YBO² was a strange band from Tokyo whose personnel during their six year run reads like a veritable who's who of Japanese avant garde music, most notably members who went on to form Ruins, Zeni Geva, CCCC, Ghost...However the band was mainly the work of Matashi Kitamura who would go on to start Trans Records and later, SSE Communications. Here is YBO²'s 1986 ep Tayou No Ouiji. I am going to stop here, describing YBO² would be as easy as teaching someone how to get punched in the mind.
Frankly smelling some of your reviews is like being punched in the mind. I'm intrigued.
ReplyDeleteYeah, better listen to this one
ReplyDeleteActually you brought Taiyou no ouji/Sora ga ochiru (1989) --
ReplyDeletehttp://rateyourmusic.com/release/comp/ybo2/%E5%A4%AA%E9%99%BD%E3%81%AE%E7%9A%87%E5%AD%90%EF%BD%9E%E7%A9%BA%E3%81%8C%E5%A0%95%E3%81%A1%E3%82%8B__taiyou_no_ouji___sora_ga_ochiru_/
...for which I'll thank you a lot. this is AWESOME! :D
-t.
Ah yes, we have bonus tracks.
ReplyDelete太陽の皇子, "Taiyou no ouji"- "Prince of the Sun"
ReplyDelete空が落ちる, "Sora ga ochiru"- "The sky falls"
YBO² are absolutely amazing. "Isolation" is a real and true classic.
In the summer of 2002 (I think -- my memory for dates is shaky), the band reformed with Null, Tatsuya, and Kitamura and attempted to tour the US; they were supposed to stay with me when they did their Austin date. Unfortunately, Null and Kitamura drew the attention of customs when they arrived in Seattle (probably because Kitamura is a freaky-looking dude) and got searched, at which point the customs official found a guarantee from the Knitting Factory in Null's bag -- but no work visa. So they got sent back to Japan.
ReplyDeleteTatsuya, however, flew in from Europe, and arrived here totally unaware of what happened. When he found out, he decided to finish out the tour by himself. So I got to see him play at the Red Eyed Fly, where he played drums, guitar, and keyboard... *all at the same time*. (He borrowed the equipment from the Walking Timebombs, led by ex-Pain Teens guitarist Scott Ayers, who were also on the bill.) He was drumming Ruins-style with one hand and his feet, while playing the guitar (sometimes using a drum stick to make barre chords and do slides) and keyboard with the other. It was hands down the most amazing thing I have ever seen on stage. I wish I had it on tape. I have pictures (really bad ones taken by my then-girlfriend) of it around here somewhere, but tragically no audio....
One thing about Tatsuya: he's real, real particular about his orange juice.
very very very cool. thanks as always
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite bands! Another early member was guitarist Uchihashi Kazuhisa, who went on to form Altered States. He predated KK Null, so he doesn't appear on anything. I've been working on tracking down all of the YBO² releases, and I think I'm down to just missing two or three live cassettes and the Heavy Metal Master VHS.
ReplyDeleteI've also been working on snagging everything else Kitamura did. I actually bought all four CDs (well, three CDs and a CDR) by his group Differance from the one true dead angel, whose comment is above. There's also Canis Lupus (two LPs, a CD and a flexidisc), The Spectre Men (appeared on some compilations) and Phonogenix (one 12" EP and one LP), who predate YBO². I featured the title track to the 1984 EP Hymns for Savannah on my blog, Lightning Jukebox.
Oh, and SSE Communications is my favorite label. I've been working on getting everything on SSE, plus everything on Transrecords that never got reissued on SSE. If anyone has the three Sakana CDs or the タコ (Tako) CD, and would be interested in selling them, contact me (e-mail's in my profile)! I also need the 割礼 (Katsurei) VHS on SSE (or was it on Trans?).
OK, enough begging! My apologies!
Kickass blog name, btw! That's one of my favorite RP songs.
PS: I just added you (and the one true dead angel) to my blogroll. I'd e-mail you privately, but I don't see an e-mail addy anywheres.
I read that one of the members of YBO2 was also in a band called Zeitlich Vergelter w/ Chi Ishikawa (who did the soundtrack for 'Tetsuo' and other films).
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, excited to listen to this! Cheers.
Once again a fucking wonderful album from Japan. I cant get enough of this shit. Thanks Again!
ReplyDeleteThe Zietlich Vergelter 7" has no band member info, unless it was on an insert that my copy lacks. On the other hand, their song on the NG compilation lists Hidemi. K (yes, with a period) on guitar, so it would make sense that that's quite possibly the Hideki Kawamoto who played guitar in YBO² on many of their releases.
ReplyDeleteNG also lists a CHU on bass & percussion, while their track on the Dead Tech compilation lists a Chyu on percussion & metals. I'm not aware of any other releases.
wow, impressive… how old was steve albini in 1986?
ReplyDeleteIf anyone's interested, I posted a Canis Lupus song on my blog around 17 hours ago: "G.T.O"
ReplyDelete