Tori Kudo - Part 1

In our endless quest to bring you in-depth interviews with people you've never heard of, the next candidate is Japan's Tori Kudo. Who? Go check your copies of Tokyo Flashback volumes 2 and 3. Remember the annoying tracks on there that sounded like euphonium-driven versions of summer melodies that you never gave a second listen to? By some group with a weird name? They were one of his, and the group was called Maher Shalal Hash Baz. In certain quarters of the Japanese underground, Maher are more than just another household name, they're a legend onto themselves. A legend built upon a couple of tapes distributed only at gigs, an LP in an edition of 100, and a financially forbidding 3LP/3CD box set on low-profile Osaka imprint Org Records called Return Visit To Rock Mass. You should try and make it one of your priorities to hear the latter. Maher's most recent releases are a 60min CD "single" on the Puka-Puka Brains imprint, Majikick, and an upcoming retrospective on the UK Domino label.

Kudo himself has been a central, yet black-cat-in-a-coalshed obscure figure since the late seventies. He was a prime-mover in the experimental rock scene centred around the coffee-shop cum afterhours live venue, Minor (a scene that also nurtured the talents of Kosokuya, Munehiro Narita and Asahito Nanjo of High Rise, Gaseneta, Tamio Shiraishi, Rotting Telepathies and Keiji Haino, amongst many more you won't have heard of). In that incestuous scene, Kudo led a plethora of hardly-recorded bands like the shambolic no-wave Guys 'n' Dolls, Snickers, the shambolic Alan Vega tribute band Toyko Suicide, and the shambolic Velvet-melodious Sweet Inspirations. Some of them are dubiously documented on Nanjo's Daiyon Kobo cassette imprint.

Some interest was possibly stirred by the reviews of Kudo's wife Reiko's disk, Fire inside my hat, and the reissue of the legendary Noise record (also the Kudos) that appeared in the last issue of Opprobrium. Since then a certain D.Keenan had the gall to review the Maher triple set in The Wire (a mere two and a half years after it came out). He memorably described Maher's music as "primitive yet deeply affecting schoolyard psychedelia like a collective of 12 year old melancholic shamen."

As befits his revered status in the Japanese underground, G-Modern did an interview with Kudo a few years back before Maher's triple masterpiece appeared (and before Kudo left Japan for the benighted shores of the UK - note: the Kudos have since returned to Japan). The bizarre results of that interview are here translated for your education and delectation.

Questions by Shinji Shibayama,¹ Ikuro Takahashi,² G-Modern³ Translated by Alan Cummings

Q1: What does rock mean to you? Also, how does that meaning relate to jazz?

    Takahashi's passion for rock consumes him
    As a man who has devoted himself to rock, he challenges me
    That challenge is like incense rising from the altar of rock
    Concerts and rock magazines are Takahashi's priests
    Bearing a sacrificial lamb Takahashi goes to his priest
    The blood of sacrifice sprays over the altar
    As the fat is burnt away, the demon standing behind
    rock and boogie, dressed as the angel of light, is the first to eat
    Next the priest and his kin take as their share
        the breast and right leg of Takahashi's lamb
        and are assigned their place at the table
    Finally, by eating the left leg of his communal lamb
        Takahashi too is alloted his place at the table
    True, Takahashi continues to nurture himself at that table
        But his presence at dinner is now an obligation
    But he does not attend as a guest - Takahashi himself
        Is the main dish to be served
        And in reality it is the birds that eat
    I warn Takahashi to renounce rock now.
        It is not just heavy metal that leads to patricide and
        matricide; all rock from the Stones to noise
        ultimately leads to that end.
    I have seen the heart of rock and boogie

Q2: What did the late Aquirax Aida⁴ mean to you? (the surmounting of nihilism?)

In order to resolve the questions posed by improvisation, the only thing one can do is reduce time because it is torn to shreds by improvisation. Through doing that we can return improvisation to its rightful position. Improvisation which anticipated a new and proper horizon has never existed, and I am unable to accept the rationale that sees hope in improvisation. It was totally meaningless to ever connect improvisation with the theory of spiritual and artistic evolution. Many people have been struggling just to stay afloat. Freedom is not something that you attain, it is something that you are given. Improvisation will only become perfected when we have won the battle against our future enemy, death.

Q3: Why do you so stubbornly insist upon originality? What does originality mean to you? Is it because you lack confidence in yourself?

Birds

Why do birds sing? Does their song have any meaning? How does each bird learn how to sing in a different way?

The dawn and evening choruses are the most energetic, and at these times almost all the songs we hear are those of male birds. These songs possess two layers of meanings, just like XX. The first meaning is a strongly-worded warning to other males not to cross another bird's territory. The second meaning is an invitation to female birds like XXXX of marriageable age. In a similar way to the XXXX, each bird creates a song that will mark its territory. In human terms this is similar to a local accent existing within the same language. This unique courtship song, that could also be likened to a local dialect, is only sung at other male birds like XXXX who enter into the territory. The most energetic and complex warbling can be heard during the mating season. Just like XXX this song is a show designed to attract a female.

In a similar way to how XXXX alerts his friends to his presence, by the pitch of their song, male birds make their presence known to their rivals. In addition, just like XXXX, birds that are brightly coloured and that live in open areas clearly sing only when they need to defend their territory. On the other hand, like XXXX, birds whose colouring matches their surroundings or who live deep in the forest where there is little chance of discovery, are able to sing as loud as they like.

At times the sounds that birds make cannot be described as song - rather, like XXXX, they are merely exchanges of information with other males, or else like XXXX they short signals that tell other birds to flock together. They can act as a warning of approaching danger, and like XXXX they can also be a signal for the birds to flock together and attack cats or other interlopers. Similar to XXXX, the song of birds can communicate feelings such as anger, fear, or movement, and they also tell that two particular birds are mated.

There is much to suprise us in the sound-making mechanisms of birds. Like XXXX, some birds are able to emit three or four separate sounds at one time. Like XXaX X-X-, there are some birds that can produce up to eighty sounds per second. To human ears this sounds like one continuous sound, but birds that possess an acute sense of hearing like XXXXX are able to distinguish the separate sounds.

Researchers have investigated whether birds are able to understand music or not. Can birds distinguish the difference between a Bach organ song and Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring"? Researchers tested four pigeons by playing them Bach and Stravinsky, and devised a system of two round buttons where the birds would receive food as a reward if they pecked at the button corresponding to the music currently being played. In a short time the pigeons were able to press the correct button to distinguish between all the sections of a twenty minute piece by Bach. With some few exceptions the birds were even able to distinguish between similar works by different composers.

There is even one species of tropical bird that is able to compose by itself and then sing in a duet like XXXX. Like XXXX the two birds get together and hold a rehearsal where they try singing together and in a call and response style. They try out various different styles before they arrive at a composed song. They way they sing is very precise, just like XXXX, and to the untrained ear it sounds like just one bird singing one song. Each bird is able to sing the other's parts, and when their partner is not present they are able to sing the whole piece as a solo. This unique ability, similar to XXXX, would seem to aid the birds in finding and verifying their partners in the dense rainforest.

A certain British scientist noticed that there was a certain familiar sound in the songs of several song-thrushes. He recorded their songs, analyzed them electronically, and was startled to discover that these sounds were extremely similar to the ringing-tone used by the most common type of phone in the UK. It would seem that these song-thrushes learnt the sound of ringing telephones and added it to their repetories. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that there some pupil of XXXX who heard the song of these song-thrushes and wrote a piece based on the sound of ringing telephones.

We are still discovering how birds learn how to sing and how they compose their songs, but one thing is beyond doubt. Namely that they use a variety of different methods and strategies.

The male bluebird, like XXXX, is born with the knowledge of how to sing, in part at the very least. Like XXXX, even if it is raised totally seperately from other birds, while the way it sings will be different from normal, the number of sounds and their lengths are vitually identical to those of other birds. However, in order for the bird to develop a regular singing style, like XXX while still immature it must hear the song of another male bluebird twice in different seasons. Then, in a similar way to a human professional singer, the bird must practise continuously and hone its skills. Like XXXX, the bird must practice again and again attuning its immature voice to the sounds that it wishes to produce.

If the snow-princess bird is unable to learn the normal way of singing, like XXXX it creates its own unique style. However if it hears the simple, unaffected warbling of another snow-princess, like XXXX it immediately abandons its own style of singing and begins to sing like the other snow-princess. On the other hand, like XXXX the Mexican snow-princess is inspired to creativity when it hears the song of the regular snow-princess. It doesn't imitate the song, but rather, like XXXX, its creativity is piqued and it begins to create its own unique singing style.

The strongest evidence to suggest that the way a bird will sing is determined by its DNA lies in the cuckoo egg phenomenon. Like XXXXX, the cuckoo lays its eggs in another bird's nest, and has that bird roost and raise the cuckoo chicks. How do these cuckoo chicks know that they are different from their adopted parents, and that they should not sing in the same style? There is little doubt that the cuckoo's unique song is inputted into its DNA from before the time it is born. In most cases, questions about the way a certain bird will sing belong to the field of genetics. Even if a bird has never heard the song of its own species, it does not attempt to imitate the song of a different species. Certain scientists believe that the vague pattern for a bird's song is inputted into its brain, and like XXXXX, when it hears the song of another bird that comes closest to that pattern, it begins to imitate it.

Like XXXXX, birds have wonderful brains that allow them to be both composers and imitators. The naturalist Fernando Nautbaum discovered that the left and right sides of birds' brains have specific functions to fulfill, and that there is a certain segment of their brains that is designed for remembering how to sing. From studying young male canaries it was discovered that, like XXX, during the mating season this part of the brain expands and contracts, depending on whether the bird has to learn a new type of song. Like XXXX, canaries attempt to sing from an early age, but like XXXX they are unable to sing properly until they are eight or nine months old.

There are also birds that are particularly good at changing the melody they sing. Like XXX, they hear and borrow the song of another bird, polishing it by changing the arrangement of the notes and the rhythm. From ancient times people have been fascinated by birds that are skilled at imitation - ie "birds that talk", in other words, like XXXXX, birds that have the ability to mimic human speech. Amongst these mimics of the bird world are the laughing kookaburra of Australia, the marsh reed-warbler and starling of Europe, the great American insect-eater and mimic-thrush of North America. The mimic thrush has many different sounds in its repetoire, and is able to mimic the sounds of frogs and crickets. It is interesting to listen to the cheerful song of this thrush, similar to that of XXXXX, as it is actually a medley of the typical songs of several different species of birds.

One thing is certain - namely that composition and imitation can take many different forms. I believe that is a good thing.

Q4: In the sleeve-notes to the Maher Shalal Hash Baz record released in 1991⁵, you wrote that you had finally woken up to the importance of relating to other people when you turned thirty. In that case, was the relationship between the members of Maher up until then similar to that between a general and his troops?

Ranta Suzuki would appear at the pub Tanuki every night, order one stick of grilled chicken⁶, put a 100 yen coin down on the counter and then sit there until closing time. During the day I'd see her by the roadside, piling up dirt into skirt and then carrying it back to her apartment. When she arrived, she'd fling the dirt over the floor of her room. There were bits of ripped up paper and other assorted junk all over the floor, but no one was allowed to touch or move them. And you weren't allowed to close the windows either. The wind blew the rain into the room and rusted a Fender Rhodes that I'd lent her. Periodically she'd call me up in tears saying that she couldn't pay her rent, but if anyone were to get worried and call her she'd brusquely reply that it was none of their business. When she showed up at the studio, sometimes she'd have practised the music I'd given her, and other times she'd just sit there without saying a word. At those times, afterwards she'd tell everyone that I'd bullied her. She liked Steve Lacy, and whenever he came up in conversation she loved to tell the anecdote about him playing sax with the waves. Her rank in the band was well above of that of Masahiro Shinoda⁷. Shinoda was in the habit of saying "I can't get that sound by hook or by crook". A girl called Kaoru who played with us two or three times told him that if he were to play his soprano normally it would sound like Lacy. As a mark of a respect for her help he composed a song called "Kaoru". Anyway, the solos that Ranta Suzuki would play on "Black-eyed Susan" and "goodbye" contained the most amazing intervals. Her tone sounded, if anything, like a flying pineapple spliting itself open from the inside. I think that she's still in hospital, but one night she called up Nakazaki⁸ and said that she'd recently written a song and that she didn't know if we were still together but she'd like Maher to play it. She sang the song into his answer-phone - it was just a three-note melody. The other day when I was walking in the mountains I sang it as a duet with the birds, and I thought to myself that this is far better than improvising with human beings. Anyway, it was the same melody.

As for my relationship with the other members of the band, I can only explain it in the same way.

Q5: Do other people matter to you?

(No comment).

Q6: What do you think of yourself?

(No comment).

Q7: Do you like sex?

(No comment).

Q8: What do you think of Reiko Azuma⁹?

Around 1982, when I was living in an apartment in Sakamachi in Yotsuya¹⁰, one day she suddenly appeared at my door and said my apartment was the only place she could relax and since she had no other place to read could she borrow it? I had to leave there and then, and spend half the day walking around. When I came back, she thanked me and gave me 5000 yen¹¹. Thanks to that money I was able to eat for a few days. Several years later I discussed this incident with a mutual friend and they said they couldn't believe that someone as stingy as Reiko Azuma would do something like that. Maybe the reason she liked my apartment was because I always had a rope hanging from the ceiling to hang myself with.

Q9: How do you feel now about the fact that Mitani left the band?

(No comment).

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Notes

¹  Founder of Osaka's Org Records, who have released two albums by Maher Shalal Hash Baz. Shibayama was also the leader of the now defunct Hallelujahs (first LP on Org, reissued in 1997 by PSF on CD, and Rover Records on vinyl), and the still extant folk-pop-psychers Nagisa Nite (three interesting releases on Org).

² Ikuro Takahashi, a pivotal figure in the scene, was the original drummer with High Rise, a long-time member of Kosokuya and Che-SHIZU, and also drummer with Maher Shalal Hash Baz and Nagisa Nite. In recent years he was the drummer with Haino's Aihiyo and Fushitsusha, appearing on their Victo, Tokuma and Paratactile releases. Other noteworthy projects include the Of Dogstarman group with Fumio Kosakai: their single release on Pataphysique is an essential tribute to Stan Brakhage. At the beginning of 2000, he suddenly announced his intention to cease all musical activities, and has quit all his bands.

³ This interview was originally published in issue 7 (Winter 1995) of the PSF in-house magazine G-Modern. Since then Maher have released a 3CD/3LP set on Org, and the Kudos have relocated to the UK.

⁴ Aida was an important theorist/promoter/producer. He was deeply involved with the Japanese free-jazz scene of the seventies, producing releases by Kaoru Abe and Motoharu Yoshizawa amongst others. He was also instrumental in first bringing such free heroes as Derek Bailey, Milford Graves, Steve Lacey and Barre Phillips to Japan for tours/recording. He died prematurely in 1978, aged 32.

⁵  "January 14th, 1989 Maher goes to gothic country", recorded live in Kyoto and released on Org Records in 1991, in an edition of 100. Parts of this record will be included on the Domino retrospective.

⁶ Yakitori (various bits of chicken stuck on a skewer and grilled) - the Japanese pub food par excellence. If you're a connoisseur you'll have it grilled with salt, not sauce.

⁷ Late saxophonist, most noted for his work in Compostela, who have a worthy tribute disk on Tzadik as well as several less readily accessible Japanese records.

⁸ Sopranoist in Maher Shalal Hash Baz.

⁹ AKA Reiko A of Merzbow fame. She has a couple of cassettes of her own stuff available through her Neko-Isis imprint.

¹⁰ Area in the centre of Tokyo. Famous for, what? It's ghost, maybe.

¹¹ About 45 US dollars.