Dada - 1978 - Jyo

Dada 

1978

Jyo

01. Yuuen • Inraku • Gaki 5:25
02. Udonbara 10:28
03. Rokujinzuu 7:56
04. Seijyo-No-Chi. Mizu 12:45

Kenji Konishi: synths
Mutsuhiko Izumi: Guitars, synths
With:
Yasuhiko Horiuchi (on Seijyo-No-Chi. Mizu)

Recorded at studio "Sounds Creation" Osaka 19th, April, 1978.
This record was inspired by 'Gaki Zoshi', and is dedicated to Eno.
Apparently only 200 copies of this were pressed.

Dada from Osaka, or in a broader sense the Kansai region in the west of Honshu, got together in 1977 after having been active for quite a while separately in various hard rock, psych or prog formations in the area, Izumi e.g. in a band called Karisma, Konishi at Kigadoumei. Apparently there is no sound carrier legacy of these.

In April 1978 the duo, commissioned by the music journalist Yuzuru Agi, who needed an album for the start of his new label Vanity Records, recorded their debut "Jyo", which was released there in small numbers on LP that same year. In the only 4 years of its existence (until 1982), Vanity Records was to publish a whole series of other Japanese obscurities, which today belong to the most original and progressive rock music productions from Japan in the late 70s and early 80s. Proggers who like creative things on the border between electronics, punk, new wave and prog should look around for the label's productions.

The sounds to be found on "Joy" are quite strange. The album, which by the way is dedicated to Brian Eno, has little in common with the later, electronic-progressive music of Dada (see " Dada "). Ambient sounds à la Eno cannot be heard either. One could rather make comparisons to the productions of Fripp & Enopull, but the two Japanese are much more delicate and restrained. Electric guitar, synthesizer and piano can be heard, all behaving and carefully moving around one another. Guitar complaints meet piano halls and / or discreetly honking, chirping and hissing electronic sounds, sometimes accompanied by some percussion. The music is quite sparse, simple and reserved, but at the same time quite edgy (almost herbaceous), and spreads a very unique, Japanese-Asian atmosphere. Raindrops in a Japanese park dancing, flowing and tumbling over leaves moved by a mild wind? Indeed, towards the end of the fourth piece, the noises of water can be made out.

It all sounds very Japanese, as if someone had arranged old melodies from the country for electric guitar and keys, or improvised on motifs from them. Actually, you only have to take a look at the cover to get an idea of ​​the music to be found here. The instruments and the way of playing are clearly oriented towards the west, especially the sometimes bulky and cutting howling guitar by Izumi.

"Jyo" doesn't actually offer prog or rock, but friends of musical weirdnesses from the field of electronics, ambient, soundscapes and krautrock should probably find new sound nourishment here. The album was recently re-released on CD by Belle Antique. The disc is also part of the recently released "Vanity Box", which contains all of the label's album productions. Sound adventurers should grab it!