Recently stripped-down, two person bands such as the White Stripes, the Black Keys, Death From Above ,
Kiiiiiii and
Afrirampo have found favor with music fans. More long-lived, more radical, and perhaps furthest away from mainstream success, are the Ruins, who have been blasting away as a duo now for over twenty years. Their combination of incredible chops and stunningly energetic performances have however landed them at least “legendary cult band” status. The Ruins were formed in 1985 by drummer and vocalist Tatsuya Yoshida and bassist Hideki Kawamoto. Their musical palette included prog, punk, jazz, and metal, usually played mind-boggling fast. The band has over time gone through four bassists, each of them arguably more accomplished than the one they replaced. After Kawamoto, Kazuyoshi Kimoto servied from 1987-1990, Ryuichi Masuda between 1991-1994, and Hisashi Sasaki from 1994-1995. The band is in fact largely the brainchild of Yoshida, who has a vast number of influences, but cites as his top source of inspiration the French prog-rock band Magma. Yoshida is also a member of various other groups. Some of the groups have exactly the same members, but different musical concepts. For example he is part of vocal group Zubi Zuva, who perform a cappella Gregorian chants, doo-wop and hardcore punk. He is also part of Koenji Hyakkei, a prog-oriented group that provoked Alternative Press to call them “perhaps the greatest group currently operating in the world”. Yoshid...
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Recently stripped-down, two person bands such as the White Stripes, the Black Keys, Death From Above ,
Kiiiiiii and
Afrirampo have found favor with music fans. More long-lived, more radical, and perhaps furthest away from mainstream success, are the Ruins, who have been blasting away as a duo now for over twenty years. Their combination of incredible chops and stunningly energetic performances have however landed them at least “legendary cult band” status. The Ruins were formed in 1985 by drummer and vocalist Tatsuya Yoshida and bassist Hideki Kawamoto. Their musical palette included prog, punk, jazz, and metal, usually played mind-boggling fast. The band has over time gone through four bassists, each of them arguably more accomplished than the one they replaced. After Kawamoto, Kazuyoshi Kimoto servied from 1987-1990, Ryuichi Masuda between 1991-1994, and Hisashi Sasaki from 1994-1995. The band is in fact largely the brainchild of Yoshida, who has a vast number of influences, but cites as his top source of inspiration the French prog-rock band Magma. Yoshida is also a member of various other groups. Some of the groups have exactly the same members, but different musical concepts. For example he is part of vocal group Zubi Zuva, who perform a cappella Gregorian chants, doo-wop and hardcore punk. He is also part of Koenji Hyakkei, a prog-oriented group that provoked Alternative Press to call them “perhaps the greatest group currently operating in the world”. Yoshida sometimes goes on tour with Ruins and his other groups at the same time. In 1997, 1999, 2003 and 2005 Yoshida has booked extensive tours of Europe under the moniker Japanese New Music Festival. This year’s festival features seven bands, with a total of three members - Yoshida plus Atsushi Tsuyama and Makoto Kawabata, both of Acid Mother’s Temple . One of the highlights will be Ruins Alone. Currently without a bass player, despite his “Bassist Wanted Tour” this summer, Yoshida is performing solo. The band has released a number of albums, mostly from American based Skin Graft label,
Pallaschtom being their most recent. Also notable is
1986-1992, a collection of material from that era, which is something like a best of. They have also collaborated with New York’s John Zorn and released albums via his Tzadik label. In early 2005 the Ruins released a split 7 inch and comic book with Oakland, California based hell raisers High On Fire.
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