Altmusic welcomes to NZ for the first time Ruins Alone from Japan, their second touring artist on the 2010 program.
Christchurch: 8pm Wednesday 9 June - w/ Peter Wright & Grunge Genocide Drum Pentagram @ Nibelheim (Below SOFA), Arts Centre. $10
Dunedin: 9pm Thursday 10 June - The Aesthetics @ Chicks Hotel. $10
Auckland: 9pm Friday 11 June - w/ White Saucer & Dan Beban @ Whammy Bar
Wellington: 9pm Saturday 12 June - w/ Cartoon & Hefner @ Medusa (ex Hole in the Wall). $10
Wellington: Sunday 13 June - Yoshida Tatsuya improvisations and collaborations @ Frederick Street Light and Sound Exploration Society. $10/$5.
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.
Like Boredoms, Naked City, Flying Luttenbachers and Lightning Bolt, Ruins - as the famed, John Zorn-helmed label, Tzadik has stated - ‘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, Yoshida's 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.
