Boredoms - 77 Boadrum

Last Thursday I watched "Drumandala" a reproduction of the Boredom's Yamamoto Seichi's original drum orchestra concept. The 10 drummers included members from Gezan, Shitappa Oyabun and Power Empire whom were conducted by LSD March's Michishita Shinsuke. The 10 drummers packed within the tiny confines of Bears basement live house made for some pretty impressive listening and reminded me of this breathtakingly ambitious gem I've been meaning to upload.

Behold! 77 Boadrums! The concept is simple enough. 77 drummers sat in a spiral formation with the Boredoms Yamataka Eye at the centre conducting the chaos with one of his custom built guitar towers. The original work was performed in New York in '97 and was then followed by 2 simultaneous shows in Los Angeles and Brooklyn featuring 88 drummers and coincidentally enough featuring 88 drummers. As you might expect the results are pretty jaw dropping.

The recording was originally released in Japan in twin CD set that included a DVD documentary and booklet of photographs of the performance. While I think th CD is still unavailable outside Japan the DVD was finally released in the U.S. last year.  

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Water Fai - Circle

Water Fai are an all girl Osaka quintet who have been around since the early oo's, are quite popular on the local underground scene (Also close friends with Afrirampo's Pika) and have even gained a cult following outside Japan with some occasional U.S. touring. Water Fai wear their influences on their sleeve taking their cues from Post-Rock luminaries such as Sigur Ros, Mogwai and Tortoise but managed to inject some freshness into the well trodden genre with a slightly poppy, feminine touch. Circle is a strictly limited edition 4 track EP. Limited to just 100 numbered, hand sewn and uniquely designed sleeves. Sadly Circle is only available at their live shows but they released an album back in 2006 which was re-released in 2008 under the name "Girls In The White Dream" by U.S. label White Shoe Records which you should be able to get off Amazon.

From February 8th to the 15th Water Fai will be in New York for New York fashion week to play some shows. Unfortunatley their site doesn't give any info on exactly when and where they will be playing. So if you're a New York resident keep you eyes peeled.

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Wasurerugusa - Baby Works (わすれる草 - Baby Works)

Wasurerugusa is another sideproject of the prolific Himeji acid-folk duo Eddie Marcon. This time Eddie Marcon are teaming up with TEASI's Matsui Ippei and Namae Ga Nai's Aki Tsuyoku for some beautifully down-tempo and ethereal, slow-fi acid folk. Released on Eddie Marcons own consistantly excellent Pong Kong records folk CDR label "Baby Works" consists of 6 excellent sounding live recordings recorded at Osaka's Japonica and Tokyo's Enban. Fans of Maruo Maruko will definatley dig this and be sure to check out the members other respective bands for more great music.

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Oorutaichi - Cosmic Coco, Singing For a Billion Imu's Hearty Pi

With an album name like "Cosmic Coco, Singing For a Billion Imu's Hearty Pi", song titles like "Merry Ether Party" and not to mention the epic twenty four sided, three meter long gatefold sleeve that it comes packaged in you know you're in for something special. And it's that proviso that I'm breaking my own rule on not uploading new releases. It's just simply too damn good not to share. Oorutaichi has been making music since 1999 and is also the founding member of the wonderful bizarre folk/pop band "Urichipangoon". Oorutaichi's music covers all sorts of musical spectrums and on his latest solo outing sounds something like if Animal Collective joined forces with Bjork and Four Tet to produce an album of floor stomping dance tunes. And yes it's every bit as wonderful and brilliant as that potentially sounds. The album features 2 bonus track remixes from Eye of the Boredoms and Daedelus. 2011 is off to a great start.

Oorutaichi is currently touring his album with various shows across Japan before he'll be heading overseas for some more shows so keep your eyes open. .

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Ichiji Kujiru - Live At Shinjuku Motion (いちぢくぢる - ライブ@新宿モーシオン)



In japanese the word "Fuzakeru" (ふざける) means to playaround or joke about and it's a phrase often attatched to Kansai's bizarre and wonderful underground scene. Bands like the Oshiri Pens Penz and Kyojin Yueni Dekai exemplify the progressive but humorous approach to music left behind by the legacy of Osaka's underground legends The Boredoms. Ichi Kujiru are another such band. This drums and bass Kyoto two piece have just released their first album so I won't be uploading that just yet out of respect for the band but I will upload a 3-track CDR recording of a show they played at Tokyo's Shinjuku Motion. Amongst Ichiru's stop/start punk numbers are songs about wanting to be a girl, noodles, bananas and pricing schemes. Sadly much of the humour in the lyrics and the band's inbetween song ad libbed gags will be lost in translation but will probably seem no less bizarre. 

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Bonkura Touge - Asobou ze (ぼんくら峠 - 遊ぼうぜ)

Don't let that rather serene looking cover fool you. Bonkura are a fukuoka drums and vocals duo. That's right no guitars just some harsh, fast drums and the sort of gargled rants you expect to see the local town drunk screaming at unassuming passers by. Most of the tracks on this self released CD clock in under the 1 minute mark with the notable exception of the albums "epic" 11 minute closer. It's fast, it's silly and it's loud. If this band ever head round your neck of the woods be sure to check them out. An extremely entertaining live band.

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Maruo Maruko - Kameko No Sora (丸尾丸子- カメ子の空)

Thought I'd bring in the new year with something a little special. This is a 2009 self released album from the wonderful Maruo Maruko. This time around we have 7 studio recorded tracks which some tracks from her first CDR making a return but featuring different instruments and arrangements. Maruo is in my opinion one of the best singer/songwriters in Japan at the moment. Her music has such a beautiful sense of melody and a truly hypnotic understanding of understatement and space. Not to mention that spinetingling voice of hers. Music to get lost in. 
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