Urashima Records haben jüngst das Albumdebüt von Hijokaodan, das 1982 bei Unbalance Records erschienene “Zouroku no Kibyo”, neu herausgebracht. Es handelt sich dabei um eine Sammlung an Aufnahmen, die zu Beginn der 80er bei Performances der Kansai-Band an verschiedenen Orten in Japan mitgeschnitten wurden. Die Sammlung gilt als früher Meilenstein nicht nur des japanischen Noise (und einigen definitionswütigen Geistern sogar als dessen Geburtsstunde) und speist einen Großteil seiner Energie aus der Tatsache, dass es Noise im heute verstandenen Sinne noch nicht gab und somit keine Blaupausen für Peformsnceacts wie die Band um Jojo Hiroshige gab. Das Album wurde in der Vergangenheit mehrfach meist auf CD oder im Rahmen größerer Boxsets wiederveröffentlicht, nun liegt es erstmals separat auf Vinyl vor.
“Zouroku no Kibyo [...] is a record of the chaotic inner energy of young people in their early 20s, influenced by rock, jazz, contemporary music, and avant-garde art, erupting outside. It was first released on the independent Osaka label Unbalance Records and came to be regarded as a historical masterpiece of independent recordings in Japan. It was later released on CD several times by “Alchemy Records,” and was also released by the major Japanese label Teichiku Entertainment. An analog reissue of the album was released in 2006 by the German label Vinyl-On-Demand in the form of a double LP set. This will be the first time that the album will be reissued in its original form as a single analog disc, this time on Urashima in 2022.‘’ (JOJO Hiroshige)
“Hijokaidan is a Japanese noise band with a turning lineup that has ranged from two members to as many as fourteen in its early days. The group is the project of guitarist Yoshiyuki ‘’JOJO’’ Hiroshige, its one constant member, who is owner of the legendary Osaka-based Alchemy Records. The ensemble began at the very end of the 70’s as a performance art-based unit whose anarchic shows would often involve destruction of venues and audio equipment, food and garbage being thrown around, and on-stage urination. As the group’s lineup changed over time, their focus became less performance-based and more musically based, fine-tuning their sound into a dense wall of white noise created by each member both for live performances and for studio recordings. Zouroku no Kibyo resting at a fascinating juncture between space-harsh progressive, impro and noise, it was years ahead of its time when it first appeared becoming one of the great holy grails of Japan noise. Creatively thrilling – filled with emotive highs and lows – it’s a crucial piece in the puzzle of Japan’s wild and wonderful history of noise music. A truly stunning, visionary expanse of texture and tonality – pushing noise practice and the very notions of language into uncharted realms, improvising with a ferocity different from that of hard rock or punk, and a chaos unlike that of free jazz.” (Urashima)