Sunday, December 27, 2009

Lee Renaldo & Christian Marclay - live at the Metro Kyoto Japan 3-25-2001



As described in the previous post, here is the Lee Renaldo and Christian Marclay set from the same night, alongside DJ EYE from Boredoms. Insane art-noise destruction, but very listenable, I recall enjoying the set, although I don't visually remember Renaldo's setup, which I describe as "weird boxes with knobs", I think they were like little hand-made guitar pedals... Marclay messed around with turntables and a mixer with fx, and had records with coins and other small objects taped to them to make the needle bump around. It was a fun set, and not nearly as deafening as DJ Eye's set to follow...
Original notes:
"Lee Renaldo & Christian Marclay
recorded live at The Metro in Kyoto, Japan, March 25.2001
34:36, 49.8M VBR mp3 made with CoolEdit

notes:
Lee Renaldo from Sonic Youth on guitars and weird boxes with knobs, Christian Marclay on extreme turntable destruction. The music at the beginning is the end of DJ Kazuma's set, and at the end the start of DJ Eye's (from Boredoms) set can be heard (available as a seperate file). At the end you can hear Lee yell to the crowd, "We're gonna take a break and let Eye spin records, then we'll come back and play more." Unfortunately I had to leave shortly afterwards, so I was unable to record their second set.

Recorded with a Sony MZ-R900 minidisc recorder using a Sony ECM-MS957 microphone"

HERE

DJ Eye (Boredoms) - live at The Metro Kyoto Japan 3-25-2001

When I was in Japan, I went to concerts as frequently as I could, sometimes as often as every weekend. When Sonic Youth came on their NYC Flowers & Ghosts tour, I saw them with OOIOO opening (Green & Gold had just come out). Unfortunately I couldn't sneak my MD recorder into that show, because it was just astonishing... both bands, really, but OOIOO in particular. Their playing was like virtuoso level, with every nuance from the album tracks executed perfectly... in fact, during one song, Yoshimi actually made the band stop and start over again because she felt one of the transitions hadn't gone right... I don't think anyone else had noticed!
I am pretty sure that it was within a week or so of the Sonic Youth show that Lee Renaldo played a weird little improv gig with avant-turntablist Christian Marclay, with DJ Eye from Boredoms following. I managed to record the whole Renaldo and Marclay set (posting next), and 30 minutes of DJ Eye's set... as I mention in my original notes, the last train out of Kyoto back to Hirakata was leaving.. slightly after midnight as I recall. Eye's performance was inspiring and unique, with pitched-up chanting and bird calls, and people later told me about crushing hiphop beats played over bagpipes, although I didn't stay for that part unfortunately. The sheer volume of the set was over-powering though, and actually pretty unpleasant. The wall of sound made my ears hurt, such that I recall trying to wrap my arm around my head to shield my ears while still clutching my stupid minidisc microphone, and when the bird calls started it was like a deafening screech of pain!! As was common at the Club Metro, the crowd had a fair share of cute young Japanese women, none of them wearing earplugs, looking bored and not at all bothered by the cacophony. My ears rang for a couple days after this show!
Speaking of wall of sound, I also later saw DJ EYE spinning as an opener for Medeski Martin & Wood, this time more beat-oriented stuff, including some tracks off the first couple Rebore records. This time the problem was the BASS... so loud, my eyelashes were vibrating and made my eyes itch!! I had never experienced such a phenomenon before, and I literally had to move from the dancefloor, further back into the club to find a space where the bass was tolerable! Do Japanese ears work differently???
Original notes, included as text file:
"DJ Eye (from Boredoms)
recorded live at The Metro in Kyoto, Japan, March 25.2001
30:13, 49.8M VBR mp3 made with CoolEdit

notes:
Excerpt of a live DJ set by Eye Yamatsuka from Boredoms. I had to leave to catch the last train, so I didn't get to record the whole performance. The voice heard at the beginning is Lee Renaldo (from Sonic Youth), who performed with Christian Marclay before Eye took the stage (available as a seperate file). This recording does no justice to the sheer LOUDNESS of this performance. It was truly ear-piercing. But it sounds lovely, doesn't it? :)

Recorded with a Sony MZ-R900 minidisc recorder using a Sony ECM-MS957 microphone"

HERE