Picture this: a very strange time for the country; dissatisfaction at all points, assisted by a long-standing economic downturn and a distant war that infuriates half the population and seems irrelevant to the other half-- except of course when they have to buy gas, or catch TV news. The American president is polarizing, and if you believe the news media (which, by the way, half the country doesn't-- or will only hear from sympathetic sources), seems as secretive and sinister as the people he was supposed to have fought on the other side of the globe. At the same time, there are constant reminders of progressive thought: unprecedented technological advances, both globally and in outer space; an almost surreal feeling of community and discovery via networks never before imagined. Sure, it's a scary place sometimes, but peering through the colorful distractions, money (or lack thereof), politics, and social strife, somehow this place manages not to explode. Is it a desire for unity? Love or justice? It's hard to pinpoint, but it's enough to stave off civil war for the time being.
But this isn't 2005, it's 1968. Just as now, kids then stepped into the middle of the circus any number of ways, from political involvement, to the workforce, to the arts. In music, the tense, multi-directional pull of urban life was felt in radical methods of expression: psychedelia, proto-punk, exaggerated white blues and the actual embrace of forms of music previously out of range (world music, country, and of course soul and funk). Scenes merged and splintered and got mixed up again, creating altogether new ones-- or conversely, the late 60s eliminated the idea of permanent scenes at all, in favor of ever mutating movements of sound. Progressive rock happened this way, and as then, now seems to lurk just around the corner.
In 2005, rock-based progressive music is bubbling below the surface with almost as much vigor as it did in the late 60s, just before it hit the pop charts in the early 70s during the heyday of Yes and ELP. We've got Animal Collective, Lightning Bolt, Black Dice, Mars Volta, Vooredoms, Fantomas, Orthrelm, Ruins, Liars, Excepter, Dillinger Escape Plan, Sunn 0))), the Psychic Paramount, seemingly all of Finland...Somehow over the past decade, an onus of experimentation has shifted from the academics and electronic musicians to the rock bands-- just like it did in the almost 40 years ago.
Japan's Tatsuya Yoshida has seen it all. As half of the kinetic duo Ruins (and countless other projects), he's helped usher in the idea that rock bands can both "rock" and do "crazy shit," usually at the same time. He had precedents (see prog's extended canon), but is easily seen as a godfather of today's blossoming art-rock-noise-pop scene. Koenjihyakkei (or "hundred sights of Koenji", referring the area of Tokyo where Yoshida lives) is my favorite of all his bands: imagine Ruins + three or four more people doing interplanetary opera, and you're getting there. The most obvious reference is to French avant-proggers Magma, but on Angherr Shisspa, the band's fourth album, there are also ties to Canterbury prog (Hatfield and the North, National Health) and RIO (Henry Cow, Art Bears).
Koenjihyakkei's sound is a compact mix of operatic vocals, repetitive unison riffs, lots of drums and piano, and, with the recent addition of reedist Komori Keiko, the occasional sax solo. In "Rattims Friezz" (don't try translating-- Yoshida's words are in a language of his own invention), droney instrumental vamps (dig the opening synth silo), high-speed choral vocals and a surprisingly mellow breakdown near the end where Keiko takes over with his soprano sax-- just before the vocals come in again, and the band pounces on the main riff like a chamber classical group suffering from ADHD. Likewise, the title track alternates almost inhumanly angular melody lines with calmer sections featuring soft vocals and saxophone. For fans of Koenjihyakkei's records, this stuff will seem might different. Gone are the metal guitar overloads, but have no fear, it's not that these guys have gone soft, rather Soft Machine.
Bassist Kengo Sakamoto's "Mibingvahre" begins as an island chant with hand percussion before exploding into relative chaos via group improv and Yoshida's typically unhinged drumming. There is an emphasis on keyboards throughout (similar to the band's previous album NIVRAYM, though Angherr Shisspa sounds much better recorded), though generally not playing flashy solos. Piano and synthesizer plays the role of guitar, fleshing out the riffs and vamps on "Grahbem Jorgazz" and the epic closing piece "Wammilica Iffirom". The overall sound is aggressive and quick, though perhaps not as violent as many of Yoshida's other projects can be. Still, his stuff towers over most modern progressive rock because of an attention to detail and almost overwhelming force of conviction. No irony here: this rocks with the teeth and heart to cut through scenes and the "overground" like a knife.
