tatsuya yoshida appreciation thread

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.

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.

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5i5Q9LmPX0

nikkon nikkon nikkon nikkon nikkon
nikkon nikkon nikkon nikkon nikkon
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooo

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.

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?

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.

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!

guess I was wrong about this one:

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...

>:-|

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

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!

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)?

Big difference on nivraym I've always hated the way the original release sounded.

Nothing too radical on hundred sights iirc.

Both

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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!

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.

yeah, ruins alone is the good shit, no doubt about it.

did he ever do a Ruins medley?

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.

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!

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!

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?

a noble goal imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfCYVhXRn80

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)

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
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5i5Q9LmPX0

hah, that vid is a classic. and godddd, I really have to hear this zletovsko album...!

with richard pinhas!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t33jAd3gc3s

Finally been listening to Korekyojin, not quite a change of pace from his usual shtick, but the music isn't soul crushingly intense like Koenji is, nor does it have the tendency to completely fall apart the way Ruins does - its more like mutated funk with lots of power riffing, still stupidly technical but also a little more cohesive than most of Yoshida's work. I love it!

you know, that's one of his groups I've never gotten fully into. what album are you spinning?

I've been listening to the Mahavishnu Orchestra debut and I'm trying to work out if Koenjihyakkei stolen a bit or if it just sounds really similar. Since they did that Mahavishnu medley, they'd expect listeners to notice. I don't know if they'd incorporate other people's bits into their own tunes.
I think it is a Mahavishnu guitar or violin part (can't remember) but Koeji have a very similar vocal part. I'm fairly sure it's on Angherr Shisspa.

I'm just listening to the first one (self-titled, I think?) - this tune is kinda their equivilent to "Praha in Spring"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6yhI-050lI

still can't beat those discs w/ imahori tsuneo.

yeah, I love those too. curious about tsuneo's other groups tipographica and unbeltipo. haven't checked em out yet.

xpost - whoa! that korekyojin track is great! I probably haven't listened to their 1st lp in 10+ years, so guess it's time to revisit...

the last saxruins was surprisingly good, sax player has a neat way w/ zappa-fying the harmonies.
embarrassing "punky" bits aside. its worth picking up if you haven't already

still haven't listened to more than a few tracks from either sax ruins records. hard to keep up with it all!

54th birthday today!! I'm listening to Pallastromuimagorninm (sp?) to celebrate. What a jam!!!

Did you mean: Palm Storm Imaging

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He's a beast, a genius, and quite small and unassuming - all he said the entire show was :

'Ah, sampla broken' and then proceeded to do an hour long polyrhythmic drum solo, bow, and run away

y'all ever heard the album by Daimonji called Improg? apparently the band is just Jun Togawa's backing band, and the album is four lengthy tunes which are apparently improvised, though to me they sound a lot like structured, Magma-esque jamming. some garbled vocals too. really good, makes me wonder what else I'm missing.

Yes that is put together by Hoppy Kamiyama, who used to run the great God Mountain in the 90s, and had his hand in a ton of proggy Japanese noise-rock bands. I don't remember being that into Daimonji, but it's been years since I heard it.

i rather liked that "soft mountain" record - hoppy and tatsuya with hugh hopper and elton dean doing some lovely improvs in fusion-softs style.

This almost flew under my radar, acoustic versions of Korekyojinn tracks (I don't think there's anything brand new here) but it's good:

https://korekyojinn.bandcamp.com/album/kaleidoscope

I didn't know until recently that he's put a load of Magaibutsu releases on bandcamp, it's meant that I've been able to fill some gaps in my Tatsuya Yoshida collection like I've been meaning to for ages!

Angherr Shisspa = god tier. god damn do I love this album.

what's he been up to lately? seems to still do a ton of shows and there was a new Korekojinn disc recently, but his recent output seems to be limited to these improvised (?) and hard to find discs with the likes of Richard Pinhas. is he not composing new stuff anymore?

Someone with a work ethic like his is bound to be cooking up something...

Wasn't there a new Koenjihyakkei album somewhere on the horizon or did I imagine it

vaguely recall hearing something about a new koenji too... 🤔

it does seem like yoshida's calmed down a bit lately. a magaibutsu bandcamp went up semi recently but just catalog releases on there for the time being. maybe he's a dad or something now?

starting to dig more into these semi-improvised collabs. the one under the name Imahoritsuneoyoshidatatsuya called "Territory" is excellent, full of all sorts of gonzo noise and suitable bizarre rhythms. never a dull moment. Erans with Satoko Fuiji (a pianist) is great as well. this guy is one of the best musicians ever, really

*cough*

https://koenjihyakkei.bandcamp.com/album/dhorimviskha

omg second track is a shameless rip-off of...the mars volta?

sounding good tho!

Oh yea!

the main thing i'm getting here is a love of 60s and 70s psych coming through as the main flavour :)

shiiiiiiiiiiiiiit

so, DHORIMVISKHA rules imo. sounds like a refinement of, or at least, a denser version of angherr shisspa to me. production on here is similarly sedate (for this band anyway, so I mean this relatively vs. nivraym or viva koenji) and I love the stretch from "DJEBELAKI ZOMN" to "PALBETH TISSILAQ".

listened to this while driving around ireland when it came out and found it complemented that nicely - lots of winding twists, routinely being impressed by everything you're taking in, undeniably kinda claustrophobic + stressful.

right now I think it's their best album and potentially Yoshida's crowning achievement. amusingly it's the only Koenjihyakkei album that really sounds like a follow-up to the last one, even though that one was 13 years ago.

Found a cheap copy of Ruins - Mandala II in a second hand section. Is this any good? Might be signed, or maybe someone not in the band just scribbled on it.

I love this dude

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5i5Q9LmPX0

That's great!

Is that a baby in the background doing a death metal scream?

lotta stuff on Bandcamp

https://magaibutsu.bandcamp.com/music

ever dip into this? so much live improv. it’s a little overwhelming!

a set with haino just went up the other day!

yeah if anyone recommends something in particular I'll check it out

I do dig his live improv stuff but I've got a lot of it already

yep, same

finally grabbed that Ruins Alone record. my one word review: LMAO

also it has a track which doesn't sample but kinda replicates Autechre's "Arch Carrier"??? like it can't be a coincidence (its "Obthecklomtz" if you're curious...1:10 on)

hahaha I would have never thought of it myself but I can totally hear it

awesome record. so wild, even for one of his projects.

yeah there's a real "who's gonna hold me back" vibe to it