Les Rallizes Dénudés / MIZUTANI / Les Rallizes D_nud_s (LP)

"MIZUTANI / Les Rallizes D_nud_s," which focuses on the static aspects of its acoustic sound, has been remastered by Makoto Kubota, a member of the band at the time, and is now being reissued!

"MIZUTANI / Les Rallizes D_nud_s," named after Takashi Mizutani of Les Rallizes D_nud_s, has been re-released with remastering by Makoto Kubota, a member of the band at the time! This important work, acoustic and introspective, offers a glimpse into the personal side of Mizutani, the core of Les Rallizes D_nud_s.

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[Explanation of "MIZUTANI / Les Rallizes D_nud_s" by Shinya Matsuyama]

This album is one of three limited releases of Les Rallizes Naked that were released on the Rivista label in 1991. Takashi Mizutani himself selected the songs and created the master.

The Rivista albums related to Ring are the only official albums under the name of Les Rallizes, but each was released in limited pressings (1,000 copies for "'77 Live," 500 for "'67-'69 Studio et Live" and this album, "MIZUTANI / Les Rallizes D_nud_s") and they quickly disappeared from the market. Since then, they have fetched sky-high prices on the second-hand market, and pirated recordings have been circulating around the world. This reissue, the first in 31 years and remastered by Makoto Kubota, who was also a member of Les Rallizes for a time, is sure to be met with acclaim from fans worldwide.

Last October (2021), with the announcement of Takashi Mizutani's death (December 2019) and the launch of his first official website https://www.lesrallizesdenudes-official.com/top/, the "Rallizes Denudes Reissue/Discovery Project" was launched, and the label "The Last One Musique" was launched by people associated with the band. The website clearly declares the label's purpose: "We are the only label in the world that holds the legal rights to the recordings of Rallizes Denudes, and we will provide Takashi Mizutani's music with a more vivid sound and precise production than the bootlegs that have been circulating for over 20 years." Last April, a US label released a two-disc album, "THE OZ TAPES," which compiled the Rallizes recordings (including unreleased material) from the 1973 omnibus album "OZ DAYS LIVE," but the reissues (CD and LP) of the three Rivista recordings, which were controlled in every way by "The Last One Musique," could be said to be the true start of the project.

Only 500 copies of the original 1991 pressing were pressed, and the content differs from the commonly-held image and perception of the naked Rallizes. It may be overlooked among fans, but this album is one of the most important of Rallizes' entire collection, including bootleg recordings. That's what I've always believed since its release. The joy brought by the thunderous guitar sound, saturated with feedback noise, and the overly reverbed vocals that seem to reverberate from the underworld, is a special magic unique to Rallizes. However, Rallizes is by no means equal to thunderous sound. It's unacceptable to discuss Rallizes solely in terms of thunderous sound. Beyond the violent, destructive roar, there's always a cool and sweet lyricism and eroticism, and it's precisely therein that the essence of Rallizes, or rather Takashi Mizutani, lies. Without this appreciation, one cannot understand the true greatness of Rallizes/Mizutani—their noble cruelty and desperate emptiness. That is my firm view of Larry and the Rallions, having seen them live many times since the 1970s and listened to a huge amount of their recordings, including bootlegs.

Anyone who has seen a live performance will remember it. Even after the start time, Mizutani did not appear on stage, and the audience was kept waiting for two or even three hours. The lights of the mirror ball sparkled, and the audience could only wait quietly in the dimly lit venue with cool jazz music by modern jazz quartets playing softly in the background. But I didn't mind it at all. I knew that the Rallizes live performance had already begun, as I continued to immerse myself in solitude in this dim, cold space. The depth of the loneliness contained in that suspended silence was what made Rallizes so special.

I thought that this was Mizutani's true nature. Mizutani is not just delaying the start of the show out of selfishness or whim, but is wondering how long it will last.

I believe the album offers us a sweet overture to the unknown waiting time, the emptiness and anxiety of abandonment, all of which are inextricably linked to the explosive music. According to what Kubota Makoto heard from Mizutani's relatives, Mizutani frequently listened to the organ instrumental version of the theme song from Serge Gainsbourg's film Je t'aime moi non plus (performed by Jean-Pierre Savard, who also composed the soundtrack) at full volume at home. The ecstasy and anguish that permeates that instrumental version are precisely what Gainsbourg himself was, a man who spent his entire life wandering through the void, shifting between light and darkness, life and death. I believe this also embodies the essence of Takashi Mizutani. And it is this album that most clearly expresses this.

"I'm tired. I want to play some quiet music. Can you help me?" Mizutani allegedly said this to Kubota Makoto when they met by chance on the Doshisha University campus in the fall of 1969. From 1968 to 1969, a storm of student protest raged at universities across Japan, and members of the Naked Rallizes (formed in November 1967) were caught up in it. Mizutani was said to have been a Black Hell (anarchist), but I'm skeptical that he was truly interested in student activism. Mizutani's first encounter with Kubota, a fellow member of the light music club, took place shortly after the Rallizes concert "Recital IV as Indulgence" held at the Kyoto Education and Culture Center on October 18, 1969. This was the first Rallizes concert, and it was also Kubota's first experience of loud rock music as an audience member. Kubota had always loved jazz and R&B, and played bossa nova and other genres in the light music club. He was also a home recording enthusiast who enjoyed playing the ping-pong rhythm with two reel-to-reel tape recorders. Kubota began visiting Mizutani's apartment around December, and together they began writing songs while playing guitar. While doing so, they decided to try recording a demo tape, and in one night they recorded tracks 10-12 of this album in what was then known as the broadcasting room in the Doshisha University student center. This was around February 1970.

The broadcasting room contained two mono tape recorders, a simple mixer, and a microphone. Kubota was familiar with the process from his ping-pong recordings at home, so the recording process went smoothly. First, a basic track, including vocals, was recorded in one take, and then guitar and other parts were dubbed into another tape recorder while this was played back. Mizutani sang while playing a Yamaha semi-acoustic guitar, while Kubota played a Martin-like acoustic guitar with a soundhole pickup that Mizutani borrowed. Mizutani generally played rhythm guitar and Kubota played lead guitar, but Kubota also played on single-guitar tracks such as "Morning Light," which Mizutani and Kubota co-wrote. At the time, Kubota was a big fan of the singer-songwriter/guitarists of the new American folk scene (Richie Havens, Tim Hardin, Joni Mitchell, etc.), and was particularly influenced by the playing style of Bruce Langhorne (the man who served as the model for Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man").

Regarding percussionist Tadao Makino, Kubota says, "Mizutani-kun brought him in. He would pound on teapots with leather or paper stretched over the rim." His mood is similar to that of Steve Took during his Tyrannosaurus Rex days. While Makino also plays triangle on "Fragment 2," Kubota plays the glockenspiel on "Morning Light" and "Crack."

Furthermore, while various sources claim that Konno Masaki, credited as the lyricist for "Fansho 1," was an early member of the band Rallizes, he was actually not a member but rather a close friend of the band, and a fellow member of the Doshisha Poetry Research Society. While little is known about Tsuka Ikko, the lyricist for "Fansho 2," he is likely the man who published a collection of poems titled "Message: Tsuka Ikko Poetry Collection" in 1971 through the publisher Assassination Order Company. Furthermore, I believe that Tsuka Ikko was Takashi Mizutani himself (and if so, was "Tsuka" taken from the poet and chanson critic Tsukamoto Kunio?). The surreal string of words beginning with "The Aurora is cigarette smoke..." feels like the very embodiment of Mizutani's worldview, who was well-versed in French literature, particularly the fin de siècle Symbolist movement.

Mizutani, Kubota, and Makino continued to work together for some time after this recording, performing two or three times live in 1970. One of their first recordings is the track "The Last One _1970" on this album. According to Kubota's recollection, this was a student-organized concert held at Doshisha University in May 1970 to welcome new students, where they appeared alongside Masato Minami and Kenji Endo. Mizutani would later participate in the recording of Masato Minami's album "Capricorn" the following year, but this concert may have been their first meeting. The performance on "The Last One" also began with Mizutani on rhythm guitar and vocals and Kubota on lead guitar, but midway through, Mizutani suddenly stepped on the fuzz and switched to lead guitar. This performance is unique to the transitional period of Rallizes. This song continued to be performed as a signature number for the Rallizes, but its structure and sound changed over the years, so much so that it was almost like two different songs with the same name. Perhaps for this reason, the track titles on this reissue have been deliberately suffixed with "_1970." Please compare this with "The Last One," which is included on the simultaneously reissued "'67-'69 Studio et Live" and "'77 Live."

The trio version of Rallizes with Kubota and Makino later appeared at the "Maruyama Odyssey" event at the Maruyama Open-Air Concert Hall in Kyoto on September 13, 1970, featuring the Flower Travellin' Band and others. Around this time, Mizutani had also begun performing with groups including Char-Bo and Fujio Yamaguchi (later known as Murahachibu), creating the strange situation of two Rallizes appearing on the concert day: this one and the one with Kubota and others. Shortly after this concert, in late September, Kubota took a leave of absence from university to travel to the United States. He returned to Japan at the end of March 1971 and joined the new Rallizes (bassist Mikio Nagata and drummer Shunichiro Shoda), which Mizutani had reassembled in Tokyo in the fall of 1970. He played bass and side guitar at gigs such as the "Hadaka no Rallizes 3 Days" at Shibuya BYG in June 1971 (with daily bands including Happy End, Minami Masato, and Tsunoda Hiro), the August festival "Shojiko Rockoon," and at Kichijoji OZ in 1972-73. However, from 1974 he became busy with his own band, "Yuyake Gakudan," and left the Rallizes. His first solo album, "Machibouke" (1973), released around the same time as the launch of Yuyake Gakudan, includes a self-cover version of "Asa no Hikari," a song he composed himself and which appears on this album.

The only track included on this reissue, "Romanse of Black Sadness," is a live recording from 1973 (Meiji Gakuin University) not by the trio with Kubota and Makino, but by Mizutani, Nagata Mikio, Shoda Shunichiro, and Takeshi Nakamura (now a photographer), the original Rallizes guitarist who returned as a side guitarist in 1972. The guitar's slow rhythmic intro would later be absorbed into "The Last One," which continued to evolve. The sound of Rallizes Naked that many fans imagine and recognize was nearing completion around this time.

Incidentally, Nakamura is the only member other than Mizutani whose performances appear on all three of the newly reissued Rivista albums (and on "OZ DAYS LIVE"). He was a key figure in the formation of Rallizes (Nakamura approached Mizutani, a fellow member of the light music club), but he left the band in early 1969 to pursue his long-standing passion for photography. Even before returning to Rallizes as guitarist in 1972, he maintained a close bond with the band, photographing them at live shows. I also visited his photo exhibition held in Kyoto in October 2021, and while most of the works were unrelated to Rallizes, the space was beautifully reminiscent of the Rallizes world, embodying the essence of Takashi Mizutani, as mentioned above. I still remember the words Nakamura said to me at the exhibition.

"It's something that's ingrained in me. Even though my method of expression is different, I've always had that awareness. And I think it's something I've been carrying with me ever since my days with Rallizing. I'm sure that's the case for everyone involved with Rallizing. Meeting Mizutani was the starting point for everything. Of course, he had a great personal charm, but I think we all sensed something even more profound than that and sublimated it in our own way."

Nakamura left Rallizes again at the end of 1977, and various other musicians joined the band afterwards, but Nakamura's words were probably a common sentiment shared by all the members. Mizutani Takashi was both an angel and a devil.

July 28, 2022 Shinya Matsuyama

1. Distant Memories
Memory is far away
2. Morning Light L'AUBE
Morning Light, L'Aube
3. Fragment
Fragment I
4. Fragment
Fragment II
5. Cracks
Fissure
6. The Last One _1970
7. Romance of the Black Pain otherwise Fallin' Love With

[CD]
Product code: UBCA-1074
Released by The Last One Musique / Tuff Beats

Release date: October 12, 2022