The Janitor From Mars on WFMU
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The obligatory list of links, in four major categories:
As a warning, some of these web-sites are written in the Japanese language. Even so,there is usually enough English to navigate the site to obtain useful information. I have attempted to note the Japanese language sites which are particularly text-based.
Please note that all Japanese names are in English order (i.e. family name last), with apologies to Mr. Otomo and anyone else who prefers their name be represented in Japanese order.
As with everything in this site, this page is a work-in-progress and shamefully incomplete. If you have a link that might find a happy home below, (or if one of the links below needs updating) feel free to contact me at janitor [at] wfmu.org.
- Kaoru Abe Fan Page- Unofficial site, mostly in Japanese, but including a CD discography in English.
- Amephone [down]
- Che-Shizu- Official page. For more information about Chie Mukai, consult the There website (in the Labels section). Mostly in Japanese.
- Cock C' Nell[down]- Eighties pop chanteuse associated with Tori Kudo. In Japanese, but easy to navigate. Includes sound clips.
- Cocoon Pit- Official site for this Tokyo-based indie band & occasional Mandog collaborators. Includes upcoming gig information, plus a link to a mail order shop.
- Damon & Naomi- Official Website.
- Tod Dockstader- Unofficial site dedicated to this maverick composer of electronic music. Includes biography, list of compositions and an interview by Chris Cutler.
- Yoshiaki Fujikawa one of the most notable free jazz big band leaders, from the 60s on.
- Golden Cups- A nice overview of this fine GS band which mutated into an even better blues-rock band.
- Keiji Haino- Official website- mostly in Japanese but with some relevant English-language information (including his "best of" list).
- An Unofficial Keiji Haino Page, including a comprehensive pictorial discography and the infamous "Bruce Springsteen" interview. All English.
- High Rise- Official website.
- Keizo Inoue- A site dedicated to the late altoist, including a discography.
- Electric Cool Acid- Takeya Sekiguchi's fantastic site, dedicated to all things connected with You Ishihara (The Stars, White Heaven, etc).
- Tori Kudo- Official site for this outsider musician/sculptor whose past activities ranged from the early 80s no wave band Snickers to the short-lived shambolic Velvets-isms of Guys and Dolls. This site is very simple, reflecting the pared-down aesthetic of his current band, Maher Shalal Hash Baz. For more insight into Kudo's universe of thought, see Alan Cummings' translation of an interview which first appeared in G-Modern (currently hosted on Paul Collett's site, linked below).
- The Story of Peter Laughner- Fascinating collection of reminisces, observations and other ephemera written by and about Peter Laughner.
- Mainpal Inv.- Try to decode the Goodiepal's activities via this official website. Includes a visual discography (sorta) plus the usual media coverage and breaking news.
- Carmen Maki- Official site for this great blues singer. Mostly in Japanese.
- Mandog- Official site for Keiichi Miyashita's project, which combines his love for experimental krautrock electronics with his training in jazz guitar. The results are a wondrous, psychedelic style of improvisation that he calls "instant composing". See my special archives section to hear a live solo set from Mandog.
- Marble Sheep- Official site for this long-running psychedlic band, including a rather complete discography in Japanese (but with pictures aplenty).
- Mon'drien- Official site for this band which combines composed Reich/Glass-type minimalism with free psychedelic improvisation (although not always at the same time). Includes audio and video samples.
- Doji Morita[down]- Brand new official site for one of my favorite singers, whose wistful power is almost without peer (although Nick Drake may qualify as such). Features audio samples as well as a previously unseen promotional video.
- Nagisa Ni Te Fan Site- Unofficial site for this band, including a visual Org discography
- Hiroshi Nar- Official site of this artist who has been recording since the late 60's and seems to have once played with Les Rallizes Denudes. Nice underground vibe not unlike that of Jim Shepard and his associates. Features sound samples from his series of 3" CD-R releases. Now includes information on overseas ordering.
- Hermann Nitsch- Official website for this artist/composer. Dip your toes in his gesamtkunstwerk and see if they come out bloody. Includes a web shop where you can get the various souvenirs that turn the wheels of artistic production. In German.
- Nord[down]- Official site for this long-running psychedelic electronic improvisation duo. Heavily Japanese, with a navigable discography.
- Keizo Miyanishi Official site for this artist/musician who performs under the name Onna. Mostly in Japanese.
- Yasuhiro Otani- Official site for this laptop improviser/composer also includes information about his own Pale Blue imprint.
- Out To Lunch- Kohji Nishino's new project (ex- Ghost, Cosmic Invention and Overhang Party)
- Overhang Party- Nice flash site for one of the best drone psych bands around- includes video downloads.
- Panta- Official site for this cofounder of the infamous protest-rock band Zunou Keisatsu (aka Brain Police).
- Webadelica- Unofficial fan web-site for the Primal Scream. Highlights include a comprehensive discography and up-to-the-minute news & gossip.
- Radian- Official web-site for this Austrian trio. See my special archives section to hear a live solo set from Radian.
- Ride- Official web-site- check in for information about new releases, etc from this defunct quartet. Also links to their web shop, where you can sometimes order out-of-print items.
- Ticket to Ride- Unofficial but very comprehensive web-site. Everything a fan could want, plus an entire live concert available for downloading as 128k MP3s.
- Robert Rutman- Official site for this sound sculptor/performer.
- Musik Atlach- Official site for Sachiko, the violinist for Overhang Party. Some details about her other activities with Vava Kitora and Bajoeng Gede (with Rinji Fukuoka), as well as solo performances. Includes photos and some pretty great sound clips.
- Yoshiko Sai- New official site for this singer, whose cultish following includes Jojo Hiroshige (who unexpectedly recorded a CD with her last year and is seemingly the sponsor/author of this site).
- Masahiko Satoh- Official bilingual website, including a comprehensive discography for this legendary avant-jazz pianist.
- Marcus Schmickler- Biographical/discography page within the A-Musik site.
- V3 Web- A site dedicated to the late Jim Shepard. Includes writing, pictures and a discography.
- Akio Suzuki- Brand new official web site for this sound artist whose works explore his unique sense of quiet sonority. Still under construction. [English/Japanese]
- Ikuro Takahashi- Official site for this drummer & sound artist, who recently retired from the rock underground (past stints include High Rise, Kosoukuya, LSD March, Fushitsusha and Che-SHIZU) to focus on more abstract efforts. His current focus seems to be a collaboration with Yokohaman dancer Yoko Muronoi, entitled Anoyo no Dekigoto [English/Japanese]
- Kazuo "Flash" Takeda- Official site for this former guitarist for Blues Creation, now living in Los Angeles. Mostly in Japanese, but contains more information than his English language site.
- Always Nobukazu Takemura- Unofficial fan-site which is very well done. Includes up-to-date news, a nice pictoral discography, links to interviews and more. See my special archives section to hear a live solo set from Nobukazu Takemura.
- Kazuki Tomokawa- A terrific-looking site dedicated to this amazing folk singer. Mostly in Japanese, but includes nice pictures of his discography.
- Yoshisaburo (Sabu) Toyozumi- Official website of this pivotal free jazz drummer (and member of the AACM!).
- Trad Gras Och Stenar- Official website for this Swedish psych band which sounds not unlike a rope-a-dope psych version of the Velvet Underground.
- Toshiyuki Tsuchitori- Official (I think) site devoted to this amazing percussionist who was active in free improvisation in the mid-to-late 70s and continues to play. Mostly in Japanese but includes a nice pictoral discography.
- Uptight- Official site for this heavy psych trio.
- Hiroyuki Usui/L- Official site for this drummer/guitar/didgeridooist, who spent time in Munehiro Narita's noisy free-improv duo Kyoaku no Intentions and an early line-up of Marble Sheep before recording one of my all-time favorite albums under the name of L (which is slated to be reissued this year by VHF Records. I was afraid he had disappeared for good, but he apparently just sank below the radar. Catch up with his activities, including sound samples spanning his career (including his new project, Peace Frog and the Familiar Footprints).
- Maso Yamazaki (Masonna, Space Machine, Christine 23 Onna, etc) official page- info, discography, MP3s etc.
- YBO2, including some information about the SSE label. Mixed Japanese/English.
- Motoharu Yoshizawa- The late, great bassist.
- Yura Yura Teikoku- Official site for this band (aka Yura Yura Kingdom), who (perplexingly) transformed from dark underground psychedelia into exhilarating pop-psych superstars. Includes the usual live dates, news and (naturally) desktop wallpaper. All Japanese.
- A Bruit Secret / Turtles' Dream
- A-Musik
- Anomalous Records Sadly, their mail-order operations are defunct, but the label continues on with its impeccably curated documentation of the organic and experimental...
- Apestaartje
- Bloody Butterfly
- Blues Interactions/P-Vine- Official site for Blues Interaction and its subsidiary P-Vine (of equal reknown for their high-quality reissues of Japanese avant garde and rock records, as well as licensing some of the best contemporary electronic music from around the world).
- Alchemy Records- Jojo Hiroshige's famous noise label; pay special attention to the Inner Mind Music series (thus far featuring Tangerine Dream Syndicate, Yoshiko Sai, Aube and Space Machine). Mostly in Japanese.
- BPM/Toy's Factory- Japanese licensee of Mo' Wax and Ninja Tune, among others.
- Captain Trip- Originally founded by Ken Matsutani to document his band Marble Sheep, this label has evolved into a documenter of freak music whose sheer diversity (and prolificness) is only rivaled by Sympathy for the Record Industry. This site features a graphic on-line discography, from which you can apparently order directly from the label.
- DIW- The label arm of Disk Union, which specializes in improvised music from around the world. This link takes you straight into their English-language discography.
- Doppelganger Records- Home to the ex-Taj Mahal Traveller Seiji Nagai and other abstract electronics in a similar vein. Includes some TMT information as well.
- Drag City Records- Home to Ghost- includes catalog information/mailorder for the remaining Now Sound stock and the usual tour information, etc.
- Editions 75- The official website of Tom Johnson's publisher, with the requisite information about this composer/author. Most excitingly, you can download the entire manuscript to The Voice of New Music, a collection of his writings for The Village Voice in the seventies. Since it was written in short dispatches at the time, it retains an immediacy and fly-on-the-wall vibe which is pretty incredible to take in.
- Erstwhile Records- An extremely well-curated label dedicated to electro-acoustic improvisation. Their ever-expanding distributorship (catalog now on-line) includes a nice selection of titles from other labels (which include many that are basically undistributed in the US)
- Fringes Recordings- Italian label specializing in improvised music. Documents many Italian artists seldom heard elsewhere. Also check out the solo album from Yoshinori Yanagawa (of Dislocation fame).
- Good Lovin' Production- Official website for this label dedicated to to the guitarist Fujio Yamaguchi, who has been thrilling fans since his membership in the GS band the Dynamites, and through the seventies with Murahachibu.
- Gyuune Cassette- New official site for this label, which has released CDs by LSD March, Miminokoto, Mady Gula Blue Heaven and others. Peruse their detailed discography and place orders via e-mail (US orders seem to be welcome).
- Gyuune Cassette Fanpage- Unofficial site.
- Hibari Music- A new label run by Taku Unami, which documents yet another elusive corner of the improvised music scene in Japan (including himself, Tetuzi Akiyama and Taku Sugimoto, among many others).
- Jinya Disc- A label devoted to posthumous Takayanagi releases, many of which can be still ordered from this site. Includes an English-language discography and timeline for one of the greatest improvising guitarists that ever walked the earth. Check out the new Theme for Qaddafi.
- Intransitive Recordings- A label dedicated to quiet, electro-acoustic styled music of all sorts, including field recordings, compositions and improvisations. Also carries a decent selection of releases from like-minded labels.
- La Musica Records- Asahito Nanjo's infamous label- view a catalogue of his latest tape and CD-R releases.
- Last Visible Dog- CD-R label which features unjustly neglected experimental artists. Now featuring regular CDs!
- Pass Records- A label dedicated to reissuing some of the crucial artifacts of a certain slice of Japanese no-wave (a la Friction, Phew, etc).
- Pataphysique Label - Original recording home to the Overhang Party; has since developed a catalog of other essential drone/experimental releases. Other artists include Fumio Kosokai, Tori & Reiko Kudo and Tamio Shiraishi. In Japanese and English.
- Planktone Records- Official site for the home to Shuji Inaba, a rising star with roots in the avant-folk of Kan Mikami and Kazuki Tomokawa.
- PSF Records/Modern Music/G-Modern- Official Japanese site for the almighty label / store / magazine (respectively).
- PSF Records- English-language site for the almighty label, currently hosting mostly mailorder and new release information. Now based backed in Tokyo, but still the cheapest retail source available(shipping still included!).
- Purifiva- several CD/CD-Rs of bands in the orbit of Masami Kawaguchi (BroomDusters, Miminokoto, solo, etc). Mostly in Japanese.
- Reckankomplex - Home to the
Reckankreuzungsklankewerkzeuge label and related artists, including
Hrvatski/Keith Fullerton Whitman, Blitter, etc. Check out the recently opened shop and, of course, the cat of the month series.
- Show Boat Records- A reissue label which mostly focuses on mainstream 70s acts; recently, it inexplicably (and legitimately) reissued Takehisa Kosugi's Catch Wave and the first Taj Mahal Travellers album.
- There- Includes extensive info on label artists Chie Mukai, Masayoshi Urabe and Jutok Kaneko.
- Three Blind Mice- One of the first Japanese jazz labels; released the crucial Free Form Suite by Masayuki Takayanagi's New Directions Unit.
- Time-Lag Records- Purveyors of minimal drone-rock in attractive vinyl packages.
- Twisted Village- includes label information, as well as an on-line catalog from their retail store. Sadly, no cat of the month section (yet).
- Vinyl Soyuz- Official site of this label which seems to specialize in doing vinyl pressings of major label records that might conceivably appeal to DJs. Currently has some Boredoms-related acts (incl. Rebore and Rovo) as well as some Otomo-related material (Date Course Pentagon Royal Garden and his New Jazz Quintet).
- White Elephant Records- Home to the fantastic LSD March.
- 40 ROOMs- Official web site for this Alvin Lucier-related project, described as "a Macintosh CDROM which provides a multi-media documentation of Lucier's career, and the work which was produced in conjunction with a residency at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute." Site includes information on obtaining your free copy.
- Psychedelic Noise From Japan and New Zealand- Paul Collett's site serves as a warehouse for essential information about its two subjects, including some of his extremely lucid essays. Also the portal into the two mailing lists he maintains- Japanese Psych and an announcement list for Corpus Hermeticum.
- Daiyon Kobo- underground rock from 78-84- an arbitrary entry point into a La Musica-connected site. Follow the links around and marvel at the fliers and other ephemera of the Minor scene circa the late 70s/early 80s.
- Eclipse Records- Mail-order shop and label specializing in obscure psychedelia in the loosest (and best) sense of the word. Carries many obscure releases that larger stores may not pick up on.
- Forced Exposure- In case you have not yet realized that the searchability ease of the database renders it an invaluable information trove as well as a one-stop shop for interesting music of all genres...
- Improvised Company- website featuring several discographies (e.g. Peter Brotzmann and Sabu Toyozumi) as well as a shop for selected related items, including the Brotzmann discography book and miscellaneous Korean and Japanese Free Music CDs.
- Improvised Music From Japan- Amazing eponymous web resource (and now label and magazine publisher), unconstrained by genre and completely bilingual! See my special archives section to hear a live solo set from IMFJ mainstayrs Tetuzi Akiyama and Toshi Nakamura.
- Institute of Artifical Art Amsterdam- "an independent organisation consisting of machines, computers, algorithms and human persons, who work together toward the complete automatization of art production." Click on "The Machines" in the Dept of Music for an exhaustive catalogue of Remko Scha's activities.
- Yuji Itsumi Photo exhibit- featuring snapshots of improvisers from Haino to Brotzmann. [this seems to have moved]
- More Yuji Itsumi photos, including some album cover photographs. Also check out his newly published book featuring photos originally published in G-Modern (along with a CD featuring previously unreleased music from some of those same artists). Available through PSF and their distributors.
- Japanoise Site- A "Portal Site of World Famous Japanoise", maintained (I think) by Ito (of Nord "fame"). Includes a "Noisicians Profile," as well as a photo gallery, various reviews and a small (but nice-looking) record shop. All Japanese.
- The Last One- Unbelievably comprehensive fan page for both Les Rallizes Denudes and Friction.
- OngakuWeb- A site maintained by Mason Jones that will serve as a clearing house for information about Japanese underground music. Still in its putative stages, but currently hosts an interview with PSF/Modern Music/G Modern man Hideo Ikeezumi and a guide to record stores in Tokyo, both by Jimmy Dee.
- An essay from Yoshihide Otomo which describes his observations on Japanese Improvised Music in the 1970s
- "Pop Academy"- Great resource for Japanese pop bands and labels from 80's (indie and otherwise). Includes a discographical guide to the new/no wave scene centered around Tokyo Rockers. In Japanese with partial English translations.
- Radio Kinesonus- A monthly radio program focused on experimental music co-hosted by Hiroshi Hasegawa (Astro, Nord). Features live performances and interviews. Listen live or to archives in RealAudio and MP3.
- rand()%- An on-line generative electronic music radio station. All music is created in real-time by programs created by contributors.
- Tonic- Possibly the best booking of any club in New York City.
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last modified: April 3, 2004