Alongside Keiji Haino and Jutok Kaneko, Tori Kudo has been one of the signal thinkers to come out of the whole Japanese underground rock revolution. Across group projects like Guys N Dolls, Noise, Tokyo Suicide, Sweet Inspirations and Maher Shalal Has Baz, Kudo has convincingly osmosed the massive formal implications of Mayo Thompson's early experiments with time and technique, Syd Barrett's “cutting guitar style”, Velvets-styled adrenaline drones, post No Wave lung-skronk and a profoundly punk approach to musicianship that is so keyed to the specific arc of the individual players' abilities that it has been described as “idiot-avant”. Outside of Geographic's great career-spanning retrospective, evidence of the primitive beauty of the early Maher line-ups has been tough to locate, mainly down to the terminal unavailability of their classic first album, Maher Goes To Gothic Country. But Live 1984-85 tracks right back to the mother lode, bundling both their first and second live performances. The first set has a particular historical potency, drawn from a 1984 gig at the legendary Kid Ailack Hall that also saw the live debut of Nanjo Asahito's High Rise and Mick and Kaneko's Kousokuya. The line-up is pure big band, with Tori's guitar and vocals joined by Chie Mukai on kokyu and vocal, Kiwame Oizumi on piano and vocal, Tsukasa Takahashi on drums, Hiro Nakazaki on euphonium, Masashi Mitani on bass and Takuya Mishimura on guitar. Weirdly enough, Tori's guitar lines seem a little more exactingly plotted than his later error-inflected work but there's still tons of brut mystery in the beautifully lo-fi versions of signature tunes like “Unknown Happiness”. Second set comes from 1985 at Watts and features a clutch of now well-known Maher classics with a line-up further bolstered by Fushitsusha drummer Ikuro Takahashi and the late starcrossed saxophonist Masami Shinoda. The whole set comes packaged with textured paper, obi strip, a repro of the original Psychedelic Speed Freak flier and great liners from Tori, featuring some particularly interesting Haino trivia. Highest recommendation.
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PAST TIP OF THE TONGUES
