Tuesday 3 June 2008

RISING MOON (japrocksampler musick)

CAESAR J.A.
JASHŪMON

Original Issue: 1972 Victor (SF-1021)

Reissue: 1999 Blue Interactions (PCD-1465)

Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

Impossibly hard-to-find (even the reissue) masterpiece by J.A. Caesar ranking #10 in Julian Cope's Japrocksampler bible!

Recorded live at a theatrical performance by Tenjo Sajiki at Shibuya Kokaido on January 30, 1972.

This guy was a graphic design student, who adopted the name J.A. [Julius Arnold] Caesar, often also found spelled Seazer and even Ceazar [just to confuse internet searches even further!], and was known by the late 60's as one of the few 'true hippies' on the local scene. He apparently won a competition for hair length!

His music often featured elements of Japanese percussion, 'sekkyobushi narrative music', progressive and psychedelic rock, raw heavy rock, and other influences as diverse as Carl Orff and Pierre Henry.

1 Kyōjobushi
2 Jin
3 Shishi no Ko
4 Tōkyō Junreika
5 Haraisō
6 Kyōchō
7 Hahasute Hannyakyō
8 Okasaretara Nakeba Ii
9 Doko e Doko e to Satsu!
10 Kurama Tengu
11 Jashūmon
12 Bokoi Jigoku
13 Karasu
14 Kanokeburo
15 Wasan
16 Tsuru no Tēma
17 Kuchibue Sanka
18 1970 nen 8 gatsu
19 Wasan


from Volcanic Tongue:

Beautiful book/CD Japan-only reissue of a particularly inspired side from Tenjo Sajiki, the Japanese avant guerrilla theatre company founded by legendary poet/film maker/counter-cultural provocateur Shuji Terayama that existed contemporaneously to first wave avantists like Flower Travellin’ Band, Keiji Haino’s Lost Aaraaff and Les Rallizes Denudes and that featured dusted acid/rock/folk/avant moves composed and executed by the young wunderkind JA Seazer.

Alan Cummings rates this particular one as a real early peak for Seazer’s music. Written for a series of foreign performances in 1971 – Nancy, Rotterdam, Belgrade, Zagreb and other areas of the Balkans – Seazer is rumoured to have composed and recorded all of the music for Jashumon/Heresy in the space of a few hours the night before the troupe left.

This particular recording is drawn from the only Japanese performance of the play, January 1972 in Tokyo. Released at the time on a now very rare side by Victor, this massive new edition adds a clutch of new material, including two powerful performances by Kan Mikami.

The music is fairly astounding throughout and for the most part defies any attempt at pithy generic description but the piece include flashes of huge, organ-led marches supported by clouds of choral song and throat-shredding death/folk vocals, brief episodes of forlorn traditional breath lost in a thin soup of electronics and gongs, massed acid chants ala Ya Ho Wha 13 and bursts of modal guitar psych.

The accompanying book is a beauty, featuring a ton of performance shots and all-Japanese text.

Highest recommendation.

31 comments:

Margot F. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Render unto Seazer...

barny said...

grazie molto, margot! for the rising moon and for your wonderful blog in general.

great idea, the leecher index, eheh.

ciao

Anonymous said...

This one sounds quite interesting. I'll give it a try.

Anonymous said...

Oh yeah! I've been looking for this. I'm being dogmatic about Japrock Sampler, and refuse to read it until I have access to the top 50. I think this almost does it.

Thank you thank you thank you.

Anonymous said...

you can do worse things than go & see Terayama movies on Ubuweb,many of them with uncredited music by Seazer:

http://www.ubu.com/film/terayama.html

Jeloca.

Anonymous said...

Hello, Margot :

Thank you for another very interesting record. And I must congratulate you for the eclectic taste you are showing here ( I don't like on the same level everything you post here but I think that that eclecticism is one major quality of your blog.)

See you,

Josef

Anonymous said...

blissfully weird.. way to go margot, anthony
p.s. julian cope's word's good enuf for me...

Anonymous said...

I am gonna grab this now, thanks a bunch for posting all this killer stuff! Top-notch!

jon!

Anonymous said...

I bought this CD "Heresy" (Japanese Victor label) when it first saw RE back in early `90s. I have since obtained numerous other JA Seazer tiles. This, however, is THE best , hands down.
At times it`s a bit Magma-ish... a crazed gem.

Margot , if you dig this , be sure to find ... Geinoh Yamashirogumi -"Osorezan /Dounokenbai" Japan 1976 ~C

Anonymous said...

A real gem! Thanks!

Margot F. said...

Eh Eh I've imagined that this record would have big success among my reader :-)

By the way, does anybody have to share the japrocksampler album in my wishlist?

Lambda said...

many thanks, really great work

Anonymous said...

Some tracks sound like an alternative soundtrack to Horrors Of Malformed Men (Teruo Ishii, 1969). Great stuff. Thanx!

Richard said...

Another great posting margot, thanks alot.Your blog really has brought some musical gems to us.
Many Thanks..

Jeroen said...

Like it. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Hail Margot. another cracker, thank you.
Steve

JAN said...

UBU WEB is a great resource site :! (cf link from Jeloca)
"Merci" Margot for this superb Discovery :!
Cya.

Anonymous said...

Talk about hen's teeth! This is so rare. Margot, you spoil us. -- Stefan M / Occupied Territories

Anonymous said...

never heard this one! i'm hooked. what a great site. thanks as always

Kevin said...

Thanks for posting this album, Margot. I would like to be added to your mailing list. Please check out my blog Eclectic Grooves for more adventurous music.

Cheers, Kevin

http://eclectic-grooves.blogspot.com

nan said...

thanks for adding me to your list, margot. so glad i discovered your blog!

can't wait to here this posting in particular...

Anonymous said...

Interesting to know that the guy who wrote the dueling songs for the anime series Revolutionary Girl/Shoujo Kakumei Utena has a very interesting past.

gojira said...

i cannot wait to hear this. All the comments sound so wonderul, especially "Some tracks sound like an alternative soundtrack to Horrors Of Malformed Men". I love that film.
THank you

Unknown said...

Sorry, but I cannot find where the DL link is. Can someone please help?!

Anonymous said...

Just complete the form at the end of the blog page and you'll have it

Jerry A. said...

Thanks for these lovely posts--I've been going through Japrocksampler and it's wonderful to be able to document his sources...

The password doesn't seem to work on these files, though...any ideas?

many thanks,

JA

Margot F. said...

This one is no more active, anyway (if you've already downloaded the file) password was: Seazer

Just copy and paste it. Nobody complained about this before.

Love

Anonymous said...

I can't find this anywhere please repost or redirect?
please>?
cheers

scott said...

Great blog! any chance of re-posting this one? Thanks - - Scott

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this, a lot.