Who is Otomo Yoshihide? And what is turntablism?
In the beginning, there is nothing. The cliff walls are motionless, towering above the deep canyons. Everything is at a standstill.
A sound. The piercing note of a Hojok: a Korean reed instrument typically used in marching bands. It echoes off of the canyon walls, bringing with it the authority of a war cry. It is a warning: an augury to all that something is on its way. Every animal stands at attention, suddenly alert of the danger that is present. As other Hojoks join with their wailing, the ground begins to shake, and a dark storm cloud appears on the horizon...
Otome Yoshidihe: Turntable Terrorist
Japanese bands have always been known for their forward-thinking and unnerving displays of craftsmanship. Whether it is the noisy hypnosis of Les Rallizes Dénudés or the throttling violence of Bleach, Japan has always been close to the center of the progressive music movement.
However, many of these bands would never achieve any formal recognition; reserved only for the lucky few who stumble across them. There are probably many works of mastery from Japan waiting to be discovered, never having been lucky enough to penetrate international borders to the Western world. Japanese noise-rock band Ground Zero is simply one of the lucky few that made it through. Ground Zero was founded in 1990 by Otomo Yoshihide, a guitarist born in Yokohama, 1959. He now lives in Tokyo.
Early in his life, Otomo Yoshihide had a great interest in jazz and incorporated its concepts into his compositions. Therefore, a lot of Ground Zero's music could be characterized as a jazz fusion with noise-rock, mostly improvised and free-form.
However, Ground Zero's defining feature comes from its use of turntablism to further complicate and disorient the listener. For those who do not know what turntablism is, a turntable is the part of the record player that spins the record. Turntablism is the skill of using this to manipulate the sound.
The most famous use of turntablism is the "scratching" sound found in most hip-hop, especially in the 1990s - early 2000s. However, there are many gimmicks that turntables can achieve, such as slowing down, speeding up, or skipping sections of the record to go to specific points. Ground Zero was one of the first improvised groups to use this tool, turning a sound that is already hard to pin down into an overwhelming work of art.
Watching Otomo Yoshihide live is like watching a toddler discover music for the first time: he has no regard for how his instruments are supposed to work, and instead (painfully) destroys both his guitar and record players. In one performance, I watched in shock as he repeatedly slammed the record players against a table as if he was throwing a temper tantrum. Somehow, he manages to make this look calculated and professional while the record spins out of control, creating hellish soundscapes that shouldn't have been possible. In another performance, Yoshihide looks genuinely angry at his guitar as he forces it to his bidding; the guitar screams in pain as a group of spectators watches with silent disapproval.
Otomo Yoshihide is a captivating performer, but his biggest legacy is in his studio albums with Ground Zero, which redefined jazz-fusion, plunderphonics, and experimental music as a whole.
Early Works: Finding Their Footing
Ground Zero made their debut EP in 1991, with the appropriately titled, Who Is Otomo Yoshihide?. Who Is Otomo Yoshihide? derives its influence from noise rock pioneers such as Swan's debut album Filth and follow-up Greed, but takes it a step further with mostly improvised instrumentals and little to no song structure.
Who Is Otomo Yoshihide? sets itself apart from the rest of Ground Zero's discography by being the only album to have true 'vocals', if you could call it that. Otomo Yoshihide uses his voice as an instrument itself, allowing for a full range of scatting, puking, heavy breathing, and unnerving laughter.
There is an impressive level of variety and dynamics packed into its 15-minute runtime, allowing for slower melodic segments to be contrasted with random and heavy noise rock passages, with the occasional turntable misconduct to throw things into further anarchy.
The saxophone makes an appearance late in the EP, foreshadowing Ground Zero's later adventures into nujazz. It seems as though Ground Zero was testing their sound here, perfecting it before putting out their first full-length studio album in 1993, which was self-titled (Ground Zero).
While Who Is Otomo Yoshihide? was abrasive and helter-skelter in its structure and organization, their self-titled album leaned further into the jazz influences that were apparent on the final portion of the EP, with a strong bass groove that keeps the album in order, even while the saxophone begins wild and complex improvised tangents.
In this album, the saxophone is the center stage instrument. That being said, it is by no means a fully structured experience, as the groove will seemingly randomly snap, resulting in a flurry of panicked playing before it finds itself again.
Otomo Yoshihide also displays his unique sampling style on this album, where chopped tv samples are occasionally mixed into the instrumentals. On certain tracks, like I X Love II B.S. M-Project 2, Ground Zero embraces noise at its fullest with fierce aggression, displaying his innovative use of turntables to create a howling cacophony of noise.
On other tracks, like the finale, Ground Zero delivers an industrial horror aesthetic, fit with the clunking of heavy machinery, the humming of flies, and a wailing saxophone that plays with morbid anguish. Ground Zero's debut EP and self-titled album were defining projects towards introducing their haphazard style, and deliver useful insight into the early stages of jazz fusion in the 1990s.
After their debut album, Ground Zero would not release anything as a band for the next couple of years. However, Otomo Yoshihide always remained active in his music composition throughout and after the band's discography, and it's important to discuss his solo work as they have many of the puzzle pieces that explain Ground Zero's style of musical expression.
In 1993, he released the mess that is The Night Before The Death of The Sampling Virus. Whether this album counts as music or not, who knows, but it surely needs to be mentioned as the precursor for the sample-focused follow-ups of Ground Zero's debut.
The album is exactly 77 chopped samples of various TV recordings and radio stations; the theme being the voices of the Japanese people. The idea was that the listener would listen to the CD on shuffle, therefore creating an entirely new experience each time, mutating like a 'virus'.
The liner notes of the CD hilariously (or threateningly) warn the listener that listening to the album might cause the CD player to malfunction, followed by the listener's concept of music deteriorating and finally their eardrums bursting. While The Night Before The Death of The Sampling Virus might be a bit of a one-trick pony, it's certainly worth a listen for advocates of extreme music.
Revolutionary Pekinese Opera: A Motion Picture of Sound
Ground Zero's 2nd studio album came in 1995, with the celebrated Revolutionary Pekinese Opera. This is Ground Zero's most widely renowned album, and for good reason too: it's incredible. But before I dive into the music, I have to explain what Ground Zero meant by the title.
The Chinese Revolutionary Opera was essentially a propaganda attempt by the Chinese government during the Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976 to promote Chinese cultural ideas and boost nationalist spirit. Why is this relevant to the album? Well, Revolutionary Pekinese Opera is chock-full of samples (along with others) from a short movement in 1984 by German duo Goebbels and Harth titled Revolutionary Opera Pekinese, who themselves sampled pieces of a Chinese Revolutionary Opera in their work. In this movement, pieces of old Cantonese films can be heard in the background as well.
Because of this, Ground Zero's Revolutionary Pekinese Opera is essentially a reimagining of what Goebbels and Harth began and is one step removed from the original operas themselves. However, while Goebbels and Harth's dramatic composition is a mostly pleasant listen, Ground Zero did not follow suit when reimagining the piece.
There is a lot more structure to Revolutionary Pekinese Opera, as Ground Zero incorporates long sections of repeated sample chops, which foreshadowed their later works, there's still a high amount of improvisation and abrasiveness. That being said, there are certainly times when the listener can relax. Unlike their debut album, where the pace feels urgent and anxious, Revolutionary Pekinese Opera takes its time: allowing for much-needed space to open up the soundscape and make the thrashing sections feel even denser. The saxophone is still here but takes second place behind the guitar as the leading instrument, similar to their debut EP.
Part of what makes Revolutionary Pekinese Opera a more cohesive experience than Ground Zero's previous projects is their usage of common musical motifs, which occasionally will return for brief segments throughout the album, keeping the theme and world-building of Revolutionary Pekinese Opera consistent.
It is odd that a Japanese composer would be reflecting on an event so intrinsically linked to Chinese identity, but it does accurately depict its complex history.
The Cultural Revolution might have been aimed at uniting the Chinese people under a singular objective and political theory, the reality is that the Cultural Revolution was one of China's most unstable and violent time periods in modern history. Thousands to millions of people died in massacres as misinformation, poverty, and hysteria brought social order to a tipping point. Because of this, it is not accurate to depict the revolution as pleasant and merry like the original Revolutionary Operas were. Instead, Ground Zero reflects on the reality of the Cultural Revolution, and its true identity as a time of anarchy and social upheaval. It plays out like a movie, and the samples from classical composers such as Mozart add to its cinematic character.
The Cultural Revolution is not simple, it's not easy to understand, and requires something of equal intricacy to represent its nature. Revolutionary Pekinese Opera does that, while also being a trailblazer for sampling and what the genre of plunderphonics would become.
Plays Standards: A Cover Album for The Deranged
Ground Zero would go on to release Null and Void, another fantastic installment to their growing discography as a soundtrack for the Chinese film The Blue Kite. In the end, it would be a very similar album to their debut, returning to their hardcore roots. Ground Zero's next musical revelation came with their 1997 album Plays Standards. On this album, Ground Zero does just that: plays a couple of jazz standards. Except, as par for the course, there is nothing standard about this album.
Instrumentally, Plays Standards is the least experimental of Ground Zero's albums, which says a lot. The production, the melodies, and the abrasiveness are mostly accessible and fun to listen to. The saxophonist takes the role of the lyricist here and is just as effective if not more than a singer at displaying a wide range of emotions. Like the technical but catchy Those Were The Days, where the throttling nature of the track is just barely controlled by the saxophone's slower and profound delivery, which threatens to burst at any moment. Joyous piano chords play with a drunken swagger, conjuring an image of a bustling bar late at night.
Of course, there are plenty of moments where the music devolves into ridiculous noise, as Yoshihide bombs the record with various turntable mischief; but that's part of the fun. However, most of Plays Standards' novelty doesn't come from the music at face level, but instead from how Ground Zero chooses to adapt the original songs they cover.
Some bizarre examples include The Bath of Surprise, which takes Steve Beresford's original piece and records it in an actual bathtub, along with horns as sound effects, ultimately being even weirder and more effective than the original piece. Or the starting track El Derecho De Vivir en Paz, which takes Victor Jara's original heartfelt piece and turns it 180 degrees into a blistering drag race, replacing his voice with the saxophone's soaring lead. The piece is then overlapped with a female Japanese singer, along with the plucking of a lute.
Ground Zero takes the culture and style from the original song and merges them with Japanese influences into one extraordinary track that sets the tone immediately for the rest of the album. This is just one example of how Ground Zero can supersede cultural confines, creating something derivative of everything and nothing at the same time.
Plays Standards represents Ground Zero at the peak of their discovery of nujazz, and its varying layers of listening capabilities allow it to be fun whether you want some awe-inspiring playing or some creative reimagining.
Consume Red: The End of Music
Just a day after Ground Zero released Plays Standards, they would release the final studio album the internet still has access to: Consume Red. In my mind, Consume Red can only be described as one word: terror.
Consume Red is the soundtrack to the apocalypse; I don't say that lightly. The opening Hojok sample is immediately anxiety-inducing and memorable. The only thing I want to do when listening to this sample is find a warm place to hide from its siren. The Hojok signals the beginning of the end, letting the listener know that a threat is on the horizon.
It's this tension, and the knowledge that something horrible will happen, that makes it impossible to stop listening to Consume Red once you have started. Disturbing samples and turntable debris randomly interrupt the Hojok's call, as if something is trying to break through from another dimension. A ghostly ambience begins to crawl over the background, instilling with it the mystery of the supernatural. As another Hojok joins in harmony, it becomes obvious that the evil is getting closer.
Ground Zero uses the Japanese instrument the Shamisen to instill a sense of uneasiness as if you were in a cheesy horror movie, walking through the jungle towards something sinister. The Hojok becomes ingrained in your mind, so much so that even if you pause the album, you can still hear its pitch in your ears. Ground Zero is a master of slowly building the pressure, causing increasing amounts of stress to the listener as they try to determine what is happening.
Even as the soundscape falls into disarray, the Hojok is always clear: piercing through the turmoil. Eventually, a rhythmic drum groove kicks in, driving the album forward like the imposing march of an army prepared for war. Consume Red has a primal character to its sound; it doesn't feel mechanical or empty, but full of life, passion, and out for blood.
In its final minutes, the record is being constantly punished with the sound of the Hojok breaking into a thousand pieces. While it is surely chaotic, it is not dramatic or even particularly dense or layered. Instead, Consume Red simply disintegrates, leaving behind nothing but ash.
Ground Zero is an important band. Not just because of their adventures with jazz, plunderphonics, and turntablism, but also because of their commentary on politics and identity. Their music finds relevance even today, 30 years later. Consume Red would be the first of a trilogy of Project: Consume albums that were designed to take simple sounds and deconstruct them until they all became the same white noise, illustrating the simplicity and futility of music.
These would be the follow-ups Conflagration and Consummation. Ground Zero would also release a couple of live recordings as CDs. Unfortunately, all of these projects would be lost with time, as only a few CDs were ever sold, and their whereabouts are unknown.
In the end, Consume Red is the final act of Ground Zero we can still experience, but it's also the best possible finale we could have asked for.
Ratings and Links:
Who Is Otomo Yoshihide?
Ground Zero
The Night Before The Death of The Sampling Virus
Revolutionary Pekinese Opera
Null and Void
Plays Standards
Consume Red
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