Hijokaidan

Hijokaidan (非常階段, lit. "emergency stairway") is a Japanese noise and free improvisation group with a revolving lineup that has ranged from two members to as many as fourteen in its early days. The group is the project of guitarist Yoshiyuki "Jojo" Hiroshige ("Japanese;" 広重嘉之, JOJO広重) its one constant member, who is head & owner of the Osaka-based Alchemy Records. Other regulars include Jojo's wife Junko and Toshiji Mikawa (also of Incapacitants). The group began at the very end of the 1970s as a performance art-based group whose anarchic shows would often involve destruction of venues and audio equipment, food and garbage being thrown around, and on-stage urination. As the group's lineup changed over time, their focus became less performance-based and more musically based, fine-tuning their sound into a dense wall of white noise created by each member making as much aural discomfort as humanly possible.

Partial discography

* "Syumatsu-Syorijo"(compilation) (1980)
* "Zoroku no Kibyo" (1982)
* "Viva Angel" (1984)
* "King of Noise" (1985)
* "Tapes" (1986)
* "Limited Edition" (1987)
* "No Paris No Harm" (1988)
* "Modern" (1989)
* "Romance" (1990)
* "Windom" (1991)
* "The Neverending Story of King of Noise" Compilation (1992)
* "Noise From Trading Cards" (1997)
* "Ferocity of Practical Life" EP (1997)
* "The Last Recording Album" (2004)
* "The Lord of the Noise" (retrospective CD and DVD) (2004)
* "Polar Nights Live" (2008)

Collaborations

* S.O.B.Kaidan: "Noise Violence and Destroy" (1988)
* Borbetomagus & Hijokaidan: "Both Noises End Burning" (2007)

External links

* [http://noise.as/hijokaidan The Hijokaidan Story]