Ever used the banal claim “stellar line up”? We did. Ever dropped the boring line “the total exceeds the sum of the parts”? We did. Ever had the childish dream to gather a band, like a football trainer would do with a team? We did. So, we apologize in advance, saying that the subject matter of this review is the amazing outcome of a stellar line-up, the one that every listener would’ve gathered on a daydream, where the whole performance goes far beyond the sum of the skills and the contribution of every single member. The location is the the legendary SuperDeluxe in Tokyo, aptly self-described as “a place to be inspired and a place to inspire others”; the date is the 20th of may 2017; the radioactive black vinyl jewel we’re dealing with is Live at SuperDeluxe Volume 1 edited by Trost Records and, hey, look what a hell of a team is placed on the field. Akira Sakata, saxophone, clarinet and voice. Could someone dare to add something about this guy on a blog like this? Certainly not us. Allow us just to say that we always seen this guy as the quintessential Japanese artist, like Ozu as movie director, Mishima as writer, Merzbow, Boris, Ruins or Guitar Wolf as musician, just to name a few: sheer genius, total craziness, untamed attitude of burning down the bridges not after crossing them but WHILE crossing them. A vital and hyper necessary presence in this rotten world, period. Chris Corsano, drums. Collaborator of the likes of Evan Parker, Bill Orcutt, Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Bjork, Nate Wooley, Sylvie Courvoisier, Paul Flaherty and many more, his thunder rumbling elvinjonesque powerhouse, enriched with a beautiful multi-coloured palette perfectly fits in the mix. Jim O’Rourke, guitars. No way to miss to invite at this mad sonic party the most Japanese of the western musicians. After teaming up with a roster of artists such as Herzog, Wilco, Faust, Mayo Thompson, Merzbow, Fahey, Sonic Youth, Ishibashi, our beloved American is pushing away once more the borders of his infinite curiosity and musical research. Mette Rasmussen, saxophone. If it’s silly to file music under genre, race, religion etc, it is undeniable that Women Rule again and again (and we are happy of it): as soon as Zoh Amba’s records were finishing to be on heavy rotation on our turntable, this year we have Mette’s full blasting prime time, too easy to predict Okse as one of 2024 aces, without forgetting she lent in the recent past her reeds to Chris Corsano, Mats Gustafsson, Ken Vandermark, Barry Guy, Ikue Mori, Kent Kessler, Steve Noble, Gard Nilssen, Nate Wooley. The music. The two sides of the record are setting the pace in a pretty different way: the first sees the squad engaged in devastating, sheer fury, super hardcore free impro, pedal to metal, no prisoners, definitely our cup of tea. The second side offers a time to “breathe” through the intricate guitar noises, O’Rouke’s trademark, then Corsano is delivering his drumming in a total “rumble in the jungle” mood, just before Sakata starts with his sinister, guttural voices, no matter if it’s the groceries list, it’s always icing of the cake to our palate. Pretty predictable, the final storm is taking shape and in fact, after some moments with Akira on clarinet, the closing is a grade 5 hurricane, calling the end of a true astonishing performance that, quoting Trost’s notes, is “bridging generations, continents and individual aesthetics”. We would have not been able to say it better and, for what is worth, this will certainly be one of our personal best of the year.
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