Record: Live'77
Label: Rivista.Inc
Year of Release: 1991 (physical format)
Sounds like: Noise Rock, Psych Rock, Lo Fi,
Country:Japan
Japanese, Kyoto based, rock band Les Rallizes Denudes (Hadaka no Rallizes) are one of the most enigmatic and misfit groups in the history, not just of their country but in global music scenario ever. They had nearly no peers when they came out , the identities of the members are practically unknown led by the figure of the ambiguous man in sunglasses and bangs, (presumably) named Takashi Mizutani,
They are known for having never released an studio album, only bootlegs of live recording being the somber titles ''Heavier than a Death in the Family'' and ''Baby is blind and has his Mother Eyes'' among the most recognized ones. The bassist code named Moriaki Wakabayashi was part of the Flight 351 Hijacking performed by the Red Army in 1970. The sound of Les Rallizes (The Razzies) is fuzzy, heavily distorted, apocalyptic and violent. Exploding the art of noise rock like few bands of the era did.
Does it work:
Regina says:
I honestly am not the biggest fan of extreme Lo Fi. Music made inside a bathroom,recorded with a potato, whatsoever. I hardly worship people who use a can and an straw to create their stuff. I know some people are so into that and it is even something that adds emotion to the sound for some fellas. But in my case, it exasperates me that I can't fully enjoy the experience due to a crappy interaction between the noise and my ears.
With that said, I can confirm that this album is the exception of the rule. Though I still do not understand why. I mean, at some points this record is so blurry that most of people could runaway from it or beat the player thinking that something is wrong with the audio. ''Stupid player, be way clearer!''
I can confirm after many listens, that for some reason, Les Rallizes Denudes' music is something that wouldn't work otherwise, other than with the crappy production, well..., lets cross out the word ''production'', here we are talking about a total lack of polishness or arrangement.. And it is great.
Les Rallizes Denudes were a band made to sound as fucked up as this. That's it. Because they were not just a band, they were actual nihilist terrorists in acid making noise...do you expect it to sound like Floyd?
I love all the mysterious aura that surrounds this band, the fact that one of the members hijacked a plane, ther links to the North Korean regime, the lyrics exclusively in Japanese, even the bizarre name and the fact that they only released bootlegs and never an actual studio album. The cover all in red and black. I think all this creepy, hazardous weird atmosphere that I get from their music is what keeps me listening and not to burn it alive. I got this record when I was 19 and would feel like the queen of rock and roll at my school, and used music as my platform to feel superior...which is not hard when you listen to someone as cool as Mizutani.
Because Les Rallizes Denudes is the essence of pure, absolute and raw rock and roll and this record immeasurably is the thesis of that. It actually makes you feel among the crowd feeling smashed by noisey guitars, terrific melancholia, far crying,traffic, industrial psychedelia and all the intention to mess up your aural system, whenever I listen to it I ve got the disturbing impression that I am losing limbs in the process ending up in one piece (literally, maybe just my head lefts) after the last song.
I have the theory that fear is firstly triggered by sadness to make us feel invalid and then let us be haunted,well, this album is just that. Do you wanna feel what being blue and then weirdly scared feels like? Check this thing out, because it instantaneously boosts that sensation given the unsetting vibe to it.
It is a pity that no version of White Waking (my fav song by them) is featured here
Perfectly imperfect.
Rate: Extraordinary
Menanth says:
In another episode of bands that were crudely ahead of their time, we have Les Rallizes Denudes, a band that were a chaos and were doomed to disappear with no remorse, like kamikazes in a desert of abandoned engines and sunk buildings. They looked like Dark Wave killers many years before the term ''wave'' was a thing. Did we mention that these fellas began in the 60's? Well, though they're oldish, they still can easily fight for the prize as the most noisy band in the history. for real. Their artsy yet dirty pysch sound was relatively rare at their time. The term psych is extremely adequate for them, this is not garage rock, this is psychotic paranoia. This is close to mental illness.
However, I think the keyword when it comes to these Japs has nothing to do with the apartments of mind, I think ''Mystery'' is the right one to choose. Because (kinda like Regina said) this is the ghostly experience that one gets from their music and live albums, it is like an urban legend taken to musical context, if urban myths were music they would sound like this: impure, nostalgic and obscure.
Takashi Mizutani is the personification of the dense and isolated musician that survives as a rumor, did he die? Does he still remember these bombs that he dropped on us? Is he a God? Did he even exist?
This collection of nasty diseases began with Enter the mirror, a depressed 12.00 minutes long piece of loneliness and enchanted dementia with the fabulous limp orchestration that was so personal of these guys. Then it is followed by the masterpiece ''The Night of the Assassins'' classic of classics of the underground rock, a song that always makes me feel that a contagious mental disease has invaded the world during New Year's eve causing the most violent and the bloodiest riot ever...which is not far from reality if we consider that their ''67-’69 Studio Et'' Live album was recorded during the rampage at Kyoto University during one of their gigs, in which we can hear police sirens in the background.
Les Rallizes Denudes are a rich and macabre experience, this record seems like the best of all the smuggling that they disguised as music.
Rate: Highly,highly,highly recommendable.