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."
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.
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