In the summer of '84 we released an EP in a limited edition of 14 copies as a memorial to Ichiguchi. It was entitled "A Tribute to Ichie", his nickname. The A-side was a '79 session between myself and Zushi, the B-side was from the time when Mikawa and I played a guest gig with Jurajuum. Ichiguchi's playing was not featured on the record. We sold the EP through Modern Music and Fujiyama - neither Mikawa nor myself currently own a copy. What had happened was that I had issued it without Mikawa's permission, and in retaliation he used his copy to press a limited edition (of one) EP called "Hijokaidan / Viva Angel".
In 1985 Hijokaidan, which currently consisted of just me and Mikawa, decided to release a studio record on Alchemy. Since I was living in Tokyo and Mikawa in Osaka, we recorded half the record in a studio in Iidabashi in Tokyo, and the remaining half at the Eggplant rehearsal space in Osaka. The Eggplant take featured a duo of Mikawa on drums and me on guitar - the first time before or since that we have played in that format. Also present at the Osaka recording were Junko and Hayashi from Alchemy / Auschwitz. These recordings were released on LP in May under the title of "The King of Noise". I recall that this title was Hayashi's idea. For the cover picture of the baby we decided to use a photograph of Morita (a friend of Hayashi and I) from Nightgallery's kid.
Alchemy also released a cassette of a take from the Iidabashi session in Tokyo that had been too long to fit on to the LP. This take was on the A-side, while the B-side was a recording by Incapacitants, which had begun as Mikawa's solo project. The cassette was entitled "? (delta) 8000". The title came from an incident when Mikawa and I went to a record shop in Sasaki called Eastern Works to buy a box set consisting of a miniature record-player and a miniature record that had been released by Die Dietrich Doris. We had been introduced to the shop by Ikeezumi from Modern Music and as a result we got 8000 yen knocked off the normal price. This 8000 yen discount seemed so ridiculous that it stuck in our minds and we decided to use it for the title of the cassette. I also remember being slightly embarrassed when we took some copies to Modern Music and Ikeezumi told us that the cassette was better than the "King of Noise" LP.
In April of that year PCM, who had promoted the Hanatarashi concert at La Mama (they later became famous as managers of Kinniku Shojotai, Gobans, Tama etc), asked us to participate in an independent concert they were planning to commemorate the upcoming demolition of the Toyoko Theatre. This theatre was on the roof of the Tokyu Toyoko department store in Shibuya. On the bill were Hijokaidan, Sodom, YBO2, Taco with Machizo Machida etc. At the time it was revolutionary that underground bands like these would be able to play at a major venue like the Toyoko theatre. The line-up for Hijokaidan at this gig was Jojo, Mikawa, Junko, and then Yuka who was a former member of the band and was now living in Tokyo thanks to her marriage to Shintaro, ex Stalin member. The promoters were expecting a most grotesque show similar to what we had done in the past, and whether it was in response to this or whether it was her artistic decision (probably both, I think), Yuka urinated on the stage as part of her performance. Just under a thousand people came to the show - a massive turnout - and we were paid around $1000.
As an example of just how well-planned this concert was, journalists from the well-known weekly photo-magazines "Focus" and "Friday" turned up, and their Golden Week issues both contained articles on the concert with headlines like "On-stage urination - Rock Chaos!" I remember that Yuka and Shintaro were both very annoyed that their faces had been printed in the magazines. On my part, I knew that there was no way that magazines such as these would review or appreciate Hijokaidan properly, but I was not at all apprehensive that our noise or performances would thus be stereotyped as erotic / grotesque. I simply could not care what they printed. However after this gig we picked up a certain following who got perversely excited by on-stage urination, and I remember that this had its irritating aspects.
In August we went to play a session at the apartment of ex-LAFMS member John Duncan, who was at that time living in Machida. John performed using an effects-altered short-wave radio, Mikawa on signal generator and microphone, and I manipulated a cassette recorder. This take was released that autumn on the "Renkinjutsu Alchemy Noise Omnibus" by Alchemy Records, along with tracks by Hanatarashi, High Rise, Sakevi Yokoyama, and Null.
After that we opened for Psychic TV at the Nakano Kokaido Hall, and in December we played with High Rise at a PCM-promoted event at Superloft in Toritsu Kasei (famous as the venue for the Hanatarashi back-hoe performance). As Mikawa was unable to participate at the Nakano Kokaido performance, he was replaced for this performance by Kishino who is now in Zeni Geva (at the time he played with YBO2 and Null). At the Superloft performance Crazy SKB from Kyoaku Kyojindan (currently in Satsugai Enka Vinyl) came to see us with his face painted white, a mohican, and studded leather trousers with Hijokaidan badges and keyrings dangling from them. Kishino's girlfriend at the time was so moved by our performance that she burst into tears. I remember being bemused by the ridiculousness of these two events.
From the performance at Superloft Shintaro joined the band. At the time he had left The Stalin and was planning a solo project. In January '86 we played at Eggplant in Osaka with the Jojo, Mikawa, Yuka, Shintaro line-up. At this gig there was an unusual segment where I played keyboards and Shintaro played guitar.
It was decided that Alchemy would release Shintaro's solo record and from the spring of '86 recording for this began. We became acquainted with Tabo (he was living communally with members of Kinniku Shojotai), who was an accomplished sampling / fold-in artist. He came up with rhythms to which Shintaro added bass and I added some noise guitar. We then sent the tapes to Osaka where Mikawa added vocals and noise, and in this way we recorded our cover-version of Hawkwind's "Silver Machine". In September Alchemy Records released this studio recording, recent live takes and an Incapacitants live track etc as "Tapes" - an historical overview of Hijokaidan's career. The jacket and title were again a parody of a Faust album, "Tapes". For the reverse of the jacket we used one of Shintaro's pointillist pictures. The English on the jacket was riddled with mistakes (I was recently shown this LP at an American radio station and felt very embarrassed).