asa-chang + junray

It is beautiful.
Unlike anything most have ever heard most probably.
Both good things in music.

So, what's the verdict on this? Something about it is very interesting to me, but at the same time I want to ask "is that all there is?" And then I want to go home and listen to it again.

Also, iirc this release is a comp of their '98 and '01 mini-LPs, so it's definitely cheating to put it on year end lists. Of course, this is old hat for Japanese releases.

Asa-Chang & Junray - 'Hana'

I’m not sure if Asa-Chang like to confuse. There is evidence to suggest it: instead of listing all the songs on the back of the sleeve, they list side-A’s on side-A and vice-versa, the put the exit hole at the top of the sleeve, and then there is the music. They like to hold two sounds in the one space at the one time: so they do that thing people do when they’re trying to place something in a cupboard with a spring door and they only have one hand free: fight the hinge in order to stock their object. They have to repeatedly shunt sound A out the way so they can try make space for sound B but sound A is spring loaded so it thwacks B out its space. They sidle up alongside the space again, holding B in higher regard and give A the knock it needs and try and put B in: same happens. Eventually this reaches a frantic pitch and the interplay of sound A & B leads to them rattling everywhere like fission atoms off carbon rods. These sounds are usually dumb drums. This is all played out to a waning string backing. Mournful of the futility of trying to fit two sounds in the one space. Its an irritating spectacle: the confusion, the escalation, the futility, the wilfulness. It’s also weirdly exhilirating.

They don't like to confuse, so much as they are confused and like to refuse the normal order of things: two things can never fit in one space.

There's the stylistic cut and paste, jitteryness, repeat & expand similarities too. Together with the feeling like it's packed with ideas leading to the feeling that you just can't take it all in in one sitting.

David Markson:

In the beginning, sometimes I left messages in the street.

Somebody is living in the Louvre, certain of the messages would say. Or in the National Gallery.

Naturally they could only say that when I was in Paris or in London. Somebody is living in the Metropolitan Museum, being what they would say when I was still in New York.

Nobody came, of course. Eventually I stopped leaving the messages.

To tell the truth, perhaps I left only three or four messages all together.

I have no idea how long ago it was when I was doing that. If I were forced to guess, I believe I would guess ten years.

Possibly it was several years longer ago than that, however.

And of course I was quite out of my mine for a certain period too, back then.

I do not know for how long a period, but for a certain period.

Time out of mind. Which is a phrase I suspect I may have never properly
understood, now that I happen to use it.

Time out of mind meaning mad, or time out of mind meaning simply forgotten?

But in either case there was little question about that madness. As when I drove that time to that obscure corner of Turkey, for instance, to visit at the site of ancient Troy.

And for some reason wished especially to look at the river there, that I had read about as well, flowing past the citadel to the sea.

I have forgotten the name of the river, which was actually a muddy stream.

And at any rate I do not mean to the sea, but to the Dardanelles, which used to be called the Hellespont.

The name of Troy had been changed too, naturally. Hisarlik, being what it was changed to.

Just pulled out their two leaf releases for the first time in years. Awesome. Has anyone heard their 2005 album?

Just heard a couple of their tracks linked to on Electric Mole forums, and I think I like them. At the very least, I'm interested in hearing more.

("Hana" and "Senaka.")

Something about it is very interesting to me, but at the same time I want to ask "is that all there is?" And then I want to go home and listen to it again.

truth.

finally listening to the full album "Jun Ray Song Chang", after being somewhat familiar with "Hana" for a while. IT RULES. note to self, i need to listen to more Asa-Chang, possibly more Junray, and maybe some more Asa-Chang & Junray

how did this emerge out of the mighty mighty bosstones?

i am guessing that asa-chang played the sick rhythms, and junray trigger/sampled it. hm

ASA-CHANG & Junray is a band founded by Japanese percussionist ASA-CHANG, who was the founder and original bandmaster of Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra. After leaving the group in 1993, he formed ASA-CHANG & Junray in 1998 with programmer and guitarist Hidehiko Urayama. They were joined in 2000 by tabla player U-zhaan. Live, the group used a portable sound-system called 'Jun-Ray Tronics', hence the name; the word 'junray', however, also means 'pilgrimage'.

I love Asa Chang, Hana wa my #1 un the 2000s tracks poll