[atsonicpark]

DON'T FALL IN THE AUDIO HOLE

Partly hatched out of his obsessions with records, Eye's human turntable theory also links to his parallel role as a DJ. As MC Hellshit, he teamed up with turntablist Otomo Yoshihide (aka DJ Carhouse) in 1995 for a Disobey event in Manchester; and as DJ Pica Pica Pica, he has released a CD on vinyl cut-ups, scratched edits and raw remixes that hark back to his earlier "Boretronix" cassette recordings. But why is he so fascinated by the role of DJ? "Since I was a kid I've always been interested in the idea of making sounds using records," Eye replies. "When I first started making my own multitracked recordings, I'd use a tape deck and a record player. I'd put a big rock on the arm of the player, so it would play the same thing over and over, make up loops and ping-pong them back and forth. I've always been really interested in records as a medium, and in sound reproduction equipment. So when DJs first appeared I wanted to have a go myself."
The technical aspects of sound generation notwithstanding, Eye is also fascinated by the DJ's potential for creating an alternative identity. "I'm really interested in how putting 'DJ' in front of a word adds some special value to an action. You could be drinking coffee and become DJ Coffee," he laughs. "My fundamental reason for becoming a DJ, though, is the psychological satisfaction I get from seeing a round object revolving." Asked if he admires and DJs currently treading the club circuits, Eye cites sound artist Christian Marclay. "I remember seeing my first photograph of Marclay who was wearing a turntable like he was selling hot-dogs at a baseball game. Seeing that picture was exciting. He looks punk, the whole image. I thought his "Record Without a Cover" was also hugely exciting. It's somebody doing something which hasn't been done before - how could you not be impressed?"

BOREDOMER IN BORETRIBE

Contact with contemporary Western musicians has been enormously beneficial in the development of The Boredoms, especially for Eye and Yoshimi, who have forged strong links with John Zorn and Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon. In October 1992 Zorn brought in producer Kazunori Sugiyama to oversee the recording of The Boredoms's fourth album, "Wow 2", for his label Avant. After witnessing him at work, Zorn invited Eye to join his hardcore jazz orchestras Naked City and Painkiller. They have since recorded two albums together for the New Japan and Radical Jewish Culture sections of Zorn's Tzadik label.
"I think I met him in Japan," replies Eye, recalling his first contacts with Zorn. "I was playing in some band and John came along to watch us. We started talking and he said that we should do something. I then went to New York to do vocals for Naked City and things developed from there. One thing I noticed from working with Naked City was that if they were recording something and John noticed a mistake, he would stop everybody from playing and they would do it again until it was right. It was that idea of getting things precisely right [that intrigued me]." The pair returned to the studio in 1995 to record "Nani Nani", for which Zorn assumed the name Dekoboko Hajime. During the same session, they found enough time to record a short CD called "Zohar" as The Mystic Fugu Orchestra. Under the alias of Rav Tzizit, Zorn played harmonium over the pops and crackles of a "found" LP of ancient Judaica recordings, with Eye, as Rav Yechida, supplying an accompanying vocal drone. "John was doing this Jewish music series on Tzadik and we wanted to do something that would fit into that idea," remembers Eye, "so we found an old record in some junk shop and played it, and this was the sound of that record. "Nani Nani" was recorded first, and when that was all finished we had some time left so we did this. It just came out very quickly it wasn't thought over."
For Eye, working on this outwardly Jewish project tapped into darker cultural resonances closer to home. Something about the music dredged up the long buried history of the Oomoot cult, a Japanese religious order claiming to possess visions of a new world order. The military-controlled government eventually banned the heavily persecuted cult in 1935. Several generations of Eye's family had belonged to the Oomoto movement; combined with Zorn's deep personal commitment to Jewish culture, the duo's shared memories of grief made them especially close. The music resulting from these sessions is at once mystical and marvellous.
The Zorn connection led to The Boredoms being booked as support for a Stateside Sonic Youth tour. When it was over, Thurston Moore followed Zorn's lead and lured Eye into the studio to record together on various projects for his Ecstatic Peace! label, some of which are still in the can awaiting release.
"I like the way that Sonic Youth's sound is very similar to the Glenn Branca guitar orchestra he was doing with guitars with different tunings," comments Eye, about his experiences touring with Sonic Youth. "Where he was creating music that was both contemporary composition and rock 'n' roll at the same time. That was something that was very important to me. I never really wanted to just play rock as it was, even though as a group it does have that rock structure to it. I've never been able to play pre-existing rock and I've always wanted to do something else.
"When you play like that you begin to hear new sounds coming from beyond the sympathetic resonances and overtones," he continues, "like voices, or melodies you've never heard before. The more you listen, the more you hear. I'm really interested in that phenomenon. That was something I learnt from Glenn Branca and Sonic Youth." During the same 1992 Sonic Youth tour, Yoshimi was herded into the studio by Kim Gordon to play drums and trumpet for her and ex-Pussy Galore guitarist Julie Cafritz's Grrrl Power punk trio Kitten (later renamed Free Kitten). Smiling at the memory, Yoshimi recalls, "Kim, who I didn't know at the time, told me that this was going to be group called Kitten, and at first I thought she said Kitchen! It was a very long time before I knew this was going to be a group with Kim and Julie. Then Mark [Ibold] from Pavement joined and we toured, but Julie has been too busy recently so the band haven't done anything."