Les Rallizes Dénudés - '77 Live (1991)

Les Rallizes Dénudés
'77 Live (1991)

Before there was Boris or Keiji Haino, there was Les Rallizes Dénudés. While that alone might be enough to pique some peoples' interest in this band, they also have an interesting backstory.

According to Wikipedia (so take this with a grain of salt), the original bassist of the band, Moriaki Wakabayashi, was a member of the Japanese Red Army: a far-left terrorist group responsible for, among other things, the 1970 hijacking of Japan Airlines Flight 351 (also known as the Yodogo Hijacking). The nine hijackers, including Wakabayashi, forced the plane to fly to Seoul, South Korea, where the 122 passengers were released unharmed. They then they flew to North Korea, where the flight crew was released, also unharmed, and the hijackers were offered asylum by the government.

The hijackers had apparently taken over the plane armed with katanas and a bomb. Had they waited seven years, they probably could've pulled off the same feat simply by blasting the piercing, eardrum destroying guitar feedback of '77 Live. Above all else, I'd like to mention that this is one of those convenient cases where the album title tells you the most pertinent information about the music, which saves me the trouble of having to do so and exacerbates laziness thusly. Had they named it '77 Live Loud Japanese Psychedelic Noise Unfriendly To Ears But Still Number One!, then this review would've been over a long time ago.

As far as the music goes, I'm certain that there aren't many albums both as pleasant and unpleasant to listen to as this one. These six, aimless yet engrossing jam sessions, spread out over two disks, is pretty much can't miss for fans of noisy, experimental psych rock. But while the music pulls you in, the noise, reaching shrieking high frequencies at times, may push you away. Unless tinnitus sounds appealing to you, this is not what I would call a headphone album. The brothers Takashi (Takashi Nakamura and Takashi Mizutani, who probably aren't actually brothers but are still not above me giving them cutesy nicknames) provide a guitar attack so fierce and drenched in in high-pitched feedback that I'm not sure if this album would be medically recommended to listen to all in one sitting.

I know I can't manage it (I can only handle one disk at a time), but those that can are in for an intense, overwhelming, and otherworldly listening experience. Just watch the volume on your speakers and don't say I didn't warn you about the ringing in your ears afterwards.


Score: 8/10


"Memory Is Distant" (excerpt)