Die Öwan – "美川憲一" (XA Records) 1983

Another one Hundred.... er.....songs? from one of the world's greatest ever teen bands.

It loiters  like a lo-fi Punk Rock version of those heavily stoopid  medley records that lurked the highways and byways of the top twenty some decades ago. Such as "Hooked On Classics", "Stars On 45", with the reprehensible Jive Bunny.All of whom saw it,somehow, fit to collect all that terrible music from those 'Not Available in Shops" adverts aimed at those poor victims in their 'golden'years, and added a flaccid four to the carpeted floor Discobeat over the top of 'em. A similar thing was done by the Residents for their 'Diskomo' 12", to Disco-up the 'Eskimo album for the general public. It still managed to clear any dance-floor except for the enlightened few. A similar effect would no-doubt occur if Die Öwan's 100 songs were played to one of those 'New Wave' disco's that popped up at the end of the 70's.

No Disco Beats for Die Öwan however, just a torrent of drumbox driven classic Punk intro's and amputated song parts mashed up with a few dozen originals to create a tumult of hurried cutting room floor edits instigated by  a Japanese Dee Dee Ramone delivering a heavily accented 1-2-3-4 and we're away! Beginning with the famous two note intro to The Clash's "Career Opportunities",and then we can play "Name That Tune" with the next 46 minutes,starting with a joyously incompetent version of "21st Schizoid Man", and wait.....isn't that "Smoke On The Water? Guesswork is needed, especially as the tracklist is impossible to read........but, that's how I like it.

This is certainly NOT available in Shops and its certainly NOT on K-Tel,or even Ronco, but this is the Hooked On (Punk) Classics for the Baby Boomer generation, as we are now,sadly, including myself, approaching one's Golden Years. Sadly i was a couple of months too early to be born within the Generation X bracket,sounds better dunnit? Quelle Dommage!? So one consoles myself with the joyous fact that I'm not part of these Ridiculous Gen Z fools,who missed everything because of their mental health acronyms and blame everyone else for destroying their future,whilst doing, precisely, NOTHING.

I suppose the little Twats have got a point,especially as we (Humanity) are destined to be the only civilisation in history to become extinct because it wasn't cost effective to survive.Alas,while the rocks crumble our kids seem content to point the finger slagging boomers  off for not fixing it. That's new kind of Stoopid......but they (Gen Z) can still Fuck Off,like Greta Thunberg apparently has...in-between the odd-Anti-Israel Rally.

 Tracklist:

A 100 Songs
B 100 Songs

DOWNLOAD and get hooked on punk classics HERE!

Die Öwan – "Öwanism" (XA Record – XA-2007) 1981

 

Firstly,I have no idea what the Tracklisting is,but the pix and info here are the best I can be bothered to put forward. Its largely irrelevant anyway.Just see it as 4 long tracks that merge together to become something Avant Garde filtered through the dirty underpants of the collective teenage mind......which this stuff is ,if accidentally ,which always beats the deliberate nonsense that the intellectual elite like us to see as something unattainable.But...There are two types of unattainable; the genuinely unattainable or the pretentious shite that no-one wants to 'attain' anyway. The coming age of Artificial Stupidity is upon us,so the unlearning process that we hear mentioned so often is on its way like a cavalry of good taste coming to kill their women and children in the name of Art. Machines will free us from slavery very soon,and we can live the Nietzchean utopia of the creative ubermensch .

This particular example of Nietzchean Ubermenschen called Die Owan from former the former Axis Hinterland of Japan, involves the DIY lo-fi Punk of a couple of Teenage sons of Nippon banging out endless numbers of short barks and enregistering them within the noble medium of Audio Cassette,back in the daze.

Are these Prats the Japanese Prats, or West Germany's own bunch of Prat-a-like Punk Kinder Die 2.Liga? 

Who knows? Who cares? Either way, its great simple Japanese bedroom thrash,by those who had obviously heard Wire's 'Punk Flag' a few years after it's release.In fact somewhere within the rumpus there pops up a Wire cover,and even "Bored Teenagers" by The Adverts makes an unexpected,but welcome appearance. Dee Dee Ramone countin's and a frantic TR 606 drum machine, makes this an exhausting experience,so when you've had enough,just click the stop button and sit in a darkened room for half-an hour,then hopefully you may forget....until the next time....then you're back in the room

Tracklist: 

1		Anti Children = アンチチルドレン	1:17
2		Where Is Your Love? = ホエア・イズ・ユア・ラブ？	1:19
3		Keihan Ondo = 京阪音頭	1:17
4		No Love = ノウ・ラブ	1:16
5		Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha = ハ・ハ・ハ・ハ・ハ	1:01
6		Hirakata = 枚方	0:28
7		Loadstar = ロードスター	1:03
8		Red Hirakata = レッド枚方	1:39
9		Sadness Song = 悲しみの歌	0:28
10		Kue Song +4 = クエの歌	1:16
11		Gary Koketa = ゲイリー こけた	1:55
12		V's Song +12 = Vの歌 +	1:20
13		Kechi Theme = ケチのテーマ	0:49
14		Cholge Man Theme = チョルゲマン	0:08
15		Bald Eno = ボールド・イーノ	1:19
16		Floor No Kuchi +11 = フロアの口	1:42
17		Sakura = 桜	2:00
18		Lost My Head = ロストマイヘッド	5:12
19		Cholge Man Theme/ Bald Eno (live) = チョルゲマンのテーマ/ボールドイーノ	1:49
20		Ex. Buzzco Timer (live) = Exバズコタイマー	1:54
21		Floor No Kuchi +2 (live) = フロアの口	0:49
22		Harimoto Jin (live) = 張本人	0:16
23		Crying My Hage +11 = 俺のハゲは泣いている	2:42
24		Sabita Hage +12 = さびたハゲ	5:31
25		Hage No Chan Chaka Chan +11 = ハゲのチャンチャカチャン	0:30
26		Suterare Hage + 11 = すてられハゲ	1:53
27		Ikuzo Wa Rasta +12 = イクゾはラスタ	1:52
28		Keihan Dub = 京阪ダブ	2:02
29		Time Shock = タイム・ショック	1:23
30		Chotto Dekakeruwa  = ちょっと出かけるわ	2:18
31		Dareka Haitteruyaro Detekoi  = だれか入ってるやろ、出てこい	1:57
32		Rasta Theme = ラスタ・テーマ	0:44
33		Here Rasta Comes Now = ヒアラスタカムズナウ	3:43
34		Arigataya Song = ありがたやのうた	1:58
35		Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha (demo) = ハハハハハ	1:03
36		Anti Children (demo) = アンチチルドレン	1:25
37		Loadstar (demo) = ロードスター	1:09
38		GHC  (live)	7:53
39		Dareka Haitteruyaro Detekoi  (live) = だれか入ってるやろ出てこい	1:16
40		No Love (1979 version) = ノウラブ DOWNLOAD to achieve  OWANism like a spunking jap-eye HERE!	1:33

Jad And Nao ‎– "Half Alien" (Sakura wrechords ‎– C-08) 1997

Two living legends of DIY outsider otherness, Jad Fair of Half Japanese and Naofumi Ishimura of Yximalloo , got together to make a triptych of albums in the nineties and noughties.
Picasso said, and i've quoted him before in these unhallowed pages:
"It took me four years to paint like Raphael,but a lifetime to paint like a child."
Now these two 'Artists',and they ARE indeed 'Artists', had one up on Picasso,and missed out the Raphael part.While dreary unit shifters like Marc Knopfler spend a lifetime trying to play like the musical equivalent of Raphael,whoever that could be(?).Jad and Nao came out of the womb already painting and playing like a child,but had the good sense to stick with it for a whole lifetime.
This, the second of a series of three (so far?),has more of a hint of Jad Fairs work rather than Nao's;but thats mainly due to Jad's singing spread all over the 40 tracks,not to mention his reasonably proficient drumming.I could in fact prefer this collaboration to either one's nineties solo work.

Tracklist:

1 Absolute Pure
2 Blue Horizon
3 It's Mot Fair
4 A Real Mix Up
5 Do You Know A Secret?
6 The Crown Of Love
7 Snakes
8 Star Trick
9 Demon Monster
10 Her Hair Was Red
11 Hawaii
12 Is It A Great People?
13 Muslc
14 Sea And Sand
15 Mickey Mouse
16 T.V. Monster
17 Cupid
18 Fortune Teller
19 Ice Cream
20 Jimmy
21 Big Money
22 Bunny When Hop
23 Gentleness
24 Television
25 So It Is Written
26 Pancake Box
27 Valentine
28 Half Robot
29 Roll Over Beethoven
30 Attchi Muite Hoy
31 Monkey In Tree
32 Candy Land
33 Pretty Princess
34 Cowboy's Life
35 Bread And Butter
36 All You Gotta Do
37 Big Fat Monkey
38 Radio City
39 Only One You
40 Tonight

DOWNLOAD two halves of the whole HERE!

Yximalloo - "15 Songs" (Sakura Wrechords) 1982

An album with 24 tracks that's called "15 Songs"?
More certified lunacy from the padded walled sound factory of Yximalloo.This time collaborating with the legendary inventor of 'House' (Not that that's something to be proud of!?), Sympathy Nervous.
Thankfully,there is no proto-dance culture on this cassette and is aimed more at the mind than the feet;but where that mind is is anyone's guess?

Tracklist:

A1 A Fire #12
A2 A Stone #26
A3 A Bird
A4 A Snake
A5 A Fish
A6 A Stone #16
A7 A Fire #4
A8 A Grass
A9 A Stone #25
A10 A Ghost
A11 A Star
A12 A Stone #27
A13 A Dance
A14 A Stone #11
B1 A Horse
B2 A Water #8
B3 A Wood
B4 A Cow
B5 A Water #10
B6 A Man
B7 A Stone #23
B8 A Moon
B9 A Water #9
B10 A Fire #6

DOWNLOAD 24 songs HERE!

Yximalloo - "Monnorhytha" (Sakura Wrechords) 1982

When you've finished your Chicken Vindaloo, Yximalloo ain't no chicken when it comes to using your plate,washed or unwashed, as a percussion piece for his next recording......well,at least he didn't in 1982 when he was too poor to afford proper instruments.
What we have here are 36 toytown DIY versions of early 'SPK' or the dreadful bandwagon jumping 'Test Department', but with pots , pans and buckets replacing the Angle Grinders and industrial springs;but crucially, with an injection of the sense of humour that was so woefully lacking in the metal banging Industrial trends of the early 80's.
This is a kind of sub-urban ethnic folk, utilising his surroundings to make music from whatever he finds.No trip down the local Music Emporium  for Nao Ishimura, oh no, that's the easy way out. Grab anything that goes 'ding' or 'clonk',start hitting it,then press play and record.

Note the credit to Jad Fair,of Half Japanese, on the insert,who draws all of Yximalloo's cover art.

DOWNLOAD and rattle those pots and pans HERE!

Yximalloo - "The Worst Of 1986" (Sakura Wrechords) 1994

Yximalloo makes music with small samplers,small synths and drum machines that suggests pre-emulator Residents.Sounds promising doesn't it?
Again one is bludgeoned to death with the sheer number of wacky and weird tunes that suffers from 'The White Album' syndrome.Mozart may have written too many notes in his symphonies but Ishimaru writes,if that's the correct term(?),far too many tunes.Although I guess this was just a small fraction of what he actually 'wrote' in 1986;he must have done this stuff everyday, all day, for his entire life so far?Prolific isn't the word for this obsession.
The recording quality has also increased into the Hi-Fi spectrum,which is a small negative.These minute and a half long events always sounded better in the fog of analogue tape hiss for me.

Tracklist:

1. Man's Man
2. Chinese Ballet
3. Millitarhythm
4. Papa Pencak Silat
5. Dt-On-On-On
6. Village of People of Farm of Normal
7. The Old Lady from The New Territory
8. Dance Dance Dance until The 3rd World War
9. He Talks to Ashtray
10. 100 en
11. Fundoshi Men
12. Russkoe
13. Picnic for The Hungry Ghosts
14. < + 1 ?
15. Local Opens Market
16. Magic for Avoiding Bomb
17. Gross National Welfare Rhapsody
18. Gas Ceremony of Local Society
19. Hi-Hy-Hi Tech Agriculture
20. J. P. N. Corps
21. Low Clouds
22. Retrocommission
23. Force
24. The Biggest War
25. Temple of 1000 Buddhas
26. Night Tripper Animals's Internal Organs
27. Dewisri
28. The Political Dynamics
29. Okama on The Hall
30. Erotic Shooting
31. A Few Brief Lines
32. Kintamani
33. Exchanging Semen

DOWNLOAD the greatest hits from 86 HERE!

Yximalloo - "The Worst Of 1984" (Sakura Wrechords) 1994

Another truckload of sub-two minute ditties from the Yximalloo day-centre for the mildly insane(1984 was a good year for Paranoia one suspects?).
Endlessly inventive,like a field recording from a lost village of schizophrenics in the Himalayas, or at least on top of Mount Fujiyama that exists only on public holidays(not many of them in Japan I wager?).
Any albums with a constant barrage of short tracks has a similar effect as a Drone.One tends to drift off into another dimension where time becomes irrelevant like a time-lapse movie of urban traffic.I listened to this but I'm damned if I can remember doing it!? 

Tracklist:

1. Traveler from Hopi
2. Why to Xmas
3. Russian Dance
4. Mahi Mahi Fish Song
5. Yximalloo Tribe's Ensemble #15
6. Pressure from Christians to Nudists
7. Aikoku Kousin Kyoku #3
8. Fire
9. Fuli Fuli #11
10. Cola Song
11. Gureepufuruutsu Juusu
12. The Song I Never Sing Again
13. Lotto
14. Inmarsat-Ati #8
15. Zicarbometxyvinylamine
16. The Border of South
17. Helen
18. Fuck Me,Beethoven
19. Inmarsat-Atl #9
20. Eel Fishing in Moon Night
21. Sweet Karen/Spare Us #33
22. Volks Sex
23. Hae #2
24. Fuli Fuli #14
25. Aikoku Kousin Kyoku #5.5
26. Life in a Quiet Village
27. Tori #33
28. Fr15z
29. White House Reaction
30. Dance Dance Dance Until The 3rd World #39
31. Sleep Well

DOWNLOAD 1984 at its worst HERE!

Yximaloo - "The Worst Of 1982" (Sakura Wrechords - C 05) 1994

A further compilation of Yximaloo's prolific output,this time from 1982.
Every country has their 'Residents', and ,arguably, Japan's 'Residents' is Yximaloo.
Abstract Lo-Fi Minimalism coloured with a wide pallet of sounds and rhythms,and all kinds of inexplicable weirdness filling up the spaces.
There are times when words are useless,but this isn't one of them.It's just that i'm fucking knackered and can't be arsed to write anything much....sooooo....the best way to find out what this sounds like is to download it and give it a listen.
I reckon its jolly good indeed,jolly strange,but then again what 'Strange' actually qualifies as is open to conjecture. Personally, the weirdest stuff I've ever heard is The Bee Gee's in their falsetto Disco pomp, but i'd sooner dance to Yximallo any day of the week.If 'The Residents' had come up with "Saturday Night Fever" we'd all be hailing it as an all-time Avant-Garde classic?
Fuck, I ended up writing more than I felt capable of after all?
Disregard my earlier statement, because I really can't be arsed to delete it......I'm going to bed to listen to "Diskomo" by The Residents.

Tracklisting:

1. A Fire #12
2. A Bird
3. A-E-A-E #1
4. A Water #8
5. Offer Incense Sticks #6
6. WA-MATSURI #10
7. Moon Loop #1
8. A Ghost
9. A Horse #9
10. A Wood #7
11. Offer Incense Sticks #9
12. A Dance
13. Ton-Ten-Kan
14. A Fish
15. Dead Soldier with Red Lipstick
16. O'Rhythm
17. A Horse #8
18. Fish Loop
19. A Fire #4
20. A-E-A-E #3
21. A Grass
22. A Moon
23. Jet
24. TI-TZU #2
25. Not So Easy #10
26. Moon Loop #6 + #7 + #8
27. WA-MATSURI #8
28. A Fire #6
29. A Horse #7
30. Reggae Kills The Weird Music in Jamaica #6
31. A Water #9
32. Plague

DOWNLOAD the best of 1982 HERE!

Yximaloo - "The Worst of 1981" (Sakura Wrechords (C 03) 1994

Enter the very special world of Naofumi Ishimura, also know as Yximaloo.
Japan has always produced a interesting brand of nutter, and Ishimura is no exception.
As the Japanese turned their creative juices away from warfare and world electronic gadget domination, their seemingly hard-wired eccentricity has inevitably leeched its way into the medium of music.
Yximaloo has released a Tsunami of home recorded cassettes, of which this is a cd-r'd example of his highly inventive work from 1981.
If you exposed a cassette recording of Coldplay in rehearsal to the exposed reactor core at Fukushima then ran it backwards, you may get something approaching the non-music preserved as magnetic waves on this digitized cassette from 1981.A nintendo soundtrack for the deaf that never happened.
Dis boy he good.

Tracklist:

1 Yximalloo Tribe's Ensemble 1:48
2 Try Try Try 4:00
3 Fela #7 + #11 4:46
4 Radio Style 5:26
5 Strange Charm 1:46
6 Speed In Tokyo 1:21
7 We Work 98 Hours For A Week 3:25
8 RZ15V 3:44
9 Not So Easy 3:08
10 I Hate Music #3 2:13
11 I Hate Music #4 12:37
12 Off Libya 22:59
DOWNLOAD the worst of 1981 but the best of 2018 HERE!

Masonna ‎– "Masonna Vs. Bananamara" - (Vanilla Records ‎– VANILLA-3) 1989

No series of posts on Japanese music would be complete without the poster boy, and wild man of Japnoise, Masonna.
Once a close associate of the often mentioned Merzbow, Maso Yamazaki has a fine line in extreme screaming and shouting, which adds that much needed performance aspect to power electronics.Without that human factor the constant distorted tornado can get incredibly tiresome.
This mono outing in (Ironic)tribute to those ear and brain damaging pop superstars ,Bananarama, is fittingly extreme,and ear protection is recommended.
The fact that all tracks were recorded in glorious Mono, live, at home,with no mixing,and no overdubs,seem to suggest this is the perfect DIY record. Well done my son!

DOWNLOAD this free mason(NA) HERE!

Den Sei Kwan ‎– "Pocket Planetaria" (Vanity Records ‎– VAT3) 1981

This reminds me of the time I bought a short wave radio from the Kays catalogue at 35p per week,it could also pick up the police radio and the transmissions of passing aircraft.Oh the hours of harmless fun I had.Then i started buying DIY cassettes from the DIY sections of Sounds and NME and realised that nearly everyone used a Short Wave Radio as an instrument.Who needed a synthesiser with a whole universe of weird noises and disjointed electronic rhythms  available at the twist of a dial.
That's basically what this entire cassette is, a bunch of Short wave radio interference,eastern European  blocking signals and drifting transmissions, masquerading as avant garde composition.
The ultimate Radio transmissions record is "The Conet Project" as featured earlier in this blog.This is  nowhere near as spooky as that release,but its probably the ultimate DIY method for anyone who can't be arsed to play an instrument or compose anything coherent.

Tracklist:

A1	Transparent Radio
A2	P×T×C=1
A3	Thugu-Rikwo
B1	Sarava Tetsudo
B2	Pocket Planetaria
B3	Plastic Garden

DOWNLOAD some stuff you could tape off your radio HERE!

Nishimura Alimoti ‎– "Shibou" (Vanity Records ‎– VAT6) 1981

As usual, I know Fuck all about Mr Alimoti,and I'd prefer it to remain that way.Mystery is an under-rated and increasingly rare commodity in today's overexposed planet, overdosed on information, both incorrect and partially false.The only truth available is the blank spaces from the past which we can fill in ourselves (DIY?) with that other under-rated,and again, sadly rare, process, 'Imagination'.
When I imagine Nishimura Alimoti recording this shadowy, rumbling, post punk shytsterpiece; I see a monochrome vision of a small sparingly furnished room in a high rise apartment block in the most unfashionable area of Osaka, with a twenty something (Japanese) male sitting at a table covered with recently acquired second hand musical gear.Hunched over a crap guitar,overdubbing to some bass and drums he'd recorded earlier; all in one take.
And that's what this sounds like, bedsit land pop from the twilight zone. Don't walk towards the light, its shit out there!

Tracklist:

A1	Bunbunbae
A2	Hyojyo No Uta
A3	Inkasanka
A4	Lock And Role
B1	Yasai Ga Kirai
B2	Ninshiki Yoso
B3	Moeagaru Chukinto
B4	Nakayubi Tomare
B5	Reito Shokki
B6	Tori Ga Tonda Rarara
B7	Zesshyo

DOWNLOAD something mysterious HERE!