‘To some extent, traditional Japanese art has been less occupied with originality as an aesthetic standard by which to evaluate works of art than their European peers have been. According to the tradition of Iemoto-seidō (the master-apprentice system) a skilled artist was a person that could imitate his master down to the most minute detail. Individual expression was never encouraged and students were in fact forbidden to expose their personal interpretation until they became authorized teachers. Whereas the West valued individual expression in art, the Japanese focused on copying their masters. One of the most prevailing stereotypes of the Japanese is that they are ‘highly collectivistic or group-oriented, by the same token anti-individualistic’, especially in comparison with Western cultures. This behaviour is perhaps best summed up in the proverb, ‘The nail that sticks out must be hammered down’, and is by many Japanese and Westerners alike considered to be uniquely Japanese. Even the Japanese word for ‘individualism’ (kojin shugi) carries with it negative connotations and may imply selfishness and egotism. However, some scholars disagree. Research fellow Miyanaga Kuniko points out that individualism, although historically and culturally distinct from the Western interpretation, has always existed in Japan. Typical examples are monks and artists that chose to drop ‘out of established groups for the purpose of self- realization’. Befu Harumi says that the idea of Japanese ‘groupism’ has merely been derived from comparing Japanese behaviour with Western individualism.
‘Nevertheless, the prevailing assumption is that the Japanese are culturally handicapped in expressing themselves individualistically, and this may undermine any effort to come across as authentic. Personal authenticity concerns a person’s subjective relation to the world and cannot be achieved by repeating a set of actions or taking up a pre-established set of positions; it requires of an individual that he or she acts in accordance with his or her own morals and that the impetus to take action arises within the self.
‘Some of the musicians interviewed in the book Japanese Independent Music seem to share this perception. Oshima Dan, one of these musicians, explains: ‘To tell the truth, in Japan, we can’t be original. Everybody must be part of the boring mass’. If the Japanese cannot create anything new but rather reinterpret and mix, it can be seen as both a restriction and a source of greater freedom. They treat Western music at hand simply as information, because it is not part of their own cultural roots. They don’t need to consider historical circumstances or ideologies and this allows for more experimentation. Furthermore, because the expression of choice is not culturally linked to their ethnicity, they, in a sense, start with a blank slate. Oshima explains further: ‘Japanese indie music is based on an absolutely absurd spirit. It is built on nothing. It contains no culture. In Europe music is based on a long history’.
‘The point of departure seems to be different for Western and Japanese experimental musicians. While European musicians seem to be carrying on a tradition, the Japanese seem to think that they are on the sideline merely commenting and reinterpreting this tradition. Many of the artists interviewed in the book Japanese Independent Music make a clear distinction between European music and Japanese music. European music may be original and innovative but it is always coming from within a certain tradition, regardless of whether it chooses to follow or reject the rules of this tradition. Japanese music on the other hand is built on nothing, and in that sense does not necessarily have to mean anything. In an interview with the counter-culture magazine PlanB, Melt Banana, one of the most successful of Japanese experimental bands, recalls how they were faced with the western academic approach to music when playing in France: “In France we played this festival and they wanted members of each band to join this debate and discuss what they were trying to express,’ says Agata. ‘We told them we didn’t want to do it, but they said in France people expect artists to explain and if we didn’t do it then they might think we’re fake. I thought that was strange’.
‘Composer and multi-instrumentalist Ōtomo Yoshihide, involved in a wide range of musical expressions from jazz, noise, and electronics to classical composition, takes a similar stance when asked about the intention behind his music: “I don’t really understand the idea of a valid reason to make music. Why do you have to explain in words why you make music? It’s the same as not being able to explain in words why you live.”
‘The idea that music must have at least some kind of message is rejected in both of these statements, and Melt Banana, who use mostly English in their lyrics, claim that they base their lyrics on intonation only and that there is no meaning behind them. This may be equally true for many Western musicians as well, but some of the Japanese musicians interviewed claims that the ‘meaninglessness’ in their music is somehow related to their ethnicity. Japanese noise artist Merzbow has said that “Western noise is often too conceptual and academic. Japanese noise relishes the ecstasy of sound itself.” When asked about the difference between American/ European and Japanese styles, Jibiki Yuichi of Eater and Telegraph Factory replied: “Pure emotion. For example in case of noise music, European music is conceptual and logical, meanwhile Japanese noise is meaningless, coming from emotions within the soul.”
‘The tendency to view European musical tradition as based on logic and concepts in contrast to Japanese music, which is mainly emotional, is an extension of thoughts found in Nihonjinron literature. Japanese culture is believed to be emotional and asymmetrical. Furthermore, Japanese culture is regarded ‘spiritual’ in contrast to the ‘material’ West. There is not necessarily any expressed meaning or intention, and emotion is emphasized over logic.’ — Fredrik Andreas Larsen
_________________
Boris ‘My Neighbor Satan’
‘Dark dangling participles of noisy rock is what this Japanese hard rock trio known simply as Boris offer up album after album. Experimental twists and turns around every avenue of creative heaviness seem to be second nature with this crafty group of relative unknowns. Boris pop and weave between psychedelic rock, proto punk, drone metal, and experimental full-blown jam sessions–sometimes as lengthy as a full 70 minutes. Somehow the group continues to surprise with every album, quietly releasing juggernauts on smaller metal labels and boasting a tremendous deep back catalog. Often compared to the likes of Earth and Sunn 0))), there’s no doubt that Boris is at the top of the class of experimental heavy music. After years of turning heads in the underground Japanese scene, Boris has been making headway in the American heavy music scene in the last five years or so with releases on Southern Lord Records and other American imprints.’ — Smother Magazine
_____________________
Toshimaru Nakamura ‘nimb#37’
‘To fans of free improvisation and the Japanese onkyo, or noise scene, Toshimaru Nakamura needs no introduction; to newcomers, the name of his instrument – the no-input mixing board – may sound forbidding, as if its output would sound more machine than music. But for over a decade, Nakamura has cultivated a world of tones from this unlikely instrument, both harsh and mesmerizing, humanist and expansive – with something to lure in music fans of any stripe. Nakamura discovered the no-input mixing board while searching for a better balance between himself and his tools. After many “unhappy years” playing guitar in rock bands, he set that instrument aside. “I think I was not moving away from the guitar itself, but from my own attitude when I played the guitar. I had a problem with the idea that I have to be the one who starts the music. You have to play the guitar first, otherwise the music can’t exist. … Then at some point around 1997, I discovered that internal feedback within the mixing desk fit me very well. I think I was seeking an equal relationship with my instrument, instead of putting myself above my instrument. The instrument could lead me.”’ — samadhisound
___________________
OOIOO ‘Grow Sound Tree’
‘OOIOO is an all-female outfit headed by Yoshimi P-we, a founding member of Japanese experimental psych innovators The Boredoms. OOIOO’s earliest music was minimal and digital, but its sound has evolved over four albums and lineup changes. New wave poppy grooves gave way to chaotic plateaus and psychedelic freak-outs. Their current manifestation has derived a rhythm-based soundscape; spacious, spiritual and elevatory, intended as a communication with the Earth and motivated by nature. They use a wide array of instrumental sounds and textures, focusing on accentuating the driving rhythms that get the toes tapping and the hands dancing. It’s next to impossible to describe their sound, because — by design — it rarely follows consistent patterns”. Some of their music has been described as having “a majestic ebb and flow that suggests natural wonders” or a “witchy, tribal side”. Either way, at any one time it may incorporate chanting and punchy drums, dancey polyrhythms atonal composition or psychedelia.’ — collaged
______________
Taku Sugimoto ‘Bell’
‘Taku Sugimoto may be absolutely unknown to the mainstream media, but this Japanese guitarist has become a legend in avant-garde circles. He has reinvented himself from head to toe a couple of times already, going from a psychedelic/noise rocker persona to ultra-minimal free improvisation. He is one of the key artists of what has been dubbed the “onkyo” movement, Tokyo’s own form of Berlin reductionism — music built on silence instead of sound. Since 1995, but even more since 1999, he tours regularly in Europe and America and leaves behind him a trail of albums. His first recording was a 7″ single with the psychedelic rock group Piero Manzoni in 1986. In 1991, Sugimoto turned his career around by dropping the guitar altogether to pick up cello. He played this instrument in Henkyo Gakudan, a high-energy improv group comprising saxophonist Hiroshi Itsui and guitarist Michio Kurihara that lasted two years and self-released two cassettes. Back on the guitar in 1994, Sugimoto reversed polarities and explored ever-more quieter areas in music. He gradually stripped down his playing, first going through a period in which he played short, unstitched tonal lines and later moving to greater extremes, playing the body of the guitar or just slowly running his fingers on the freeboard.’ — collaged
____________________
Melt Banana ‘Lost Parts Stinging Me So Cold’
‘Out of the old ashes sizzle and scream a new wave and realization simply called MELT-BANANA. A maelstrom of experimental heart surgery, Melt Banana walk on water, They effortlessly juggle all of those sharks that think they’re swimming in new, unexplored territories. Here are the imported children of the no waves gone by, a hardcore-informed, audio info overload from Tokyo’s ferocious underground. MELT-BANANA sweat out a super-adrenalized, maxi-caffeinated collision of frenzied drum rhythms and torturous guitar squeals through tiny, frantic, hyperrhythmic little songs. Frontwoman Yasuko O.’s ultra-high-pitched screeches and Agata’s screaming slide guitar vie for supremacy across a rhythmic frenzy that is so ridiculous and precise, it will crush you with it’s brilliance. Here are the cerebral gnashing guitars, the aggravated pep squad proclamations and the neck-snapping rhythm change-ups irresistible to those seeking a new musical truth.’ — Skin Graft Records
____________________
World’s End Girlfriend ‘We are the Massacre’
‘World’s End Girlfriend is a Japanese composer whose work blends complex sound structures with beautiful melodies, reaching from electronic glitch to jazz-infused rock to modern classical. Captivating, enthralling and like nothing you’ve heard before, WEG makes for a surprising yet central addition to London contemporary music label Erased Tapes. World’s End Girlfriend hails from Nagasaki Kyushu, Japan and currently resides in Tokyo. Fascinated by his father’s classical music collection, he began his foray into sound at the tender age of 10, creating his early compositions on keyboard, guitar, tape recorders and computers. To date he has composed more than 600 songs, for the most part unreleased testaments of his early experimentations.’ — collaged
____________________
C.C.C.C. ‘Loud Sounds Dopa’
‘The core line up of C.C.C.C. consisted of Hiroshi Hasegawa (also of the bands Astro & Mortal Vision) and former bondage-porn star Mayuko Hino. Hino would occasionally, during live shows, reprise this element of her past into her performances by engaging in such acts as onstage striptease. Another notorious feature of their live shows was the plastic bags of urine that were thrown into the audience. Other members were occasionally and variably brought in for work on single albums, but had no permanent membership in the band. Aesthetically, the band – and Mayuko Hino in particular – advocated a very emotive and cathartic approach to noise music as opposed to the conceptual and intellectual approaches advocated by many European noise musicians, most notably within the “power electronics” subgenre. Mayuko Hino believes that an emotional, rather than an intellectual, approach to noise not only creates more interesting sounds, but reveals much about the personality of the noisemaker.’ — discogs
_____________________
Christine 23 Onna ‘Fantastico’
‘The world of “Acid Eater” was imagined by the refreshingly warped minds of Christine 23 Onna. This Osaka-based duo features Fusao Toda on electric guitar and Maso Yamazaki on drum programming, analog synthesizers and an echo machine. They refer to themselves as a “space mondo psychedelic group.” Toda is best-known for her work with the all-female psychedelic rock band Angel in Heavy Syrup, which has opened for such space-psychedelic heavyweights as Hawkwind and Gong. Yamazaki is a major figure in Japan’s noise scene, and counts Beck and Sonic Youth among his many fans. He first became known around 1987 in Osaka, from where he built his reputation, as the one-man show of Masonna, a bizarre distillation of grind-core, death metal, ’60s psychedelia and serious electronics. Starting in 1991, Masonna found its expression in intensely violent gigs during which Yamazaki invariably inflicted “damage to both equipment and flesh.” Apparently, performances were regularly curtailed minutes after they began.’ — Earls Psychedelic Garden
_____________________
Happy Family ‘Rock & Young 130427’
‘Happy Family explodes with American rock & roll and prog in the way only Japanese bands seem to be able to do — the record’s tracks are quite simply rocking, taking frantic post-punk guitar noise, new wavey synth lines, syncopated, jerky song constructions, and incredibly tight changes to extremes most bands could only dream of. The result may have the same insane energy as a Melt Banana record, but its lack of abrasion makes it far more listenable — the band has the amazing ability to veer toward extremes without ever forfeiting the straightforward appeal they’re amplifying. This makes Happy Family an incredible, incredible record — it would not be an exaggeration to suggest that this might be one of the finest albums of the decade. Even more amazing is the fact that Happy Family’s later work progressed upon this in even more interesting ways.’ — collaged
______________
Eksperimentoj ‘Note’
‘As I load Eksperimentoj’s home page, “The sound of silence” flashes across my screen. I’m worried. Already, I can smell the pretentiousness dripping out of my computer monitor. The Flash opening continues and the band’s name fades into view. Twice. In two different fonts. I’m worried. Once I figure out that I need to click on one of the names to progress, I move into another flash animation, and the solar system unfolds itself into more links including one to a section of the site called “liberalism,” which leads to a section of random links to random drawings like an archaic Radiohead website. I’m worried. Taking a look at the tracklist, I see a variety of track names that at least make the solar system layout make sense, with songs like “Planetalium” and “Solaris.” But I’m still worried, there’s a song dedicated to Kurt Cobain. Moving along to their MySpace, I see they have Sonic Youth, Blonde Redhead and Godspeed You! Black Emperor on their top friends, yet their two main genres are rock and progressive. Now I’m not just worried, but confused as well.’ — sputnik music
_____________________
Merzbow ‘Woodpecker No. 1’
‘In a lot of circles, Merzbow’s 1996 album Pulse Demon was one of the verifiable foundations of noise, the final proof that the pythonic wall of sound was scalable. This is a gross overstatement, of course, as journals from the Sixth Century also indicate the presence of noise, but it’s not an entirely deceitful one. It came after a string of near-apocalyptic releases that were far more severe and atrophic, but also entertaining, heterogeneous, energizing, malleable. Pulse Demon is simply pure sound, viciously unadulterated static. The earlier releases stimulated the imagination; Pulse Demon decimates it. It also has a bit of a beat that would be further dismantled in the succeeding years. Pulse Demon is Meet the Beatles, where you start to understand Masami Akita’s appeal before the relentless experimentalism period. And, in this sense, the record is probably one of the most archetypal Merzbow albums, the one most resolutely and incorrigibly reluctant to dilute itself with free jazz, industrial, world, or musique concrete.’ — collaged
______________________
Acid Mothers Temple ‘Dark Stars In The Dazzling Sky’
‘In 1996, Makoto Kawabata banded together with a bunch of communal friends, musicians, farmers, dancers and fisherman from the Acid Mothers “soul collective” to create what he thought would be a non-continuing outlet for his musical freak-outs. Dubbing the group Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. (Underground Freak Out), Kawabata decided to unveil his astrophysical clatter with a 1997 self-titled release on PSF. From the beginning, there were always these goofball, cartoonish elements to the Acid Mothers. Members would receive credit in the liner notes for things like “guru and zero,” “erotic underground,” “sleeping monk,” “cheese cake” and “cosmic ringmodulater” alongside “electric guitars” and “drums.” Also, take note of the album covers: a communal mass of fuzz and hair, hippie costumes and monks with skulls. Not to mention the naked women, which appear to be everywhere in the AMT universe. Listening to the band’s music and reading interviews with Kawabata, it is apparent that the oddball eccentricities of the band are just a part of the whole. What’s at the core of everything is the music, which can easily shift from acid-fueled guitar orgies to acoustic meditative drones.’ — Pitchfork
_____________
Tujiko Noriko ‘Fly’
‘Mixing capriciousness with prettiness and outright experimentalism in a manner gently reminiscent of avant-pop genius Haco, Tujiko Noriko’s introduction to the world at large was one of the most astonishing of the last years. Maybe second-best behind Björk (the Icelandic elfin pop-princess is probably a better comparative form-guide than the Mego reference) and alongside the mysterious turns and deturns of Cologne based Niobe (tom14). For her solo albums on Mego Tujiko Noriko has worked at fusing digital sounds into pop-song forms, but not as some quaint modernist exercise, rather as some raw, enveloping, loving artistic craft. Now much more confident vocally, she assumes a profoundly expressive position as a singer and is much closer to pop music than ever before. Tujiko Noriko forges an awkward musical beauty that sets her apart from the no-fun out-electro underground, or shiny/happy Japanese pop-kids, or any other measuring sticks that fail to measure up.’ — Tomlab
________________
Yasunao Tone ‘Part I’
‘In his 1960 manifesto, Gustav Metzger defined auto-destructive art as “art which contains within itself an agent which automatically leads to its destruction within a period of time not to exceed twenty years. Other forms of auto-destructive art involve manual manipulation. There are forms of auto-destructive art where the artist has a tight control over the nature and timing of the disintegrative process, and there are other forms where the artist’s control is slight.”1 Metzger, who would later join the Fluxus collective, then went on to list all the materials and techniques that one could use to produce an auto-destructive work of art. The list included adhesives, feed-back, and cybernetics, all of which were present to some extent in Yasunao Tone’s earliest experiments with modified Compact Discs and Compact Disc players in 1984, barely two years after the medium’s public release. However, these experiments, arguably the first attempts to take CD technology out of its context and force it into a creative space, were not so much about destruction but rather about manipulation. By placing tiny pieces of scotch tape on the disc’s data side, Tone was humanising an instrument that promised its users perfection, flawlessness and uncanny clarity.’ — Roc Jimenez De Cisneros
___________________
Manierisme ‘マニエリスム’
‘Manierisme is an one-man black metal project from Japan. As goes for all raw black metal, it isn’t for everybody and this is certainly an extreme version of raw. In fact, I haven’t really heard anything with such piss poor production. But it really works well. Manierisme takes poppy melodies, twisting them in all sorts of screwed up ways that are almost dizzying to hear. While Mütiilation aimed for the darkest possible sound, Manierisme’s riffs sound much more lunatical. “Maniérisme” is French for “Mannerism”, a period of European art (16th to 17th century), that encompasses approaches influenced by, and reacting to, the harmonious ideals and restrained naturalism; is notable for its intellectual sophistication as well as its artificial qualities.’ — collaged
*
p.s. Hey. ** Empty Frame, Whoa, dude, hey! Long time no … ! Awesome to see you! I’m real good, I think, thanks! Yeah, I’ve been adventuring afar. It’s the new me. And I think ‘The Pyre’ went really well and is going well on its tour so far, as far as I can tell. We’re trying to get it to the UK. I think it’s the usual moolah-impairment issue. I’m seeing Gisele today, and I’ll ask her where we are vis-a-vis the UK. So sorry to hear you’ve been down, man, and that you had to give up your studio. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to have to give up my paper and pen, or to only have, I don’t know, post-its to write on and a dirty fingertip to inscribe with, which I guess is me commiserating. Obviously, I hope you can get that loss sorted asap and by whatever means. Recent reading recommendations? I have one of those ‘3 books’ posts coming up in a couple of days. Oh, yeah, ‘Corrections’ by Bernhard is incredibly great. In fact, he pretty much always is. Definitely. I hope I’ll get to see you more. Lots of love for now. ** Kingdom slide, Yay! I’m still in the ‘very excited that your back’ phase. I so clearly hope that your resurfacing isn’t a shorty too, D., you bet. I’ll try to do my part in, I don’t know, re-addicting you? Fascinating to read your thoughts on the Tiqqun book, thank you so much. I see what you’re saying. The book kind of jazzed me up. It broke some stuff loose. The form and many voiced writing appealed to me, and I’m a bit of sucker for the tone it used or something. I don’t know. Great thoughts too on the Cookie Mueller book. I’d love to reread that. I haven’t since it first got born. Anyway, yeah, you’re being immensely inspiring, as always. Mm, I think I’ve never gotten so far into a novel and had to abandon it before, no. Or, yeah, not since I started the Cycle. ‘The Sluts’ took me ten years to finish, and I thought it was a dead duck a bunch of times along the way. Maybe the George material/ novel will eventually get itself figured out. But I’ve never tried to write a novel like that before where it was restricted by being both a recounting of and duty bound to something that actually happened, and the impetus has never been so entirely emotion-based, and the subject/goal so intimidating. What went wrong was complex, I think. Having to do with my deep dislike of fore-fronting myself in my work without utilizing fictional elements and overriding structural machinations as a kind of secret-izing and universalizing strategy. And I wanted the book to be as artless as possible as a way to make George more important than me. It’s very, very hard to write emotionally and effectively without involving poetics and things, or it is for me, and the novel wasn’t mining what it would need to have mined to work. A lot of problems like that and others. Oh, shit, that Whedon spooky house is only at the Orlando Universal? That’s so disappointing, as I plan to be in LA and do the spooky house grand tour, including the Universal shebang, this year. Oh, well. Anyway, I hope the rest of your day was a textbook example of fulfillment. ** Un Cœur Blanc, Hi! Thank you a lot for your very interesting read and off-shooting thoughts re: the Tiqqun book. Such a pleasure. I don’t know that Danielle Collobert book. Huh. I’ll investigate it. Thank you so much again! ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. Thank you re: the failed George novel. Yeah, it was, is painful, but, luckily, I have new, similarly very difficult novel I’m trying to write now, so I’m doing my best to be in phoenix mode. ** Scott Foyster, Hi, Scott. The new job sounds really interesting or, I don’t know, an interesting combination of challenging and sweet and magical in some weird way and devotional. I’ll be very curious to hear how you find the work, if you feel like sharing the experience in some way. ** Monsieur Roubignoles, Hello, greetings, welcome. I got your email, and I wrote back to you, and I hope you got it. Thanks! ** Steevee, Oh, urgh, about the shoes’ late breaking unpleasant surprise. I see, about the cats cafe. And thank you for the link. I don’t know, I’m not much of a cat person, I guess. Or I mean cats are cool, but I don’t get the cat-inspired emotion or particular interest that other people do. I guess maybe I have friends with cats, and it’s not unusual that I can and do have that experience, so I’m not as intrigued by the concept maybe. I’m more sorry that I missed going to the Robot Restaurant. ** Tosh Berman, Hey, Tosh. Well, yeah, living in Paris has certainly paid off in myriad ways, and, right now, it’s the best place for me. The building with coffee cup balconies, yes! ** Ken Baumann, Ken! I still look at HTMLG pretty much every day, I just … mm, maybe I’ll leave my take/issues on/with the place for a private conversation. Oh, sure, you can put Shola in contact with me. I’ll … I’ll send you the correct phone number. Right now, in fact. Hold on. Done. Don’t get her hopes too up, though, because getting a residency at the Recollets that quickly would be very difficult. The place has gotten very popular and booked up in the last year or so. But I’m happy to talk to her and help if I can. ** Chris Goode, Hi, Chris! I’m so glad that the Tiqqun book spotlight paid dividends inside you. Not that I know what ‘dividends’ are, now that I think of it. It’s weird how one will just parrot things that seem to make sense at a glance in order both to communicate something quickly and to put some kind of curlicue in the communicating sentence or something. Oh, man, you should so go to Tokyo. And, yeah, with someone, ideally. It’s not really as alien as it seems. It’s more like a place that’s fantastical and which adorns and is mutated from a thing, the city, a place that’s inherently familiar and comfortable. The language thing isn’t such a great problem because, one, most people there speak at least a little English, and, two, because people there are so bizarrely kind and helpful, so if you’re in a situation where no one speaks English, someone in that situation will invariably do whatever it takes to find someone who speaks English to help the situation transpire as you wish it to. I had no problem at all eating there. In fact, I had a lot of the best meals I’ve ever had there. Wales, I see. Oh, the thing with Johnny sounds, yes, wrenching, maybe in both the hard direction and the ultimately refreshing one. I don’t know. What you said or inferred made me feel scared, and then I remembered that being scared accompanies everything important, but, yeah, try not to be too scared. I love you, man. ** Robert-nyc, Thanks for coming in, R. I just yesterday got the release date for ‘The Weaklings (XL)’, and I got excited, so I thought I’d put that news there. I think that’s the final cover. It’s a photo by Joel Westendorf of the living room of the house where I grew up. I urge you to pursue your consideration of going to Japan. Take care. ** Rewritedept, Hi, dude. Uh, yeah, it’s nice being home, I think. Yeah, it’s okay. It’s necessary or something. I have to a lot of stuff to do: novel attempting, three upcoming trips to be arranged, at least two collab. projects to work on, etc. Good to know about the cat cafe stuff. Thanks. I just don’t find the cat cafe thing interesting in the slightest. I have a feeling that that’s boring of me or something. Should be able to Skype soon, yeah. I’m almost basically around for a while. Good records I’m listening to? I’ve been listening to the stuff spotlit in the post today, for instance. The new Pollard. Moonface stuff. New Boards of Canada. EVOL. ** Esther Planas, Esther, my dear pal and hero! How are you? I’m excited by how the post made you write such awesome things and by your excitement and everything else. What are you working on? How did the Five Years event go? Bunches of love to you from Paris! ** S., Hey. The new coasters rock, man. Or the good ones do. They make the old ones seem merely charming, which is kind of nice. You’re on Facebook? I don’t think I knew that, did I? Are we ‘friends’? Reading fragments or backwards is usually the way I read. Thanks a lot for the super-rich read and digression re: the Tiqqun book. My brain got suitably fireworky. I’m really sorry to hear about your uncle. I’m really sorry. My uncle blew his brains out when I was in my 20s. Ugh. Hugs, buddy. ** Misanthrope, Hi there, G! Ariana’s always at it. Yeah, I hear you, about David, and I never even talked to him except for here and voicelessly. That obituary was incredibly depressing. Jesus. Lives are so much more than heavily edited factual trajectories. I’m sorry to hear that about Justin, but it really seems like the silent treatment won’t last. I’m sure he misses you and is waiting impatiently to find a way back to you. Scunnard is JP-K, yes. Well, as far as I know, which is fairly far. I also am 2″ tall. Under 2″, actually. And I could take you down with one of my teensy hands tied behind my back. Don’t tempt me. ** Armando, It was a very nice room, for sure. I miss it. There’s a movie based on ‘The Notebook’? Really? Holy shit, I didn’t know that. Wow, I’ll go see what I can find out about that. I’m super wary given that it’s one of my most favorite books, but, yeah, you never know. Thanks a lot for that tip and for everything, my friend. ** Okay. Today you get a gig packed with music out of Japan that you might find very interesting, at least in parts, should you deign to attend said gig. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
*
Hey. Wow. I wouldn't like to stay in that room, I'd like to fucking LIVE in it. Yeah, the movie just had its premiere at the Karlovy Vary Festival, and like I said, apparently it's quite, quite good. We'll have to see. Have a good day. Hugs.
Hi Dennis, yes I can definitely see the familiar/tweaked/utopia bit you said about Japan, and I think reading through today’s post about the music coming from nothing and treating the West as information instead of history really bears this out. Yesterday’s post was also good food for thought as I had seen the title bandied about a bit, but hadn’t really taken the time to investigate.
Hi Misanthrope, yes J-PK=scunnard… sorry I probably should have said that when responding. Oops.
Hey Coop. I haven't been through the post yet but decided to click and listen to the Manierisme before I posted – and really loved it actually. That's strange because I generally don't get black metal. Or that's to say, I tend to love the writing about it more than the actual aesthetic experience it generates for me. But really dug that track, something really interestingly harmonic in its dissidence, likely because of the poppy infusion, which makes the metal sort of less monotonous and more madcap.
Yeah, Young-Girl is definitely formally dexterous, as Tiqqun are in basically all of their polemics. I actually wonder whether on the level of its libidinally minstrel artistic production, it conveys something more profound semiotically about the capacity for political complexities to capture our attention – which would convey something crucial about the relation between aesthetics and real being that they're analyzing through the figure of the jeune filles – than it does in terms of the validity of the theoretical content. So I definitely get why it created the buzz for you it did.
I forgot all about The Sluts, easy to do because it's such a totally finished and polished work in its final state, likely exactly because of the decade's worth of work that went into it, that its stop-start, dead-resurrected history of composition recedes from mind when thinking back on the actual reading experience. I can see what you're saying on the George novel. I was wondering what you might mean by artlessness when, simultaneously, you obviously seem to have wanted it to read intrinsically poetically, "mining what it would have needed to have mined to work", which would seemingly still have to involve art – art at its most spontaneous and compressed level perhaps but still art – but the point you made about the relation of your personal perspective to fiction and what you were wanting from your mental and emotional state in terms of something more documentary sort of sheds some light on it already, I think? Part of why I was initially a little surprised to see you refer to it as a novel when – again, going off memory, with mine being notoriously shoddy – I don't think you were referring to it that way when I left from here. At any rate, perhaps, as you say, it will re-invoke itself a later point. It'll also be interesting too if elements of it feature in an entirely new text, of course, as well, perhaps even for the palimpsestual possibilities it would allow you to work with.
I have to admit I'm kind of interested to know your thoughts on HTMLG, though understand why you want to forgo a public airing. Just that, you probably don't remember this, given the informational density of the P.S., but one of the last things we spoke about when I briefly drifted back in here in January was what I took to be a bad dynamic in HTMLG which you didn't really see at the time, so am sort of interested whether the issues you have with it now match up with the problems I took to be building with it then. I actually haven't followed it beyond the occasional link-through or check-in in quite some time – may have even been from the time of the conversation here, so January – and am not sure either if the specific things I said at the time turned out to be accurate either, so it's piqued my curiosity. If you feel like shooting me an email on it, I'd be interested to know your thoughts. If not, though, no worries. I'm easy either way.
That Joel W. cover for The Weaklings (XL) is kismet perfect and superb. Awesome, too, that you're going to be in LA for Halloween. I was speaking to Jared for the first time in a while just today and he's living there now – which you may already know. I can imagine he'd love to join you on the spooky house kick and I'm not sure if he's currently reading along so I might let him know if that's okay with you?
Right, well, time to exeunt, as the old plays say. All the best, dude.
you don't need me to tell you that's a photo the internet requires. you + 2D giant snake – i look very much forward 🙂
yeah, things here are good: amazing weather finally, so i'm eating ice cream and opening windows and wearing shorts and all sorts of other uncharacteristic things (well, the ice cream is an all year round fixture if i'm honest). i have writing i'm meant to be doing, but LALALA SUNSHINE LALALA – you know. i'll get to it. dude, you know i'm really sorry (in the most selfish of ways) i didn't get my shit together more about coming to paris as regularly as i wanted this year, so i'm making a mid-years resolution to be more on it in the planning ahead stakes from now on (also i'm chasing ian about offical boring payment stuff and blah – still, i know. but it's in the works). i'm waiting on an application for a travel award that would let me go to visit the gertrude stein archive at yale over the summer. once i know if i did/didn't get that, then i can start mapping out other travel plans accordingly. but one way or another, i plan to be a more regular presence in paris over the next couple of years. so watch out.
anyway – back to the sunshine. today's big dilemmas are: 1) do i start reading chris kraus's "i love dick" or tao lin's "taipei" and 2) are those pears i bought the other day ripe yet, or do i have an apple instead. i wonder if i'm up to these challenges.
xx
Oh, PS. Chris! How awesome to hear from you! Man, it's been far too long and I'd love to catch up. I'll email you this week. Bit of a back-up in correspondence but I'll definitely be in touch.
These boys are lycra fetishists, hence their silence.
Lycra Emo
Haha, I used to be so weird that I couldn't go into public, somewhere along the way I made up some thing about being "serious". I think the idea is sit in a room and write and have no other fun whatsoever. I made up a thing that I'm afraid of drowning, so I don't swim. Probably won't ever swim again LOL. Made up a thing about roller-coasters, I don't think I ever liked roller-coasters. LOL can you believe I wouldn't go to the top of the Eiffel Tower? "I'm afraid of heights now, meh." LOL. Yeah, I'm on Facebook, you're on Facebook? Send me a friend request. I usually post some cool stuff. I've had an account closed and had to delete several times. Sometimes I feel like my only friend on there is Sam Beckett. I used to do a daily: cat, instrument, Emo, philosophy, literature, painting, sculpture, and meme post. Lecume is about ruined, I think Triptych is getting kind of sassy with me. Haha, years upon years of Structuralism, you know that quote about shaking hands with yourself, that's what I felt like 9 years of Anthro/Soc Theory had done to me. It's no big deal, they're dropping like flies, 3 bros/sisters of Dad's in 6-months. People die, it's no big. Just wish euthanasia was cool. Eeeks, my mom had to clean up my great-great uncle's bathroom after he suicided. She said is was horrible. Hugs to you. LOL I think I only know Boris. You think the kids from The Grudge have a band? Boris has that cool Steinberger double-neck, rock. There is some totally balls sounding thing happening outside LOL. Oh hey, nice fucking living room! =) And hey, I haven't got to say anything about it, but don't sweat the George novel, that's gotta be the hardest thing ever. Making a day of it today. Much love
Hello. Taku Sugimoto is great. i love "Bell"
No surprise you'd make a bee-line for the weird music.
David Gerrold "Reads" Orson Scott Card Like the Goddamned Telephone Directory!
Wow this blog is a must-save for future reference. It's great. Also interesting commentary regarding the difference between the West and Japan regarding doing music (art). That was my first cultural shock in a sense, when I discovered the love, or even the understanding, of the 'surface.' In the nutshell, I too find it odd that an artist -for instance a painter/musician has to explain his work in words or writing. That whole 'western' art school training of talking about your work I think is not a great policy. Generally speaking of course. But its interesting to see the difference between my Dad's generation and now, in that artists now are usually very articulate in talking about their work. My father and others were more of "the less one says the better it is thought." So in general I am more in-tuned with the Japanese thought regarding music making. Again, great blog.
apology. I thought you might like this too. Link: http://youtu.be/NGFGcV6YOL0
I believe, it's also from the album where "the bell" appears. Thanks for this, Dennis. Earlier, my dear friend, who knew I actually don't like Otomo Yoshihide much, while having pretended to like him, for some collective enthusiasm of my noise friends, introduced Sugimoto work to me. Anyhow, Sugimoto resonates with my latent, head-space ethereal, jarringly absent, refusal to the speech.—-Ah I hear you decided to fail with George novel. Sorry & cheers. My mentor, another mentor, other than you, smiled at me, saying a failed work, with an intensely, fading emotion to nowhere, in its own, somewhat resistant, withdrawing, is too, a beautiful work. And he said, it's a self. All best to you & I will do my best, best to send you one blog day before the summer ends. I am much less excited about Blanchot, personally, as I further appreciate his writing justly, in the pattern of his language. Though the day would be Blanchot-relevant. I will do my best. tschüss, h
All this chatter about Edward Snowjob high-tailing it to South America has brought to mind this Peter Allen number (Peter is introduced in this clip by an old flame of Dennis')
Dennis, don't forget:
Bondage Fruit
&
Demi Semi Quaver
… Not that you would!
Hey D!
Well thank you very much for this beautiful day, which alas must remain basically conceptual here in Wales, as the wifi is just not up to streaming video. So I'm remembering/imagining the tracks I know or can sort of reconstruct from recollected info, and completely imagining the stuff I don't know from the descriptions provided, and hey, you know, it's a fun day.
Some of these guys are among my absolute favourite musicians in the world. I've seen Toshi Nakamura live many times in all sorts of different combinations; and two of my happiest gig experiences ever are of the times I saw Yasunao Tone and Taku Sugimoto. Yasunao Tone was incredibly jarring, far more so than I've ever found Merzbow live for example. I couldn't relax a muscle for the whole set. Sugimoto was astounding, really breathtaking. I think his sensibility, at that time at least, felt incredibly close to theatre, and also to visual art. Extreme economy but a profound intuitive sense of events in space (and time), and a really mordant sense of humour. Across the space of 45 minutes he played maybe two dozen notes. People in the audience were going nuts, walking out, and he was completely resilient and patient in a way that I thought was utterly beautiful, really exemplary and somehow magnanimous. I don't like his more recent stuff at all as much, the very structured compositions. Although I guess he was moving into that several years ago so he may be up to completely other stuff now.
This can't be the first Japanese music day here, can it? Was there a whole Merzbow day, or did I dream it? Fascinating to hear about Christine 23 Onna as Masonna has been super-important to me, especially the amazing Ejaculation Generater and also Open Your Cunt. Never saw him live, sadly.
Wondering if you know Tetuzi Akiyama? Probably my favourite Japanese musician at the moment. But then, everyone will have their own version of this day, which is partly why I like it…
Hey, well, thanks for the good wise understanding words about where Jonny and I find ourselves. In a way you've exactly hit the paradox, which is that the work we've done together over the past five years — which has been absolutely inextricable from our personal friendship — has always been a place of fearlessness, or at least the will towards fearlessness. So that's partly what feels at-risk now. It's kind of a sad time, because we're still so fond of each other and we're taking good care of each other, so there's this feeling of managed descent which in some ways is harder to bear than some kind of manglesome carcrash ball-of-flame ending. But then of course this isn't an ending either, it's just a movement into something different — which I think I will like less, but who knows. Anyway. I won't go on about it. It's just the world turning.
Thanks for those encouraging thoughts about Tokyo. I was thinking maybe the route to go down is touring with work, so that there's some infrastructure there. Who knows? What dreams may come, etc.
All good, man. Thanks again. Love love love. xx
DENNIS,
Hi-ya bud! long time no see, I thought I should update you on some stuff re: grad schools and everything else; you were so helpful to me in the application process.
Well I didn't get into Brown, which was my big dream. It got me down for a day but then I got to thinking… maybe a writer who's focus is Videogame-walkthrough-ghost story-Castlevania fanfic-hybridity just isn't what they're looking for at the Ivy league workshops. I thought long and hard about my future as a writer at that point, and I decided that the natural step for me would be to devote myself to the Sci-fi Genre.
For one thing, everything I've ever written has pretty much been Sci-fi. I think I've avoided acknowledging that over the years out of some vague fear of the kind of stylistic confines which I suspect working within the genre might impose. On the other hand, the entry path to being published in the genre is clear and accessible in a way that simple isn't true of other types of fiction. In the end, I decided that since most of what has inspired me to write over the years has been an infatuation with the concepts embedded in anime and video games, it only makes sense to find a way to work within the genre
So I've made my decision, the fragment I shared here on the blog last year is what I'm developing now into a novel that I'll hopefully have finished by the end of the year. Having an idea of what market I want to be published in (something I never thought of previously) has forced me put together a real plan to execute. For the first time i'm doing massive research for a novel and writing a very detailed outline that will probably be as long and dense as the novel proper. Over all I feel like I'm working finally in some kind of professional capacity and feel good a bout the likelihood of finding a place for my work in the near future.
Another thing I'm working on a series of interactive puzzle/music instrument-like things that will be directly tied into the fiction themselves. Something people can play with, maybe on their phones or something, to get an idea of what i'm getting at in the books.
I though of my thesis project from last year as a kind of proto-proto-type of thins kind of thing, as yet I've not tackled the interactive part since I'm afraid of code…but all in due time.
Here's a little snipped of my Thesis text work, just to give you an idea.
Anyhow, How are you pal? I see you've been traveling. Working on anything new? Talk to you soon!
hey cooper, im actually not so bad, yeah. im glad to hear that youre good too! todays blog is excellent, youtube was giving me some trouble, but i got through it alright. i really love the day. im about to hit the hay, hows your sleep?
hey, do you ever hear from nick brook?
love from me
@ kier, Nick Brook has been very quiet for a good while now. We collaborated on a Yuck 'n Yum article but that was ages ago. Oh 2010, yikes.
Good gig! I'm kind of a Merzbow fan. 'Kind of', because Alex from Yuck 'n Yum burned me a CD boxset one Christmas that I'll never tire of hearing. It's not the Merzbox, but I don't know its name as all the text is in Japanese. Curse my monolingualism.
If you fancy a bit of J-pop as an aperitif, my anarchist/punk/acid-house friend Chris sent me this Perfume live clip a while back. I think it's pretty eye-popping.
Dennis !
I am happy you are happy too !!
my long tale has all gone with a click
and now I am almost asleep ………
will dream and will post you very soon
all this I was telling you about !
much love to you too !! xxx
Dennis, Wow, this is right up my alley.
Yeah, I hope Justin comes around. I think he will too. Eventually. His girlfriend hates me. She thinks I'm a psycho and a horrible person. She's a very naive, immature person. Justin told me how he has to restrain himself so much around her. But I guess he's in love.
If you removed the names and location from that obit, I'd have no idea who it was about. Btw, David's real last name was Dickerson. He used his mom's maiden name of Kelso on the internet because he was leery of putting his real name on the web. A quirk of his. Of course, I teased him about it.
Well, you still have those huge hands and those shapely feet, even at under 2" in height. Of course you could take me down with a snap of your fingers. We all know that. Good to see that you finally made it into space, though. 😛
Feels like this is as good a place as any to express my admiration for The Gerogerigegege.
http://youtu.be/kYaRV6EwI3U
Seems like as good a reaction to "Everybody must be a part of the boring mass," as one could have.
To complain some more about my feet, I tripped on the sidewalk today and twisted my ankle. It's really painful right now. I've had to change into a pair of old, nearly worn-out but far more comfortable shoes. I probably shouldn't do too much walking the next few days. I hope it heals soon.
I finally found a doctor under my new insurance plan, and I made an appointment for an introductory visit on the 22nd. Hope that goes well.
d-
yay you put my favorite boris song (although i do love feedbacker and the whole akuma no uta album and a whole ton of their newer stuff a lot too) and one of my favorite acid mothers' jams in today. did i ever tell you about the time i was responsible for acid mothers' second ever and probably only succeeding house show? happened here in vegas when i was 19 or 20. super fun time.
yeah, you've told me about yr apathy towards cats. i was more impressed that i could still read a little japanese.
i've been so lazy without a job, though i did jam with a friend for a bit yesterday. we're supposed to have jets practice tonight, but our guitarist is MIA.
on the plus side, i've been smoking way less cigarettes. i've started drinking earlier in the day, though, which may explain my laziness. tomorrow should be a busy day. let's see if i can force myself out of bed before noon. today i woke up at one.
i think it's time to go to practice. get any good work done on the novel? i may have started a second chapter. we'll see. talk soon.
-me.
… Dennis,
And certainly don't forget:
Rovo!
P.S.:
I hope you're well.