Les Rallizes Denudes - '77 Live (FULL REVIEW)

(For context, I originally posted this review to RateYourMusic a couple of years ago, and included it in my second RYM post on this blog. However it was actually a truncated version of the review; I cut out quite a bit of material to make it shorter. I actually thought the full version was lost, but I came across it whilst going through some old files, so here it is for you to enjoy, with a few tweaks and an additional outro containing information that came out after I originally wrote it.)

For a band to never release a lick of their own material is an all too common truth, though usually it occurs with small time bands formed between friends which last a year or two before splitting up. For a band to last a full 20 years without stopping (along with another 5 year stint a little down the line) without so much as a single of their own is something else entirely. It is here that we arrive at the legendary Japanese noise rock monster that is Les Rallizes Dénudés.

Les Rallizes are a band surrounded in myth and misinformation, largely due to how they essentially flew under the radar during their initial run, rarely giving interviews and mostly sticking to small venues and music festivals. These wild claims range from dodging the authorities to the notion that the band had hijacked an aeroplane (which is wrong, only the band's bassist had been involved, and he had left the band a while before).

Formed in 1967 by a group of Japanese students involved in a major radical movement in Japan during the late 60s, the creative direction of Les Rallizes largely rested on the shoulders of the lead singer and guitarist Takashi Mizutani, who himself has become a symbol of mystery in the band's fanbase due to just how little he was seen outside of the band. We didn't even know he had passed away in 2019 until two whole years later.

As previously stated, one of the things that adds to the mystery of the band is that next to no professional recordings of the band exist, and indeed they released nothing of their own work whilst active. The only exception is an appearance on the 1973 compilation Oz Days Live, which collected a variety of soundboard recordings done at a venue Les Rallizes frequented at the time. It would take until 1991, a full 24 years after their formation, for them to release anything of their own.

The three albums released in 1991, nicknamed the "Rivista Trilogy" after the imprint it came out on, are archival collections from the earlier years of the group. '67-'69 Studio et live and Mizutani / Les Rallizes Dénudés combine a selection of studio and live recordings from their first four years, and are more in line with the psychedelic rock and folk sounds of the time period than the barrage of sound that they would later be acclaimed for. For that, you only need to look at the third album in the collection, the infamous '77 Live.

Recorded on the 12th of March 1977 (hence the name), '77 Live featured a near-complete soundboard recording of that night's show. And what a show it was! Even in the context of the numerous bootlegs of the group that exist, '77 Live towers over them all in the sheer power and energy the group was bringing to the table that night.

Parallels have often been made to Les Rallizes' seeming influence from The Velvet Underground, and while there are similarities, this is a different experience all on its own. The song's in the show's setlist are simple in concept, featuring some basic and borderline repetitive chord progressions, speckled in numerous places by Mizutani's reverb soaked vocals, singing some surprisingly dark lyrics that compliment his singing incredibly. Just have a look at English translations to see what I mean.

But to call the band's repetitive song structures "boring" would be to miss the point entirely, as these songs don't need distinct parts to power through their huge runtime (only one track doesn't pass the 10 minute mark). Most vital to the experience is Mizutani's guitar work, sounding less like a conventional guitar performance and more like a swirling constant wave of feedback that he's reining in like a horse rider. It's both chaotic and yet carefully controlled, spurred along by a chugging baseline and fine backing by the rest of the group. Mizutani may be the MVP of the recording, but the rest of the band provides a solid backbone for his playing to really shine.

The recording quality isn't the best, clearly having been recorded onto a cassette tape (there's even a few dropouts in the sound in places), and yet '77 Live is not only one of the best shows the band would ever make, but also one of the best recorded. Most of the other circulating recordings of their shows were done from the audience and sound much less direct than this document of a fateful spring night in the late 70s.

The album remained out of print for many years, only available through fan-circulated CD rips, until it was finally rereleased officially by Mizutani's estate, who since 2021 have been taking on the task of making Mizutani's work available to the world. Nowadays '77 Live is more accessible than ever, pressed on vinyl for the very first time, and there's no better time to get into the band and their music. Some might say doing this spoils the mystique surrounding the band, but with music this good it could be considered a necessary evil. Better to have the treasure trove revealed than keep it hidden forever.

TL,DR: An excellent piece of noise rock that sounds at least 10 years ahead of its time. Check it out.

Even More Reviews From RateYourMusic (#4)

Frank Zappa - Whiskey A Go Go 1968

This new release of a full length MOI concert from mid 1968 is one I eagerly awaited (very few full concert recordings exist from this period, and fewer still in acceptable quality), and I thoroughly enjoyed once it had dropped. There are a number of things that make this release kind of special:

One thing I noted quite quickly was that the three sets that make up this release have a surprisingly loose feeling compared to a lot of Frank Zappa's live recordings. I wouldn't go so far as to call it "casual" as the musicians are still playing their socks off throughout, but it doesn't feel as tightly controlled like a lot of his concert albums are. Perhaps that's why it ended up not releasing it in Zappa's lifetime. Honestly I like the different atmosphere, there's a bit of a jam band feel to it, especially in the longer improvised sections.

Another thing I found interesting was that it seems to have had a somewhat atypical setlist for the period, likely because it was being taped. There's the songs you'd expect like King Kong, but then there's one-offs as well like Brown Shoes Don't Make It (apparently the very first time it was performed live), Khaki Sacks and the '63 Penguins single Memories Of El Monte which Zappa co-wrote. The only flaw in the setlist is there's nothing from We're Only in It for the Money or Cruising With Ruben & The Jets, which is a little odd seeing as both had been recorded by this point. That isn't a demerit though, because what is here is excellent.

And of course, the presence of Ray Collins is nice to see, seeing as almost no live recordings exist from when he was in the group. He had a great voice on the MOI records he appeared on, and getting a decent look at how he performed with the group on stage is great.

Overall, I'm really happy this show has finally seen the light of day. I remember reading about it on a list of unreleased Zappa projects a long time ago and always wondered what it sounded like. It might be up there as one of the all time best ZFT Vault releases.

Silent Scream - 1981 Demo

"This is the 2nd 'Demo' recorded by Silent Scream..."

There are a lot of bands like Silent Scream. Groups that had a great sound and some great songs, but never got the chance to develop these on a proper studio album, relegating them to exclusively demo cassettes and self-released EP. This tape is no exception.

Details on Silent Scream (no relation to any of the OTHER bands with that name) are scarce, but comments from the group's drummer on YouTube have helped to piece together their story. Formed in 1980, they were an early-period Gothic Rock band from Newcastle in the UK, apparently with a big visual element in their live act. That same year they recorded their first demo, but it has never surfaced on the internet so whatever it sounds like is anyone's guess. It was their second demo from October 1981, however, which managed to find its way online in the early 2010s, capturing people's attention with the quality of the songs found within.

As this is a low budget demo recording (albiet recorded in a studio, specifically Guardian Studios in Durham, England), it is very no-frills, save for a bit of stereo panning on the vocals and guitar effects being present. There are three songs, all of them just over four minutes long, and they're surprisingly solid. The moody, brooding atmosphere you would associate with Gothic Rock is very much present and the instruments are all played solidly, with the guitar work being especially stellar. The track Drown is notable for its rather nihilistic lyrical themes, made more notable due to the lyricist supposedly committed suicide a few years after it was written.

You could very much see a professionally recorded album by this band being right at home alongside other acts from the same period such as Bauhaus. Sadly Silent Scream would end up remaining unsigned and would part ways not long after recording this demo. The band members supposedly remained active in music, but apparently nothing of much note after this.

Even after the demo resurfaced online, things didn't go to plan. According to the drummer on YouTube, two different attempts to rerelease the EP during the 2010s ended in disaster. Famed indie label Sacred Bones supposedly assisted in remastering the original reel-to-reel tape of the demo, but after the deal fell through they refused to give the tape back to the band. Then some time later a 10" vinyl release was planned on the small label Evil Has Landed, but they eventually ghosted the band and never returned the photos and archival material they had been sent.

Luckily, one saving grace is the tape eventually found its way onto Bandcamp, most likely derived from the aborted Sacred Bones remaster due to its improved sound over the YouTube uploads dubbed from the cassette, so anyone who would likely to can drop a few pounds and listen to what could have been.

Bull Of Heaven - 299: Self Traitor, I Do Bring The Spider Love

But does the spider love the self-traitor also?

In a recent interview, Neil Keener (half of Bull Of Heaven and its only surviving member) mentioned that 299: Self-Traitor, I Do Bring the Spider Love and a few other releases from the same timeframe were the result of several jam sessions between him and some musicians who frequented a coffee shop he worked at, taped on a consumer grade TASCAM recorder and then handed off to the late Clayton Counts to mess with, edit together, and turn into a full release.

With that in mind, 299 is a testement not just to the synergy of the musicians on the record, but also Counts' ability to take several days of apparently aimless jam sessions and turn them into a single flowing track with studio quality sound (albeit a very raw mix).

Some might say the human element is antithetical to the nature of Bull Of Heaven's highly experimental and (usually) drone influenced sound, but I believe it instead bolsters what they were truly going for: a creatively unconfined project that dabbles in whatever those involved felt like exploring. Whether it be Power Electronics, Drone, Doom Metal, or in this case, Space Rock.

And it's surely a great example of the latter, designed to emulate the spontaneity and groove of numerous '70s fusion records. Even in its 84 minute runtime (which is funnily enough one of the shorter tracks in their oeuvre), there's little to get bored about as it very rarely repeats itself, and it even introduces a few new elements over its duration. I'm not sure where they got the painting of what I believe is Concorde, but it compliments the sound well.

Highly recommended even for those who are not especially big fans of Bull Of Heaven.