There could easily be a book written about the NON baNd's self-titled EP. Truely, that is the level of depth that is required to do it justice. It's a classic of Japanese no-wave and the avatar of first-wave Tokyo-punk icon Non. But because I'm a masochist, I'm going to try and say what I've got to say about it in about 300 words. Wish me luck!
Originally released by the fledgling underground label Telephraph in 1982, NON baNd self-titled is the only studio album that the band ever released. As the story goes, following the capsize and disbursement of her maiden "Tokyo Rocker" outfit Maria 023, bassist, vocalist and visionary, NON began to chart a course for her solo career. She did so by frequenting clubs and local bars and delivering unscheduled performances with just her bass and a microphone- often electrifying those in attendance and commandeering the attention with the quizzically, chiding character of her voice and the plucky, rhythmically inclined mischief of her bass picking. Eventually, her magnetism attracted the talents of guitarist and violin player Kinosuke and drummer Mitsuru Tamagaki, and just like that, NON had a band again.
As you can imagine, the compositions on NON baNd's self-titled album are sparse and idiosyncratic arranged- centering NON's voice and bass as they glide around the bends and arches of Kinosuke's whimsical, tilting bow. There is a lot of open-air that is left on these mixes and a welcome affordance of space can be uncovered throughout. It is into this space that you can feel yourself drifting while listening to this album. Breathing and observing. Circling the band as they perform. A silent witness to their exhibition and stagging of sound.
While enjoying this record I feel like I am right next to the band. Soaking in the moister of their breaths and the smell of their perspiration, as we stare into a teeming, absorbing blackness just beyond the threshold of illumination cast from a spotlight above. I am there with them, listening intently to the riddles which NON divulges through the mocking titter of her chatter-box melodies, maneuvering around the wild, thrusting gesticulations of Kinosuke as he saws with his bow, and feeling the thump of Mitsuru's beat as it's vibrations rise up through my spine and scarper through the reservoirs of my ribcage.
It's not very often that a record nearly 40 years old record can present itself with such fresh immediacy that it feels as though it is being performed for the first time to be directly received by your senses. But that is the magic of NON baNd's self-titled EP- A singularly unique and delightfully peculiar experience.
