The Wire Listening Room will be open to the public at Vitsoe, 3–5 Duke Street, London W1 from 19–27 September, Mon-Sat 10am-6pm, Sun 11am-4pm.

Tokyo Kid Brothers
“Spot The Stars In The Star Spangled Banner”
from Returning Golden Bat
(King)

Formed by Yutaka Higashi, an absconding player from experimental theatre writer-director Shuji Terayama’s Tenjo Sajiki company, the splinter group Tokyo Kid Brothers temporarily took up residence in Shinjuku’s Panic discotheque, where they began formulating their earliest, wildly psychedelic rock assaults on the buttoned down mindsets of postwar Japan and the US democratic model that shaped it. Originally released in 1971, Returning Golden Bat is a 2015 reissue of the sprawling yet exhilarating mess of their underground rock theatre hit, in New York as well as Tokyo.

Toru Takemitsu
“Sky, Horse And Death”
from Oto No Hajimari Wo Motomete 6: Nishihata Shiotani Takayanagi Work
(Sound3)

Recorded at Japan’s central broadcasting company NHK’s electronic music studio in Tokyo, “Sky, Horse And Death” is a 1958 tape piece included on one of eight electronic compilations, each singling out NHK sound engineers who had both the technical chops and vivid imagination to help Japan’s rising avant garde composers properly realise their musical visions.

Shimettainu
“Dog Is Surrounded By Birds”
from Stroll
(Birdfriend/birdfriend.bandcamp.com)

Shimettainu are the Sapporo based male/female feedback duo of Abt and Taichi Furudate, who rodeo ride the wildly unpredictable squiggles of static created by jacking an audio cable and a mixing board’s internal rhythm machine. This could be what techno sounded like when it first squealed into being. This track is from a 2014 cassette released in an edition of 100 copies.

Aoi Swimming
“Hard Song”
from Kankei Iruka!
(Enban)

Aoi Swimming is the alter ego of Aoi Maeda, an idiosyncratic singer-songwriter cum performance artist playing toy keyboards who was born in Hokkaido in 1985. As a literature student in Sapporo, she formed the female duo Kakuni, whose aim was to create compositions and performances specific to wherever they played. Going out solo, her weirdly plastic neon voice bounces witty, observant lyrics over pumping toy house rhythms. This track is from her solo cassette Kankei Iruka! (the title translates as Relationship Dolphin!), recorded, mixed and produced by Tennis Coats’ Saya, and just released in an edition of 100 by the Tokyo label Enban.

Otomo Yoshihide
“(Characters) 1”
from Guitar Solo Left 2015
(Doubtmusic)

The guitar alluded to in the album title used to belong to Otomo’s mentor/employer, the jazz-noise guitarist and improvisor Masayuki Takayanagi. As he used to work for Takayanagi until the pair fell out during the latter’s 1984 tour of Hokkaido, the chance to play his ex-boss’s instrument has emotional significance for Otomo. He was given the instrument when he met Takayanagi’s widow more than a decade later at the funeral of the influential Japanese free jazz critic Teruto Soejima, who died in July 2014. “During his life Soejima-san had always been concerned about my ungracious leave-taking from Takayanagi-san,” remarks Otomo. This track is from a solo guitar concert recording made earlier this year.

Cup & Saucers
“The Sweetness Of Men”
from Awesome
(Musical Bones Studio)

Formed in 2013, Sapporo guitarist and singer Miyuki Mori’s female duo Cup & Saucers, completed by Mari Watanabe on drum, belong to the same informal Sapporo underground network of intuitive, inventive and often funny young musicians, improvisors and video makers as Aoi Swimming and Shimettainu, with legendary drummer Ikuro Takahashi acting as spirit guide. This track comes from Cup & Saucers’ debut album Awesome, recorded earlier this year at Sapporo’s Musical Bones Studio.

Seppuku Pistols
“No Mishima No Future”
(seppukupistols.soregashi.com)

Living up to their name’s mash-up of iconic 1976 punk and the Japanese samurai warrior’s suicide code privileging death before dishonour, Seppuku Pistols have been kicking against the pricks, be they of the politically correct or Japanese establishment kind, since 1999. They’ve yet to release a proper record, instead maintaining a spook presence on YouTube by posting live clips and provocative slapstick audiovisual montages that expose the still raw wounds left behind by early 20th century Japanese imperialism. As does the track “No Mishima No Future”, one of seven free downloads available from the group’s website.

Gagakirise & EYE
“Flash”
from Gagakiriseye
(Thrill Jockey)

This 7" single blooding his new collaboration with the Japanese psych rock duo Gagakirise is Boredoms vocalist and leader EYE’s first new studio recording to go public in the last five years.

Sajjanu
“USK (Universal Studio Korea)”
from Californication II
(No label CD/sajjanu.bandcamp.com)

Formed in 2006, the tremendously fit Tokyo trio Sajjanu have devised a new kind of instrumental rock music that’s as braintwistingly complex as it is physically agile. Seeing this superbly drilled unit performing it live at warp speeds, holding down its breakneck switchback rhythms and changes by the skin of their pants, reveals their project is also insanely goofy. Their 2009 debut album was released by Tzadik, since when they’ve gone it alone. “USK” is taken from their 2012 album Californication II. They’re about to release a third CD, Trauma 13, which is already available as a download via Bandcamp.

Seijaku
“Look Over Here From The Other Side”
from Last Live
(Doubtmusic)

As the album title says, this is the final live recording of Keiji Haino’s rhythm ’n’ power trio Seijaku, which folded when Yoshimitsu Ichiraku heard from his doctor that he had to stop playing drums for health reasons. They immediately came back as a studio-only trio under their own names with a double CD titled After Seijaku. But this track comes from the companion live double set of their last concert at Tokyo’s Club Goodman in 2012.

K’DLOKK
“Fleur Et Femme”
from Nagyon Szeretrek Mindenkinek
(Nyamma Ravel)

Long before I knew what it was called, this song had been haunting me since I first heard it performed by the female duo NObLUE in Osaka in 2007. When they came on stage dressed in silly animal costumes with an array of toy instruments, things didn’t look promising. But that feeling changed as soon as they started playing a series of heartbreakingly affecting songs. Happy to look as daft as they were economically inventive, they painstakingly sought out and hit all the right notes to make this music move. NObLUE’s Sayuri Tsugaya has since worked solo and in another duo called K’DLOKK, with Fumiko Gomi on guitar. It turns out that “Fleur Et Femme”, taken from their 2010 album, is a new take on the aforementioned NObLUE track, and it’s every bit as affecting as it was on first hearing. Guest musician Akira Sotoyama adds bathtub percussion.

Akio Suzuki & Aki Onda
“Do Ko E”
from Ma Ta Ta Bi
(Oral)

This duo bringing together sound artist and instrument builder Akio Suzuki and curator of cassette memories Aki Onda has become a long lasting affair that has taken them to the US, Japan, the UK and elsewhere in Europe. This track is from a live album recorded in Belgium in June 2013

Kapiw & Apappo
“Iyoyo Iyo”
from Kapiw & Apappo
(download)

Kapiw & Apappo are Ainu sisters Toko Emi on vocals and Fukiko Goukon on mukkuri, tonkori and vocals. Their beguiling performances of songs and sagas passed down the centuries through oral tradition rescue the music from the folklore heritage industry that indigenous artforms often find themselves inextricably mired in, and instead locks it into the eternal now where it’ll forever sound alive.

Junzo Suzuki
“La Notte”
from Portrait Of Madeleine Elster
(Utech)

Second generation Japanese psych guitarist Junzo Suzuki has an impressive CV, playing out with Overhang Party and Miminokoto among other collaborative projects. But he’s really come into his own as a tireless, seemingly forever touring solo performer, whose electric blues gets deeper and darker with each new release. “La Notte” is from a 2013 release, and it features Ikuro Takahashi on drums.

Sachiko
“Return”
from Loka In The Black Ship
(Kubitsuri Tapes)

Voice and electronics performer Sachiko is another former Overhang Party member. She also played in Kousokuya as well as participating in various projects with Overhang Party founder Rinji Fukuoka. But the best place to start with Sachiko is the deep drone songs and music she has been evolving since her 2006 solo debut You Never Atone For…. “Return” closes her 2013 album Loka In The Black Ship.