Variously described as the undisputed master drummer of the Japanese Underground, a rhythm section gone ballistic, trekker of the outer limits of weirdness and doctor of psychic polyrhythms, YOSHIDA TATSUYA is the protagonist of the erstwhile, hyperactive, prog-punk, hardcore, art rock, heavy metal, disco, psych and funk, drums and bass duo, RUINS.
As John Zorn’s Tzadik has stated, the band ‘are masters of quick-change, stop/start tempos, time-signatures and textures, their explosive and intricately composed tunes sung in a peculiar language of their own invention’, making ‘bass and drums sound like an orchestra of synchronized jet engines’. Eugene Chadbourne has described their unique, rudimentary instrumentation as ‘no less than a palace revolt against the established role of the rhythm section’.
As a central force of the effervescent Japanese underground, Yoshida has recorded and performed prolifically with a host of equally significant and influential acts, including guitar legend, Derek Bailey, Makoto Kawabata and Acid Mothers Temple, K.K. Null, Elton John collaborator, Elton Dean, Ground Zero’s Mitsuru Nasuno, Fushitsusha’s Keiji Haino, Bondage Fruit’s Kubota Aki, Boredoms’ Seiichi Yamamoto and ‘Senzuri’ champion, Juntaro Yamanouchi’s seminally transgressive Gerogerigegege. He also performs and records with Zubi Zuva, a ‘freewheeling a cappella vocal trio, running the gamut from Gregorian Chant and Buddhist Shomyo to Doo-wop, hardcore and barbershop Looney tunes’, typically under Yoshida’s own maniac and inventive direction.
Since reforming RUINS ALONE as a solo project, replete with manically express bass-lines triggered by a sampler (a suitable partner), and his own adrenaline-fuelled voice, Yoshidas project has become a flickering apparition of piled-up beats and stratified riffs that unfold at a staggeringly blistering speed. For his live audience, it’s a breathtaking prospect.
PETER WRIGHT’s evocative sound ecologies contain crackling, blurring, radiant bursts of static and string vibration, grinding surfaces of decay, and guitars layered and overloaded into blissed out plateaux. His work has appeared on labels Last Visible Dog (Thuja, LSD March, Fursaxa), Blackest Rainbow (Best Coast, MV& EE, Robedoor) and Digitalis (Tarantel, James Blackshaw, Tom Carter), and has been described by UK’s Norman Records as ‘Stars Of The Lid turned to the dark side of the force’.
GRUNGE GENOCIDE DRUM PENTAGRAM is equal parts post-Boadrum incantation, phantom Gamelan unit, and mock-satanic Theatre of Eternal Music, its members consisting of Adam Willetts, Mike Minchington, Rory Dalley, Stuart McKay and on this occasion, visiting RUINS marvel, Yoshida Tatsuya.
Established in 2001 and now organized by committees in every major city in New Zealand under the Audio Foundation, Altmusic is an ongoing series of audio events, regularly bringing a vital injection of contemporary and experimental music from around the world to New Zealand. This year, the programme continues with each city curating its own event and touring this around NZ.
