Indeed That Heavy, But This Futen Has No Right to Say...

Well, I've been inactive for a long time now. Just wasn't feeling too inspired, but that's changed. Just dicked around in this hopeless post-graduate LA job-market clearing my palate with some old favorites and Rhino's Super Hits of the 70s: Have a Nice Day series thanks to my roommate Tommy. That and getting deeper into Julian Cope's Japrocksampler...

...which of course has been the return of my inspiration, and here is Les Raillezes Denudés. Formed in the late 60s this Japanese band formed out of the folk scene emerging with the radical (mostly communist) left, but eventually took their music in an even more radical direction. After the politics took an equally radical turn for the band's bassist hijacking a plane en route to South Korea with quite a few American passengers and escaping to North Korea, the band faded somewhat into obscurity. At this point the cult legend and the sound only sound worthy of it grew. At this point leaderand sole consistent member Mizutani Takashiheaded off into the mountains to live in isolation and set the standard for generations of futen artists like Ghost and perhaps his most dedicated followers Acid Mothers Temple and the Meltin Paraiso U.F.O. Here the sound was honed, taking the Velvet Underground's "Sister Ray" as the blueprint and turning into a precise art of noise as only the Japanese could. Not to mention it's a whole lot more interesting musically, and I must hope with less-embarrassing lyrics. Likewise, Andy and the Velvets' Exploding Plastic Inevitable Show was the top influence on Mizutani's "total sensory assault," which unfortunately was put to rest in 1997.

This set - a bootleg like all their releases, is ranked as the third greatest of the Japrock movement by Cope is some of the most exciting music I've heard. Starting off with the hypnotic "Strong Out Deeper Than The Night," the band's mastery of noise and atmosphere as well as Mizutani's perfectly executed vocals prove that this unique music demands one's full attention. Luckily, it is well-held for the whole 15:33 with an exploratory experience of jazz with the unity of a classic rock song. "The Night Collectors" rocks out the hardest and catchiest, but not without the Tarkovskyesque approach of "sculpting in time." Moments, or long stretches of them of softness come through as well most notably in "Enter The Mirror," making this psychedelic experience particularly dreamlike. For those looking for the most hardcore psychedelia, here it is, one that evokes the full-body brain-piercing experience of an Acid Mothers show even though these busted laptop speakers - full-blast, full-attention, life-changing.


Les Rallizes Denudés - Heavier Than A Death In The Family (1995?)

*I have a few more suspicions than usual this file may not have uploaded properly, so please let me know if there's an issue!

Here's a great video - the true title of this gorgeous song is "Romance of the Black Grief"

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By 1986 members of the original punk explosion had moved onto the broad category of "postpunk." Members of the Sex Pistols and the Buzzcocks had embraced their Krautrock and Dub influences, while others were experimenting with funky dance music. Billy Idol, for one brought punk the middle America by selling out a little while his former cohort Tony James sold out so much that Middle America could never hope to handle it. That is, except for one Chicago teen by the name of Ferris Beuller.

"Love Missle F1-11" was featured in that character's day off, but that is just a warm up for this masterpiece of Musique-Concrète and 1980s hedonistic debauchery that could only be produced by Giorgio Moroder. The videos Sigue Sigue Sputnik left behind show what this album plays - the ultimate 80s experience: Consumerism, glam, video games, cable TV, Transformers, Terminator, and Tokyo. The band's use of samples predates the DJs of the 90s all without moving into dance category, just high art for fun's sake. As I mentioned months ago on the topic of Hanoi Rocks, do not expect anything metal from this despite the band's image - this is something totally unique, hip, absolutely hilarious and often called the first (and probably only) truly "cyberpunk" album. By simply listening to this album you can almost say you lived through the 80s. The album is really one to play through as it flows together really well with long samples in intros (the kind that produce negative numbers on CD players making is hard to track on the PC.) However there are some tracks that do stand out on their own like the aforementioned one, along with "Atari Baby," "Rockit Miss U.S.A.," and "21st Century Boy." With the heavy presence of classical samples, Sigue Sigue Sputnik made an album for the future that was in tough with the past, and could only come from the present in 1986.


Sigue Sigue Sputnik - Flaunt It (1986)

I beleive I was lucky enough to have found this CD at Vintage Vinyl in Fords, NJ.

We're Leaving at Five In The Morning - We Could Get Better Mileage

I write this in my second hotel room of the trip in Western Colorado. Today's drive was made even more transcendent through repeated listening of Popol Vuh's Coeur de Verre, which could not leave my CD player as ventured through the Rockies. One listen, even without seeing the movie would explain why. Download it!


Yesterday's drive, though, was through Iowa. Probably my least favorite state thus far, but I would never have dared say that to Arthur Russell!

Russell, who died of AIDS in 1992 was a genius, and if you don't beleive me beleive the likes of Jens Lekman, the Talking Heads, and even the K.L.F. who sampled his "Go Bang!" while he was still alive! He is the unifiying force of all the great music that was happening in Manhattan in the late seventies with punk/new wave, the avant-garde, disco, and minimalism. All of their influences are heard on this record, like most of his available releases is a posthumous compilation. This one may not be the best, but its general sound unifies his vast skills better than others while still remaining cohesive. That, and it contains what I would consider one of the greatest pieces of music of all time, "That's Us/Wild Combination." That piece, like many of his songs is made up of two very distinct parts that gradually unify and then disassemble, also heard in his disco classic "Is It All Over My Face?" The record also includes some great dronier tunes that still have his kind of pop and disco sensibility like the title tracks and "The Platform on the Ocean." Others are a New Wave dance party for the eccentricly genius, most notably, "Calling All Kids."

Russell was a legendary perfectionist who spent nearly all his time working on and recording his music, especially in his last days. That being said, anything you think could be better in these songs probably has been done and recorded. Hoprefully it will be released one day as well.


Arthur Russell - Calling Out Of Context (2004)

The cover photo may have been perfect for the release's time, but Russell's trucker hat is not the result of a prescient sense of fasion, but rather a relic of his Iowa roots which he always held dear.