Which Ruins album to get first?

[thedunno]

2018 is for me the year of the discovery of the music of Tatsuya Yoshida. Got the latest Koenji and got all the other Kooenji's I could find. Beter late then never. Also Saw Sax Ruins in full live attack mode. Got the album "Yawiquo" too.

So now on to Ruins. There are a lot of albums available on BC. Which to get first? I am sure this will make nice background music for the holiday season.

And any other Tatsuya Yoshida- projects I should check out?

[Scrotum Scissor]

And any other Tatsuya Yoshida- projects I should check out?

All of them, basically. Start with the debut Korekyojin, then get Zephyros by the Satoko Fujii Quartet (in which you can hear his inimitable translation of jazz drumming), A Meaningful Meaningnessless [sic] by Hoppy Kamiyama, Incubation by Musica Transonic & Keiji Haino and prepare for total charge of ear and mind. Or you can get the sole album by Zubi Zuva, an acapella vocal quartet fronted by Yoshida and exclusively performing cartoon-like pieces for vox qwith little improvisation.

re: Ruins. There were at least five different constellations of the band that I know of. The first one was lo-fi to the max and featured a lot of free improv, the best of which was Burning Stone from '92. The second one was just as raw but had better production values and a new bassist; their debut for Skin Graft Records, Refusal Fossil from '97, is generally where it's at - better and somewhat more focused than their debut for Tzadik, Hyderomastgroningem from '95 (IMO). However, I'd personally go for the third incarnation, with bassist Hisashi Sasaki and some MIDI added on Vrresto from '98; it's as wild and insane as ever, but so meticulously detailed and virtuosic that you'll hardly even believe what you're hearing there. It's also fairly easy to come by, as it was Yoshida's first Ruins release for his own Magaibutsu label (in coordination with the legendary Sonore).

Also there's Symphonica on Tzadik (also '98), which has fully band-arranged orchestrations of older Ruins material coming pretty close to Koenji standards. Main man besides Yoshida here is no other than Kenichi Oguchi, Kenso's keyboardist.

[thedunno]

Thanks,

I got Vrresto and the 'Arabasque' of Korekyojin from bandcamp.
Unfortunately the Tzadik releases are not on BC.

[Zappathustra]

I asked the "which Ruins first" question to Spacefreak some months ago. After 3 or 4 drinks in a very short span of time, he could only describe the art-cover:"oh, the one with this stone figure in front, that's a great one".

But the next day he told me that he meant Symphonica...

[Mascodagama]

A great primer from Richard there. I can add little, though I am also fond of Episome, an album he cut with Bill Laswell and Otomo Yoshihide (Ground Zero) that is actually in print.

[Scrotum Scissor]

^ Symphonica is totally great and highly underrated. I suppose some older 'hardcore' Ruins-fanatics were somewhat put off by the overt "prog" approach of the new arrangements, but there's still bone rawness in the female vox and the bass esepcially.

[Zappathustra]

^ Symphonica is totally great and highly underrated. I suppose some older 'hardcore' Ruins-fanatics were somewhat put off by the overt "prog" approach of the new arrangements, but there's still bone rawness in the female vox and the bass esepcially.

Yes, the bass is brutal. I believe no guitars, no?

But at least there's mellotron. And plenty of proto-prog, hammond.

[John Doe]

The ruins of Crimson, yes, uk

Asia's first album

[Zappathustra]

I wonder which part of my body would first get chopped off, if one day I returned home from work and played some good old Ruins loud in the living room.

[Udi Koomran]

Burning Stone

[Scrotum Scissor]

I wonder which part of my body would first get chopped off my body, if one day I returned home from work and played some good old Ruins loud in the living room.

At least it wouldn't signal how you were already halfway through a sexchange op, as when I desperately tried to play that debut Asia.

[thedunno]

I think I am going to try to sneek a few ruins tunes into the christmas playlist. Lets see how the family reacts during the dinner.

[Morpheus]

I will second Burning Stone. Hyderomastgroningem after that. I am a bigger fan of the Masuda period, the Sasaki stuff feels a bit sterile to me.

[Scrotum Scissor]

the Sasaki stuff feels a bit sterile to me.

Sasaki is a pophead, and Yoshida needed that in order to twist Ruins into a more commercial direction for the hits to come before the label dropped him. After a long period of intense contemplation, Yoshida finally came up with "Warrido" and sent the demo to Wakarimas Samurai Kutsabashi-Kobodai, prime leader and übermogul of the Torahtorah corporation, the investor's group recently responsible for signing the collossally successful new prog band The Ninja of Sympho. When Wakarimas-san got to hear "Warrido", he simply yelled out EUREKA!! We've got a schlager! (In Nippon, of course)

Btw, the chorus of the song is that entire middle-section.

[GuitarGeek]

No talk of the Derek And The Ruins albums? I think there were two, but I only have one, entitled Tohnjibo. I happen to like it, but then I dig Derek Bailey's guitar work.

Another good record is Barrishee, a duo album Yoshida-san did with another avant guitar god, Uchihashi Kazuhisa.

That's really all the input I have on that topic. I remember hearing about the Ruins back in the mid 90's, and I think occasionally hearing their stuff on college radio, but it seems like I remember most of their stuff was almost impossible to find around here. I think the only other album I have by them is Symphonica.

[Zappathustra]

Oh my god Richard

[Morpheus]

Sasaki is a pophead, and Yoshida needed that in order to twist Ruins into a more commercial direction for the hits to come before the label dropped him. After a long period of intense contemplation, Yoshida finally came up with "Warrido" and sent the demo to Wakarimas Samurai Kutsabashi-Kobodai, prime leader and übermogul of the Torahtorah corporation, the investor's group recently responsible for signing the collossally successful new prog band The Ninja of Sympho. When Wakarimas-san got to hear "Warrido", he simply yelled out EUREKA!! We've got a schlager! (In Nippon, of course)

Btw, the chorus of the song is that entire middle-section.

So sympho lympho.

[Scrotum Scissor]

^ Don't you dare lure out that inner avant-intellectualist in me, Morpheus-man!!

But you're right, though - the very definition of s-l.

[Steve F.]

Burning Stone

I'll second Burning Stone.

[NogbadTheBad]

Need to check these out, I'm sadly lacking any Ruins.

[Udi Koomran]

But their absolute peak for me is Mandala 2000
A blistering live performance - unbelievable musicianship

[Lebofsky]

Burning Stone for sure!

Heard that very record playing over the speakers at a record store in the early 90's and was like, "okay what HELL is that?!" My first introduction to that whole world. Saw them live a bunch during that era when they were seemingly touring through the Bay Area all the time.

- Matt

[alucard]

Closely linked : Ryoko Ono, the Sax Ruins sax player has released a record with her band Ryorchestra , a septet with a strong Zeuhl influence. The band will tour in September 19 in Germany and France.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_bEnecZIpc

[spacefreak]

Symphonica in my opinion.

[thedunno]

Holy F**k, what a weird shit is burning stone!

I love it.