The incendiary Japanese group who emerged out of late-60s unrest were suspicious of studios so their legacy was long left to bootleg obsessives. But unheard recordings are revealing their lesser-known gifts for melody<\/p>\n
By 1969 student protests were raging across Japan, as anti-university, anti-war and anti-government movements mingled in strikes and classroom blockades. \u201cStudents were getting really violent,\u201d Makoto Kubota recalls of Kyoto\u2019s Doshisha University, leaving his studies in shambles. But when his quiet, magnetic fellow student Takashi Mizutani invited Kubota to the first gig by his band les Rallizes D\u00e9nud\u00e9s, their deafening psych-rock became his calling. \u201cI\u2019d never experienced that amount of volume. My body ached.\u201d<\/p>\n
Les Rallizes D\u00e9nud\u00e9s, which Kubota soon joined, have become the stuff of rock mythology: a mysterious, ever-shifting group whose early use of extreme distortion has won fans ranging from Osees\u2019 John Dwyer to Lady Gaga. As its sole constant member since founding it in 1967, vocalist-guitarist Mizutani\u2019s secretive nature and aversion to studio recordings have meant their story is still being pieced together, and their music chiefly circulated as live bootlegs. Discovering these had generated a cult international fanbase long after the band\u2019s final gig in 1996, and Mizutani and Kubota reconnected in 2019 with plans to reunite \u2013 cut short by Mizutani\u2019s death later that year. In his memory, Kubota is restoring and releasing their music, including an extraordinary lost album.<\/p>\n
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