saturn Delta while playing with artists as far-flung as Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock, Aube, Merzbow, Jojo, Solmania, Boris, YBO2, K.K. Null, Blixa Bargeld, & The Stars.

Takushi became interested in the idea of noise music when he first heard the sounds of destruction on television as a child. His first exposure to real Japanese noise music was in 1984 by way of Hanatarash's debut LP.  Maso has stated that he was not overly impressed by the LP. Around that same time (also 1984) he discovered L.S.D., an album under the Nord moniker by Hiroshi Oikawa (Oikawa had been a member of Nord with Satoshi Katayama until 1983, when the duo split…both former members continued using the Nord name). Yamazaki's interest in noise grew rapidly from that point onward. He began searching out & ingesting all the noise releases he could find in the underground music stores in & around Osaka.

By 1987, Maso was ready for action. He stopped listening to other noise projects altogether & concentrated on his own unique take on Noise, drawing heavily from the psychedelic music scene of the 60s & 70s while sonically little resembling these influences (Maso had always had an intense interest in films by Alexandro Jodorowski [ like The Holy Mountain, Sante Sangre, & El Topo]  & claims he wished he had worked with American musician Captain Beefheart). He began his own project Masonna [マゾンナ] (sometimes written as the acronym M.A.S.O.N.N.A. which supposedly stands for Mademoiselle Anne Sanglante Ou Notre Nymphomanie Auréolé or "Miss Bloody Anne, or Our Aureoled Nymphomania". It has also been claimed that the name is a pun on pop singer Madonna, being a composite of maso - Japanese for masochist & onna - Japanese for woman alluding again to the fetishistic ‘bloody Anne’. Masonna is one of the best-known Japanese noise projects, right up there with Merzbow.

Masonna's discography is extensive. Maso released a number of limited-edition cassettes soon after starting Masonna. His first label release was the home recorded Masonna Vs. Bananarama on Vanilla records in 1989, followed shortly by the 31-minute two-song EP Shinsen Na Clitoris (Vanilla, 1990), the 31 track Mademoiselle Anne Sanglante Ou Notre Nymphomanie Aureole ( Alchemy 1993), the 33-minute single-song Super Compact Disc (Alchemy, 1995), & many, many more until he basically retired the Masonna name around 1999 (he did release the Midi Creative Shock Rock (another 31 track wonder) in 2002.

Masonna - Mademoiselle Anne Sanglante Ou Notre Nymphomanie Auréolé, 

Alchemy Records ARCD057, 1993.

Tracklist –

Tracks 1 – 30 Untitled

Track 31 - Mademoiselle Anne Sanglante Ou Notre Nymphomanie Auréolé

 

 

 

 

Masonna – Super Compact Disc, Alchemy Records ARCD073, 1995.

Tracklist –

Super Compact Disc (one 33:31 minute track)

 

 

 

 

Masonna – Sonic Devil, Pinch A Loaf Productions PAL15, 1997.

Single sided 12" 45 (Side 1 clear vinyl – Side 2 drizzled paint design)

Side 1 –

8 Untitled songs

 

 

 

 

Mademoiselle Anne Sanglante Ou Notre Nymphomanie Auréolé – Frequency L.S.D., 

Alien8 Recordings ALIENCD007, 1998.

Tracklist –

14 Untitled Tracks

 

 

 

 

Yamazaki was forced to temporarily cease Masonna activities due to ill health & this allowed him to concentrate more fully on Space Machine.

 

Yamazaki's project Space Machine, that debuted with Cosmos from Diode Ladder Filter (Alchemy, 2001), was devoted to old-fashioned cosmic music for analog synthesizers. From around 1998 Maso had started to incorporate trippy, spacey electronic elements into Masonna performances. In order to better pursue these elements as a whole, he utilized Space Machine, his self-labeled "analog electronic cosmic sound project". For as long as he had been performing under the Masonna moniker, Yamazaki had been an ardent fan of early electronic music from the 50s & 60s. In order to research the impact that electronic sounds had upon the spiritual lineage audible in 60s US & Brit psychedelic music & also 70s Krautrock, Yamazaki began collecting analog synthesizers & vintage electronic equipment. He continuously experimented with these instruments in his home studio, & while groping towards an understanding of their scope & range, he discovered a new direction for his own music, a direction different from his noise work as Masonna.

Space Machine – Cosmos from Diode Ladder Filter, Alchemy Records ARCD132, 2001.

Tracklist –

11 Untitled tracks

 

 

 

 

 

However, by 1995 Maso had teamed up with guitarist Fusao Toda from Angel' in Heavy Syrup & began recording as Christine 23 Onna. The duo seemingly payed homage to 70s German electronic rock & 60s exploitation psych, a long way from Masonna's usual noise chaos, but still a really noisy sound for their chosen influences. They released three works (1996s Space Age Batchelor Pad Psychedelic Music, 2000s Shiny Crystal Planet [a heavy blast of modern electro-noise psych with a retro edge, featuring raw electronics & guitar with breakbeat drums, dense but surprisingly varied & textured] & 2001s Acid Eater).

 

Christine 23 Onna – Shiny Crystal Planet, Alchemy Records ARCD119, 2000.

Tracklist –

Drive to Crystal Planet

Cosmic Jungle

Christine Hop #1

Christine Hop #2

Insect Voice

Mondo Nude Mode

Groovy Spacy '70

Hypnosis

Under Cover of Darkness

Pulse on Pulse

Moon Over

New Dawn on Crystal Planet

 

 

 

 

Christine 23 Onna – Acid Eater, Midi Creative CXCA1106, 2002.

Tracklist –

Fantastico

Acid Now!

The Last Hunter

Acid Eater

Planet Unknown

Space Mondo Topless

Love Galactic

Top of Spot

Wild Private

Erotopia (The Climax)

 

 

 

 

 

By that time Maso & Toda had started getting support with their music from Miyaji Kensaku & Akiba Shinichiro. This gave Maso a chance to expand what had been an instrumental project by adding his vocals. Their style shifted more toward noise influenced 60s garage with brutal fuzz & organ. On April 1 2005, Christine 23 Onna officially became Acid Eater (named after C23O's last album). Acid Eater featured Takushi - vocals, synthesizers, & effects, Fusao - guitarist, Miyaji - organ & bass keyboards, & Akiba - drums.

Acid Eater - Virulent Fuzz Punk A.C.I.D., Time Bomb Records Bomb88, 2007.

Side A –

Eye

Nothing Can Bring Me Down

A.C.I.D.

Question of Temperature

Drive to C.P.

No Friend of Mine

Side B –

No! No! No!

LSD

Confessions of a Psycho Cat

Never Alone

Top of Spot

Free

 

 

 

 

Acid Eater – Dirty 7" EP, Hello from the Gutter HFTG006, 2008.

Side A –

Dirty

I Gotta Move (Kinks cover)

Side B –

Susie's Gone (Acid Hell mix)

 

 

 

 

Acid Eater – Black Fuzz on Wheels, Time Bomb Records BOMBCD96, 2010.

Tracklist –

Yes, Motion

Oh Baby’s No

Road to Ecstasy

Well

Feel the Beat (Crime cover)

Love Has No Time (Miracle Workers cover)

Get Down

Follow Me

Searching for Love (The Tidal Waves cover)

Dirty

 

 

 

Enjoy,

NØ

Prelude to a Kiss

Billie Holiday – Velvet Mood, Clef Records MG C-713, 1956.
decryption code in comments

Side One –

Prelude to a Kiss

When Your Lover has Gone

Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone

Nice Work if You Can Get It

Side Two –

I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues

What’s New

I Hadn’t Anyone ‘til You

Everything I Have is Yours

Lady Day – vocals, Barney Kessel - guitar, Jimmy Rowles - piano, Benny Carter – alto saxophone, Harry 'Sweets' Edison - trumpet, John Simmons – bass, & Larry Bunker – drums.

from a prelude to a kiss,
NØ

Don't Laugh, You're Next

Mannequin Beach was a Lincoln, Nebraska-based punk trio Mannequin Beach from 1988 to 1989. They only recorded one album, Don’t Laugh, You’re Next for San Francisco’s great Mordam Records.

It’s a powerful slab of vinyl filled with dark, emotional singing& lyrics with creatively imaginative songs featuring some crazy-good guitar playing.

Maybe the fact that they were from the middle of Nowhere, USA aided their quick decline. Maybe it was the D.I.Y. album cover with photos of road-kill on the front. Whatever the reason, they should have done more. A truly unique sound that I think a lot of people should really like.

Mannequin Beach was: Danny Belick – vocals & guitar; Jeff Straudinger – bass; & Randy Krause – drums (Krause would later play on several Helios Creed projects).

Mannequin Beach – Don’t Laugh, You’re Next, Mordam Records MDR6, 1988.
decryption code in comments

Side A –

Leech

Behind Your Back

Ways & Means

Sudden Death Wish

Pathetic

Send Me Flowers

Harlequin

Gerbil

Side B –

L.P.D.

Time to Lose

Spoiled on War

This Nightmare’s for Real

Street Life

Time to Call the Vote

Money Hungry Whore

Get to Know Your Graveyard

bonus tracks (featuring Randy Krause – drums) –

Helios Creed – The Warning 7”, Amphetamine Reptile Records scale33, 1991.
included with Don't Laugh

Side A – The Warning

Side B – Your Spaceman

Enjoy,

NØ

The Hidden Kingdom

William Hooker is a drummer, composer, & poet extraordinaire. Here is one of his cross-over creations into noise expressionism & free jazz.

William Hooker duets with Thurston Moore & Elliott Sharp – Shamballa,
Knitting Factory Works KFW151, 1994.
decryption code in comments

Tracklist –

Shamballa: First Meeting (w/Thurston Moore – guitar)

Sirius Part 1 – Wheels

Sirius Part 2 – Wings

Shamballa: Continuous-Time…Concsciousness (w/ Elliott Sharp – guitar)

The Hat…& its Train

Enjoy,

NØ

From the Desk of E.A. Poe (Section 38)

The previous Theatre of Hate post reminded me of avant-garde theater luminary & one-time surrealist Antonin Artaud’s Théâtre de la Cruauté or Theater of Cruelty & his treatise The Theatre and its Double so I was re-reading passages from it as I thought about how to finish off this weekend’s selections. I was in no mood to happily feature some chill-out Dub. In fact, I was feeling kinda the exact opposite. So I dragged out some Diamanda Galás. She's always salt in an open wound & definitely a proponent of the Theater of Cruelty.

In Artuad’s Theater of Cruelty: First Manifesto, he posits: 

     “Without an element of cruelty at the root of every spectacle, the theater is not possible. In our present state of degeneration it is through the skin that metaphysics must be made to re-enter our minds.”

In the section “Theater & the Plague” Artuad explains the role of the Plague Doctor & the birth of the Theater of Cruelty:

     “Over the poisonous, thick, bloody streams (color of agony and opium) which gush out of the corpses, strange personages pass, dressed in wax, with noses long as sausages and eyes of glass, mounted on a kind of Japanese sandal made of double wooden tablets, one horizontal, in the form of a sole, the other vertical, to keep them from the contaminated fluids, chanting absurd litanies that cannot prevent them from sinking into the furnace in their turn. These ignorant doctors betray only their fear and their childishness.”

     “The dregs of the population, apparently immunized by their frenzied greed, enter the open houses and pillage riches they know will serve no purpose or profit. And at that moment the theater is born. The theater, i.e., an immediate gratuitousness provoking acts without use or profit.”

Here, as a requiem for those dead or dying of AIDS, is a Plague Mass in Three Parts.

Diamanda Galás – Masque of the Red Death 2xCD re-issue, Mute 61588-2, 1993.
decryption code in comments

Disc 1 –

The Divine Punishment –

Deliver Me From Mine Enemies :

a -This Is The Law Of The Plague

b -Deliver Me From Mine Enemies

c - We Shall Not Accept Your Quarantine

d - Εξεαόυμε (Deliver Me)

e - Υιατί́́, Ό́́ Θξό́́ς?

f - Psalm 22 (Excerpt)

Free Among The Dead:

a - Psalm 88

b –Lamentations

c - Sono L'Antichristo

Saint of the Pit –

La Treizième Revient

Εξεαόυμε (Deliver Me)

L'Heautontimoroumenos (1857)

Artémis

Cris D'Aveugle (1873)

Disc 2 –

You Must Be Certain of the Devil –

Swing Low Sweet Chariot

Double-Barrel Prayer

Let’s Not Chat about Despair

Birds of Death

You Must be Certain of the Devil

Let My People Go

Malediction

The Lord is My Shepherd

Darkness & Decay & the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.

NØ

Delos Gunslinger

Posting this after a comment on the T.R.A.C. bootlrg from lost sibling Ib from the Bleachers, who is now once more found. This was produced by Mick Jones, so another T.R.A.C. connection.

Theatre of Hate – Westworld, Burning Rome Records TOH 1, 1982.
decryption code in comments

Side A –
Do You Believe in the West World

Judgement Hymn

63

Love is a Ghost

The Wake

Side B –

Conquistador

The New Trail of Tears

Freaks

Anniversary

The Klan

Here TOH is: Kirk Brandon – vocals & guitar; John 'Boy' Lennard – saxophone & clarinet; Stan Stammers – bass; & Luke Rendle – drums.

Westward Ho,

NØ

Letting the Beast outta the Box

Latest Manchester installment...

Luxuria was a British pop music band made up of vocalist Howard Devoto (formerly of Buzzcocks & Magazine) along with instrumentalist Norman Fisher-Jones, aka Noko. The band was active in the late 80s & early 90s. Devoto & Noko met through Pete Shelley. In 1987 they formed Luxuria & signed to Beggars Banquet. The following year they released their debut album Unanswerable Lust. Their second & final album Beast Box was released in 1990. Beast Box has since been re-released by Cherry Red bundled with Unanswerable Lust & various B-sides & unreleased tracks in 2011 but is again out of print.

On Beast Box, Luxuria is: Howard Devoto – vocals & keyboards & Noko – backing vocals, guitar, bass, viola, & banjo with Dave Formula – organ, piano, & harmonica; James Gardner – piano, strings, & accordion; Richard Jefferies – double bass; Lucy Gilmour – cello; Jonathan S. Podmore – violin; Mark Sanderson – bass; Simon Hoare – drums; & some vocal assist by the Wanton Homage Glee Club.

Luxuria – Beast Box, Beggars Banquet BEGA106, 1990.
decryption code in comments

Side One –

The Beast Box is Dreaming

Stupid Blood

Against the Past

Our Curious Leader

We Keep on Getting There

Ticket

Side Two –

Animal in the Mirror

Dirty Beating Heart

Smoking Mirror

I've Been Expecting You

Karezza

Beast Box

Enjoy,

NØ

On the Right T.R.A.C.

After parting ways with the Clash in 1983, Mick Jones briefly played with the band General Public. In 1984 Mick formed a new band called Top Risk Action Company (T.R.A.C.). He recruited bassist Leo 'E-Zee Kill' Williams, saxophone player John 'Boy' Lennard (from Theatre of Hate), & former bandmate & ex-Clash drummer Nicky 'Topper' Headon. Headon was quickly sacked (as from The Clash) for his heroin addiction. Lennard soon after moved on to other projects & T.R.A.C. folded. The band was basically a prototype for Big Audio Dynamite (see "The Bottom Line"). Although T.R.A.C never released any material, they recorded these demos.

T.R.A.C. – Breakdown the Nation: The First Demos bootleg, 1984.
decryption code in comments

Tracklist –

Interaction

Nation Dub

Apprentice

Du Cane Road

Fare Dodgers

The Bottom Line

Euroshima

The Prolific

Enjoy,

NØ

It's Time for Some Mindless Contentment

Somewhere in East L.A.

Los Plugz – Move 7", Slash SCAM 102, 1978.

Side A –

Move

Side B –

Mindless Contentment

Let Go

Tito Larriva – guitar & vocals; Barry McBride bass & vocals; Charlie 'Jehovah Robot' Quintana – drums with un-credited backing vocals on "Mindless Contentment" – Exene Cervenka

Enjoy,

NØ

The Modern(aires) Way of Living

For some reason lately I’ve had mad Manchester on my mind & on my turntable as well. I posted up Inca Babies but have been listening to a plethora of others. I was listening to James today, which led me to James' drummer David Baynton-Power’s earliest band.

Dave Baynton-Power was born in 1961 in Kent, England. Although his first musical love & first drumming licks was prog-rock, he became a big fan of punk rock & was part of the post-punk scene with his first real band, The Modernaires from Holyhead & Llangefni. 

This is their only LP, released in 1980. They played some decent sized gigs for a new band, but they soon split after moving to Chester, Cheshire, England as Brian Roberts, their original vocalist, who was schizophrenic, announced he was leaving.

The band soon re-formed. They realized that with the arrival of the Welsh TV station S4C, if they changed the lyrics of their songs from English to Welsh they might draw some attention to the band. They changed their name to Brodyr Y Ffin (Welsh for 'Brothers on the Border') as their house in Chester was right on the English-Welsh border. The plan worked & they quickly rose to the top of the Welsh scene. The band became extremely popular on the Welsh-language music scene, invigorating it with their modern sound. At the time they were regarded as pioneers & today they are still held in high esteem by Welsh musicologists.

One of the original members, vocalist & bassist Huw Hughes was killed in a house fire in 1985. He was only 29 when he died. A few years after Huw's death the band started to drift apart as many in the band went their own way. This is when Baynton-Power joined the Manchester band James. 

On Way of Living, The Modernaires are: Brian Roberts – vocals; Phillip Bradley – vocals, guitar, & synthesizer; Huw Hughes – vocals, piano, kalimba, & bass; Lea Minshull – vocals, saxophone, & flute; & David Baynton-Power – vocals, bird whistle, & drums.

The Modernaires – Way of Living, Illuminated Records JAMS 3, 1980.
decryption code in comments

Side 3A –

The Urge

Wrong Words

Meandering

Traces of Tension

Something Going On (I Think There’s Probably)

Side 3B –

New Jazz Arguments

Ways of Living

Your Face

Life in Our Times

The Fringe

Enjoy,

NØ