Skin Crime/Government Alpha - Unnatural Disasters

'Unnatural Disasters'
Skin Crime/Government Alpha
1998

Review by Brayden Bagnall

Genre/s: Harsh Noise, Harsh Noise Wall, Japanoise
For Fans Of: MSBR, Sewer Election, The Rita, Incapacitants

DENSE
Brevity is a valued commodity, and as far as I'm concerned that's pretty apt description for this release, but I'll guess I'll go into more detail for this one. *sigh*
Skin Crime is an American harsh noise trio who've been kicking it since 1994 and Government Alpha is the solo project of Yasutoshi Yoshida, from Japan, obviously.
Skin Crim contribute a twenty minute long track to this split, 'Unnatural Disasters'. Essentially harsh noise wall - it has  monolithic low end and crumbling textures in all the right places, with some tasty little deviations and dynamics in the background.
Government Alpha's two contributions are actually two separate live recordings which capture his hectic, metallic harsh noise at its most brutal, cut up best. The two tracks, 'Disaster Area 1' and Disaster Area 2' retain the sonic heft of Skin Crime's track, but forcefully insert the madness you'd expect from a Japanois artist, and golly gee does it work.

TRACKLISTING:
SKIN CRIME
1. Unnatural Disasters

GOVERNMENT ALPHA
2. Disaster Area 1 (Recorded Live 14th Feb, 1998)
3. Disaster Area 2 (Recorded Live 26th July, 1997)

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Bustmonster - DISCOGRAPHY

DISCOGRAPHY
Bustmonster
1992, 1993

Review by Brayden Bagnall

Genre/s: Harsh Noise, Noise, Free Improvisation, Noise Rock, Japanoise
For Fans Of: Hijokaidan, Flying Testicle, White Suns, Hair Police, C.C.C.C

Bustmonster was a short lived noise supergroup from Japan that operated very sporadically between the years of 1991 to 1994. Formed by Mr. Merzbow himself, Masami Akita, the group featured members of Solmania, Incapacitants, C.C.C.C and had Takushi Yamazaki (Masonna) on vocals. Bustmonsters began as a conceptual death metal band - as in Masami Akita wished to play death metal, but he and his consort lacked the technical ability to do so. Essentially Bustmonster was a free improv band, focused mainly with battering listeners senseless with their twisted version of rock and roll. No melody, no verse, chorus, refrain or anything bordering on music - it's just pure atonal bliss.
Now I've said that this this is their discography, and what that means is that there are the only two releases they put out, a four track 7" and a split with Xper Xr (which is an awesome Whitehouse cover/medley/pardoy). So enjoy the five tracks that Bustmonster manage to put out. Also there's a cool live video on youtube, go watch that.

TRACKLISTING:
Weedhead E.P. - 1992
1. Weedhead
2. Super
3. Anal Persuasion
4. Anal Cravings

Split w. Xper Xr - 1993
1. Whitehouse

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The Gerogerigegege - Yasakuni Jinja

'Yasakuni Jinja'
The Gerogerigegege
1996

Review by Brayden Bagnall

Genre/s: Power Electronics, Japanoise
For Fans Of:  Masonna, Whitehouse, Macronympha, Ramleh

The Gerogerigegege hold the title (at least in my books) for being the single most infuriating band to ever release music. With one of the most prolific, varied and notoriously dodgy (check this out) discographies out there, they've covered every noise sub-genre there is to cover, as well as punk, thrash metal, lounge music, prog rock, comedy and ambient. Yasakuni Jinja is one of The Gerogerigegege's more focused efforts, and is rooted very firmly in power electronics. In very much the same vein as their contribution to the Extreme Music From Japan Comp (Her Name Is On My Cock), this 7" features two tracks of extremely distorted, warbled vocals competing with crunchy sub-bass and bursts of feedback. Arguably the closest thing these guys ever got to a serious release, Yasakuni Jinja is intense, agressive and up their with Yellow Trash Bazooka as the best thing they've put out.

TRACKLISTING:
1. Yasakuni Jinja: Part 1
2. Yasakuni Jinja: Part 2

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Various Artists - Extreme Music From Japan

'Extreme Music From Japan'
Various Artists
1994

Review By Brayden Bagnall

Genre/s: Harsh Noise, Japanoise, Power Electronics, Noise
For Fans Of: Merzbow, Masonna, Incapacitants etc etc

As far as comps go, this one is up there with Let Them Eat Jellybeans or Possessed To Skate in terms of 'YOU HAVE TO FUCKING LISTEN TO IT'. Extreme Music From Japan presents some of Japan's most prolific noise artists (heck they're all prolific) for your listening displeasure. Curated by Susan Lawley (the label responsible for unleashing Whitehouse's music into the population), Extreme Music... showcases tracks by big names (Merzbow, Masonna, The Gerogerigegege) and lesser known ones (What A Smell, Niku-Zidousha), all of which were recorded especially for this comp. While it mostly focuses on the super-dynamic noise we've all come to love from Japan, there are some more power electronic-y oriented tracks, as well as weird mash-ups and collages. An excellent starting point for those of you dipping your toes into the wonderful world of Japanoise (or noise in general), it goes without saying that you need this in your music library.

TRACKLISTING:

1. The Gerogerigegege – Her Name's On My Cock
2. Masonna – Anne (Parts 1 And 2)
3. Incapacitants – No Discount
4. Niku-Zidousha – Untitled
5. Merzbow – Glass
6. Government Alpha –  Powersupply
7. Hentaitenno - Unko To Ketsu-eki To Sei-eki
8. Masonna – Acid Recording (Parts 1, 2 And 3)
9. Hijokaidan – Random Canoe Inspection
10. Incapacitants – Cicade
11. Masonna – Eat Maggot
12. Government Alpha – The Place Of A Person's Death
13. Merzbow – 20
14. What A Smell – Oral Ejaculation
15. Incapacitants – Term Structure Of Professional Wrestling

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The Gerogerigegege - Yellow Trash Bazooka

'Yellow Trash Bazooka'
The Gerogerigegege
1993

Genre/s: Harsh Noise, Noisecore
For Fans Of: Hijokaidan, Deche Charge, Naked City, Hanatarash, Anal Cunt

79 tracks. 11 minutes.
Nuff said.
The Gerogerigegege were an infamous Japanoise act who were known for their on-stage antics (usually involving masturbation) and the for the disappearance of their frontman.  Musically they explored the realms of junk noise, ambient and even conventional rock, though arguably they are most widely recognised for their forays into noisecore. Yellow Trash Bazooka is a concept album, surprisingly, and it's about the letter 'G'. Every song on this album starts with the letter G (Gape, Gang Bang, Gynecologist etc etc) and along with the hilarious count-ins (ONETWOTHREEFAAAAR) they tend to be the only deciphrable lyrics in the four second long songs on this EP. While this release is most likely a giant joke, there is some excellent harsh noise on this album - albeit in very short bursts.

TRACKLISTING:

Not even going to bother with this one

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Guilty Connector - Mother's Bloated Corpse

'Mother's Bloated Corpse'
Guilty Connector
2008

Genre: Harsh Noise, Power Electronics
For Fans Of: Merzbow, Incapacitants, C.C.C.C, etc.

Mother's Bloated corpse is a suitably gruesome title for such an ugly, volatile release. This is 10 of some of the most venomous, abrasive harsh noise committed to CD. It's a pulsating, oscillating ride and while most of it is straight up noise, there are some punk and metal influences evident (there's a Sabbath cover/remix) and a few traditional instruments thrown in for good measure. This is an intense listen folks, with only a few 'quiet' moments to give you enough time to pick yourself up off the floor.

TRACKLISTING:
1. Guilty C.
2. Mother's Bloated Corpse -WRN!
3. Mother's Bloated Corpse -STF MIX
4. Subway To The Agharta
5. Symptom Of The Universe
6. Now Wait For Yesternow
7. Manimal Genocidal
8. STTV-LKA
9. Heremsaurus At Ant-Anna

10. Different Water

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