Standing in the record store the other day listening to Ken Ishii's latest album, I suddenly remembered that the word "noise" comes from the Latin word "nausea." The album wasn't particularly noisy, nor was it making me sick to my stomach. Rather it reminded me of being at sea and how the almost-steady rhythm of waves can lull some people and have others running for the railing.
Likewise, when Ishii plays 2nd Floor tomorrow night, his many Taiwanese fans will flood the dance floor, while some of those unfamiliar with his music may head for the turnstyles.
The comparison between Ishii's music and seasickness isn't mean-spirited; Ishii has established himself as Japan's preeminent DJ by breaking down the barrier between what is commonly accepted as music and what is usually discarded as noise. The result is a sound made of dissonant chords upholstered to an uneven tempo; a corduroy couch with lumpy cushions. An entry on one of his several Internet fansites describes the sound as "neither techno nor ambient ? but rather a mysterious dreamscape at once both beautiful and strangely exotic."
PHOTO COURTESY OF R&S RECORDS
Now that the barrier has successfully been broken down, Ishii's popularity has spread as far afield as Europe, where he's played in Berlin's Love Parade and had the video for a single from his second album, Tone Jelly (1995), voted best dance video by European watchers of MTV. The single, Extra, was distinctive for having been the first anime music video made by Kouji Morimoto, the director of Akira It edged out popular acts The Prodigy and Pharcyde and is likely the title for which Ishii is most popularly known.
Of course, nowhere is his fanbase larger than at home in Japan, where his occasional performances in Tokyo's cavernous nightclubs consistently sell out. Japanese home security manufacturer, Citizen, even named one of its models after him in exchange for some custom-made alarm noises.
He claims as influences some of the harder-edged acts of the 1980s: Nitzer Ebb, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Front 242, Kraftwerk and even bands such as Ministry and The Boredoms. A Japanese noise band, The Boredoms begin each concert with two band members sprinting at each other and colliding midstage. The sound their bodies make as they clash heads, limbs and torsos, is the opening "chord" of their first song. It gets weirder from there.
For his part, Ishii keeps quiet about the sounds he samples to build his music and the tools he uses, but is forthcoming about his skills as a producer. "You have to know your equipment to create strange or weird sounds," he said. "I read manuals a lot. It's very boring."
Concentration and commitment, he says, are the main ingredients of his talent. "Sometimes I forget about eating and sleeping. ? In order to create you have to involve yourself in what you're doing, the rest is just accessory."
Regardless of the secrets behind his success, what's certain is he's carved himself a niche among today's best-known DJs and music producers. His unconventional and idiosyncratic arrangements have placed him alongside the likes of Alex Patterson of The Orb and Richard James from Aphex Twin, and caught the ear of A&R gurus in both Japan and Europe, where he's recorded with labels like Rising Sun, Flare Europe and Plus-8.
Ken Ishii will play tomorrow night at 2nd Floor along with resident DJs Cliff V., Daryl, J6 James, Joe Ho, Reason and Vertigo. Doors open at 10pm.
More Information: Tickets cost NT$800 at the door or NT$600 if you buy them today. 2nd Floor is located at 15 Hoping W. Rd., Sec. 1 in Taipei (北市和平西路一段15號).
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
Ahead of incoming president William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20 there appear to be signs that he is signaling to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that the Chinese side is also signaling to the Taiwan side. This raises a lot of questions, including what is the CCP up to, who are they signaling to, what are they signaling, how with the various actors in Taiwan respond and where this could ultimately go. In the last column, published on May 2, we examined the curious case of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweight Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) — currently vice premier
The last time Mrs Hsieh came to Cihu Park in Taoyuan was almost 50 years ago, on a school trip to the grave of Taiwan’s recently deceased dictator. Busloads of children were brought in to pay their respects to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正), known as Generalissimo, who had died at 87, after decades ruling Taiwan under brutal martial law. “There were a lot of buses, and there was a long queue,” Hsieh recalled. “It was a school rule. We had to bow, and then we went home.” Chiang’s body is still there, under guard in a mausoleum at the end of a path
Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50