|
A quite daunting but admittedly excellent release from the Japanese based label Alchemy. Purveyors of avant garde cosmic prog jazz psyche in the main, Alchemy have a proven pedigree for releasing material of such out there quality that perhaps they are only matched, for me personally, by the ever excellent Beta Lactam Ring crew. For 21 years now Alchemy has played host to some of the leading pioneers of noise, psyche and progressive avant garde that Japan has to offer, an enviable back catalogue that includes releases by Merzbow, Hijokaidan, Incapacitants, Massona and more recently Up-Tight.
Sadly there’s not a lot of information with this particular release and the information I have courtesy of the accompanying press release is a little - shall we say - confusing. That said what I have managed to glean is that Rasen Kaidan where a Kyoto based three piece and featured members of the legendary (and aforementioned) Hijokaidan. In their brief two year existence Rasen Kaidan where pretty much ever presents on bristling Kyoto live circuit with a residency at the Drugstore before splitting with key members going on to form Idiot O’clock (for a detailed overview of the scene and the related bands of the time check out the informative Hijokaidan story web page at http://noise.as/main/hijo1).
‘Fushigi Na Tokoro’ gathers together two rare live performances by the trio culled from Kyoto in 1979 (2 tracks) and Osaka in 1980 (9 cuts). The sound quality though is a little raw given today’s mastering standards yet strangely adds to the charm of this collection. These sets provide evidence that far from languishing on the outer edges of extreme musical concepts lazily associated with the Japanese underground scene, Rasen Kaidan where perhaps more in tune with the whole post punk pageantry than many UK / US bands of the time (that these days are feted as being ahead of their time) were and with that in mind perhaps this release is as relevant now (given the interest in art rock / post punk / new wave) as it was then.
What makes this release all the more engaging is the fact that the stylising provided for by both sets is, though spiritually linked in terms of atmosphere and delivery, deeply contrasting to the extent that you question it’s the same band. The Kyoyto set comprises of two tracks - ‘Prologue - Fa Mi Fa Mi Do Re’ and ‘Visions’ - both engage with an eerie Nico-esque icy-ness blended through with a chilled Lydia Lunch like exterior all set upon a hauntingly atmospheric skeletal gothic chamber like framework that’s close in mindset to the Banshees gloomier aspects to be found on both ‘Join Hands’ and ‘Juju’ while simultaneously laying the antecedents for the Sugarcubes.
The Osaka set is an altogether edgier affair in the main angular art / new wave that strays close in essence at times to Joy Division in particular the caustic ‘Wonderland’ with its rudimentary Magazine accents and track 11 (sorry the titles in Japanese). Elsewhere ’Automatic Doll’ is your early career rough and moody proto punk Comsats / Chameleons while track 9 (again - sorry - its in Japanese) could easily be a schizoid take on the Fall. Best of the Osaka set though is the cranked up psychedelic garage rout of track 8. Well worth tracking down.
MARK BARTON
|
