Les Rallizes Dénudés - Heavier than a death in the family

Les Rallizes Dénudés (or “Hadaka No Rallizes”, depending on his mood) is the name of the collective formed during the second half of the Sixties at the behest of Mizutani Takashi (1948), a controversial singer/guitarist steeped as much in noise/rock à-la Velvet Underground as in psychedelia with a freak-Californian pedigree. His studies in sociology and French literature at the prestigious Doshisha University in Kyoto ignited in him an unhealthy passion for the Old Continent and, in particular, for France: he was shaped by the essays of Jean-Paul Sartre, Antonin Artaud and Jacques Derrida, smoked only French imported cigarettes and led the life of a true bohemian existentialist. His group's roots lie in the city's politicized cultural substrate (Mizutani was a member of the Red Army, a sort of subversive organization aligned with the Japanese far left), of which it constitutes one of the most interesting artistic manifestations.

Mizutani Takashi's look (perpetually dressed in black, with dark glasses perched on his icy face, its severity softened by a raven-black fringe falling over his forehead) would influence Keiji Haino, another major icon of the Japanese underground, and his music would become a source of inspiration for Haino himself and his Fushitsusha (with whom he would adopt that same cryptic, desperate way of singing), as well as for High Rise, Acid Mothers Temple and countless other more or less well-known names.

The sound of Les Rallizes Dénudés, marked by dark guitar distortion propped up by hypnotic, recurring bass lines, is a murky take on the most claustrophobic and violent strain of garage rock. The drumming is heavy, portentous, seeming to toll the muffled peal of a funeral bell. Les Rallizes Dénudés are monstrous interpreters of a proposition that is terrifyingly dramatic and passionate.

Thanks to their ties with artists orbiting Gendai Genkijo, Les Rallizes Dénudés manage to perform live for the first time in August 1968. Their performance is a kind of primitive version of Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable, and the audience experiences it as a genuine sensory assault: instrumental distortion blasted at insane volumes, lysergic rear-projections and pyrotechnic light shows revolutionize the very concept of the live show, at least in a Japan that until then had been used to sedate, soothing performances — just enough to coax a timid audience into coming back for more.

In 1970, Mariyasu Wakabayashi (the band's bassist, who was also part of the Japanese Red Army) was implicated in the hijacking of an airliner bound for North Korea (the so-called "Yodo-go" incident). His immediate arrest seemed to spell the end of Les Rallizes Dénudés, and Mizutani Takashi, hunted by the secret services, was forced into hiding. He would spend months confined within the walls of a small Tokyo apartment, venturing out only to meet his most basic needs. It was a claustrophobic period that would weigh heavily on Mizutani's mental state and sensibility, intensifying that unmatched layer of paranoia that has always set his music apart.

The eccentric singer/guitarist would soon reform his creature, and together they took part — sometimes even clandestinely — in a series of concerts and full-blown collective happenings that would come to define the winds of revolt sweeping Japan in the early Seventies. One of these was Oz Days Live, a sort of celebratory farewell dedicated to the eponymous Tokyo venue, which was about to shut its doors at the time, meant to seal onto vinyl the performances of our heroes alongside other cult acts (always from the underground scene) such as Taj Mahal Travellers.

Les Rallizes Dénudés's live shows come across as incendiary and overwhelming, and although the variety of their repertoire is decidedly limited (the songs are always the same, reinterpreted in a million different ways), taken together they represent an unmatched musical peak in terms of emotional and physical charge — a precious legacy from a career spanning almost thirty years.

They reportedly played live for the last time in 1996, but as early as the following year Mizutani would accompany free-jazz saxophonist Arthur Doyle on his Japanese tour. As Cope notes in his "Japrocksampler", it's curious to observe how this band never managed to win over a female audience...

The band's discography is one of rock's great mysteries: Les Rallizes Dénudés recorded very little material in the studio, and almost everything that can be found (with extreme difficulty: their records were always pressed in frighteningly small runs) comes from live performances, and the quality isn't always the best. It seems, however, that decades of obscurity have reawakened the insatiable interest of the band's admirers, and in recent years a handful of minor (and not even particularly official) labels have set about unearthing the treasures forged by Mizutani Takashi, Nakamura Takeshi, Wakabayashi Mariyasu, Kato Takashi, Tada Takashi, Makino Tadanaka, Nagata Mikio, Shada Shunishiro, Mimaki Tashirou, Narazaki Hiroshi, Takada Kiyahira, Noma Yukimichi, Yamaguchi Fujia, Takahashi Youkai, Ishii Katuhika, Kubota Makota, Oiwa Osamu, Fujii Akira, Takahashi Shime, Miura Maki and Kido Kouji (we can vouch for the completeness of this list).

Among the many labels, Over Level, Ignuitas and Univive (the latter apparently founded solely to release Les Rallizes Dénudés's work; sadly its pressings rarely exceed three hundred copies and sell for the price of diamonds) hold a prominent place in the band's historiography, both for the average quality of the material on offer and for the packaging (always minimal, spartan, yet terribly alluring).

Below are some of the most representative titles (in alphabetical order — it would be pointless to attempt a chronological list, since the release dates given by the labels are unreliable, and it's impossible to detect any particular stylistic shifts in the band's career by following the chronological sequence of its "releases").

Blind Baby Has Its Mother's Eyes (Japanese Rock, 2003) is a bootleg that captures the band on a Japanese tour during the early Seventies. The tracks unfold through dark layers of noise and heavy distortion, unfortunately undermined by abysmal recording quality. "The Last One" is a piece traditionally placed at the close of their concerts: here it gets one of its finest performances ever.

Double Heads Legendary Live: Yaneura Shibuya, Tokyo 1980-1981 (6xCD Univive, 2007) is a genuine gem of inexhaustible value, bordering on masterpiece territory: it consists of six CDs (four titled "Double Heads", two "Black Rainbow") that faithfully document the expressive power the band managed to unleash live between 1980 and 1981. Some have compared the impact this run of concerts had on audiences to that exerted by Bob Dylan on the Manchester audience in 1966. The reasons behind such a comparison aren't entirely clear, but we can guarantee that "Double Heads" is a genuine marvel, as well as essential listening for understanding the band.

End Of Heavy Groove (2xCD Univive, 2006) is a double live album documenting Mizutani and his acolytes' performances on a 1976 tour. Reverb and dilation are pushed here to the point of paroxysm, faithfully outlining the band's psychedelic-noise profile. Here too, the recording lives up to Univive's quality standard.

Heavier Than A Death In The Family (Live '73-'77) (Ain't Group Sounds, 2002) is another bootleg, this time focused on the band's exploits between '73 and '77. The recording quality is dreadful, but it would still be worth tracking down for the title alone: a slice of bad taste that not even Monty Python could match. Maybe.

Le 12 Mars 1977 A' Tachikawa (2xCD Over Level, 2003) is the unofficial reissue (released under an alternate title) of "Live '77", which many consider the band's masterpiece (not this writer). The recording quality is barely decent, but the material on offer is certainly remarkable by the standards Mizutani has accustomed us to. In our view, though, nothing here seems to outshine the band's other releases.

Live 1972 (Over Level, 2007): the title speaks for itself; sadly the recording quality falls well short of what the lucky attendees got to hear on those nights, and it actually dampens the desire to listen. Since this run of concerts offers nothing new in terms of the band's interpretive or instrumental approach, we'd strongly advise anyone interested to look elsewhere.

Mars Studio 1980 (4xCD Univive, 2006) is the first release on the praiseworthy Univive, a mysterious (Japanese?) label about which nothing at all is known. Every attempt to dig up even the most meager scrap of information online proves futile; what's more, its releases are stingy with details – when they're not completely devoid of them. Only Mars Studio 1980 contains a photographic booklet of the band, and Naked Diza Star comes with a sort of label catalogue that is anything but exhaustive. As for the box set in question, despite a few interruptions that prevent a full listen of some tracks on the first disc, and the usual, inevitable background hiss, we're faced with something never heard before: Les Rallizes Dénudés grappling with a recording studio. Forget the usual heavy guitar clatter and hammering rhythm section: here the garage sound is sublimated into intimate melodrama, and the result is something close to perfection – assuming that word is even appropriate for describing the music of a band that is anything but perfect.

As we carry on listening, however, we have to wipe the slate clean of everything just said: "Guitar Jam", the track that opens the third disc, gives the listener a chance to experience the most epic guitar blowout in history, with over twenty-four minutes of riffs so crushingly heavy they'd knock the skull clean off even Cerberus's torso. "Disturbed" guitars (this time for real...), amplifiers on the verge of blackout, valves gone haywire, harmonica blown to the point of exhaustion, drums fit to trigger a heart attack: "Guitar Jam" explodes with savage force into a riot of noise and violence. Two tracks follow (the titles are incomprehensible) that recall Pil's "Poptones" and the post-Cale Velvet Underground of "Ocean": there's no point trying to describe the sheer bliss awaiting the listener in this godsend...

The box set is made up of three CDs recorded in the studio in 1980, as the title suggests, plus a fourth disc titled "Double Heads September" that pairs with the box mentioned above, foreshadowing its wonders.

Mars Studio 1980 is a (master)work marked by dramatic tones that border on the unbearable.

Naked Diza Star (3xCD Univive, 2006) is an excellently assembled collection, far more varied than any other in circulation; alongside the usual infernal forays à la "Sister Ray", it also features some near-acoustic tracks and others built around abstruse melodic constructions. An excellent primer for newcomers to the band, who can thus get a sense of its various incarnations (the period covered by the compilation should fall somewhere between '72 and '77 – though here too, nothing is certain...).

One More Night Tripper (4xCD-R Univive, 2006) is another bootleg made up of four discs which, despite the tireless, ever-present background hiss, present the band's sound in a version that's almost decent (hallelujah!). This box set stands out from the other Univive releases because it captures Les Rallizes Dénudés in a notably more experimental phase than usual; it would seem the band added new, indecipherable instruments (or rather, "sound generators") to the standard gear they'd been using since the late Sixties. All of this helps highlight the band's psychedelic side, not to mention the fact that the tracks on offer are objectively among the best ever conceived and performed by the esteemed firm of Mizutani & Co.

It's hard to tell whether the opening track of the third compact disc is marred by interference or whether that interference is actually intentional: which says a lot about the band's appeal... "One More Night Tripper" is the result of a skillful cut-and-paste job that the folks (or chimeras?) at Univive performed on tapes of the band's live performances from the early Eighties (previously collected by someone into two incredibly chaotic – and filthy – box sets of ten CDs each, normally available on eBay for several hundred euros. For further details, see the discography alongside).

Oz Days Live (2xCD Not On Label, 1973/reissued 2007) is, as already mentioned, the document of a series of commemorative concerts held in '73 to mark the closing of Tokyo's famous "Oz" club.

The first disc features performances by Miyako Ochi, Acid Seven and Minami Masato: nothing sensational, unless one counts as such the hopelessly dated – often "nippon-ized" – covers of 1950s American rhythm'n'blues classics ("Twist And Shout" über alles!).

The second disc, however, is where things get interesting: the first track, running 22'35", is by Taj Mahal Travelers and is pure trance. The recording (especially on the recent CD reissue) is clean, and not a single decibel of the band's creative drive is lost. Then come our heroes with four untitled tracks of medium length (except the first, just a minute and a half), in which the usual distortions we've come to expect are toned down, if not dropped altogether, in favor of clear, almost acoustic performances. Certainly an interesting and anomalous episode in Mizutani's career.

Wild Trips (5xCD Univive, 2006), with its five discs, must be considered an absolute must for every fan of the band. The tour in question dates back to 1976, and the material contained in this sort of Holy Grail of experimental music is simply shocking. A tremendous legacy that bears witness to Mizutani Takashi's creativity. The tracks that follow one after another seem to always be the same old ones, and at times the same title is performed more than once (albeit twisted and rendered unrecognizable). And yet you won't regret the time spent listening to a work like this.

Yodo-Go-A-Go-Go (Flightless Bird Needs Water Wings) (10th Avenue Freeze Out, 2006) is an excellent collection of studio and live material, offering an all-in-all complete picture of the band's seemingly limited expressive range (here credited as "Hadaka No Rallizes").

In truth, the facets of their sound are endless, and this record could be listened to hundreds of times without exhausting an ounce of its appeal.

A few useful tips: some of the band's bootlegs (like those on Univive) can be purchased from Fusetron Sound and P.S.F. Records.

There are no official Les Rallizes Dénudés web pages, only a few amateur sites such as YK Rim or even the Myspace page of one of their fans. Some of the band's work can be downloaded for free from this blog.

Julian Cope talks about Les Rallizes Dénudés on his official website “Head Heritage“, from which you can also download some videos, and he devotes an entire chapter to them in his new book titled “Japrocksampler”.

On the website “Noise” you can read an interesting biography of the band, which also touches on a sort of official discography; on “Five Space“, on the other hand, you can read a heartfelt hagiography, complete with parallels drawn to other bands.

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