Description
Cascades of electronic noise, a psychedelic touch, and vocal belching mixed together constitute the ingredients of Mademoiselle Anne Sanglante Ou Notre Nymphomanie Auréolé, the double-barreled name for Masonna. Maso Yamazaki, who founded his project in 1987 with his charismatic and glamorous personality, become a cult figure in the “Japanoise” scene. Predating the era of digital domination, there was a time where many artist-run labels released primarily, if not exclusively, cassette tapes: Toshiji Mikawa’s own Pariah Tapes, Masami Akita’s ZSF Produkt, Koji Tano’s MSBR Records, Masaya Nakahara’s My Fiance’s Lifework Productions, Akifumi Nakajima’s G.R.O.S.S., Kimihide Kusafuka’s Kinky Musik Institute, Hiroshi Hasegawa’s Endorphine Factory, Hiroshi Hashimoto’s SSSM and Maso Yamazaki’s Coquette are just a few examples. Masonna’s abundant productions on his own legendary and astonishing label were presented in very limited editions, sometime totally confidential (one sole copy), and reflect his predilection for 60’s psychedelic music revisited in its own very peculiar way. Maso Yamazaki transforms his voice into noise, feeding the microphone back through a process of extreme distortion. His shouts became clipped bursts of overloaded sound, doubled and extended by a delay that displaced the sounds into stuttered blasts of static. These vocal sounds fuse into a rattling background of harsh metallic fuzz, which was created by frantically shaking a highly amplified box filled with coins.
All Live Recording At My Room was released in 1989 on Coquette, and now returns for the first time on vinyl, and fully remastered. The tracks were recorded live, at home, with no mixing or overdubs. The album is full of very rough, harsh noise that’s mostly made up of distorted screaming. This early work is loud and noisy, with lots of angry energy. The distortion and effects on the vocals are top notch, especially how they create a complete audio assault, in combination with his awesome screaming. The album is divided into two parts of fifteen minutes each that evoke an electrically overcharged universe, punctuating the electric and vocal sonorous power with some quite moments and brief interruptions, conferring a very particular dynamic to these tracks. Controlled, gorgeous, and absolutely intense, encountered with distance, Masonna’s stunning All Live Recording At My Room stands with the absolute best of its era, and an absolute revelation, reemerging at long last. Masonna is an emblematic figure of Japanoise, who shines by a personal approach and an immediately recognizable style. A zenith in the noisy Japanese landscape.
Inside the chaos: the God of noise!
