Les Rallizes Dénudés - Mizutani (1991)

1. 記憶は遠い 5:54

2. 朝の光 L'aube 1:37

3. 断章１ 3:45

4. 断章２ 1:45

5. 亀裂 4:35

6. The Last One 22:14

7. 黒い悲しみのロマンセ Otherwise Fallin' Love With 8:05

As more and more previously obscure Japanese noise rock bands and bootlegs were unearthed and distributed via music blogs, Les Rallizes Dénudés remained my favourite for sticking to the formula of a simple repetitive bassline followed by waves and waves of feedback. They never fucked with my head as much as anything Keiji Haino was involved with, and had sweet album titles like Heavier Than a Death in the Family and Blind Baby Has Its Mother's Eyes. The White Light/White Heat worship was always strong, but there was something soothing about their sound too.

Mizutani! Exploring the Velvet Underground (not the one with Nico) side of their VU worship rather than just the Sister Ray one, Mizutani's first side is primarily melancholy folk. Side two features The Last One which you can find different recordings of in LDR bootlegs. Here it fits with the rest of the album, starting like it has emerged out of the fragile folk before building steam and ending up wonderfully noisy.

It doesn't seem as well regarded as some of their other stuff which is a shame because I love it for being so different.

A-

128