You Do The Math 10.28.2006: Exploring Early Japanese Math Rock
Posted by Matt Clifford on 10.28.2006
Giving a mention to some unsung Japanese innovators. Interested? Step into my office...
Background
Math rock is a fairly new genre of music and really only came about around the late 80's and early 90's. It can be characterized by irregular time signatures, complex song structures and angular dissonant riffs. The word ‘math' derived from critics and listeners, who found the odd time signatures and rhythmic complexity almost ‘mathematical' and christened the style math rock. A lot of bands branded with the label have been quoted saying they hate the name.
Various math bands have cited artists such as Pink Floyd, Genesis and Frank Zappa as influences and while these artists' songs are similar in structure to many math records, they tend to get called ‘progressive' or ‘prog rock.'
The biggest math scenes in America were located in San Diego, Pittsburgh and Chicago (although bands appeared from a wide range of other places.) Some of the earliest big hitters included San Diego's Drive Like Jehu (1990), Louisville's Slint (1991) and Pittsburgh's Don Caballero (1991).
Chicago based producer Steve Albini was an important figure on the math rock scene whose own band Shellac was also a key band of the underground at the time. Albini would not only help define the sound of the underground for the next two decades, but also its discourse. With outspoken intelligence and a unique and original recording style, many math bands from around the country enlisted him to produce their records.
There was also a small underground math scene located in Japan; several of the Japanese bands developed a close relationship with Chicago's Skin Graft Records label leading to a cross fertilization of sounds from the Japanese and US undergrounds.
The Bands
Zeni Geva
The bands name is a mix of Japanese and German with ‘Zeni' being an old Japanese term for "Money" and Geva being German for "Violence." Founded in Tokyo in 1987 by charismatic front man and guitarist K.K Null (also founder of Nux Organisation label in Japan) and accompanied by Ikuo Taketani they released the "How to Kill" LP in the same year. Combining growling vocals, power chords and brutal lyrics, the music itself could easily be pigeonholed as death metal, however the rhythmically complex song structures makes the label ‘math rock' more suitable.
After a few local tours and various line-up changes, their first US tour was in 1991 with support from The Melvins, Pain Teens and Neurosis. Zeni Geva had managed to develop a dedicated fan base in the States in a relatively short time. One of their fans was Steve Albini, who would go on to produce 5 Zeni Geva albums and now highlights them as one of his favorite bands.
Recommended Listening
Freedom Bondage LP
Desire For Agony LP
Total Castration LP
Ruins
Formed in 1985, Ruins was the brainchild of drummer Tatsuya Yoshida. There have been various different bass players in the band but Tatsuya has always stuck with the sole combination of drum and bass. The bass in Ruins performs double duty, covering every end of the sonic spectrum, melody, bottom, white noise and athletics.
Ruins combine hardcore punk and prog rock with complex free improv. The band states France's Magma as their biggest early influence along with Genesis and Gentle Giant. Their album 1986-1992 was a collection of old recordings and went on to become an underground favorite in both Japan and the US.
Recommended Listening
1986-1992 Compilation
Tzomborgha LP
(Both bands are still making records and touring)
Yona-Kit
Yona-Kit was a Japanese-US collaboration that released one self-titled album in 1994. The music was brutal and complex and was seen as a big influence on Chicago and US math rock in the periods after its release. The band was made up of KK Null (also of Zeni Geva) on guitar and vocals, Jim O'Rourke guitar, Darin Gray bass guitar, and Thymme Jones drums. The album was produced by Steve Albini and released on Skin Graft Records.
Recommended Listening
Yon-Kit LP
Skin Graft Records
Skin Graft records is an independent art punk, no wave and noise punk label based in Chicago. They started as a comic-punk fanzine in 1986 and they released their first record at the end of 1991. The label has released music from bands such as Melt Banana, Zeni Geva and Ruins and has been involved with many early math and art rock bands.
Skin Graft's Best Of Japan Collection:
Zeni Geva
Autofuck / When I Was On Horseback 7"
Nai-Ha ( plus Superunit ) LP (produced by Steve Albini)
I have recently seen one mainstream music magazine (lets just call it Crock Sound) mention math rock, math metal, mathcore or whatever you want to call it, and the only band that they ‘covered' was Botch. I know for a fact they aren't the first magazine to cover the band in recent times since the genre has become more popular.
I am a big Botch fan, and agree with the opinion of them being a big influence on tech and math metal (Dillinger Escape Plan, Converge to name two) but a lot of math bands were around before them and I'm in no doubt that they were influenced directly or indirectly by the bands I have covered in my article.
Zeni Geva and Ruins were true innovators, formed years before even the earliest US math groups became active in the genre, they ruled the Japanese underground and spawned hundreds of bands in both Japan and the States. I believe them to be a significant and unsung influence on a lot of early US math rock.
Now, I know there's not much content here and that is really for three reasons:
Number 1, I didn't want to attempt to write a long drawn out history on math rock which would end up being pointless, boring and 50,000 words.
Number 2, Its tough as hell trying to find early information on these bands.
Number 3, I wrote it in the hope that fans of math rock and math metal will look into them or at least check out their early music as it is very important.
