Nihilist Surfin' Group - Music for the New Yorker (198?)

Now there's a tape. As much as The Gerogerigegege seems shrouded in mystery, the oddly-named Nihilist Surfin' Group (no doubt referencing the Nihilist Spasm Band) is even more of an enigma. The band released a small handful of tapes (I think; I only knew of this one but Discogs recently saw another added) and appeared on some compilations (Garbage Sandwich and Lapse from Virtue; perhaps some others too, but I haven't the faintest clue). The tape I have has no information whatsoever on it, except for a postal address - the Vis á Vis postal address, to be precise. Ah! Bells start ringing. Could this be...?

Well, let's keep it mysterious for a little while more, shall we. The Discogs page for Juntaro Yamanouchi, firstly, doesn't really seem to make a mystery of the whole thing. He's listed as a member of both The Gerogerigegege and Nihilist Surfin' Group, and that could be the end of it. However, in the short history of Turbine (the record label that put out Senzuri Fight Back) and Juntaro Yamanouchi (read it here), NSG is said to consist of some friends of Juntaro - Juntaro's not explicitly described as a member of the group, and it even seems to be suggested that he was not part of it at all (the Anal Sadist page suggests something similar in saying that "a trip to Japan in the summer of 1991 resulted in a three hour studio session of collaboration with Anal Sadist, The Gerogerigegege and The Nihilist Surfin' Group"). Further information on the project, at least on the web, is scarce; artnotart, for instance, which is maybe not the most complete but certainly the most interesting of Gero sites around, makes no mention of NSG at all. So perhaps the matter isn't as clear-cut then.

Back to the tape. Information on it is likewise scarce - and what information does exist is vague or even contradictionary. The year of release I'm not sure about - it's not listed anywhere, and adjacent catalogue numbers from the Sound of Pig label aren't much of a clue either (SOP242: 1989; SOP246: 1987; SOP249: 1989 - SOP248 is a mystery then, but anywhere between 1987 and 1989 seems a fair bet). The title I was pretty sure about, but to be honest I'm a bit lost there as well. Discogs lists it as Music for the New Yorker, and the Sound of Pig website used to list it under that title as well, I'm quite sure, but there it has surreptiously been changed to Howling at the Sun for some reason. The tape itself, however, has Music for the New Yorker typed on the inside of the J-card, so phew - that we know then. It has some 38 minutes of music on it; originally this is supposed to've been a C46 (say both Discogs and Sound of Pig), though my reissue is a C60, with the A-side being 26 minutes long, and the B-side being 12 minutes long.

So we're pretty much in the dark then, about the whole thing. And so we stick the mysterious tape in our tape deck and press play. Fortunately, just two minutes in, we're suddenly treading familiar ground: Story of the Thalaba suddenly makes its droning appearance. And suddenly, we are confident that this is a Juntaro tape after all (in the booklet for Senzuri Power Up, Juntaro is credited for vocals and guitar tuner on this track - no other artists listed whatsoever). And we cherish it.

Juntaro is known to have been prolific. Doubtless a good part of the cassettes stacked on the shelves of his tape wall were of his own recordings, and it's been often asserted that 7"s or compilation tracks were only shorter snippets from much longer tapes filled to the brim with more material in that same vein (to think that there may be a tape with more Yasukuni Jinja material... I'd trade my entire record collection for such a tape). Should such a tape ever see the light of a day it would be a most glorious thing for Gero fans. Music for the New Yorker, in a way, is exactly such a tape. It's basically 40 minutes of Thalaba-like material; both droney and screechy, uncomfortable, harrowing, screaming mad, genius. I guess that's as big a recommendation as I could give for this treasure. Seriously, check it out.

Of course, the original tape has long been OOP - would one ever turn up on eBay or Discogs you'd surely have to pay a lot for it. However, Sound of Pig has been making their back catalog available again for something like $10 per tape. Here's your chance of getting yourself a unique entry in the Gero catalog. If you need some persuading, just give this thing a spin. It's really, really good. Enjoy!

Lo!

The Gerogerigegege - Live Greatest Hits (1991)

Doubtlessly this can already be found somewhere in the blogosphere, since pretty much every (major) Gero release has been posted at some place at some point (the only things that have yet to find their way to the web are your typical ultra-limited releases, and some older exclusive releases like the Gero-P tape and the 1985 ZSF tape). Nonetheless, Live Greatest Hits hasn't really, I think, got the attention it so very much deserves, and though I'm quite sure there's a rip somewhere I'm not sure where exactly... so here we are.

The Gerogerigegege barely needs an introduction - or so I hope. Juntaro Yamanouchi, the mastermind behind it all, recorded avidly and without end in the mid to late 80s and throughout a good part of the 90s (though a large part of the 90s releases actually had material on them that was recorded in the 80s), only to disappear ever so suddenly in the early 00s, sparking rumors of death, incarceration, insanity, and so on. The disappearance, however, only contributed to the already existing enigma, and to the myth of The Gerogerigegege. Already the band had established itself as one of the most out-there outfits in the noise scene.

Their output is possibly some of the most varied and simply weirdest in the entire genre: Juntaro was above nothing and was glad to commit anything to tape. As such the discography has some typical noise records (e.g. Nothing to Hear...) and some excellent noisecore recordings (a good part of the 7"s, including their probably best known one, Yellow Trash Bazooka), but also plenty different and stranger things. On Endless Humiliation drunken rambling is layered over distant piano improvisation; Veel Plezier offers a quirky (yes, quirky) mix of Japanese radio drama sounds; other recordings showcase the sounds of taking a dump and the sounds of masturbation. Elsewhere, Juntaro saw fit to appropriate sounds and release them as Gero material, either slightly modified (All My Best...) or even simply as is (split with CSMD; Showa, arguably). The strangeness of it all is clearly what appeals to many, but above all it's doubtlessly Juntaro's knack for simply putting together excellent material, regardless the style, methods, and so on.

Live Greatest Hits is another joy of an album. Though the recordings are live alright, there's little in the way of greatest hits to be found here, of course (what had you expected, really?). Instead, the three live cuts (recorded, respectively, in 1991, 1990, and 1987) offer an excellent (aural) insight into what Gero shows must have been like (the plethora of textual accounts on the web certainly do them justice, but you only start to quasi-experience them when you hear them). The first track ("a tribute to Suicide", says the booklet) consists of some 15 minutes of a drum machine beat which then speeds up a bit and then slows down, running underneath continuous sounds of Gero 30 masturbating furiously, to finally finish with a typical Japanese tear-jerker of a ballad. There's so much to love here; from the piercing screams that here and there interrupt the continuous stream of gasps and moans from Gero 30, to the incredulous reactions from the audience, to the perfect song that wraps it all up. I won't spoil all the fun; it's best to just experience this whole weird thing yourself. If you take offence to homo-eroticism, by all means, best let this one slide, but if you're not adverse to a little gay excitement, here's the record for you.

Clearly OOP of course, as is everything on Vis a Vis, though you can probably find yourself a copy if you search the right distros or keep an eye on Discogs. Good luck finding this fucker!

Lo! (MU again; I'm sorry -121 megs)

Or separate tracks at MF:

1. 1991年3月2日 川崎クラブチッタ
2. 1990年4月4日 ギグホール
3. 1987年1月17日 半蔵門マンション201号

V/A - Yellow Power Scum (1991)

To immediately break my self-imposed rule... Yellow Power Scum is, in fact, still available from the label that put it out, Beast 666 (now known as Beast 777). So why post it? Well, two reasons. Firstly because this gem regularly pops up on Discogs, eBay etc. for the most outrageous prices (usually described as "incredibly rare" and what-not), while, like I said, it's actually still available from the label for a mere 500 yen (so do Hitomi a favour and buy it... and pick up some other great tapes while you're there) shipped!

The second reason is, of course, that Yellow Power Scum is simply bloody brilliant. Easily my favourite noise/other/other compilation even if it's just, what, 11 minutes long? Even if the sounds don't appeal to you the tape is pretty special; your typical awful Eye artwork ("Aids-A-Delic!", it screams; "Destroy Yo, Dick" it shouts) and, among other things, a rare (and awesome) Gerogerigegege track and two Masomania tracks (Solmania + Masonna = win) make this a sort of accumulation of everything that was so great about late 80s/early 90s Japanoise/Japother. Regardless, the material is perfect. Two TV hosts discussing The Gerogerigegege while snippets of noise are heard in the background ("Pre-Stage"), highly energetic harsh noise (Masomania), rock'n'roll done right (Boredoms) - there is little this comp doesn't have.

Please enjoy the shit out of it. Sorry for the shitty quality. Please buy!

Lo!