Jutok Kaneko
Encyclopedia
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
group Kousokuya
Kousokuya
Kōsokuya is a Japanese dark psychedelic rock band. This rock outfit, founded by guitarist Jutok Kaneko in the late 1970s, has released only a handful of recordings internationally, and scant more in their local Tokyo underground scene...
(光束夜), who specialised in rock-based soundscapes characterised by the feeling of infinite space, desolate emotion and imminent chaos.
History
Kaneko was born in the city of Maebashi in Gunma prefecture in 1958. He started studying guitar around 1972, and in 1975 he formed a group called Kokugaiso (黒涯槍) with Masayuki Noguchi (野口雅之). The group specialized in multi-media performance, blending poetry with music, art and dance. After moving to Tokyo, Kaneko continued to work perform using the Kokugaiso name. Concurrently, he formed a rock group called KousokuyaKousokuya
Kōsokuya is a Japanese dark psychedelic rock band. This rock outfit, founded by guitarist Jutok Kaneko in the late 1970s, has released only a handful of recordings internationally, and scant more in their local Tokyo underground scene...
in 1978, with Mick (vocals), Hiroshi Yokoyama (synthesizer), and Toshiko Watanabe (drums). The group played their first gig at the Tokyo underground venue Minor in 1979, and became one of the central groups in the improv
Musical improvisation
Musical improvisation is the creative activity of immediate musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians...
-noise
Noise
In common use, the word noise means any unwanted sound. In both analog and digital electronics, noise is random unwanted perturbation to a wanted signal; it is called noise as a generalisation of the acoustic noise heard when listening to a weak radio transmission with significant electrical noise...
-rock scene associated with that venue, alongside musicians like Keiji Haino
Keiji Haino
Keiji Haino born May 3, 1952 in Chiba, Japan, and currently residing in Tokyo, is a Japanese musician whose work has included rock, free improvisation, noise, singer-songwriter, solo percussion, psychedelic, minimalism and drone styles...
and Tori Kudo
Tori Kudo
Tori Kudo is a Japanese musician, composer and potter, active since the late seventies, and best known for his strikingly naive work in the group Maher Shalal Hash Baz.-External links:* * *...
(of Maher Shalal Hash Baz
Maher Shalal Hash Baz
Maher Shalal Hash Baz is the artistic alter ego of Tori Kudo, a Japanese naivist composer and musician. The name is taken from Maher-shalal-hash-baz in the Book of Isaiah verses 8:1 and 8:3, and translates roughly as "Hurrying to the spoil, he has made haste to the plunder." Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz...
).
Kousokuya released their first, self-titled album in 1991. The group played their only overseas live date at the Le Weekend Festival in Stirling, Scotland in May 2005.
In addition to Kousokuya, in recent years Kaneko had also been involved in several collaborative ventures. Yume no Kage, a duo from 1983 with drummer Atsushi Ishiguro, was one of the earliest examples. In 1997 to 1998 he played in a trio known as Ikon no Kage with drummer Ikuro Takahashi
Ikuro Takahashi
Ikuro Takahashi is a Japanese drummer and percussionist. He has been a central member of many groups from the Tokyo psychedelic underground from the early eighties. Some of the groups he has played with include High Rise, Kousokuya, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Fushitsusha, Ché-SHIZU, Nagisa ni te, LSD...
and bassist Takuya Nishimura (from Che-SHIZU
Ché-SHIZU
Ché-SHIZU Ché-SHIZU Ché-SHIZU (シェシズ）is an underground Japanese improv/folk group consisting of Chie Mukai (向井千恵) and others. The group's sound is dominated by Mukai's vocals and er-hu playing. The group was formed in 1980, but is currently inactive...
). From the late 90s, Kaneko played in a number of duo units with musicians like Masayoshi Urabe
Masayoshi Urabe
is a Japanese musician, best known for his intensely physical style of free improvisation on the alto saxophone and his deployment of long, laden silences. He has sometimes been compared to the late Japanese free jazz altoist Kaoru Abe...
, Rinji Fukuoka, Takahisa Kikukawa, Fumio Kosakai (Incapacitants
Incapacitants
are a Japanese noise music group formed in 1981. It consists of Toshiji Mikawa and Fumio Kosakai, whose stated aim is to produce "pure" noise, uninfluenced by musical ideas or even human intention, using primarily feedback, vocals, and various electronics...
), Wataru Kawai, Koji Shimura, and dancers such as Abe "M" Aria. In August and September 2004 Kaneko toured the US with the group LSD March
LSD March
LSD March is a Japanese psychedelic rock group, based in the city of Himeji. It is led by singer and guitarist Shinsuke Michishita. The group is named after a track by krautrock group Guru Guru. Michishita has also played with Magura Mozart and Doodles....
, playing several dates in a duo with Koji Shimura.
Kaneko died on January 24, 2007. A memorial concert featuring many musicians from the Tokyo underground was held at Shinjuku Jam on April 30, 2007.
Discography
Solo & collaborative:Rotting Telepathies, w/Michio Kadotani (PSF, 1991)
Searchin' For My Layline LP, w/Rinji Fukuoka (Pataphysique, 1997)
V.A., Land of the Rising Noise vol.3 CD (Charnel Music, 1999)
The Planet I, w/ Chie Mukai
Chie Mukai
is a female Japanese composer and musician, best known for her underground improv-folk group Ché-SHIZU. She has been involved in improvised performance since 1975, when she participated in the East Bionic Symphonia group, a graduation project for students of Takehisa Kosugi at the Bigakko art...
, Christophe Charles
Christophe Charles
Christophe Philippe Charles is a Haitian poet. Born in Port-au-Prince, Charles received a philosophy degree from the University of Haiti. One of his best-known poems is Désastre .-References:...
, Ikuro Takahashi
Ikuro Takahashi
Ikuro Takahashi is a Japanese drummer and percussionist. He has been a central member of many groups from the Tokyo psychedelic underground from the early eighties. Some of the groups he has played with include High Rise, Kousokuya, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Fushitsusha, Ché-SHIZU, Nagisa ni te, LSD...
, Yoko Muronoi DVD (There)
Endless Ruins LP/CD (PSF, 2001)
Wedged Night, w/Takahisa Kikukawa LP (Siwa, 2004)
V.A., Million Tongues Festival CD (Bastet, 2004)
Live 05/28/04, w/Koji Shimura CDR (no label US tour cdr, 2004)
Live at Jerry Jeff CDR (There, 2006)
With Kousokuya:
V.A., Heaven Tapes cassette (Heaven, 1979)
Kousokuya LP (Ray Night Music, 1991; CD reissue, PSF, 2003)
V.A., Tokyo Flashback (PSF, 1991)
V.A., Tokyo Flashback 2 (PSF, 1992)
Ray Night 1991-1992 Live (Forced Exposure, 1995)
The Dark Spot, w/ Masayoshi Urabe (PSF, 1997)
Live Gyakuryu Kokuu (PSF, 2004)
First Live 1979 Kichijoji Minor (PSF, 2006)
Echoes from the Deep Underground (Archive, 2007)