Nisennenmondai

Japanese trio Nisennenmondai (bassist Yuri Zaikawa, guitarist Masako Takada, drummer Sayaka Himeno), who had already released Rokuon (2006), dedicated some of the instrumentals of Neji/Tori (2008) to the Pop Group, Sonic Youth and This Heat. Pop Group is actually a stormy inspired by psychedelic freak-outs, prog-rock jamming and no-wave dissonance. This Heat is a jazzy improvisation led by a hysterical guitar tuned to emit shrill metallic tones. The brief Sonic Youth is a pounding crescendo somewhere between Deep Purple and Neu. The dialogue between bass and guitar is explosive in Ikkkyokume, with the guitar suddenly taking off with a delirious ultra-distorted solo and then landing with a scorching repetitive riff. A stubborn Neu-like motorik rhythm propels Kyuukohan until the chaotic and volcanic finale. Ikkkyokume mutates from a percussive maelstrom into a guitar bacchanal halfway between a Jimi Hendrix jam and the intro of Pere Ubu's terrifying "modern dances". By covering hard rock, free jazz, prog-rock, new wave, no wave and acid rock, the trio realized a synthesis of sorts of Japan's atonal music.

The mini-album Destination Tokyo (Bijin, 2008 - Smalltown Supersound, 2009) was mostly devoted to colorful essays in minimalist repetition: the 13-minute Souzousuru Neji (also known as Ijen Urusuozuos), Disco, a neurotic limping fanfare that slowly becomes a parody of itself, the nine-minute Destination Tokyo, a tribute of sorts to Neu-like motorik rhythm and to Kraftwerk's Autobahn, and especially the 12-minute Mirrorball, whose repetitive pattern evolves and twists coming close to crossbreeding Terry Riley's In C and the Love Of Life Orchestra's Heartbreak.