Sim + Otomo - Monte Alto Estate (Sim + 大友良英 - Monte Alto Estate)

Sim are a pretty well established Tokyo 3-piece who have been knocking around since the mid oo's. Comprised of Drums, Guitar and various electronics on this album they're joined by veteren noise maker Otomo Yoshihide (大友良英) (Check out the DJ Carhouse & MC Hellshit collaboration with the Boredoms EYE I posted a while back for more Otomo weirdness.) Here Otomo takes up "DJing" duty on turntables and homemade synths and electronics to help flesh out Sims minimal style.

I guess if I had to draw comparisons then Tortoise spring to mind. But think more super minimal no-wave rather than progressive jazz meanderings. The drums are central here forming the skeletel structure of Sim's barebones music to which stabby guitars, droning, bleeping electronics and chopped up audio samples are pinned to. My only gripe with this album is that it doesn't really deviate or expand upon the idiosyncratic so it can make for tough listening in long chunks and it's difficult to distinguish one track the next. But having said that I still enjoy this album very much and is to date Sim's best work. Sadly although the band members have been involved in various other projects Sim seem to have been virtually inactive for the last few years.

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Sika Sika - Demo

Sika Sika are a DIY 4-piece punk band formed in 2006 over popular Japanese social network website Mixi. (Think Facebook for Japan.) The band made up of drums, bass, guitar and keyboard are scattered across Japan with their members hailing from Osaka, Kyoto, Nagasaki and Nagoya. No-nonsense high-tempo, low-fi, hardcore punk is the name of the game and it's executed fine fashion here.

Live the band encourage stage invasions and audience participation (Interference?) in their frantic sets and I doubt the keyboardist's keys have ever made it through a show in one piece. Their demo is made up of 6 short that all clock in around the 1 minute mark and the whole thing comes packedged in a photcopied booklet that includes random collages and self penned interviews. The recording quiality is excellent though suitably low-fi.

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Itoken - Pins And Needles (イトケン - Pins And Needles)

No doubt the first word that will spring to mind when listening to Itoken is "quirky" and you'd be right. Itoken is a Tokyo based producer/musician/composer/drummer whose prolific but fairly obscure output includes soundtracking games, TV commercials, animations and websites. Not to mention his numerous collaboration projects.

Itoken uses toy instruments, oddball electronics and homemade gadgets to create his off the wall intstrumental ditties. His sugery sweet music is quirky and upbeat but also oddly sinister in a twisted sort of way. Replace the toy melodicas, xylophones and hand claps with electric guitars and drums and it could almost be Battles or some other math-rock ensemble.

"Pins And Needles" was released in 2001 and a number of tracks made an appearence in the Xbox game Phantom Crash.

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TOKYOBOREDOM ∞ SUNRAIN

I meant to post this a while ago but never got round to it. For the Tokyo Boredom In Kyoto festival back in July the organisers teamed up with Tokyo based independent music store Sunrain Records to create a free CDR compilation featuring the festivals lineup. The CD was given away to those who attended the festival and to those who ordered records from Sunrain during July. Most of the festivals bands get represented here and a majority of the contributed tracks are exclusive songs or versions of songs unavailable anywhere else.

As for the festival itself it went very well. The rather small capacity venue capacity at Kyoyo Club Metro just about managed to squeeze in the relatively large crowds and the 2 stage, seemless band switch overs went smoother than an ice cold Guiness on a summers day. While there were no major surprises Watushi Zombie take away top prize for the loudest set and shortest stage dive of the night (The drummer cleared about 3 feet before being unceremoniously planted in the ground.) Kyushu band Velocityut claim the award for shortest set with a chaotic 4 minute rampage that left most people dazed and confused. Lamest band of the festival goes to Trip Men whose Justin Beiber-does-Linkin Park-faux-punk impressed only the 3 moist thighed girls who actually stuck around to watch their set and just came across as awkward and embarrasing to everyone else. Biggest surprise goes to Tokyo's Worst Taste. One of the few bands on the bill that I didn't already know and who managed to really impress me. And finally an honourable mention to Yolz In The Sky who've over the years refined their disco punk sound into something that sounds more akin to electro house music than any sort of punk band. I still prefer their old sound but it's great to see a band continuing to develop and evolve their own sound and pursue it to it's most extreme conclusion.

All in all great show with the only dissapointment being the lack local up and coming and less well established bands. It would have been a perfect showcase for the next generation of bands carrying the torch of Japan's gonzo underground.

There's also a ton of footage from the festival over at the youtube channel. Be sure to check out the Bonanzas and Yolz videos.

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Fukuro - ViGaGa (ふくろ - ViGaGa)

Right! back to business as usual. Post-rock, despite my obsession with it during my college years is a genre that has become rather stale and long in the tooth over the years with few bands deviating from the now well established formula or being able to improve on it. Fukuro are one of the few bands that have managed to catch my ear of late.

The instrumental Tokyo fourpiece have according to their website been around since 1997 and this is their first proper full-length album put out on fellow Tokyo-ites Nissenenmondai's Bijin CDR label in 2007. Some of the tracks definatley fall into the rather generic post-rock cliches but thanfully they're the exception rather than the rule with most of their stuff falling between Nissennenmondai's own frenetic krautrock workouts and the more complex, melodic compositions of Toe. A few of the tracks make a reappearence on the bands second album "Tousousen" released the following year. Though to be honest I prefer the rougher production on this CDR than the more polished sound on their sophomore effort. 

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Banzai! Begone Dull Care On Your tubes!

Oh my time flys when you're consitantly drunk. It slipped my notice that Begone! is now over a year old and we're creeping towards the 30,000 page views despite how niche this blog is so thanks for all the interest and I hope the horde continues to grow. Also a special mention to those I've actually had a chance to meet thanks to this blog. Luke & friends, the Totems guys and a couple of other people whom my drunken, shirivelled brain cannot recall. And also to those who have contacted me through email. Thanks and apologies if I've not gotten back to a few people. I would make some sort of excuse but I'll be honest I'm just lazy and a cunt. Keep bugging me though and I'll eventually get back to you.

Anyway I recently set up a dedicated youtube channel to upload the huge mound of live footage I've collecting since getting my camera a few months back. Sound isn't great but there's some interesting stuff in there I think. You can find the channel HERE.