TATSUYA YOSHIDA

— First review of this album —

Superhelix is the second in a long stretch of collaborative live albums by Yoshida and keyboard player Risa Takeda and showcases a strong performance even if it doesn't quite capture lightning in a bottle like it's predecessor Hue, in whose footsteps it closely follows, consisting mainly of dissonant, high-energy and improvisations that continually reinvent themselves. In fact, this album confirms my earlier suspicion that Hue wasn't wholly improvised and that the performers did prepare some cues (it's not until the duo's later live releases that they really go off the deep end into the realm of free improv and undiluted noise), but these cues are more like loosely defined starting blocks than actual blueprints for the performance that results from them. To name some examples: "Halcyon" starts off with the same piano and Mellotronish flute samples as "GZ" on the previous album but ends up in a different, far more noisy and multi-structured direction than its predecessor. Likewise, "Spiro" has a similar ending to "PHT" in spite of the rest of the song sounding different, and "Aurora" starts off with the same synth riff as "LTC" but instead of a synthy jazz fusion jam we get a dissonant piano-led free jazz session.

While Superhelix is certainly no less exhilirating and attention-demanding than Hue, I don't think it's as diverse and also not quite as unique because Yoshida and Takeda don't succeed as well in building up grooves or creating order out of chaos here, and they rely a bit too much on the same tricks: Yoshida throws in his Christian Vander impersonations a little too often regardless of whether or not they fit with their environments, and a lot of tracks end with a similar series of synchronous drum blasts and cluster chords. Nonetheless, Superhelix certainly manages to deliver the goods at its best moments. The aforementioned "Halcyon" and "Aurora" are great, "Ritualize" and the title track are solid fusion jams that move through several tempo changes, "Obsdian" (sic) sounds like a mad polka from hell and "Rupture" starts off resembling an accursed chorale in a haunted church before gradually building up intensity and speed, turning itself from a dissonant piano march into another lightning-fast jazz track with Takeda pulling out a distorted organ sample. Finally, "Kaos" is just a dazzling accomplishment, travelling from a slow march to a syncopated prog riff and to bunch of arrhythmic noise before recovering and building itself up into a new powerful prog melody yet again (perhaps the only moment where the album actually displays something that could be called catchy).

Like all albums in this series, Superhelix demands a lot of tolerance for unruly, dissonant and generally unconventional music but if you're willing to take that leap, or if you're a big fan of Ruins, the Flying Luttenbachers or King Crimson's Thrakattak album then this gets a big recommendation from me.

— First review of this album —

This is the first in a series of eight (so far!!!) live albums released this year, documenting the collaborative exploits of jazz pianist Risa Takeda and zeuhl/noise drummer/vocalist/all-around crazy dude Tatsuya Yoshida in concerts since 2020 (with this particular performance dating back to just before covid-19 spread across the world). Yoshida, in addition to pounding away on his drum kit and throwing his trademark weepings and whinings around, plays a Kaossilator, a keyboard-less synthesizer that can be controlled by one's finger on a touchpad. Despite the fact that this album was released by Yoshida's record label and puts his name in front, if anyone plays first fiddle in this performance, it is Takeda, who has a profound say in the mood of every song with her army of digital keyboards from which she seems determined to extract every possible sample to capture it on record (yes, there are Mellotron samples!). Takeda has made somewhat a name for herself in the recent past for putting out rather odd, off-the-beaten-path modern jazz albums (including a collaboration with Guru Guru's Mani Neumeier earlier this year), but this is as avant-garde as I've heard her: the music on this album (as on their seven other albums) is fully improvised (or at least almost; I suspect they did rehearse a few cues, since a few moments, most notably the ending to "PHT", seem a little too synchronized to be spontaneous) and shows little regard who might want to play it at parties: this is an absolutely incessant assault on the senses filled to the brim with frantic drum blasts, cluster chords, dissonant piano runs and dirty synthesized sound effects.

To call this free jazz wouldn't be wrong per se, but it wouldn't fully do it justice either. Pre-meditated or not, these songs do have some sort of structure and aren't just monolithic noise from start to finish. Not often does it feel like Takeda and Yoshida are playing in spite of each other's presence; rather they complement each other perfectly and manage to continuously develop new complicated rhythmic and melodic patterns on the spot. The opening "BOR" is almost unbelievable in this regard, constantly sliding back and forth from freely improvised chaos into a more constrained section, every time in a new rhythm and a new tempo, and with Takeda doing her best to add some jazzy clavinet and piano solos over the ever evolving beat below her.

Most songs on here either start as a disjointed sound collage before turning into a bonafide jazz fusion jam, or vice-versa. "FW" and "GZ" for example both start off as easy-going jazz shuffles with an ironic 'café jazz' atmosphere that gradually increase in intensity and atonal insanity before finally collapsing from exhaustion. In the breathtaking "SYE", a similar development is used to a truly cathartic effect, starting out as an almost ambient piece with piano and synthesized trumpet until the drums kick in, after which a battle seems to happen between the soulful and demonic sides of jazz, with neither side winning in the end but rather converging in a glorious synthesis

The most tonal songs on the album are "GYG", a Hiromi-esque 6/8 waltz in F minor, and "IBL" which uses simple modes all throughout before suddenly changing pace and going south at the very end. However, even these moments of relative peace are surrounded by the most noisy tracks on the album: "DST" with its high-pitched distorted organ that's dripping with delay effects, "LTC" with its screeching electronics that give way to a dissonant organ jam in 7/8 and "RU" which closes the album on a note as violent as that with which it began. This is brutal prog in one of its purest forms, a rollercoaster of sound that demands attention. You simply have to listen to this if you have an affinity for the extreme fringes of progressive music.

Thunder and lightning! But then again....

My first encounter with Tatsuya Yoshida, who co-composes, "Welcome... ... In The Void", 2014, alongside Richard Pinhas, is through this same record. This project was selected to be on Yoshida's PA section, although by the book, it should have been the other way around.

Drummer Yoshida finally was the one to subdue a bit, Pinhas' frantic obsession with Robert Fripp's self-named "Frippertronics". I mean, he uses them more than Fripp himself, who now constructs a more refined kind, named "soundscapes".

But no matter how much I appreciate and still want to appreciate Richard Pinhas own guitar language, it is always surrounded by this "cloudy aura" of sounding like a Robert Fripp's involuntary (?) clone.

Well, as told, Yoshida's thunderous and creative drumming kind of balances and keeps Richard, most of the time, busy doing what he does best, the daring and whirling guitar soloings mixed with an ever changing palette of strumming colors, like his great Heldon or his best early solo efforts. But although owning his own style, he falls off the wagon more than once. Damn!

Welcome.....in the Void, consist of 2, 30 min long each, non-stop, progressive psychedelic electronics. (A.V. to fit in!). There are extraordinary sections, of tumultuous and deep whirling inspiration, when both musicians form a perfectly balanced communion of excesses, going both ways of their performing skills. But inevitably, I can not keep my mind off, the constant and alien apparition of Pinhas' "Frippertronics".

Therefore, ***3, "Good! One way trip" PA stars.

Along with providing drumming for some of the Satoko Fujii Quartet's albums and performances, Yoshida has collaborated here with Fujii in a very interesting duet album - drums and piano. Satoko is a fairly incredible pianist, whose style seems to mix jazz and a pinch of avant garde fairly seamlessly. Thanks to her ability and versatility, these two have managed to record some pretty great stuff on this album. Each of them composed several pieces on the album, as well as collaborating on the writing of two tracks. Both have produced some pretty fun, fiery tracks for this collaboration, and it's really interesting to hear what they can do together.

I remember reading a while back at someone's surprise with Yoshida's playing in Satoko's quartet - they didn't expect him to be able to adapt to the slightly more subdued style expected in a jazz quartet. Based on the music on this album, I'd say that he is definitely able to go at least part way, and Satoko is no slouch at moving towards the more aggressive style required for Yoshida's compositions. The resulting interplay on the tracks is generally pretty great. The tracks are generally uptempo and fairly complex rhythmically, but both players get to show their characteristic style off, I think. I'm not familiar with much of Satoko's other work though, so I may be completely off on this one. Whatever the case though, they do play some great music here. I love Satoko's style on piano on this album, she brings a big part of her jazzy history with her which mixes quite well with Yoshida's intense drumming. The last track on the album is the only one with vocals, and it is basically the first track repeated with both musicians singing along with the melody. I don't notice any other real differences from the first take.

This is really a great album. It doesn't quite reach masterpiece status, but it's something I always enjoy listening to. As the Obi strip on the album says, these compositions really display the "passion and virtuosity of these two Japanese visionaries." (Tzadik) I couldn't have put it better myself. Along with the obvious reference point of Ruins (in Yoshida's drumming and compositions) the album somewhat resembles classical music (Stravinsky, not Beethoven) and jazz, both thanks to Satoko's piano playing. Easy four stars for this one.

This live collection is the first of three (so far) collections of improvisations released by Tatsuya Yoshida and Uchihashi Kazuhisa. On display here is the kind of music you'd expect from the two playing together - high energy, complex improvisations with guitar and drums and (of course) bizarro lyrics courtesy of Yoshida. Each of these guys is great at improvising, and a lot of the time I'd almost think some of the material was pre-written. Yoshida mainly sticks to the drums and vocals, and Uchihashi plays his guitar through loops and delay a lot of the time, similar to his style in his own group, Altered States. He alters the speed of the looped portions as well to add some odd sounds to the mix, and on occasion Yoshida's vocals are run through a delay box as well, which is always fun. The music on display here definitely isn't for everyone, though - fans of Yoshida's usual high-energy material a-la Ruins should get a kick out of it, though. It's closer to their material than to anything I've heard from Altered States up to this point.

The two are certainly generous with the amount of material on display here - two discs of highly entertaining improvs for roughly the price of one prog album. My only big complaint is the packaging - it's a very thin cardboard package with the two albums on one foam holder, every time I pull out the discs I feel like I'm going to bend the packaging out of shape. The music is what counts for me though, and I enjoy it all quite a lot. Definitely an excellent addition to the collection of anyone who enjoys the Japanese avant scene.

This is one of the more unusual albums in my collection. When I ordered it, I didn't know anything about Haino Keiji apart from the fact that he was a fairly unusual performer, but I wasn't expecting the results present on this disc. I listened to the second track on Yoshida's Myspace page and it was pretty interesting, a cut/pasted together track of insanity...the only thing that is really consistent throughout the album is insanity.

Some of the tracks are more "normal", though normal can't apply to any of it really - for example, the first track sounds like it's going to be a haunting instrumental affair, then suddenly electronics and screamed vocals come in to throw you off. The second track is entirely disorienting until you're used to the way it lurches along, as eventually the bizarre cuts start to make sense and the underlying rhythm starts to show itself. Even then, it's still a bizarre song. That's the most appropriate word for this album, really - bizarre. No one track can prepare you for what's inside, and no track name can be pronounced. There is a really wide variety of music on the album, though, that's for sure. Several of the tracks are even all in one piece! I don't regularly do track by track reviews, and even if I did I would probably skip it for this one - I'd get too mixed up on what was going on when and why, plus I don't know how to spell any of them. That's a big part of the album's appeal for me, actually - it's a good album to listen to when you don't know what to listen to, because you'll probably hear it at some point on the album (assuming it has something to do with Yoshida's style or strange, almost folky tunes courtesy of Haino Keiji).

I'd most likely recommend this album to someone who wants to go insane - or someone who already is (like myself) and who wants to stay that way. If you're a fan of Tatsuya Yoshida and want something which is "out there" even for his standards, this is probably a good choice for you. If the incoherent album/track titles appeal to you...then again, this one is possibly a good choice for you. It really is all over the place, as I've said. From what I understand, it's either the second or third album released by this duo, so there's more crazy goodness where this one came from. There is definitely an odd, off-the-wall sense of humor on display here as well, though it may not be very obvious at first. I'd say this is deserving of masterpiece status, for being an incredible album and at the same time totally unique. It won't be everyone's cup of tea, but no album is.

Edit: I just want to mention the two songs which I enjoy most of all - the second track "Dhoidvophkjiff" and the last track "Mkdoijadih" - stylistically, they're miles apart...the earlier is a crazy cut/paste fest, and the later is one of the few tracks on the album which could be called calm.

Tatsuya Yoshida with Igor Krutogolov and Assif Tsahar - Live In The Head, Tel Aviv 2006 (Auris Media, 2008) This release is a recording of a live show from 2006 in Tel-Aviv (Israel) and features 14 tracks. The first 6 are improvisations by the Tatsuya Yoshida along with Igor Krutogolov (from Kruzenshtern and Parohod) and Assif Tsahar. The other 8 tracks are Tatsuya Yoshida playing alone and are his compositions/improvisations.

The first part played by the three musicians is a frenzied crazy mix of Zorn-esque madness on the sax played by Assif Tsahar and Ruins insanity in the rhythm section played by the mighty Tatsuya Yoshida on drums (and also guitar, keyboards, sampler and vocals) and Igor Krutogolov on bass (and also drum machine, vocals and various objects). Add in also insane vocals, which sound to me as gibberish, chanting in and out of the music. Not only hyper active playing all the time, there are also some more abstract segments where the trio creates eerie moods and sounds that sound as if they are conjuring up ghosts in a ritual. However, there is no stop to the flow of the music. Those improvisations sound very coherent and as if pre-planned. The three musicians seem to get each others vibes and style very well and sound as if they're used to play with each other naturally and regularly. There are wonderful bits where Yoshida's drumming is intense and angular and Igor's bass is raw and aggressive sounding and Assif's tenor sax complements them very well with its nutty sound (Improvisation II is a great example of this). There are some weaker moments, more predictable in nature and less interesting such as in the opening part of Improvisation III (first 4 minutes) which sounds like something you've heard before and lacks a certain spark or enthusiasm that the other tracks have. It gets better and more interesting as the playing goes on and the lunatic vocals appear at the front of the music and lead them interacting with the saxophone's playing but as a whole this is a weaker, less appealing track in here. But luckily it is not the case for the most part of the music on here and it will be a thrilling wild adventure for those who like this style and free form sort of avant-rock and jazz. The most captivating for me are the highly dynamic and unrefined patterns and chops from the bass and drums; they boast an intensity and even catchiness to them that is the key to the magic of this release and sits at its core. An interesting change in sound comes in the 6th improvisation where effects and keyboards come in and add another layer to the mix, adding to the volume of the sound and to its oddness as well.

This second part of the album is a non-stop playing, continuous musical journey that "visits" several moods and atmospheres, from fast and insane (first three tracks in this part for exmaple) to slow eerie and calmer landscapes (3 first minutes of Untitled II) to very peculiar and zany experimentations (last 5 minutes of Untitled II) to more melodic parts that remind me a bit of Pochakaite Malko's first album ( Olovela). It has a more whole sound that might remind of Koenjihyakkei as well as Ruins with its avant-rock and slightly zeuhl-ish leanings. It portrays fabulous playing and high level intensity and energy; moving fast from segment to segment, from fast to slow, from "deranged" to more "tame". All instruments played form a wonderful "symphony" of sounds, making this a entrancing listening experience. It is astonishing to hear him play like this, creating hypnotic repetitive sounds and effects with the keyboards, alongside the brilliant drum playing. This second part is in my opinion the main reason to get this release. It contains brilliantly played music and awesome compositions that are ear candy to me as a fan of this style of high level intensity and madness

One of most present Tatsuya Yoshida live release is recorded still in 2006 during his concert in Tel-Aviv. His two collaborators on this concert were Istraeli/NY avant jazz sax player Assif Tsahar and member of Russian/Israeli avant-klezmer band Kruzenshtern & Parohod bassist Igor Krutogolov.

Album begins with high energy complex drum and sax attacks. And it is really great sound! Yoshida is known by his complex and fast drumming with all possible collaborators around the world (and playing with his founded Ruins band as well). But this live recording is really one great event when his extaic drumming has not less explosive partner - sharp, free and very energetic sax of Assif Tsahar !

After few first very explosive compositions, trio goes to free-form improvisations with wordless vocals. There they feel very comfortable on free jazz territory. But even in free-form compositions they didn't loose high energy drive!

I am not very familiar with Assif Tsahar works, but Igor's Kruzenshtern & Parohod were regular guest of my hometown scene, so I know their Masada -influenced music quite well. So - don't expect anything like that there on this album!

In a very few compositions you can hear just touches of klesmer, and it's all. In all music sounds as sharp mix of brutal Japanese avant hardcore with NY downtown free jazz.

For me - one of the best Yoshida's solo release! My rating is 4+!