The Tokyo
psychedelic music scene is known for its trademark noisy
acid-drenched guitar mayhems, the sound of which was pioneered by the
likes of Les Rallizes Denudes, Fushitsusha and High Rise, carried on
by Acid Mothers Temple and others. But at the very end of the 2nd
millennium and at the very beginning of the 3rd, a group of electronically
informed musicians on the lookout for more chilled out mind expanding
trips tried out something other than punching
the fuzz and noise into your face and came up with their unique
brand of trancey upbeat psychedelia. I present some of my favourite
tracks from the scene.
The sound I'm talking about is centred
around Boredoms – one of the foremost bands in the Tokyo
noise scene since late 80s that went through a remarkable
transformation as they mellowed out by the late 90s to start
layering more structured soundscapes while keeping it
mind-expandingly trippy:
Boredoms' guitarist Seiichi Yamamoto
has had many side projects but the most long-lived of them is Rovo,
a band immediately distinguishable by its fusion-jazzy approach with
two drummers and an electric violin in their ranks:
Another one of Yamamoto's successful
offshoots is a collaboration with Bravo Komatsu under the name
Guitoo. The song I've chosen builds up in an ethereal and
blissful way, it seems simple at first but has many spacey layers
going on which erupt as the song takes off with a tasty desert rock
riff set on top of an urban breakbeat percussion:
One of the most underrated bands in the Tokyo underground is Hanadensha (translates “flower
train”), fronted by former Boredoms bassist Hira. Those interested
in a hypnotizing groove with Japanese spoken word vocals and a
looping sampled/processed didgeridoo (or sth like that) should lay
their ears on this:
OOIOO, a girl band lead by Boredoms' drummer Yoshimi, is hard to categorize. Their
music makes some people think of primordial nature, others of tribal
dancing. It's calm but not without mind tickling intensity. Here
OOIOO convince the listener that they've uncovered the threshold to a New
Age somewhere in the forests of Hokkaido:
The Source Family was a “new religious movement” (one of those terms that sociologists use but members themselves generally dislike although not as much as the word "cult") and commune active in LA in the early-to-mid 1970s. The membership fluctuated between 150 and 200 people in its heyday – all gathered round the charismatic patriarch Father Yod and his organic food restaurant. On the course of his spiritual journey the WW II marine and Hollywood stuntman Yod had reportedly lead the life of a Hinduist monk, a Sikh and follower of the Kundalini yogi Bhajan. He was certainly an excellent intermediary between different traditions and by blending together influences from Christianity, Indian teachings, the Kabbalah, theosophy and freemasonry and mixing it all together with psychedelic music, cannabis consumption and a more liberal form of sexuality, he created something that fit the context of early 70s California like a glove.
A lot has already been said about the way of life of the Source Family, whoever happens to be interested can find loads of sources on the net. In this article I'll just try to present my interpretations on the whole thing. I know some of the members of the Source Family are active on the internet and if they happen to read this, I would like them to 1) know that I don't mean to offend with any of what I write and 2) add their comments or corrections to the article. The reason I (and probably most people today) will talk about Yod and co in the first place is Ya Ho Wha 13, the musical wing of the family which has attracted a considerable amount of attention in certain alternative music circuits due to the recently (re)released albums packed with sheer commune rockin' jam sounds and novelty value. Although I'm not a fan of Ya Ho Wha 13's whole output, I would like to
share a couple of noteworthy tracks which I'll embed at the end of this
article.
The music would be performed after morning meditations with the father singing or whistling supported by the musicians of the commune who just happened to make up almost a supergroup of renowned LA psych rockers including Sunflower Aquarian from the Fields:
...and occasionally Sky Saxon from the Seeds:
I'll take a look at some of the Ya Ho Wha 13 lyrics which provide an interesting contemporary account filled wth unique insights into the atmosphere of the commune and of what went on in Father Yod's mind. He expresed his thoughts in music as he considered it to be the best medium for transmitting mystic energy: In the frown, in the illusion, that's no way to go, that's the way of confusion. Smile little baby smile, what the hell. there's too much negativity inside you. Let's take it out. That's right, first get with the sound, get inside it, spin around, then do it as you feel it. Use the grasping hand, Yod understands. Reach out, grab that air, keep those hands moving, keep the body groovin. Lift them high towards the sky.
According to the Family the outside world was living an illusion, having been lead astray by things wrong or just trivial from the point of view of Father Yod's mysticist teachings.
We go without restriction, pain, remorse, regret that infects our society today. Man has ratted on himself. Man is ripping himself off – can you imagine such a ridiculous situation? We are thru with this, we don't burn each other and we dont let us be burnt.
Yet they never took the goal to spiritually rescue the whole humanity like some Mahayana Buddhists. Their music was mostly instead of actively proselytizing their message, it would seem that the group engaged in a more individualistic mysticism and quest for nirvana/freedom/enlightenment/redemption, whatever you want to call it. One of the possible perspectives in which the movement's fate might have been different from a quiet implosion would have been evolving into some sort of a national (or perhaps even global) new age and organic food chain thing. Why not? – religion/salvation and business/branding do not necessarily exclude one another nowadays. Truth be told, most of the outside world was never thrilled about the Family, especially after the Manson bunch had left such a negative image on communes and charismatic leaders, plus they had constant trouble with the local laws.
Another thing I'd like to address is the question of identity which is an interesting one when it comes to these kinds of communes. The Family's initiates had to give up their previous social self, their relationships and material possessions for the beliefs and norms of the commune. “You gotta die to live again,” as Yod would sing. His disciples would all wear sari-like clothes, leave their hair uncut and they were given new names, the surname Aquarius being the same for everyone in order to emphasize family-like belonging. The commune and Father Yod in particular became the cornerstone of this new identity which is probably why the movement came to its end so shortly after the charismatic leader's departure - his soul left his body in a hang-gliding accident in Hawaii in 1975 and the Family's gradual dissolution finalized a couple of years thereafter.
For a liberal minded layperson it might seem a bit totalitarian that every aspect of ones identity becomes subjected to a spiritualistic commune with not much left in the private sphere. But then again the choice to join the movement was each members own - we can't, on the other hand, choose which country we are born to, for example. Instead of a national government and the mainstream media these people chose a different kind of organization to arrange their lives and provide ideological guidance. One that reconfigured the social roles and norms of the dominant culture of the time. It has been estimated that from the late 60s until mid 70s over 70 000 communes sprung up in the USA with over 750 000 Americans living in that manner*. It's not actually that difficult to understand this phenomenon of the baby-boomer generation and to illustrate the charm of these kinds of communities, here's another passage of Yod's lyrics which could easily pass off as an enlisting ad:
You want to live with me but you must accept responsibility. I'm gonna tell you what you gotta do, give to me all of you. I'll return it with more, you see. We're gonna move around in space, we're gonna take and embrace everything that's ourselves, we're gonna leave nothing on the shelves, we're gonna use all with you, we're gonna enjoy all we do. We're gonna go to the limits. Gonna prepare a nest for you. Ain't gonna have much to do, but do your thing and that's all there is and that's to bring from me and you the God.
As promised, here are a few of my favourite Ya Ho Wha 13 tracks:
Ya Ho Wha 13
*Conover, Patrick W 1975. An Analysis of Communes and Intentional Communities with Particular Attention to Sexual and Genderal Relations. – The Family Coordinator, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Oct., 1975), p. 456.
