Do the Icepick

GEROGERIGEGEGE - Recollections of Primary Masturbation

Welcome to the world of Juntaro Yamanouchi, the gay, cross-dressing noisemonger behind Shinjuku, Tokyo's Gerogerigegege. The Gero first raised its ugly mug in 1985 with the "Studio & Live" LP, and have ever since released a huge catalog of noise, ambient and uncategorizable works-- many of which are high on the record collector scum want-list, and go for ludicrous amounts of money. Then again, how many bands consider masturbation an instrument (courtesy of Gero 56 aka Tetsuya Endoh)? Maybe they're justified with their obsession in this case (?).

My fave has always been "Tokyo Anal Dynamite" (included here in full), which contains 75 (!) tracks, all of which are short blasts of noise (under a minute) prefaced with Juntaro's nod to the Ramones by screaming "1-2-3-4!!" between each "song." You'll be laughing yer ass off by about the 20th time he does it. Er... I do anyway.

This Collection Contains:
- Kitanomaru Hyakkei 7" EP
- Senzuri Champion LP
- Senzuri Monkey Metal Action 7" EP
- More Shit 7" EP
- Tokyo Anal Dynamite CD
= 338 Songs!!

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PRIMITIVE CALCULATORS - S/T (1979)

Make no mistake, the racket of the Primitive Calculators coulda spawned from only one place: the soulless, dreary confines of Sweet Home Suburbia. A place where, if you were a bored teenager in the mid-70's, solace could only be found in conspicuous consumption, heavily thumbed issues of Creem and the well-worn grooves of Velvet Underground, Godz and MC5 LP's. That outpost of gloom for the Primitive Calculators was Springvale, outside of Melbourne, Oz. With nothing more than the desire to Get The Fuck Out, they armed themselves with a Moserite Guitar, Wasp & Roland SH2 synthesizers (ie: primitive) and a Roland CR-78 drum machine.

I already gave y'all a taste of this combo a few posts down on the "Can't Stop It!" compilation (see "Broken Legs, Broken Face"), and this LP was their only official output during their brief existence (1978-82). If you dig Chrome (judging by the success of my "Chromosome Damage" triumvirate, I'd guess a lotta ya do, he says, checking his stats), Suicide or the Screamers, this is definitely up yer analog electro-skronk alley. Atonal and (still) futuristic, squawking one-note guitar riffs battle with the beeping and whirring din of dissonant keyboards and hyper-fast android thud. This is a far more challenging, not to mention rewarding listen than anything outta NYC's much ballyhooed No Wave scene-- and much less precious or irony-caked. And hey, any band that dedicates their longplayer to the Godz' Jim McCarty gets a special notation in my Cool Book.

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