In 2024, Tokyo is a city changing under a new set of influences, set against the backdrop of a sputtering economy, shifting demographics, and the erosion of the fantasy of an orderly techno-utopia. The hellish, vibrating soup of noise music has always held special meaning in Japan’s musical underground, where electronic sounds resonate at high volumes. Here, a unique lineage of punk and industrial artists have been slowly nurtured over generations, musicians embracing the analogue equipment and digital artefacts surrounding them in order to disrupt the contradictions of cultural conservatism. Tokyo’s anarchic arts continue to operate within this dystopian modality, with its rebellious technical modifications, indiscriminate genre blends, Buddhist/Shinto techno-spiritualisms and uncompromising musicianship. But the terrain is more disorientating than ever, with music that brims with informational overload.
Despite Tokyo’s micro-scenes being fairly fragmented, there have been a few recent events that have encapsulated these trends. An example was the seventh edition of Evil Spa, held on 16 February, 2024. Run by a community of anarchic bands around the experimental noise/hardcore outfit Moreru, Evil Spa has gradually attracted ever more diverse eccentrics. This year’s event promoted their own affiliated guitar-driven projects, including Moreru (an emo-violent ensemble meaning ‘leaking’), Shouchoubunnretu / 小腸分裂 (a harsh-rock outfit meaning ‘intestinal puncture’), ANALSKULLFUCK (a grindcore band whose name requires no explanation), and Guitar Wolf (the iconic ‘jet rock & roll’ trio playing since 1987), among others.
Others from within Tokyo’s underground sprawl were also invited: DJs from the techno and gabber sphere, performance artists, Soundcloud rappers and Japanese hip-hop artists, digital creators, experimental videographers, and like-minded musicians from abroad. Occurring at a crucial moment for an especially open-minded, openly-frustrated generation of artists, the chaotic energy reached new heights as people in mascot costumes descended into mosh pits, attendees stormed the stage, and there were even reports of strange happenings involving urine.
Evil Spa’s celebration of hellish noise revealed Tokyo’s musical underground to be united by attitude rather than style, with genre dissolving under the absorption of global club genres over recent years, all accelerated through memes, reels and a curious coexistence with new digital software and AI. Distorted J-Pop melodies seep serotonin through the grime and the feeling persists that the chaos is ultimately (and joyously) uncontrollable.
Moreru – 呪詛告白初恋そして世界
Moreru’s deafening live shows are an intense fusion of hardcore, black metal, post-rock and shoegaze, all blended in with the distorted poetics of J-Pop, digital textures, voice synthesising software and guitars. Existing at the heart of an anarchic community in Tokyo, Moreru’s rotating membership engage in various side projects, and they’ve often shared stages with renowned acts like Melt Banana or Guitar Wolf. This live footage will give you a bit of an idea of just how hectic this is.
Shouchoubunretu – ‘Flash! Shouchoubunretu’
Shouchoubunretu ignite a conflagration of punk, hardcore and grunge with funk and dub influences, via crashing symbols, driving bass-lines and heated aggro ad-lib vocals. Their unpredictable performance of this gut-fissuring noise has led to various outlandish stories circulating in the underground. One such rumour has it that the group held a performance to commemorate a deceased band member, setting up an elaborate Buddhist altar for an emotional memorial service. As their set progressed, they proceeded to destroying the altar, shocking the audience, who nevertheless eventually joined in. Later on, some punters apparently discovered late on that there was never any dead bandmate in the first place.
Yuutaiaura – ‘Lucifer’ (feat Yumesaki)
Cryptic lullaby beats by Moreru’s electronics manipulator combine the cultish nostalgia of lost video games with the atmospheres of Japanese horror cinema. Her airy chip-tune voice unfolds like a possessed machine amidst a digitalised, dense technological atmosphere. Yuutaiaura’s live performances – a complex combination of pedals, controllers, field recordings, vocal manipulations and other modified electronics – grounds the dreamy aura in reality.
BBBBBBB – ‘Shin God’
BBBBBB ’s digital hardcore combusts as hell-raising high-speed kaleidoscopes, an almost absurdly uplifting force combining the exhilarating rhythms of Singeli and the twisted power of breakcore with the wackiest sides of Japanese noise-psychedelia. Originating from Aichi prefecture, their music spreads a vibrant restlessness like a deep-fried digital rainbow above a reality of discarded alcohol cans, prescription pill sheets and convenience store garbage. The furious hyper-hardcore of album Positive Violence for example has been previously featured on the American noise label Deathbomb Arc, placing them alongside musicians such as Death Grips, Clipping. and JPEGMAFIA.
Bailefunk Kakeko – TóquioBug (compilation)
A force connecting the raucous Brazilian favela-born genre to the other side of the Pacific, Bailefunk Kakeko’s activities as a DJ, producer and label boss have resulted a fascinating hybrid. In Tokyo via Kakeko, baile-funk’s chaotic power is fused with noise, rave, gabber and trance, Japanese hip hop and beyond. She provides a home for Japanese baile-funk producers under her label Toquiobug, bringing local rappers onto fiery beats. Meanwhile, she has become the main support for Brazilian DJs on their Japanese tours – most recently, for TToten and KARAN!.
