Retorunose is the Japanese duo of saxophonist Ruby Nakamura and drummer #STDRUMS, who’ve just released a self-titled EP, loaded with two powerful, ten-minute episodes of seismic jazz-punk. Further material from their session at the indie art space Zengyo Z was captured by video director Taro Maruyama – see below. Shot from all angles, the pair go on a tear inside a concrete storage room/miniature skate park, its every surface soaked in the feverish artwork of Masato Okano. “This is the music venue in my hometown,” says Okano of the locale, in the Tokyo suburb of Fujisawa City. “I painted my monsters with the all my friends’ bands’ names on the walls. My image of art always comes from music.”
What to watch
New Wave / North East Asian / Post-Punk
LeeNalchi: “Tiger’s Third Leg”
We recently heralded the release of Sugungga, the impressive debut album from Seoul’s LeeNalchi. The band has revitalized the old-fashioned, highly formalized musical storytelling tradition of pansori with an injection of avant-garde attitude and post-punk funkiness. They’ve just put out the video for one of the album’s more lighthearted tracks, “Tiger’s Third Leg”, featuring the freaky footwork of South Korean contemporary dance troupe Ambiguous Dance Company. Catch this tiger by its tail, below.
Hip Hop
RTJ + Zack de la Rocha
Police violence against African-Americans has been addressed by Killer Mike and El-P since the first offerings of Run the Jewels. Among their classic, here is Close Your Eyes (And Count To F**k) with Zack de la Rocha, renowned rap-rock speaker of the progressive opposition in the USA. Done in 2015, still relevant in 2020.
Run them jewels fast, run them, run them jewels fast
Run them, run them, r-run them, run them, fuck the slow mo
Fashion slave, you protestin’ to get in a fuckin’ look book
Everything I scribble’s like The Anarchist Cookbook
(Look good, posing in a centerfold of Crook Book)
Black on black on black with a ski mask, that is my crook look
How you like my stylin’, bruh? Ain’t nobody stylin’, bruh
‘Bout to turn this mothafucka up like Riker’s Island, bruh
Where my thuggers and my cripples and my blooders and my brothers?
When you niggas gon’ unite and kill the police, mothafuckas?
Or take over a jail, give those COs hell
The burnin’ of the sulfur, God damn I love the smell
Blankets and pillow torchin’, where the fuck the warden?
And when you find him, we don’t kill him, we just waterboard him
We killin’ ’em for freedom cause they tortured us for boredom
And even if some good ones die, fuck it, the Lord’ll sort ’em
We out of order, your honor, you’re out of order
This whole court is unimportant, you fuckers are walkin’ corpses
I’m a flip wig synonym, livin’ within distortion
I’ll bite into a cyanide molar before you whores win
I’m a New Yorkian, I fuck for the jump
I wear my Yankee so tilted I actually walk with a hunch
Look at Mikey, I think he likey, we are sinister sons
(Aye, we the type to beat the preacher with a grin and a gun)
Run them jewels fast, run them, run them jewels fast
Run them, run them, r-run them, r-run them, run them, r-run them
Run them jewels fast, run them, run them jewels fast
Run them, run them, r-run them, r-run them, run them, r-run them
A wise man once said, (“We all dead, fuck it”)
Just spit it disgusting youngin’, and hold your nuts while you’re gunnin’
I listened, tatted a sentence on my dick last summer
Now I’ll never get that phrase off my brain, it’s no wonder
I’m here to buy hearts, I got hundreds, honey
The cheaper the parts, the better buy for the money
I’m trained in vagina whisperin’, glistenin’
Waitin’ for their christenin’, I know the neighbors can’t help but listen in
A dirty boy who come down on a side of dissonance
I can’t even relax without sirens off in the distances
Not shittin’ you, little buddy, this fuckin’ island’s a prison
The only solace I have is the act of conjugal visitin’
My solitary condition’s preventin’ conjugal visits
Go mane and missin’ my misses, they keepin’ me from my children
Conditions create a villain, the villain is givin’ vision
The vision becomes a vow to seek vengeance on all the vicious
Liars and politicians, profiteers of the prisons
The forehead engravers, enslavers of men and women
Includin’ members of clergy that rule on you through religion
(So strippin’ kids to the nude and then tell ’em God’ll forgive ’em)
Run them jewels fast, run them, run them jewels fast
Run them, run them, r-run them, r-run them, run them, r-run them
Run them jewels fast, run them, run them jewels fast
Run them, run them, r-run them, r-run them, run them, r-run them
It’s De La on the cut, liftin’ 6 on your stitchy crew
I’m miles ahead of you, you can sip my bitches brew
My battle status is burnin’ mansions from Dallas to Malibu
Check my résumé, your residence is residue
Call her a skin job and my honey dip’ll backflip for you
You playin’, God your eye sockets, she gon’ rip in two
We sick of bleedin’ out a trace, spray a victim, you
Done dyin’, Phillip AK Dickin’ you
With clips in the bottom, we dippin’ from Gotham
Yes eclipsed by the shadows, a dark dance to the coffin
I’m a fellow with melanin, suspect of a felony
Ripped like Rakim Allah, feds is checkin’ my melody
Yes aggressively tested we’ll bump stretchers and penalties
Dump cases with face and the cop pleas when we seizing a pump
With reason to dump on you global grand dragons
Still pilin’ fast, plus Afghani toe taggin’
Now they trackin’ me and we bustin’ back, see
The only thing that close quicker than our caskets be the factories
Run them jewels fast, run them, run them jewels fast
Run them, run them, r-run them, r-run them, run them, r-run them
Run them jewels fast, run them, run them jewels fast
Run them, run them, r-run them, r-run them, run them, r-run them
Source : LyricFind
Paroliers : Jaime Meline / Michael Santigo Render / Zack De La Rocha
Paroles de Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck) © Royalty Network, Cypmp
Hip Hop
Terrace Martin feat. Denzel Curry, Daylyt, Kamasi Washington, & G Perico: “Pig Feet”
The Blackout Tuesday pause is over, but that doesn’t mean a return to distracting fun. Now’s not the time for that. It’s the time to pay attention to Terrace Martin, joined by tenorman Kamasi Washington (both have credits on Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly, 2015) as well as Denzel Curry, Daylyt, and G Perico. Says Martin: “Someone asked, how do I feel? I told them hurt, fearless, angry, aware and fully ready to protect me, my family and my people at all cost. I got together with Black men that felt the same way and created a work of truth.” When the music stops, stay and read the names to the end.
Soul/R&B
Face of An Artist: “Fucboii”
Chicago soul singer Face of An Artist dropped a rather sober video on Vevo today, for his very first song, “Fucboii”, released last March. Simplicity seems to be the best way for him to declare an honest and sincere love, and inhabit his vulnerability. He swathed in the violet hue of passion between memories of intimate moments, for a classic, aesthetically refined scenario ceding the floor to his lyrics.
Bon Enfant unveil today the video for “Faux pas”, the third single from their eponymous album released in the fall of 2019. The Montreal band called upon the talents of Philippe Beauséjour to put imagery to the song, with its slightly retro ’70s sound, reminiscent of some of François De Roubaix’s playful tunes. The director, also in the lineup of the group I.D.A.L.G., has created an ingenious collage in which cut-outs from photo-novels from the ’50s and ’60s, construction paper sets and projections come to life in stop-motion, creating a bizarre tale populated by faceless characters.
Osaka, Japan’s Eve (the latest of several stage names for the otherwise anonymous singer-songwriter), started out as a participant in the “utaite” scene, a subculture of amateur fan covers of vocaloid hits (a pretty rarified niche to begin with). Over the last decade, Eve and his band have become hitmakers in their own right with their light but caloric, hyper-produced pop-funk. Their latest single is “Inochi no Tabekata”, the title of which translates to ‘how to eat life’, off the brand new album Smile. The accompanying clip is an energetic contraction of an imaginary anime series, crawling with all kinds of urban goblins. It’s the latest in the line of Eve videos showcasing Japanese indie animators, in this case Mariyusa, whose haunted house full of interesting work can found right here.
If that wasn’t quite precious enough for you, here’s the same song, adapted to the sound of those little wind-up music-box contraptions.
Jazz
Electric Ascension Live
On September 7, 2012, the Guelph Festival in Ontario presented an electric, and electrifying, rendition of one of John Coltrane’s most ferociously free works: Ascension.
The original version was recorded in 1965 with three tenor saxophones (Trane, Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp), two alto saxophones (Marion Brown and John Tchicai), two trumpets (Freddie Hubbard and Dewey Johnson), two double basses (Art Davis and Jimmy Garrison), a piano (McCoy Tyner) and drums (Elvin Jones).
For the updated version, the ROVA Saxophone Quartet (Bruce Ackley, soprano sax, Steve Adams, alto sax, Larry Ochs, tenor sax, Jon Raskin, baritone sax) was flanked by Nels Cline on electric guitar, Fred Frith on electric bass, Carla Kihlstedt and Jenny Scheinman on violin, Chris Brown and Ikue Mori on electronics, Rob Mazurek on horn and Hamid Drake on drums. Sound: Hayward Parrott and Marc Urselli.
Shot on five cameras, this concert – released on DVD and Blu-ray by French label Rogue Art – will be presented free of charge on Vimeo all week long, until May 25 inclusively, for the occasion of the Great Confinement.
Thanks to Michel Dorbon of Rogue Art.
Play LOUD!
Hip Hop
MC Phylis & Maxime Robin: “Twilight”
Some artists make records to break records. Others make records, and are broke. Oddball Montreal producer Maxime Robin, master of the dollar-store jam, and blue-chip investment partner MC Phylis likewise, are anything but millionaires, as they made abundantly clear on the series of mixtapes they banged out five to ten years ago – Bling de pauvre, Mix de pauvre, Epopée de pauvre, you get the idea.
“Bling de pauvre is the title of the first mixtape that me and Max made together in 2010,” MC Phylis explains. “It set the concept of the band, taking the prestige of hip-hop’s bling-bling and doing it with a poverty-punk attitude.
“From then on, Max and I tripped out a bit too much on the idea and decided to make as many mixtapes as possible with the concept. We like the basic hip-hop formula, beatmaker and MC, and it represents a more underground sector of keb hip-hop culture that’s a bit neglected these days.”
One of their tunes, 2012’s “Twilight”, has just resurfaced as an animated video, with the original track given a nice polish. It seems like a surreal reflection on the pandemic vibe, surreal enough itself, but MC Phylis admits that the matter isn’t quite so honourable. “The tune is the true story of weed anxiety I had on Ste-Catherine St. that year. To add to the absurdity, I had to run into an old buddy who hadn’t seen me for a long time.”
There is a Covid connection to “Twilight” popping up again now. “The director’s name is Matthieu Bonnier” says MC Phylis. “He’s a great guy, a fan-friend in the film and television business who has a very passion for helping out crazy underground artists like us. Five or six years ago, he wrote to me to tell me, in the simplest way in the world, that he was quietly working on an animation clip for a MC Phylis and Max Robin movie – which is just too exciting, considering that Bonnier is a professional, he worked on a clip by Claude Bégin, among others. All this for free.
“So two years later no news of the video, and when I ask Bonnier, he seems a bit desperate, the guy is really busy with his post-production career. That’s when Max and I gave up on ever seeing the video some day. Thanks to Covid, though, Bonnier found the time to complete this magnificent project. The dated 2012 track was a bit too shitty for the visual quality of the clip. So I decided to re-record it for a better sound quality. And here we are! We got a great gift that would probably never have seen the light of day without the pandemic!”
Electronic
Music As Living Matter: Suzanne Ciani inaugurates Moog’s new Subharmonicon
The number-one name in modular synths, Moog, has just announced a new addition to its family of semi-modular analog synthesizers, the Subharmonicon, boasting oscillator-generated undertones and polyrhythmic possibilities. There’s a lot of deep and interesting avant-electro history built into this funny little box of knobs. The folks at Moog have diligently documented it here – find out more about Joseph Schillinger’s mathematical mania, Leon Theremin’s Rhythmicon, and a device called the Mixtur-Trautonium (which created the avian cacophonies in Hitchcock’s The Birds).
That’s all very nice, of course, but what does it sound like? A demonstration is in order, and who better to make first use of the Subharmonicon than electronic audio pioneer Suzanne Ciani, America’s “Diva of the Diode”? Her biography is a jawdropping litany of breakthroughs and innovations, and her piece for the Subharmonicon, accompanied by Scott Kiernan’s trippy lo-fi visuals, is a delight. Discover their work, and the sounds of Moog’s new sonic plaything, in the short film Music As Living Matter, below.
Experimental / Contemporary / Free Improvisation
The Necks with strings
Photo credit: Camille Walsh
The Necks is an intrepid Australian trio who, for the past 30 years, have been offering long improvisations that develop slowly, organically, never in a hurry but always ready to explore rare musical territories, at the crossroads of ambient, free jazz and contemporary music.
Sometimes the three musicians have invited a fourth musician to join them, a high-flying improviser like Evan Parker or Ned Rothenberg, for example. In 2017, though, their guest was none other than a full symphony orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ilan Volkov. In fact, it’s quite the opposite of the usual, since the proposal came from the Israeli-born conductor and took place at the Glasgow Tectonics Festival, of which he is one of the curators.
For the concert, drummer Tony Buck had prepared 10 graphic scores for the percussion section and double bassist Lloyd Swanton had made four for the string section. With some 60 musicians, it was necessary to at least establish some guidelines to prevent the adventure from turning into a grandiose mess.
The recording of this very special 47-minute event is available until the end of the month on the site of the venerable British broadcaster.
Pop-Punk
CHAI – “Ready Cheeky Pretty”
As the quarantine drags on, grooming standards and the fine art of looking fine are in global decline. Some folks (certain Americans anyway) are taking to the streets with assault rifles and “I Want a Haircut” signs. On the other hand, there’s Japanese pop-punk quartet CHAI, champions of the “neo-kawaii” cause and determined demolishers of bullshit beauty standards. They’ve got a point to make, and it’s all the more pertinent as our collective bad-hair days extend into weeks and months. “Keep it real,” they sing on “Ready Cheeky Pretty”, their brand-new single. “Imperfect is perfect!” The tune’s video is also now out, an animated collage with colourful paintings care of bassist Yuuki, and the English lyrics (CHAI know that their audience is now absolutely international) are added as subtitles too, for purposes of clarification or karaoke.
If you enjoyed that, you might want to know that a couple of weeks ago, CHAI posted their quarantine cover of Kyu Sakamoto’s “Ue o Muite Aruko”. Better known to Westerners as the novelty pop song “Sukiyaki”, Sakamoto’s plucky, bittersweet 1961 hit – still universally beloved, some 60 years later – might be considered Japan’s true national anthem.