Otani Yasuhiro & Aoki Tatsu - Dial

Yasuhiro Otani started as a jazz guitarist, but switched to digital music and noise in the late 1990s and currently works at IRCAM in Paris. He has a very good solo album that you ought to hear, though collaboration seems to be something he returns to. Otani has made albums with Jeff Parker (of Tortoise & Isotope 217), Otomo Yoshihide, Xavier Charles, Uchihashi Kazuhisa (of Ground Zero & Altered States) and this one with jazz bassist Aoki Tatsu.

Otani Yasuhiro & Aoki Tatsu - Dial

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Guilty Connector - ''Brutality Of The Gloomy Days'' The Live Album [蛮行ライヴ]

Warning! All circuits were harmed in the recording of this release.

Recorded live in Belgium and Germany in 2001 and jointly released as a CDr on Off Black and Utsu Tapes in 2002.

Brutality Of The Gloomy Days

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Brendan Walls - Outposts

Australian composer Brendan Walls might be best known as a member of confrontational noise-rock group Menstruation Sisters (along with Oren Ambarchi) and gentle ambient quartet Marsfield (with Andrew Chalk, Vikki Jackman and Robin Barnes), but he also recorded a small number of solo albums that are all worth your time. This one, probably his most obscure, came out in 2006 as a 300-copies LP on Christoph Heemann's Dom Bartwuchs label.

Brendan Walls - Outposts

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Richard Ramirez + Government Alpha - Sol Suave

This time Mr R is in Tokyo ...

"Collaboration recorded in Tokyo, Japan (Dec. 14, 2003) at Xerxes Studio."

CDr released on Yoshida Yasutoshi's Xerxes label in 2005.

Sol Suave

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Guilty Connector - Symptom Of The Universe

Not so much cover versions as complete annihilations.

3" CDr released on Sewer Records in 2002.

Symptom Of The Universe

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Astro + Richard Ramirez - Traffic

Source material provided by Hiroshi Hasegawa and mixed by Richard Ramirez to transform it into an expansive and ferocious little beast.

CDr released on Deadline Recordings in 2006.

Traffic

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Guilty Connector / Mortalized - Guilty Connector / Mortalized

Not sure why Jaz Coleman's on the cover. Do you know he's actually known as Jeremy to his mother? Yeah, I know.

C10 released on HMW Distribution in 2001.

Guilty Connector / Mortalized

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Mortalized & The Guilty Connector - Concerto For Harsh Noise Grind #1

Kicks your doors in, raids the fridge and leaves. Very fucking excellent.

3"CD released on Bloodbath Records in 2006.

Concerto For Harsh Noise Grind #1

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Merzbow + Richard Ramirez - The Science Of Dissecting Society

...

A 200 edition LP released on Praxis Dr. Bearmann in 1994.

The Science Of Dissecting Society

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Various - Japanoise Of Death

Masami Akita, Kohei Gomi, Fumiyuki Nagura and Shohei Iwasaki aren't here ... but nearly everybody else is. Magnificent.

This is the metal box double CD reissue that contains both volumes courtesy of Steinklang Industries in 2008.

Japanoise Of Death

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Necro Thirdorgan Trial - Don't Communication Over the Mobile Network

A strange exhortation, but one that's easy enough to obey. I shall not communication over the mobile network! And same goes for you. The name Necro Thirdorgan Trial seems to be one that Akihiro Shimizu/Thirdorgan used for only this one album, though someone called SU is also given writing credit. If you know who that is, please tell us, but not communication over the electronic wifi network. Just send a telegram or something, I guess. Or an owl. I don't know.

Recorded in 2000 and released a year later as a CDR on Shimzu's Alienation label, which was really something while it was around. Alienation issued a pretty wide range of digital noise and other diverse stuff, including a series of terrific compilation CDRs and some albums by ultra-obscure artists.

Necro Thirdorgan Trial - Don't Communication Over the Mobile Network

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Various - Tension State Of Collapsing

In the mid 90's there were a couple of tapes compiled by Richard Ramirez and put out on Chaotic Noise Productions in very limited numbers. They showcased the burgeoning harsh noise scene in Houston and Texas in general. So the tapes turned into unachievable iconic milestones and you just had to assume that they were great. But then the perpetual resurrection machine that is Mikko Aspa gave them new life (I'm pretty sure it was all agreed with Mr. R over a lovely cup of Earl Grey ... because that's how things roll in harsh noise circles) and for that we should all be grateful!

Double CD courtesy of Industrial Recollections in 2009.

Tension State Of Collapsing

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Laura Maes - Czela

As a format, the business card CDR is one of my very favorites. For starters, biz-card CDRs are adorable. And also, you don't get very much time on them (five minutes?), so it's like one side of a 7" record that you never have to flip over. Belgian artist Laura Maes never recorded very much; just a couple of business-card CDRs (both for MSBR Records), a collaborative track with eco-industrial band Militia on one side of a 7", one track (as Strona Starza) on a compilation, a collaborative album on Cling-Film Records with someone I've never heard of, a few tracks under her own name that appeared on compilations... and that's it! This biz-card CDR came out in 2002. It's taken you longer to read this paragraph than it will to listen to the music.

Laura Maes - Czela

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Black Leather Jesus / MSBR - Sonic Destruction

A stellar old-school Black Leather Jesus line-up featuring Richard Ramirez, David Gilden, Herman Lin, Josh Gaudet, Rick Bailey and Ryan Hunt ... and the small matter of Molten Salt Breeder Reactor on the reverse.

It was only in the prep for this post that I realised that Mr R has very recently reissued this as a tape of only 25 copies that has the entire LP on one side followed by everything being reworked by the man himself on the reverse. He has one for sale. In a past life, I would have already bought it but my country is going down the shitter so I'm hunkering down. If you buy that tape on the basis of this ... send me a rip so I can use it as a soundtrack for the pending civil war?

LP released on Deadline Recordings in 1995.

Sonic Destruction

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MSBR & Richard Ramirez - Sonic Aggression

Trans-continental collaborative racket from Richard Ramirez and the master, Koji Tano/MSBR. First released on tape in 1994 by both MSBR Records and Ramirez' Deadline Recordings. Reissued as a CDR in 2002 on Denshi Zatsuon.

MSBR & Richard Ramirez - Sonic Aggression

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C.C.C.C. - Black Light / Black Heat

The original trio are joined by Ryuichi Nagakubo on bass for this live recording from the Shinjuku Theater Poo (if you've got something to say, share it with the class) in Tokyo on the 25th of January, 1992.

CD released on Collapsar Records in 2009.

Black Light / Black Heat

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MSBR - Mental Dissolution

First released as a cassette in 1996, remastered and reissued in 2004 as a CDR on Koji Tano's excellent Denshi Zatuon label.

MSBR - Mental Dissolution

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C.C.C.C. - Flash

Whilst it's Mayuko Hino on the cover art (in the seemingly compulsory Japanese rope bondage poses) the line-up isn't clear to me. The cover says "all tracks composed and mixed by Hiroshi Hasegowa". Fumio Kosakai had already left by this point so maybe this release marks the transition into Astro.

CD released on Cold Spring in 1996.

Flash

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va - Denzatsu

This is the double disc compilation that came with the 8th issue of Koji Tano/MSBR's Denzatsu magazine in 2004. Interestingly, Tano compiled one disc and the Steinklang Industries label compiled the second. You get music by Af Ursin, Jim O'Rourke, Con-Dom, The New Blockaders, Sightings, Control, Cold Flesh Colony, Wang Changcun, Legion Condor, Painslut, A Challenge of Honour, Stahlwerk 9, Kreiger, Anomoli, Beijing Sound Unit and more.

disc 1
disc 2

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C.C.C.C. - Love & Noise

Contender for the "look at what this new graphics package can do. No of course it won't look like a really dated TV Evangelist propaganda piece in a few years time" cover of the year award. Fortunately, the noise is spectacular so you quickly forget about it.

CD released on Endorphine Factory in 1996.

Love & Noise

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