Polar Nights Live
Hijokaidan
| Available Formats | No. of Tracks | Price | Buy | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Download Album (mp3) | 3 tracks | £4.99 | ||
| Download Album (flac) | 3 tracks | £5.99 | ||
| Download Album (wav) | 3 tracks | £5.99 |
Hijokaidan - Polar Nights Live
Hijokaidan has since 1979 been one of the leading voices in Japanese noise music. Starting out with a broad line-up of performers, eventually in the course of the 80-ies the Hijokaidan sound became easily identifiable with the shredding guitar-sound of band-leader Jojo Hiroshige and the high-pitched piercing voice of Junko. Few noise acts have such an instantly recognizable (and intense) sound.
Although Hijokaidan's status as noise superstars they rarely perform outside Japan. The pleasure was then ever greater for the All Ears festival in Oslo Norway to present Hijokaidan at their festival in january 2006. Polar Nights Live documents these historical and astonishing performances.
Jojo and Junko performed as a Hijokaidan two-piece on the opening night of the festival, a rarely heard line-up. Their performance got such a tremendous response that they came back for an encore (Otomo Yoshihide, longtime Hijokaidan fan who also performed at the festival, proclaimed "Incredible! Hijokaidan never does encores!"). The second night Jojo collaborated with guitarist Per Gisle Galåen (DEL, The Birds), unleashing thick layers of psychedelic and distorted guitar fog, which fans of of Fushitsusha, Les Rallizes Denudes and Jojo's non-Hijokaidan work will appreciate. The final night saw Junko hooking up with noise-nik Sten Ove Toft (Ryfylke) for a hellish meltdown of twisted electronics and the most intense voice in music.
Unlike most other noise acts Hijokaidan has not spoiled their fans with a huge number of releases, which makes Polar Nights Live an even more unique statement of pure noise sound.
Reviews
Flat-out unbelievable new Hijokaidan album on Lasse Marhaug’s new Pica Disk imprint. One of the most confounding, mind-altering releases in their precociously heavy back catalogue, Polar Nights Live presents three different Hijokaidan line-ups, all of which operate at some kind of psychedelic/noise apex. Recorded live at the All Ears festival in Norway in 2006, the first track is the duo of Jojo Hiroshige on electric guitar and Junko on vocals and it’s one of the greatest Jojo performances of his career; the guitar sounds like it’s simply channelling bolts of pure electricity, with Jojo as the endlessly shocked conduit, with the strings warping under a hailstorm of feedback, protesting harmonics and pure squeal while Junko threads the chaos with exactingly articulated epiglottal ecstasies. Unbelievable. Second track is a twin guitar face-off between Jojo and Per Gisle Galaen of Del/Birds et al. This is much closer to the monolithic psychedelic rock of Fushitsusha than the contemporary Hijokaidan wind-tunnel feel and the sound of fully exploded phantom melodies is extremely beautiful. The final tracks features a single collapsing galaxy populated by Junko on vocals and Norwegian noise artists Sten Ove Toft on electronics. An amazing set, highly recommended. (Volcanic Tounge)
Tracklisting
Download Album (PICA005DD)
- Hijokaidan - No Oslo No Harm
- Jojo Hiroshige & Per Gisle Galaen - Book Of Changes
- Junko & Sten Ove Toft - Le Rayon Verte
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