Japanese New Music Festival - Music Review

Hotter and muggier than sh*t in the undergroundbottle as percussions, and shouting their brand
subway, 3 musicians (YoshidaTatsuya from Ruins,names over and over as the "songs," the show is
Tsuyama Atsushi and Kawabata Makoto fromperformed under the concept of low cost and
Acid Mothers Temple) form 7 units!! A cappella,maximum sound effect. AKATEN is the
comic free form, progressive core, troubadour,experimental convenience store punk band that
cosmic psychedelic. The smell is infamous and itprovides the sound images of cheap and simple
came through with an underground night of musicdaily lives.- RUINS ALONE (Yoshida)RUINS is
that was not to be forgotten.These threepioneer of Drum & Bass duo. Tunes are
virtuosos continue to amaze. Hot off the planecomplicated and mysterious, and songs are sung
from their sold out show in SF they arrived inin the language of their own invention. It's
manic style to provide a sweaty crowd the lovelyhigh-tension, wild, heavy, speedy, acute, and
feelings of humor, sadness and mind blowing rock.powerful tremendous ensemble never sounds like
I had never seen Yoshida drum and when he didthey are only two players. since last bassist left
his Ruins solo set it blew my mind. His one handedYoshida still seeking a bassist and currently he has
snare, his ability to switch genres mid song, hisbeen playing as RUINS ALONE. playing RUINS
use of a sampler made me so happy that I wassongs with sampling bass. this time Yoshida will
there as a witness. His powerful drumming wasplay songs from Koenji Hyakkei and Korekyojinn
too amazing.I couldn't wait to see the final set oftoo.- ZOFFY (Tsuyama/Kawabata)Formed in
AMT SWR with that kind of attack and it didn't1998. Zoffy's music hints both at the members'
let me down. All the sets were fairly shortdeep musical knowledge via their improvised
including the AMT SWR set and played at a fasterperformances of troubadour music and European
tempo than most of their other shows as thetrad, and also at their deep love for rock via their
Melting Paraiso or the Cosmic Inferno. Pink Ladydestructivist covers of classic rock songs, that no
Lemonade has been a staple of the AMT set forlonger sounds like anything but ZOFFY. The group
a while now and I was happy to hear it buzzingbelieves that humor is essential in music, and their
from Makotos guitar at record pace. It was aunprecedented performances stray far from the
short intro with the melody and then quickly intobeaten track. Is this the Ultima Thule that rock
psychadelia and then nearly as quickly it was backmusic has long been
into the melody line short and smiling and sweet.aiming for?- SHRINP WARK (Kawabata
The musicians were in a sauna on stage and theYoshida)A new improvising duo consisting of
crowd had it worse. It was packed and sweatyYoshida from Ruins and Kawabata from AMT.
and hot like good old LA.The other acts consistedgroup inspired by This Heat and band name taken
of combinations of the three gurus in a singing triofrom their song "Shrink Wrap". Cosmic chemical
grouped around one mic, a silly set fromreaction sound that embraces a multidimensional
Tsuyama and Yoshida playing everyday itemschaos based upon the principles of minimalism, an
with contact mics (including zipper song,anarchistic warping of the time axis, and
toothbrushing song, scissor song and drinkingultra-accelerated revolving of time particles.- ACID
song) a set of very famous cover songs, andMOTHERS TEMPLE SWR (Kawabata/Tsuyama
some really nice ambient violin drone work fromYoshida)Acid Mothers Temple have rapidly
Makoto.These guys did this 9 show tour on anbecome acclaimed as the greatest, most
around the world plane ticket and every stop wasextreme trip psychedelic group in the world.
a 24 hour layover. We all wanted to go drinkingReleases have appeared on labels around the
but they were staying at a hotel near LAX toworld at an amazing pace, and the magnificence
catch an early flight for their first show in Mexicoof their live performances is already being
City.Here's a list of the bands and theirwhispered of as legendary. SWR is the AMT
descriptions that played the festival:- ZUBI ZUVAFamily's most powerful battle-formation yet.
X (Yoshida/Tsuyama/Kawabata)Eccentricfeaturing Tsuyama and Kawabata from the
poly-rhythmic a cappella ensemble. It covers fromoriginal AMT and Yoshida from Ruins. their
Gregorian chant to ethnic music, to do-wop tocrushingly acute freakout sound will pulverize the
hardcore screaming, heavily using irregularworld's legions of wannabe psych groups.-
rhythms and polyrhythm. All sorts of ideas andSEIKAZOKU (Kawabata/Tsuyama
aberrant musicality overturn the image of aYoshida)Formed in 1996. The expansive musicality
cappella. their totally meaningless lyrics andof the group, which
desperate performances throw the audiences intononchalantly references classic prog and rock,
the abyss of the laughter and admiration. it makesethnic music, jazz and
the conceptcontemporary composition, is backed up the
of "singing ability"nonsense.- AKATEN (Tsuyamathree members' impressive backgrounds and the
Yoshida)Formed in 1995 with the motto ofdepth of their musical knowledge. Improvised
"irresponsibleness" and "perfunctoriness." Theymusic for holy trinity heresy that runs the full
easily free themselves from the spell of thegamut of ethnic and electric instruments, primitive
traditional seriousness of the art. Using dailystupidity, the suspicious stench of medieval
commodities likealchemy, the raw power of early rock music, all
scissors, toothbrush, zipper, camera, and plasticleavened with a pinch of cosmic incoherency.