les rallizes denudes rfi

In fact, I recall reading abt the time SY took Descension as the support act and they were apparently heckled. Descension do make that sort of blistering sound.

It's a pity I don't have a CD burner. These MP3 files are stuck in the prison that is my computer hard drive! The only thing that makes me think (if I play this loud enough it might actually damage my speakers).

Theres a new taj mahal travellers reissue as reviewed on the latest wire as well. prob. pick it up.

The sequencing is wrong. Here's the track listing, from rallizes web page:

1. Enter the Mirror 11'30"

2. ???????12'04"

3. ???16'12"

4. ?????11'35"

1. ?????15'32"

2. ???????8'30"

3. The Last One 25'24"

Disk 1: 2nd track is called 'Night of the Assassins' 3. Flames of Ice 4. A memory is far Disk 2: don't have the translation to 1 and 2.

The first 3 tracks on disc 1 is OK (1 and 2 on 'side 1' of the vinyl. Flames of ice on 'side 2' but A memory is far is not the last track on the vinyl. That is the 8:30 secs one on disc 2).

Its a straight swap (since it probably wouldn't fit due to the time considerations). Can you fit 27+ mins onto one side of vinyl?

Also the last (i think) 10 secs of memory is far is missing (just noting this, if you 15.32+11.35 that is slightly more than 27 mins). But i think my MP3 of the 'last one' is 21 mins long whereas I think they have all 25 mins onto vinyl (the bassline is the same 'melody' but it's a slightly different tuning I think, but I'll have to check).

I'm wondering also why didn't they bootleg it onto 2xCDs. maybe vinyl was cheaper...

It's a very good record. and when it's that good things like artwork don't matter. My small speakers connected to my computer cannot do justice to the sound of this band as I play the Mp3s. but my stereo speakers can as I play the vinyl (though it would surely pale in comparison to seeing this stuff live). So I'm glad I got it. Amazing what some of these bands were working at on the other side of the planet (recorded 'le 12 mars 1977 a Tachikawa' as it says on the webpage). It is a psychedelic rock record but the way they go on their 'noise assault' is pretty remarkable. so if you have a shitty computer get hold of it (I had most of these as MP3s but I had to get it).

(if anyone here has it etc etc x 100000000000000)

ah, stephen cooper, where are you? you emailed me and we chatted for a while and now you're gone 4evah!

there are a couple of things labelled variously "mass studio demo" or "mars studio demo" that are somewhat different - one features two versions of "romance of black grief" (i think) that are surprisingly subtle and have some nice tape-delay messing about. the other (september 9th, 1980) is atypical rallizes stuff with some noisy guitar.

the "red" cdr is pretty good, too, but as with all rallizes stuff they generally just did the same batch of songs again and again.

slsk!

thanks, your null fame; btw, are you on slsk? cos i'm d/ling rallizes stuff from someone whose user name isn't all that far from yours.

Eclipse [Iskra 001]
Axis Another Revolvable Thing 1 [Offbeat ORLP-1005]
Axis Another Revolvable Thing 2 [Offbeat ORLP-1009]

- Holly

1. Strong Out Deeper Than the Night (no, it is not supposed to be "strung")
2. Reapers of the Night

yeah if anyone has this stuff and is up for tape trading. gimme gimme email.

They are the japanese grateful dead but like better than that. hopefully some shit will appear some day.

QBICO Label:

OUT NOW QBICO 09/10

ARTHUR DOYLE/TAKASHI MIZUTANI/SABU TOYOZUMI- Live in Japan, 1997 (QBICO 09/10) 2LP folder cover, Qbico 09: black&red vinyl (very few pink&black or brown vinyl)/Qbico 10: black&yelloworange, liner notes by Ilya Monosov, cover artwork by Qbico, 450 copies only. $25.
26 copies only with hand-made covers, numbered from A to Z, price: $59 each

Arthur Doyle- tenor sax, flute, voice/Takashi Mizutani- electric guitar/Sabu
Toyozumi- drums

Rec. live November 14, 1997 @ Manda-la2, Tokyo, Japan

info at http://qbic.web.planet.it/QBICO%20RECORDS.htm

Anyone interested in Japanese psych/scuzz should seek the Gaseneta disc on PSF. 1978-era total punk garbage guitar that influenced High Rise later (who apparently shared some music on a cassette release with Gaseneta). Imagine speed-psych acid mothers minus the reverb, with a lot grottier production and a guy plowing through solos ultra-fast with gloves on...hits the spot for me!

no lime - I know of that source for the bassline. The interesting thing about rallizes which not really many people acknowledge is how much in love with 50s rock n' roll they were (everyone thinks the starting point for this stuff is a mix of Blue Cheer and Doors amped up). That guitar at the beginning of the Everly's cover is pure rallizes.

Its a terrible piece, the worse was the speculation on Haino and Mizutani at the end. The article by Cummings from '99 (and various reviews) still is the best piece I've seen on this stuff. Hilarious (and not too surprising) that he hates that book by Julian Cope.

Cummings should not be too harsh on it, he has always struck me as being v very aware of making this stuff into 'esoterica'. A trap this piece falls head into. I'd love to know what they've 'influenced'.

Not be too harsh on his own writings, that is. I'm sure the Cope book is terrible.

the cope book is terrible, though the list at the end is very valuable

I had a chance to chat with Kawabata briefly at Terrastock 7 about Cope's book and he was diplomatic, but noted that it didn't help when album sleeves were shown of a completely different release from the one he was talking about.

If that piece had been written by an ilxor and/or had not appeared on a corporate website it would no doubt be getting plenty of plaudits. The fact that it contains zero information is kind of the point of the article, isn't it? It's a piece about the mystery, and speculation is fair game, as is characterising Rallizes as esoterica (which is how I've always regarded them).

ha yeah, i didn't think it was a bad article (maybe a little overlong).

i learned a couple of things anyway ... i'm not as steeped in it as others though.

If that piece had been written by an ilxor and/or had not appeared on a corporate website it would no doubt be getting plenty of plaudits.

What does where the article has appeared or whether the person who wrote it posts on here has to do with anything? Appreciate the posting but it isn't that good.

I don't find 'em that mysterious either. Some people who make things choose not to talk about it, or release that much. And because of the kind of group that was, i.e. one that was ever going to appeal to twenty people, it isn't too surprising that there was a revolving door policy of personnel and that was one of them was possibly then involved in political activity (or terrorism, take your pick) as many Japanese youth (and many from Europe and developed countries) were taking part in action and 'holidaying' in Palestine at that time.

Yeah, thought the writer (who might be an ilxor for all I know) went far too hard on the whole in-pursuit-of-the-mystery angle when in fact there's quite a lot of footage of rallizes out there, not to mention all those hours and hours and hours of bootlegs. It's the kind of thing that only really works when there's some kind of revelation or encounter at the end - and as that was obviously never going to happen, it made the whole thing feel pretty pointless (and the Haino/Mizutani stuff seemed like third hand gossip/speculation that added nothing to the piece).

they are one of the half dozen or so most worthwhile rock ensembles though i have never felt any need to find out about them, to gtranslate .jp pages about them, to verify the apocryphal tales about their involvement with the united red army and so forth

when in fact there's quite a lot of footage of rallizes out there, not to mention all those hours and hours and hours of bootlegs

When I first thought that listening to them might be something to do (as a result of that piece on The Wire) I couldn't find anything whatsoever for a good while. My copy of Live '77 is on this very crappy bit of vinyl with a photocopied photo of Mizutani (I kid you not). It got way better on slsk (bootleg heaven) but now you just hit youtube and there are days of it, along with pretty crappy video footage that would probably get rid of the mystique.

There are some fairly interesting angles (some which would require sometime to research and write-up), and some proper highlights comps to be done. Memory is gone but I had a top [so many versions] of The Last One.

i dunno, they're pretty mysterious to me. i mean, relative to other bands?
you guys will regret it when i'm accepting my best documentary oscar for "searching for mizutani" wherein I track him down and make him perform in dodger stadium.

an empty dodger stadium, I assume

Dodgers will be playing at the Echoplex

There are some fairly interesting angles (some which would require sometime to research and write-up), and some proper highlights comps to be done. Memory is gone but I had a top [so many versions] of The Last One.

― xyzzzz__, Monday, December 8, 2014 2:41 PM (2 days ago)

somebody please do this, would love to know what's worth checking out beyond Live '77 (although I draw the line at buying Phoenix stuff)

A new high profile fan

https://instagram.com/p/5QU5F1JFMr/

https://instagram.com/p/5QVLvWpFNG/

There's a song on the 13.7.74 set (in the Great White Wonder box) called, or mistranslated as "You Were Known" with a lovely cycling chord sequence at a somewhat relaxed tempo that sounds like something Boards Of Canada might use. It's not a million miles from Dayvan Cowboy. Of course our boy proceeds to wring seven shades of glorious atonal sh!t out of it for a good nine minutes.

Note, a recording supposedly bearing the same title on the "Are You Ralliezed?" release and available on YouTube, appears to be another song entirely.

ysi?

not that 74 set, but this 76 set just went up over on big o - http://bigozine2.com/roio/?p=2535

yall there is so much lrd of questionable legitimacy on spotify. like, nearly grateful dead level embarrassment of riches

ha really? never even thought to look. wonder who puts that stuff up?

Anyone know if the discs in the Univive boxes have two-second gaps between tracks?

Double Heads Legendary Live is fantastique isn't it, especially the last set (23rd March 1981).

Yeah that's one of the better versions of "Last One"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4jJpRViOQI

what a bootleg

Listening to the France Demos today. It don't get much better than this, folks

About 18 minutes into (Flightless Bird): seems to be VU "New Age" strum & drum cadences w flying saucers, aurora borealis, electric razors having seizures, occasionally.

some kind of howling zombie feedback collision far down the subway tunnel now---flashbacks to The Strain

emerging from tunnel

I didn't know it was released as Flightless Bird actually, just sorta been listening on the random - the echo-y stuff in Enter the Mirror and Flames of Ice, with all the strum & drum...its something very 50s(?) I mean they probably are one of the best psych bands that really have an affinity and channel that specific, late 50s rock & roll sound. There is a slower, more languid pace..

I mean the change of pace from one version of Flames of Ice in Live '77 to this one here.

The stabbing riffs in Flames of Ice are so addictive - totally a late 50s hangover.

Yeah, I hear the 50s rock thing in so many of these bass lines.

How do you guys rate Naked Giza Star? I know it's just a comp but it seems to cover a pretty wide span of time (73 to 87) and, according to Discogs, "originated from a request by a music critic in 2003 for Mizutani to produce a high-quality release from a master source." It always goes (relatively) cheap, I was thinking about grabbing that one to feed this kick I'm on. Lately it's been all about France Demos and the mellow-but-still-blown-out psych folk genius of Deeper Than The Night (which has the best / worst cover art I've ever seen)

I'd been checking occasionally but hadn't seen that France Demo Tapes had had a more accessible release, although it does seem to be another Radioactive / Phoenix related label. That version of The Last One is blasted even by usual Rallizes standards. Isn't one of the other tracks also on Blind Baby, though?

I'll have to check, I'm not sure, haven't heard that one in a long time, and only have a crappy CDR boot of it. But yeah, the version of FDT I have is on Bamboo which iirc is another label by that Phoenix / Radioactive guy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS3TzTeqxbc

this one is just so much loose leaked feedback

Naked Giza Sta

Giving it a listen to a few cuts I could find and I'm not sure on it. The fuzz I can always hook it to my veins but not reaching cathedral levels for me..

I've seen a couple of reviews of Naked Diza Star (I'm quite sure it's Diza with a D) complain that the discs are CDRs, so tread carefully.

It is Naked Diza Star, you are correct

Listened to some of it yesterday. Only issue I have is the sequencing, it sorta skips around and spans a lot of time (73 to 87), but there are some pretty great jams on here. Surprised by how much I dug "The Last One" from '87. Also surprised that the audio fidelity of these boots never really improved in like 15 years. Like it's often difficult to tell what 'era' you are listening to based on audio fidelity alone.

But yeah, CDR or no CDR, it's quite a bit of LRD for not much dough, so I may go for it, if only to have some new jams for the car

So has anyone figured out why there's a swastika on the drum set in that one video? Because I love this band but it's been bumming me out since I saw it. And yes, I registered an account just so I could ask this question.

link ?

Sorry, it's from way earlier in the thread: https://youtu.be/sbhtAejVmEg

It's on the kick drum; you can see it pretty clearly at around 5:30. I know Mizutani was involved in radical left politics, but sometimes radical left-wingers become radical right-wingers. I have a feeling something else is going on here, but it just bugs me not to know because I otherwise idolize this band.

probably general cluelessness/shock value thing going on

yeah, my best guess is it's a stooges tribute sort of thing ?

i did like four hours of research this morning and nothing turned up.

sent a few emails, will see if that yields anything but i strongly suspect (and hope) this was an idiosyncratic, very stupid, isolated occurrence.

Thanks for the replies! Yeah, I almost wonder if it was just there from the last act or something. I did a fair amount of research too (limited, of course, by not speaking Japanese), but all references to politics are to the Japanese Red Army Faction, etc. Let me know if you hear anything interesting back from your e-mails!

i did hear back and was tipped to a small group of far-right japanese bands doing ultranationalist / oi type things, none of which i feel like discussing in this thread. that said, i went down a discogs rabbit hole trying to see if there was any crossover between musicians in that scene and mitzutani's band c. '94 or really ever. nothing came up but tbh i didn't try all that hard. if that seems like a promising tip to you, feel free to send me an ilx mail and i can give you names of bands and musicians who were most certainly using nazi iconography / lyrics on purpose. as for me i'm going to move on i guess.

I thought the swastika was used quite a lot for shock value during punk and before. You see it on Siouxdie's armband, Side thirty, Gonn's amp cover et etc.

So would think it tied in with that.

Not sure if Ron Asheton's Nazi clothing fetishism does. That may be his own aesthetic.

my phone autocorrected Siouxsie's armband and Sid's tshirt.
THere were other uses of the symbol at the time too.
& Gonn were 10 years earlier, their Black Out of Gretely is a killer garage track.

Thanks for looking into it -- I'm tempted to do that discogs digging, but I think instead I'll just choose to believe that it was the drummer's misguided Stooges tribute. I just think that if Mizutani had taken a Nazi turn in the '90s, that would have made it into the legend. The fact that he played with Arthur Doyle in '97 also makes it unlikely (though not impossible!) that he believed in Aryan supremacy.

not sure if anything is to be gained by my weighing in here but ime the general Japanese grasp of Naziism and its tenets, both in theory and in practice, is very limited. This stuff is not taught in Japanese schools, the European context and history of it is obscured, and the understanding of the symbolism is vague. The average Japanese person does not really know what a Nazi was (much less a Jew).

That being said, it makes it more likely that that flag was more in the spirit of punk provocateurs, primarily British, that trotted out Nazi imagery for shock value, a detailed discussion of which recently took place here: The Ian Curtis memorial thread. It seems reasonable to assume that Les Rallizes Denudes were not real European Theater WWII buffs and more likely taking cues from a musical culture/iconography with which they were more passingly familiar (Stooges, UK punk, etc.)