Monday, February 07, 2011
MUSIC CORNER: LES RALLIZES DENUDES, HEAVIER THAN A DEATH IN THE FAMILY
I was up in the Chicago area recently, and made a stop at Reckless Records on Damen. While browsing the psych-rock section, I came upon the above CD. The blurb supplied by the store revealed that the group was Japanese, notwithstanding its name. It also compared them to the Velvet Underground, the Stooges, the MC5 and other good stuff, as well as recommending it highly, so I decided to take a chance on it. Well, the Velvet influence is there: "People Can Choose" (the titles of all the tracks are in English, though as far as I can tell there is no singing in English on the album) sounds a lot like the instrumental part of "European Son to Delmore Schwarz," and parts of "The Night Collectors" sound like the chaotic part in the middle of the Guitar Amp Tape "Sister Ray." But taken as a whole, the album sounds incredibly like Fushitsusha. In fact, after hearing the first track I couldn't stop myself from checking to assure myself I hadn't gotten a Fushitsusha disc by mistake, although I already knew I hadn't. The CD had no information whatsoever about its contents except the song titles, but searching the Web I discovered that it was an anthology of live performances from 1977 (except for the above -mentioned "People Can Choose," which is from 1973). So the music on the CD actually predates Fushitsusha, which was founded in 1978, although its leader Keiji Haino had been active since before 1970. Be that as it may, it's pretty awesome.
I was up in the Chicago area recently, and made a stop at Reckless Records on Damen. While browsing the psych-rock section, I came upon the above CD. The blurb supplied by the store revealed that the group was Japanese, notwithstanding its name. It also compared them to the Velvet Underground, the Stooges, the MC5 and other good stuff, as well as recommending it highly, so I decided to take a chance on it. Well, the Velvet influence is there: "People Can Choose" (the titles of all the tracks are in English, though as far as I can tell there is no singing in English on the album) sounds a lot like the instrumental part of "European Son to Delmore Schwarz," and parts of "The Night Collectors" sound like the chaotic part in the middle of the Guitar Amp Tape "Sister Ray." But taken as a whole, the album sounds incredibly like Fushitsusha. In fact, after hearing the first track I couldn't stop myself from checking to assure myself I hadn't gotten a Fushitsusha disc by mistake, although I already knew I hadn't. The CD had no information whatsoever about its contents except the song titles, but searching the Web I discovered that it was an anthology of live performances from 1977 (except for the above -mentioned "People Can Choose," which is from 1973). So the music on the CD actually predates Fushitsusha, which was founded in 1978, although its leader Keiji Haino had been active since before 1970. Be that as it may, it's pretty awesome.
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