A big one...
Les Rallizes Dénudés have been one of my absolute favorite bands for quite a few years now. Back in the good old days of early 2010, when I was a foolish and excited youngling just discovering the wonders of what the internet had to offer when it came to release/bootleg trading and blogspot deep-diving they were one of the first bands I ever came across. It was a matter of chance of course, one night I was simply continuing my newly found routine of jumping from blog to blog in search of albums or bands that looked interesting and eventually stumbled upon one particular page that had all the default elements in its layout, no sort of customization whatsoever, which was very unusual to stumble upon, that had the latest entry on the homepage talking briefly about the Rallizes' mysterious background and their evident musical legacy as an influential band in Japan, while also sharing some selected bootleg releases, five in total, what I assume were the dude's favorites, as recommendations to anyone that would be willing to give them a shot.
From that point on I was hooked, I vividly remember those original downloads, I still kept them in my possession until the external drive I used for all my old library suddenly chose to fuck off, because those albums marked a whole new world for me. Two of those boots, Live 1972 (the 2006 Over Level CD) and Eve Night 1983 (the 2007 Ignuitas CD), were somewhat underwhelming in comparison, but they still managed to present some great performances, but they paled in comparison to the rest of the beasts that were attached in the mediafire download. Two big boxsets, One More Night Tripper and Wild Trips (both boxes released by the Univive label in 2006), of varying quality blew me away from the get go, introducing me to a lot of the classic Rallizes tracks from their catalog in the form of some brutal performances, with the April 12th 1976 set becoming a huge favorite in retrospect. But the final nail in the coffin was the last album of the bunch, and the one with my favorite cover up to that point, "Le 12 Mars 1977 A Tachikawa", a fantastic 2CD experience that had some of the loudest guitar sounds I had ever listened to up to that point in my life. Of course, eventually I would come to find that the magnificent release was just a bootleg reissue of the now legendary '77 Live album, but back then it was enough to get me to become intrigued with the band. To this day I am unable to remember the name of that particular blog or the title of that particular post, but it most likely was deleted since they were also sharing a lot of official copyrighted material as well. Nevertheless, I will always be eternally grateful towards that kind stranger, because that event is something I will always look back to as something very special.
Eventually I would try my hardest to dive deeper into the giant and intimidating catalog that was associated with their name, and in one of those particular instances, a couple of years later in february 2012, I managed to get ahold of a digital rip of the "Great White Wonder" bootleg boxset 2011 reissue by the Phoenix label that had the original edition's limited bonus CD as an integral part of its set, and that also came with the booklet and artwork scanned in high quality (something that I would come to find as being incredibly lucky), allowing me to read the initial paragraphs of the liner notes exclusive to that edition. Paragraphs that would become engraved deep into my brain and memory, being one of the most important things I've read in my journey diving into media, and cementing Les Rallizes Denúdés as one of my all time favorites:
"It’s no coincidence that enigmatic Japanese psych group Les Rallizes Denudes’s most notorious release - originally issued in is-it/isn’t-it fully-authorised form by the mysterious Univive label - is named after the legendary Bob Dylan bootleg LP issued by Trademark Of Quality in 1969. Rallizes plug into rock’s most outlaw tendencies, fetishise its most illegitimate aspects. They were punks before punk, avant rockers before avant rock, noise before Noise and their on-again/off-again career, which spanned the years 1967-1996, continues to cast a huge shadow across the psychedelic underground. Rallizes famously disdained any of the conventional trappings of a musical ‘career’, issuing only three ‘official’ CD albums all in the space of a single year, refusing interviews, hi-jacking airplanes (bassist Moriaki Wakabayashi was part of the Red Army Faction commando that stormed Japan Airlines Flight 351 in March 13, 1970) and abandoning any pretence at song-writing in favour of tearing apart ginchy 60s-retro grooves with endless flamethrower guitar solos. It’s only in retrospect that the scale of their influence, not to say the details of their biography, has become apparent.
Word of Rallizes subterranean reign only really began making it out to the west in the early-90s as the first wave of new psychedelic rock groups coming out of Tokyo’s PSF stable - Acid Mothers Temple, High Rise, Mainliner, Overhang Party, Fushitsusha, Shizuka, White Heaven - began to make it to the UK and the US, bringing with them tales of a group called Naked Rallizes that were a secret influence on the whole scene. It’s no coincidence that the first release ever readily available in the west - Oz Days Live, Live ‘77, Heavier Than A Death In The Family - were all bootlegs. Early on, guitarist/vocalist Takashi Mizutani perfected a form of samizdat recording that felt closer to the lo-fi appeal of boots than conventional studio aesthetics. The whole live-in-a-sandstorm-at-the-bottom-of-an-elevator-shaft feel of their recordings is a large part of their appeal, fully delivering on the barbaric promises of the wildest and crudest rock n roll." (Moshe Idel, Toledo, Spain, November 2010)
Absolutely Brilliant.
Rallizes have been a part of my life ever since, way before I got into noise, japanoise, or even abrasive/experimental music in general, they quickly became one of the most important bands that I ever got into, very formative when it came to getting an even bigger appreciation towards bootleg culture, as well as being one huge gateway into a lot of other artists and bands that I would come to treasure over the years (those two paragraphs were my gateway towards a lot of the groups that formed part of the Psychedelic Speed Freaks label, but specially towards Shizuka, Keiji Haino and, SPECIALLY, the Acid Mothers Temple, which over those next few months would quickly become another huge obsession of mine). Eternally grateful towards Mizutani and the multiple lineups he managed to form over the years this beast of a band was active.
And it is that gratitude which brings me here today. If one gets into the Rallizes catalog, it is easy to notice that it will most definitely become a headache to navigate for most. Most of the common bootlegs are boxsets, and a lot of the boxsets either have the same performances, only have some incomplete recordings, present the recordings they have with some headache inducing sound qualit, and some others have gained legendary statuses when it came to the community and attention surrounding them (more often than not for very good reasons). But of course, there is a lot to dive into, and just like most other bands presenting this sort of "catalog" which depends on how widely spread some bootlegs are compared to others, there is simply a lot of stuff that is hard to come by for many. Be it for availability, the way they are tagged, or in a lot of cases, because users refuse to trade unless some ridiculous condition is met. I am of the firm belief that bootlegs should be widely available for everyone, for every fan of the band or for every newcomer that is simply interested in trying something at random, and that "trading/pay" mentality to me is something cancerous and the main reason why a lot of folk are just thrown off by the bootleg community in general. And it really shouldn't be that way.
So here I come to do my part, contributing to my own philosophy and just helping to spread interested towards these particular recordings that I bring to you today. I'm not sharing any of the big boys or widely available performances that are relatively easy to find for people interested, all of these bootlegs are the ones that I consider to be some of the hardest to track down from the band in general, mainly because they are not included in any big physical release (and if they are or it is more ofte than not under a shitty audio source or just a selection of one or two tracks of their set). I have gathered them over the years and now bring them to you, dear reader or Rallizes enthusiast, for you to enjoy and, hopefully, get mesmerized by, as I have been over the years...
暗殺者たちのこの夜があなたにとって最後の夜にならないように
Various Live / Demo (?) Recordings
Les Rallizes Dénudés - 1974-07-13 - Meiji Gakuin University
Audience Recording
Soundboard Recording
Les Rallizes Dénudés - 1975-10-01 - Adan Music Studio Session
Les Rallizes Dénudés - 1976-00-00 - Studio Demos, Unknown Venue
Source 1
Source 2
Les Rallizes Dénudés - 1976-10-30 - Kinjo Gakuen University
Version 1
Version 2
Les Rallizes Dénudés - 1977-07-22 - Maison Franco-Japonaise
Les Rallizes Dénudés - 1979-04-25 - Yaneura, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
Les Rallizes Dénudés - 1979-10-27 - Studio Demo Tracks, Hosei University
Version 1
Version 2
Les Rallizes Dénudés - 1980-01-16 - Yaneura, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
Les Rallizes Dénudés - 1981-08-18 - Yaneura, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
Version 1
Version 2
Les Rallizes Dénudés - 1981-12-19 - Yaneura, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
Version 1
Version 2
Les Rallizes Dénudés - 1982-12-18 - Hosei University
Les Rallizes Dénudés - 1983-02-18 - Yaneura, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
Les Rallizes Dénudés - 1983-03-29 - Yaneura, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan
Les Rallizes Dénudés - 1983-04-20 - Rokumeikan
Les Rallizes Dénudés - 1983-08-11 - Chicken Shack
Les Rallizes Dénudés - 1984-10-17 - Rokumeikan
Les Rallizes Dénudés - 1985-12-18 - Hosei University
Les Rallizes Dénudés - 1987-06-23 - Crocodile, Shibuya, Tokyo
Les Rallizes Dénudés - 1987-09-21 - Rokumeikan
Les Rallizes Dénudés - 1993-02-13 - Kichijoji Baus Theater
Source 1 (Soundboard)
1. 海のように (28:37)
Source 2 (Audience)
So this Baus gig is a weird one. We know this is one of their hardest set to track down in general, mainly because over the years there have been a wide multitude of different downloads and physical boots including either a small snippet, a considerable fragment of the set, or claiming to have the entirety of the set in them, but with most of them being recordings of totally different sets from 93 or having the sources be completely different from one another. To anyone who is familiar with deep-diving into Rallizes boots these might seem like a normal situation, but this is one of those very special instances where it is really hard to actually tell if the sources are veridic or trust-worthy enough. So far the most reliable sources we have are the recordings included in both volumes of the "Disaster Sources Encyclopedia Of Rallizes" boxsets from the Ignuitas label issued in 2012, with most people only able to get their hands on the tracks included in Volume 2, but I, apparently, also happen to be in possession of a rip of Volume 1 (which I also have come to share today in this post). Since these boxsets have their masters in CD-r's, the quality isn't the best by any means, which makes up for some very unpleasant moments throughout the set (which also happens to be incomplete even when combining the recordings from both of these boxes). We know there is a Soundboard source that has the entirety of the gig preserved in good sound quality, but people that have access to it seem to not want to share it with others in general for whatever reason (sometimes having the files available in platforms like slsk but showcasing them as locked and never responding to ANY messages whatsoever interested in trading or permission to download fucking hell I despise slsk individuals a lot sometimes).
Let's get straight to the point. What I share here today are three versions of this bootleg. One is the version listed above, a boot presenting two sources that mainly focus on the now iconic Ocean jam, with the first one being sourced from a soundboard source and the second one the incomplete audience one (there also seems to be other existing versions such as the one present in the L'Historie / All Darkness bootleg, which is also clear in sound quality and lasts a bit longer). The second one is the incomplete version of the set that combines all the recordings available on both volumes of the Disaster Sources boxes. And the third one is a more modern instance of the set with a version that surfaced in 2018, attempting to remaster all the recordings available on Volume 2 of the Disaster Sources, with a bonus track from the Soundboard source that any fan would really like to get their hands on.
If I ever manage to get ahold of that particular full soundboard source I will quickly upload it to the drive and update this post, for the convenience of Rallizes fans, but mostly for my own. Let's just hope someone is kind hearted enough to be willing to share it one of these days...
Les Rallizes Dénudés - 1993-02-13 - Kichijoji Baus Theater (Disaster Sources Version)
Les Rallizes Dénudés - Excerpt From A Live Recording At Baus Theater (2018, Atelier Maudite)
Disaster Sources "Volume 2" Tracks Remastered (2018)
Bonus Track Soundboard Source
6. 海のように (15:14)
Les Rallizes Dénudés - Club Citta February 17 1993
https://rutracker.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4343062
This is more of a big recommendation from my part. This is one of my favorite gigs from the Rallizes, the original sources are muddy and definitely take away from what is otherwise an amazing set from those later years, with the bass being buried or the vocals feeling very in the background, but this attempt at a remaster popped up in rutracker back in 2013 and has been the definitive document of this set for me. Truly outstanding work done with the sources, sounds very very good and definitely does justice to it in such great ways by improving most of what was wrong or felt off putting. Big recommendation from my part, has been one of my favorite bootlegs of them for the longest time now.
ニプリッツ＋水谷孝 - 1993-12-24 - Mushroom
This next one is a special and very odd one. It has circulated around multiple trading websites and p2p sources for a few years now, under multiple names, but more often than not it is wrongly credited as it being a gig given under the Rallizes name. In reality this was a special occasion of it being a solo Mizutani gig with him being supported by another band (the specifics of this particular lineup are not known). Solid gig all things considered, but the sound quality definitely drags all the experience down, but still, definitely one of those oddities that a fan of the Rallizes would most definitely be interested in.
Source 1 - Mizutani gig, starts from 夜、暗殺者の夜 until The Last One
1. 水谷孝 - All (64:44)
Source 2 - Supposed full recording of the set, first three tracks were performed by the other band and the rest is the Mizutani gig
The Hard To Track "Disaster" Box Sets (...hopefully)
A few years ago, around 2017 or so, I was hanging around a forum and someone mentioned that they were in posession of two rare boxsets from the Rallizes, the two volumes of the Disaster Sources Encyclopedia issued by the Ignuitas label in 2012. Most folk were uninterested, but I eventually got to talking with the fella and got ahold of rips of these two boxes. Both volumes came without any scans or embedded artwork whatsoever, just a .txt that included the supposed names of each discs but no catalog number or other sort of relevant info whatsoever, which made me hesitant but I still kept them regardless. Over the years Volume 2 eventually became a little bit known in the Rallizes fan community, somewhat widespread as it was, but Volume 1 wasn't. Curious as I was I got to download Volume 2 again, this time with a cover and scans of the CD-r's themselves, and I was very pleasantly surprised to find out that the contents were the same, and that the original rips I had gotten were better in quality, so I kept those and gave them cover art. But I could never find another rip for volume 1, and neither could most of the community interested in it. The same files could eventually be found on the downloads shared by the user "enohai" on slsk, so I take that as an extra point of proof of some sort (?). Nevertheless, here I come, sharing that original download I got for the Volume 1 box, having the full hope that this is most likely the real deal, so whoever choses to give it a chance I hope gets enjoyment or consolation after all that search.
Les Rallizes Dénudés - Disaster Sources "ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RALLIZES Vol.1" (2012 / Ignuitas Box Set)
Studio & Live 1976-1984
Live 1976-1987
Live & Studio 1977-1981
Rallizes Tour 1983
December 1983
Festival 1987
Live 1993
This second boxset I know even less about. I found it one day while trying to look for a particular Rallizes peformance in slsk, stumbling upon the massive archive shared by user "enohai" on the platform, and it looked interested enough for me to keep it. I have been unable to find any sort of information online, on websites or forums, regarding this particular name with this particular collection of tracks, but it is a decent enough "boxset' that I decided I would share it today, just out of convenience and just in case you want even more rallizes material to listen to.
Les Rallizes Dénudés - Disaster Sources Studio et Live (Unknown Date / Box Set))
1973 西部講堂 & 1974 京都サーカス&サーカス
Trip Festival Part 1
Trip Festival Part 2
Wild Party 1975 1005 京大西部講堂
Live 1976 1217 立川社会教育会館
1977 0813 獅子吼高原 第四回夕焼け祭
1979 Demo
Live 1975-1977
Studio 1977_78_88_89
Studio 1977_78_80
Various Magazines
Les Rallizes Dénudés - Etcetera, Issue 2 (1996)
AND YES. I hope you had to pleasantly sit your goofy ass throughout all this just to get to what I assume is your main, and most likely, only interest. Or maybe you didn't. REGARDLESS, from the bottom of my heart I hope the music that I have come to share with you today makes your day, week, year, decade, century... a little bit more bearable. Enjoy it!
Download Here! - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Q8XLlLeltxTp4FwPX8dzUNY5nLz2NyzD?usp=sharing
The "other band" Mizutani plays with on the 1993 Mushroom show is Niplets, fronted by Hiroshi Nar, who was of course Rallizes' bassist back in the 70s, making this a bit of a reunion. Pretty cool.
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