so, who's been keeping up with this dude? releasing tons of stuff (as always). what's the pick of the litter?
I have the last two improv releases with uchihashi kazuhisa (the cd+dvd and the TRIPLE cd) but haven't given them the time they deserve. it's a lot to take in. they seem cool but maybe a little samey?
like the discs with imahori tsuneo a bunch. "tokyolaibach" is a heavy jam.
have to check out the new korekyojinn. though I have to say, none of the other korekyojinn albums have done much for me. maybe not as manic as I was hoping for?
also have to check out sax ruins.
and, at this point, koenjihyakkei are probably one of my all-time favorite bands. all of their albums completely rule. new nivraym remaster on skin graft deserves a shout out. probably my favorite material they've done (though I seem to be the only one that feels this way) and finally with the sound this material has always deserved. (always felt that the magaibutsu release sounded like it was never mastered or something.) awesome.
would love for a new koenji album to show up soon. with the steady stream of live dvds, I'm sure it's only a matter of time before we get one...
― ' ( *_*) ERROR HANDLING (^_^ ) (Alan N), Wednesday, 6 January 2010 15:32 (3 years ago) Permalink
He's hard to keep up with. I do like the two Koenjihyakkei albums that I have, Angherr Shisspa and 100 Sights of Koenji, and I'm planning to pick up Nivraym sometime in the near future. Seeing Koenjihyakkei live a couple of years ago was a revelatory experience for me.
― o. nate, Wednesday, 6 January 2010 15:49 (3 years ago) Permalink
it is rarely foremost in my mind otherwise, but I never left a Ruins show without my brain dripping out my ears, telling everyone within earshot that he is the best drummer ever engineered.
― Snop Snitchin, Wednesday, 6 January 2010 16:05 (3 years ago) Permalink
definitely hard to keep up with.
koenji were great when I saw them live as well. but since it had just come out and (presumably) because they were rocking a different lineup than on all the other records, the set leaned heavily on angherr shisspa material. would love to see them again with a more varied set.
(xpost)
and yeah, amazing, amazing drummer.
― ' ( *_*) ERROR HANDLING (^_^ ) (Alan N), Wednesday, 6 January 2010 16:07 (3 years ago) Permalink
and for all the magma talk that comes up in reviews etc, he really has carved out a unique little musical subculture, huh?
― ' ( *_*) ERROR HANDLING (^_^ ) (Alan N), Wednesday, 6 January 2010 16:08 (3 years ago) Permalink
Have Koenji or Ruins every played London or do they have any shows scheduled?
― David Katz (davek_00), Wednesday, 6 January 2010 16:12 (3 years ago) Permalink
Yoshida has played London several times in the last few years, both solo and in groups.
Awesome live!
― one less bastard (gnarly sceptre), Wednesday, 6 January 2010 16:25 (3 years ago) Permalink
yoshida's label site doesn't have any 2010 gigs listed:http://www5e.biglobe.ne.jp/~ruins/eng/index.html
not sure if there's a better source out there.
and for those of you that still care about physical objects, the kazuhisa improv discs are really nice:http://www.concretewheels.com/typing/2008/03/25/improvisations-vol-2/
― ' ( *_*) ERROR HANDLING (^_^ ) (Alan N), Wednesday, 6 January 2010 16:29 (3 years ago) Permalink
Not wanting to be piss on the thread, but I find Yoshida's drumming technically amazing but lacking a lot of feeling and swing, especially when you compare him to Vander (not a fair comparison for anybody I admit). Dunno, I used to be a mega Ruins / Koenji fan but I couldn't care less about his output these days.
― Ork Alarm (Matt #2), Wednesday, 6 January 2010 18:45 (3 years ago) Permalink
I don't agree with you on the tech vs. feeling point above but see how you could feel that way.
but on the vander comparison - I don't think yoshida is really coming from the same place re: drumming technique at all. I know dominique has written about this before, but despite the overt similarities that come from playing zeuhl prog, yoshida and vander really don't sound much alike. more often than not, magma (who I also love) are all about being hypnotic and epic. the drumming and chanting vox are all coming from that angle.
yoshida is going for something far more chaotic, spazzy, and bludgeoning with his playing. especially the ruins and improv stuff.
― ' ( *_*) ERROR HANDLING (^_^ ) (Alan N), Wednesday, 6 January 2010 19:27 (3 years ago) Permalink
Yeah true, probably why I don't like it as I'm not a fan of the spazz. He did work well in Musica Transonic and Mainliner though I thought.
― Ork Alarm (Matt #2), Wednesday, 6 January 2010 19:44 (3 years ago) Permalink
The awesome thing about Koenjihyakkei when I saw them is that they were all pretty awesome musicians and they're all playing these crazy intricate things at the same time - it was total sensory overload.
― o. nate, Wednesday, 6 January 2010 19:46 (3 years ago) Permalink
nikkon nikkon nikkon nikkon nikkonnikkon nikkon nikkon nikkon nikkonWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooo
― ogmor, Wednesday, 6 January 2010 20:12 (3 years ago) Permalink
koenji balance the spazz with the grooves well, I think. nivraym hits a nice sweet spot.
didn't realize yoshida played in mainliner! I've only heard mellow out so I will have to do some digging...
and I've never heard musica transonic. any good starting points?
― ' ( *_*) ERROR HANDLING (^_^ ) (Alan N), Wednesday, 6 January 2010 20:27 (3 years ago) Permalink
Been getting way into this dude's music; I picked up "Devil from the East" and it totally rules. I do believe that Ruins may be one of the most irritating bands ever to exist, but once you get past that, they are mindblowing. My first thought was "I bet Alan N made a thread about this guy". Yep
Never heard Koenjihyakkei yet (outside of the one track on the comp. it is good), guess it's about time huh.
By the way I know the Yoshida/Vander comparisons are fairly obvious but I feel like Carl Palmer is probably a better point of comparison. I think Palmer gets criticized for being overly technical and lacking a bit of swing. I was watching a bunch of his old drum solos (nearly every ELP live show has them) and he's super gifted, just like Yoshida is. But he's not trying to be Billy Bruford or Phil Collins; the flash is the whole point. Both Vander and Yoshida can be very hypnotic but they go about it different ways.
― frogbs, Monday, 8 October 2012 14:40 (8 months ago) Permalink
oh man, you definitely need to hear koenjihyakkei. in general, they're an easier proposition than the ruins. full band with longer songs, less imposing discography, less improv/noise/chaos, more addictive material. I mean, it's all relative and koenjihyakkei will still definitely annoy the hell out of 99% of the population, don't get me wrong... but I find myself revisiting koenji way more often than ruins. (who I also love, don't get me wrong!)
nivraym (skin graft remaster) remains my fave but they all have something to offer and push different aspects of their sound. start with the very solid hundred sights of koenji and go from there imo!
― (⊙_⊙?) (Alan N), Tuesday, 9 October 2012 18:46 (8 months ago) Permalink
guess I was wrong about this one:
>:-|
― (⊙_⊙?) (Alan N), Tuesday, 9 October 2012 20:52 (8 months ago) Permalink
well he did that Ruins Alone album. I guess he has trouble finding musicians who can keep up with him.
been browsing some Koenji stuff on Youtube, and I'm pretty excited to dig into the albums now. with Ruins you can tell they have an insane amount of talent but I question some of the end results. Like the 91 Boredoms album Pop Tatari, every album I've heard seems to have enough ideas on it to fill ten albums, but after awhile you just wish they'd come up with more melodic riff tunes like "Praha in Spring". I do think it sounds better on the 10th listen than the 1st or 2nd, once you get to know the music a bit. When you stop concentrating on it, it just sounds like formless background noise. I'm hoping that Koenji will be like say, later Boredoms was, where it feels like they were able to coalesce all their noisy tendencies and freakouts into something more coherent and tuneful without losing what makes the work so exciting. will report back once these discs arrive
― frogbs, Tuesday, 9 October 2012 21:37 (8 months ago) Permalink
it's something like that, definitely. but I don't think the jump is quite as drastic as pop tatari to VCN.
in any case, hope you dig the albums!
― (⊙_⊙?) (Alan N), Tuesday, 9 October 2012 21:51 (8 months ago) Permalink
I'm really digging the first two remastered Koenji albums... I tried getting into them many years ago but it never clicked. Did the remixing make a big difference (apart from the new drums on Hundred Sights)?
― jim, Tuesday, 9 October 2012 23:56 (8 months ago) Permalink
Big difference on nivraym I've always hated the way the original release sounded.
Nothing too radical on hundred sights iirc.
Both
― (⊙_⊙?) (Alan N), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 04:21 (8 months ago) Permalink
Big difference on nivraym. I've always hated the original mix and the new one is v much appreciated.
Nothing as drastic on hundred sights. They both sounded alright iirc.
― (⊙_⊙?) (Alan N), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 04:25 (8 months ago) Permalink
the old nivraym mix was awful ( well i'm not really sure it was a "mix" issue cos they rerecorded a lot for the skin graft "remaster"), but somehow they managed to castrate "becttem pollt" which motors down much harder in the old muddy mix.
― iglu ferrignu, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 06:10 (8 months ago) Permalink
I see the post I thought the zing app ate made it through - embarrassing!
anyway, just a/b'ed the two versions of "becttem pollt" and I see what you mean. the muddy version does have a little extra heft to it. but the clarity on the new one has its charms as well.
― (⊙_⊙?) (Alan N), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 13:10 (8 months ago) Permalink
anyone listened to korekyojinn's 'tundra' record from last year? never really cared that much for them, in that they sound to me like ruins with an extra guitar without the overall wackiness of the latter. more wankering for wankering sake, i guess.
― rusty_allen, Wednesday, 10 October 2012 14:38 (8 months ago) Permalink
I spun it a few times. I'm pretty much on the same page as you about korekyojinn - they always struck me as being a little too "jammy" and I never play their albums much.
― (⊙_⊙?) (Alan N), Wednesday, 10 October 2012 16:38 (8 months ago) Permalink
the second korekyojinn i had a major soft spot for, but one from the last five years or so that really bowled me over was "slip beneath the distant tree" w/ eiko ishibashi.the last two w/ keijo haino left me totally cold. what happened?
― iglu ferrignu, Friday, 12 October 2012 18:23 (8 months ago) Permalink
picked up the ruinzhatoba album "RH" and man is it entertaining. lots of improv stuff, vocal sections that sound like a long array of Mario Kart Toads slipping on bananas, really neat covers of King Crimson, Kraftwerk, and even Area (the first song on Arbeit Macht Frei). dunno if it's really a great package but its a cool (and often hilarious) release!
― frogbs, Tuesday, 7 May 2013 15:25 (1 month ago) Permalink
The most recent Ruins Alone record is as good as any Ruins record. I have full confidence that if Yoshida puts out another Koenji record, it will be great. There are few things you can depend on in this world, but he is one of them.
― Dominique, Wednesday, 8 May 2013 02:48 (1 month ago) Permalink
yeah, ruins alone is the good shit, no doubt about it.
― (⊙_⊙?) (Alan N), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 03:43 (1 month ago) Permalink
did he ever do a Ruins medley?
― frogbs, Wednesday, 8 May 2013 04:06 (1 month ago) Permalink
hah, not that I know of. feel like that would be brain-melting but would also just sound like most ruins songs anyway.
man, you know what track is incredible? freakin' "yawiquo". version on the mandala live disc smokes.
― (⊙_⊙?) (Alan N), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 04:43 (1 month ago) Permalink
not sure what the deal is with this release, but this looks like yet another yoshida band:https://soundcloud.com/isaohorikoshi/sets/zletovskos-1st-album
manic prog, so no surprises there. but these samples don't sound too far from koenji, actually... especially "gepek" since that IS a koenji track!
― (⊙_⊙?) (Alan N), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 16:42 (1 month ago) Permalink
guessing it is the keyboardist's band, because the songs (except Gepek) don't necessarily sound like Yoshida style. also note it has the original bassist of Koenji!
― Dominique, Wednesday, 8 May 2013 17:09 (1 month ago) Permalink
isn't the original bassist of Koenji Ryuichi Masuda? anyway this sounds interesting. RYM has never even heard of this band. funny how the reviews for pretty much any project with Yoshida involvement read somewhat the same. does he ever turn down a project? or is it just his life mission to be connected to every single wacky hyper-prog band coming out of Japan?
― frogbs, Wednesday, 8 May 2013 17:56 (1 month ago) Permalink
a noble goal imo
― (⊙_⊙?) (Alan N), Wednesday, 8 May 2013 18:04 (1 month ago) Permalink
Zletovsko, a Japanese band with 'a Macedonian bizarre name', is a progressive rock/avant-progressive band formed in 2002 by keyboardist Isao Horikoshi and bassist Shigekazu Kuwahara. Kuwaharu was formerly a member of Koenjihyakkei and Pochakaite Malko. The band was originally a UK/ELP styled progressive rock trio, but eventually disbanded without making any recordings. Then in 2009, Isao and Shigekazu met up with drummer Tatsuya Yoshida and guitarist Kei Fushimi (who was a member of Lars Hollmer's SOLA).
(ruinzhatova's cover of "close to the edge" is amazing)
― reggie (qualmsley), Thursday, 16 May 2013 01:50 (1 month ago) Permalink
this sounds awesome! very much has the Koenjihyakkei sound, don't so much care that Yoshida isn't writing the tunes from the sound of the trailer
y'know I used to be in awe of just how many hours of material this guy has written in his life so far but after watching this, it all kinda makes sense
― frogbs, Thursday, 16 May 2013 03:17 (1 month ago) Permalink
hah, that vid is a classic. and godddd, I really have to hear this zletovsko album...!
― (⊙_⊙?) (Alan N), Thursday, 16 May 2013 15:13 (1 month ago) Permalink