Distortion & Destruction: A Deep Dive Into Japanese Noise Music
Noise music is an aptly named genre that consists of loud, distorted, compressed and often unrhythmic percussion, stabs, and static created with unorthodox vocals, random objects, and electronic instruments or software. “Noise” is much more than purely a genre, however, with a vast subculture that exists in Japan and around the world known for its deeply rooted anarchist image, rebellious attitude toward societal normality, and a brand of political progressivism influenced by psychedelic usage and the modern punk scene.
Noise concerts are notoriously anarchist, acting as a sort of assembly for the devoted members of the community. Widespread destruction and riotous vandalism happen simultaneously as crowd members dosed heavily on party drugs pass out and have deeply emotional and spiritual experiences [something frequent concert-goers in the noise community call “getting into it”].
Italian futurist Luigi Rossolo’s “Noise Machine”
The genre has a history dating back to early 20th century Europe where musicians and artists first flirted with the boundaries of music, inspired by the art movements of futurism and dada, later fluxus and found sound. Noise arrived in Japan in 1960 by way of Tokyo music collective, Group Ongaku and quickly began to take hold among progressive experimentalists in Japan by the 1970s. The music community in Kansai especially developed a particular loyalty. Eventually, this movement produced one of many noise subgenres referred to as “Japanoise”. This subgenre later garnered a niche, dedicated, underground fanbase internationally over the next few decades through highly acclaimed releases and infamous concert antics from projects and collectives such as Merzbow, Hijokaidan, Boredoms, Incapacitants, and CCCC.
Group Ongaku
Group Ongaku was founded as an experimental improvisation group in 1958 by six students of the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. Heavily inspired by the fluxus art scene and multi-genre improvisationalist Frank Zappa, the project released two legendary noise tapes known as “Automatism” and “Object” in 1960. In addition to the member’s signature instruments [including saxophone, piano, and orchestral strings], these tapes featured unorthodox sounds such as vacuum cleaners, radio static, and kitchenware, all at a sped up tempo. This methodology stood out in Japan so much that the genre’s early visibility in the country can be single-handedly attributed to these two tapes.
Hijokaidan
Hijokaidan [emergency staircase] started out as a Kyoto punk band known as Rasenkaidan [spiral staircase], taking inspiration from the No Wave movement that was gaining popularity across Kansai in the late 70s. No Wave punk music was very jazz inspired, giving it a more avant-garde approach that the punk genre had never seen. During a Rasenkaidan session in 1979, the band took it a step further and discovered a more free jazz inspired method similar to Group Ongaku. After discovering their new unique sound, they changed their name and birthed the modern Japanoise style. Unlike Group Ongaku which was largely inspired by contemporary art, Hijokaidan’s style was decidedly punk to its core. Their music was brutal, loud, distorted, and highly improvised. Something common collaborators Incapacitants later coined “pure noise”; an approach to the genre which implies a separation of a musician and their instrument, without particular intention or methodical composition to the music or sound their instrument is creating.
Hijokaidan concerts were very chaotic with mass destruction, debris, trash and bags of human waste being flung around the venue and into the crowd, and on stage urination all being prevalent. This early hardcore post punk theology was maintained throughout the history of Japanoise, and the group heavily inspired the behaviors, styles, and mantras of the subgenre and subculture for decades.
Merzbow
Merzbow is arguably the most notable and among the most critically acclaimed Japanese noise projects. Sole member Masami Akita founded Merzbow in 1979 after playing in progressive rock bands throughout his early years in Tokyo. As Akita experimented with the electronic instruments available at the time, he slowly began abandoning his alternative jazz and psychedelic rock inspired roots in favor of a much more intense, grindcore-inspired sound. This trend towards an increasingly more intense sound continued through the 80s and 90s, climaxing at 1996’s Pulse Demon, which Pitchfork called “an incomparable classic”, referring to the record as “the edge of music, sound in general.”
As Akita gained access to modern computer equipment, Merzbow's style developed further into the new millennium. Akita began to experiment with other influences and styles in releases such as “Merzbeat", which was influenced by Akita’s garage rock roots as well as other electronic genres such as drum & bass and jungle. Also "Merzbient", a 10 hour album influenced by Japanese ambient music and the atmospheric genre, such as the discography of Hiroshi Yoshimura, but with Akita's trademark chaotic undertones.
Hanatarash and Boredoms
Yamantaka Eye
Both of these bands are Osaka through and through. Hanatarash was founded by lead guitarist and vocalist Yamantaka Eye, rising from the noise scene in Osaka in the early 80s along with Incapacitants. Hanatarash focused on a more traditional heavy metal approach to the noise genre at the time, but with all the brutal sound distortion and performance antics.
Eye’s concerts were notoriously violent and anarchist, even more so than Hijokaidan. At one point a Hanatarash concert was forcefully stopped after Eye threatened to throw a lit Molotov cocktail at a bulldozer he had driven through the back wall of a venue onto the stage. A separate time, Eye cut a dead cat in half with a machete and threw the mutilated carcass into the crowd. Some accounts are so violent they cannot be described on Sabukaru.
After Hanatarash disbanded, Eye started Boredoms. Some former Hanatarash band members followed, making much of Boredoms’ early discography and behavior in the late 80s very reminiscent of Hanatarash. Soon though, thanks to their antics on stage, for many years, Boredoms was banned from performing in almost every venue in Japan. Due to this reduced focus on spectacle and live performances during this period, Boredoms experimented with their sound and transitioned to a more mellow, emotional and analog technique with ambient and repetitious rock instrumentation. A more minimalistic take on Japanoise and noise rock, heavily influenced by member’s experiences on psychedelics and the subgenre “power electronics”. Boredoms later became one of the most well known Japanese experimental rock bands internationally.
With many prominent artists today experimenting with noise-inspired heavy distortion and sound intensity, it is impossible to separate Japan from the rich history of the noise genre. A genre that in its purest form does perhaps require an acquired taste for experimental hardcore post punk or possibly just an appreciation for avant-garde art forms, however, as Frank Zappa biographer Ben Watson points out in reference to the initially negative reactions to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Grosse Fuge in 1826, music that pushes the boundaries and experiments with the possibilities of the musical elements will always be jarring to reluctant ears. Despite what some impervious listeners may argue, noise is indeed music.
Text by: Kade Nations
