THE GEROGERIGEGEGE

Started by FreakAnimalFinland, April 01, 2012, 09:27:49 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Marko-V

Just had the first listen of the new Gero album. It is certainly true that you never know what to expect from Juntaro & co. but still this surprised me somehow because of being such an 'easy' record. Lots of silence and quiet ambience. I understand completely if some die-hard geronoise fan feels disappointed with this album ("not enough noise, not enough 1-2-3-4-noisecore, not enough masturbatory panting") but I find it quite charming in a way. Tracks 3 & 4 are so quiet, you feel like turning volume up but at the same time keeping first-time listener on his toes just waiting for that full blast noise attack to come out of nowhere without a warning. Well, at a second listen you know better.

I was lucky enough to get the extra "1985 Unreleased Recording" -tape as a pre-order bonus gift. 'Recorded and performed by Juntaro Yamanouchi in Showa 60 (1985)', says the insert. 8½ minutes of full-blast seriously fucked-up low fidelity noise. Funny thing, B-side is A-side reversed. At first I thought there's something wrong with the tape or my deck because there's so many audio drop-outs, but it seems that they have been on the original material because the drop-outs are on the b-side at same places.

Cementimental

Received my copy and bonus tape today, so happy :) if slightly disappointed that it wasn't trollishly removed from noise scene expectations, I was half expecting a trap remix album or something

Duncan

#107
Well, I finally got time to check out Moenai Hai.  I was quite pleased to be able to get a sense of it before listening from some of the comments here and many ring true.

It begins with a track that sees wee Junty flexing his electro acoustic muscles for about 1 second as recording of a kid laughing is cut out into a bit of reverb before kicking into the bulk of the piece.  Here, wee Junty insists in the inlay this is is NOT a field recording but it absolutely fucking is.  Or is at least heavily built around one.  It sounds like (hopefully) him on a train causing trouble and it is great.  Probably the most interesting piece to listen to on the record.  Then it kicks horribly into that shoegaze style jam which most of us may have heard on youtube.  Yep, it's a shock in terms of the sudden volume and the style but after a little while it feels absolutely like a Gero tuneful guitar jam a la some of the later Vis A Vis discs with that lad on guitar who has the youtube channel of all his clothes.  Things get very close to sublime when somebody starts to do a bit of noisy soloing.  Perfect noise guitar/slightly tonal wailing and at this point any doubt that Gero might not have delivered with this record is erased.  It sounds like total shit and goes on for far too long which further cements this point and then we get a quiet number which, despite sounding a bit too modern dark ambient ends up nodding quite heavily (in my mind) to the None Friendly approach of ultra repetitive swells and textures which also go on for way too long.  It's very nice to listen to.  These are all tracks sound new and...up to date(?) while still holding enough technical or aesthetic similarities to older works to make sense as Gero songs.

But this is Gerogerigegege, and given that this album is the first to be issued after the mythology and legend of the band had truly set in (older listeners will have to confirm or refute this - I got into them just a bit too late to have known what it was like to deal with them as new releases came out) it forces you to ask some of the tougher questions:

what did I expect from this? Nothing. 
why am I slightly sad not to have heard anyone masturbating or shouting 1234? because I am only human
why do I even listen to this in the first place? I hope never to find out
would I care about this if I listened without knowing it to be them? probably not
Is Gero a band which is really relevant today? Thankfully it seems so.

whatever the answers, this album stands up proudly because it has been put together in exactly the same way as the rest of their work: collaged chunks of sound baring no relation to one another besides whatever personal importance or sense of reason the creator has for throwing them together.  Always a 50/50 chance of it being damn near unlistenable and half the time the more sonically interesting records are still full of dodgy shit, but still you need and want to experience it all, to the point where the audio content is almost unimportant.  

Because of this, it is tempting to rewrite the art of Gerogerigegege as having been a carefully arranged attack of totally unpredictable releases aimed at leaving the listener scratching their head but this is the kind of genius which, like all the best art and music really, is only achieved through the singular creativity of someone who just does whatever the fuck they want and probably never thinks much about how it all fits together.  Sure, on an aesthetic level you can be a bit disappointed in the quality or selection or type of pieces wee Junty has put on this disc, but was this ever a band that delivered what you wanted?  How often do you reach for 'Saturday Night Big Cock Salaryman' over something like 'Yellow Trash Bazooka' or 'Nothing To Hear, Nothing To...' when you're after a satisfying listening experience? Similarly, how often do you go for a 3,0000 track noisecore 7" when you for some reason feel like listening to the Japanese national anthem or somebody taking a shit?  

The true beauty of this stuff will always lie within the wholeness of its body of work and the way it constantly evades full understanding, categorisation or easily repeatable, contained experiences.  Moenai-Hai is an album which slots perfectly into this body of work for all those reasons.  Wee Junty has managed to make something that, rather than being stifled by all those years away, has managed to somehow work them in.  

I also listened to the tape that came with it and it's as fine a piece of mucky, pervy noise as Gero have ever put out.  Really, really short and I think they probably could have done better than to have just reversed the track on side B but whatever.  I only hope that this hints at some sort of posh cd issue of similar unreleased works.

In short, I loved both of these and don't want to listen to either again for a long time.


Cementimental

QuoteIn short, I loved both of these and don't want to listen to either again for a long time.

:D

+ excellent review

sterilization

Anyone know anything about the disk union exclusive bonus cd-r called "voracious" that came with the new album?

Zeno Marx

Quote from: SILVUM on May 06, 2016, 01:33:54 AM
Also, never seen anyone suggest this, but isn't "Sexual Behavior In The Human Male" a joking S.B.O.T.H.I. (Swimming Behavior Of The Human Infant) reference.
Good call.  I never thought of that, and it seems better than probable.
"the overindulgent machines were their children"
I only buy vinyl, d00ds.

radokaz

Quote from: sterilization on May 10, 2016, 06:36:52 PM
Anyone know anything about the disk union exclusive bonus cd-r called "voracious" that came with the new album?

only Disk Union distribute this bonus CDr and it includes only that 1song from the s/t tape.



a_2_g_2

So I assume that guy selling the bootleg Piano River tapes was a scammer? That guy wanted me to send him $31usd to his address.

FreakAnimalFinland

I consider myself rather huge Gero fan. I'm not totally obsessive over it. I have almost everything, but at this point, not anymore obsessed to spend XXXX usd to get debut LP or Showa, what I have as CDR copies anyways. Also something has changed in atmosphere, that I don't either feel so obsessed to "collect" to-be-rarities put out just for sake of it. However, while something such as announced TNB/Gerogerigege limited split vinyl seems dubious, I must say I had to get the CD+tape of Gerogerigegege, hehe...

CD is decent. It's very hard to value Gero works simply on their musical merits. As well as it would be useless to do so. If I heard that seemingly good two-tone distorted shoegaze tracks elsewhere, I would most likely conclude that I have heard sooooooooooooo much of distorted atmospheric shoegaze in various context. Be it "post-doom", "post-black metal", raw "black metal", whatever... Different graphics and this could be sold as next Swedish "black metal masterpiece" since Hypotermia... hah... But add totally unexpected nature, combination with minimalist ambient tracks, unexpected graphics and it's goes well to roller-coaster known as Gerogerigegege discography.
E-mail: fanimal +a+ cfprod,com
MAGAZINE: http://www.special-interests.net
LABEL / DISTRIBUTION: FREAK ANIMAL http://www.nhfastore.net

sterilization

Quote from: a_2_g_2 on May 11, 2016, 06:15:26 PM
So I assume that guy selling the bootleg Piano River tapes was a scammer? That guy wanted me to send him $31usd to his address.


Even though I REALLY wanted to buy those two from him, I had a bad feeling after he took FOREVER to reply to my inquiries and when he finally did, he ignored all of my questions and instead tried to press me to hurry up and send him way too much money for some bootlegs.

Shame if he actually did rip some people off..... He claimed that he was co-releasing the upcoming Gerogerigegege/TNB lp. 

ddmurph

#115
Quote from: sterilization on May 12, 2016, 01:42:44 PM
Shame if he actually did rip some people off..... He claimed that he was co-releasing the upcoming Gerogerigegege/TNB lp.  

i ordered them. i thought the posting style seemed familiar but only copped why after sending the payment. i don't really want to say who i think is behind them (strong clue in the upcoming lp claim though) but if my suspicions are correct, i've no doubt i'll receive the tapes eventually, although probably not for another two years! anyway, latest update i got was that there's a delay with the gero-p tape but things are expected to be back on track soon (i'll take the "soon" with a heap of salt though).

nothing really to add to the moenai hai comments here. i suppose i was surprised by how solid a release it is. under normal circmstances, i'd probably be a little ambivalent towards the bm/shoegaze track and run a mile from the dark ambient-ish one but they seem to somehow work here. it did prompt me to question whether they were getting a free pass for obvious reasons but i don't think so, they do seem to work for me on their own merits (or maybe i'm just fooling myself by thinking i could be in any way objective about this). no such questions regarding the rest of the album though, totally sublime.


Quote from: SILVUM on May 06, 2016, 01:33:54 AM
Also, never seen anyone suggest this, but isn't "Sexual Behavior In The Human Male" a joking S.B.O.T.H.I. (Swimming Behavior Of The Human Infant) reference.

ha, i can't believe i never copped that!


p.s. tenuously related: black (english m.o.r. singer who "inspired" artwork series of sexual behavior in the human male, senzuri power up, etc) died in a car crash in my home city just after last xmas. it was so weird to hear wonderful life all over local radio for about a week after and be instantly reminded of juntaro and the absurdity of the artwork connection.

Marko-V

Quote from: ddmurph on May 16, 2016, 05:25:25 AM
Quote from: sterilization on May 12, 2016, 01:42:44 PM
Shame if he actually did rip some people off..... He claimed that he was co-releasing the upcoming Gerogerigegege/TNB lp.  

i ordered them. i thought the posting style seemed familiar but only copped why after sending the payment. i don't really want to say who i think is behind them (strong clue in the upcoming lp claim though) but if my suspicions are correct, i've no doubt i'll receive the tapes eventually, although probably not for another two years! anyway, latest update i got was that there's a delay with the gero-p tape but things are expected to be back on track soon (i'll take the "soon" with a heap of salt though).

Quote from: SILVUM on May 06, 2016, 01:33:54 AM
Also, never seen anyone suggest this, but isn't "Sexual Behavior In The Human Male" a joking S.B.O.T.H.I. (Swimming Behavior Of The Human Infant) reference.


I ordered the tapes too. Last message from him was that issues should be solved by now and the tapes should be ready for shipping this/next week. Let's see.

"Swimming behavior" and "Sexual behavior" are both actual studies (latter being a part of famous Kinsey report) so I tend to believe the names originate from there or at least Juntaro noticed the similarity of the names, title really fits Gero even without the S.B.O.T.H.I. connection.

CMSFoundation

Quote from: Marko-V on May 16, 2016, 10:44:45 AM
Quote from: ddmurph on May 16, 2016, 05:25:25 AM
Quote from: sterilization on May 12, 2016, 01:42:44 PM
Shame if he actually did rip some people off..... He claimed that he was co-releasing the upcoming Gerogerigegege/TNB lp.  

i ordered them. i thought the posting style seemed familiar but only copped why after sending the payment. i don't really want to say who i think is behind them (strong clue in the upcoming lp claim though) but if my suspicions are correct, i've no doubt i'll receive the tapes eventually, although probably not for another two years! anyway, latest update i got was that there's a delay with the gero-p tape but things are expected to be back on track soon (i'll take the "soon" with a heap of salt though).

Quote from: SILVUM on May 06, 2016, 01:33:54 AM
Also, never seen anyone suggest this, but isn't "Sexual Behavior In The Human Male" a joking S.B.O.T.H.I. (Swimming Behavior Of The Human Infant) reference.


I ordered the tapes too. Last message from him was that issues should be solved by now and the tapes should be ready for shipping this/next week. Let's see.

"Swimming behavior" and "Sexual behavior" are both actual studies (latter being a part of famous Kinsey report) so I tend to believe the names originate from there or at least Juntaro noticed the similarity of the names, title really fits Gero even without the S.B.O.T.H.I. connection.

Further connected by the fact that Juntaro released a S.B.O.T.H.I. LP on his Vis a Vis label. Clearly a fan!

https://www.discogs.com/SBOTHI-Can-The-Sound-Change-The-Change-Can-Sound/release/705513

Marko-V

And now these two appeared:
https://www.discogs.com/The-Gerogerigegege-Senzuri-Fist-Fuck-Volume-1/release/8606293
https://www.discogs.com/The-Gerogerigegege-Senzuri-Fist-Fuck-Volume-2/release/8606322

Them being lathe cuts I seriously doubt I will pay 22 euros a piece for these. Why not release them both together as a real vinyl on one 12-inch?

cutter

My first experience was with "live greatest hits" from 1991 for me that drum machine and Gero were really interesting but in the other hand hilarious, but from the all of those i absolutely adore "all you need is audio shock (side A)" for me just briliant