Test ToneTest Tone

Test Tone 27
Tropicadelic Dance Party
This month, Test Tone breaks from the listening lounge and invites everyone to come and dance, drink, or jump around on the furniture (please remove your shoes). No Wave pop meets Brazilian hardcore and psychedelic jam bands take the stage in record numbers. With OHPIA providing a melting visual extravaganza, this is sure to be a noisy carnival. Don't ask, just come!
Featuring: Sheherherhers (Afrobeat Psychedelia!), Jebiotto! (No Wave / Now Wave), Hununhum (Tropacadelic Pascoalcore), OHPIA (Melting light show)



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Artist Information:

Sheherherhers (JP only)

Sometimes you want to leave your jacket, your drink and your friends, and join the band onstage. Sheherherhers are clearly enjoying themselves, and it's infectious. A band consisting of 9 members, they create an atmosphere that makes you feel that even while inside, you're at an outdoor festival at the electrifying last stage where all of the performers come up to play together. At first glance, the band seems unnaturally relaxed on stage, yet they are capable of some of some of the most explosive jams, Afrobeat anthems and psychedelic freakouts you'll have a chance to stumble upon. This appearance at Test Tone gives you an opportunity to see the band in its full glory, basked in the melting light show of OHPIA.

Jebiotto! (JP only)

Firmly based in the based in the New York No Wave tradition, while at the same time remaining blindingly original, Jebiotto! manages to capture the essence of good pop while remaining firmly punk in spirit. Initially forming in 2002, the band quickly dissolved, leaving Tutti to take his guitar on a forsaken path to search for new bandmates. By 2004, Jebiotto! had reformed, with the tumultuous JJ madca on vocals and Casiotone, and Moririn on drums and pandemonium. In 2005, Keisuke Hakase joined on bass, giving a solid foundation for the disheveled pop lurking above his snaking bass lines. Dazzling and chaotic, Jebiotto! is a band to see if you missed the generation that brought us James Chance and Lydia Lunch.

Hununhum (JP only)

Hununhum has a list of members that would take up all of the space I have to write how ridiculously good this band is. With compositions that call to mind Hermeto Pascoal, Captain Beefheart and early Boredoms, Hununhum deliver twisted hardcore riffs with the same ease that they execute complex contrapuntal lines and syncopated vocal phrasing. Made up of vocals, sax, bass, guitar, drums, keyboards, percussion and more, the group has obviously emerged from a number of musical explorations that have evolved into a multiform arrangement of influences. Any and all musicians should step up and take notice - this band has the chops, and they only seem to be getting better. Bewilderingly complex, yet eminently listenable, Hununhum offers a wild and unique musical journey.

OHPIA (JP only)

This is the the second time we've been lucky to have live analog-visual maestros OHPIA at Test Tone. When we hosted Damo Suzuki's Network earlier in the year, they provided a kaleidoscopic deep-sea environment of translucent liquids, holographic lighting, shadow pictures and mind-blowing collage. They are a staple on the visual menu for artists such as Acid Mothers Temple, K.K. Null, Mani Neumeier and Keiji Haino, and they continue to refine their oil, ink and plate-glass techniques for a total psychedelic experience. As OHPIA takes SuperDeluxe to cosmic spaces and otherworldly planets, you'll be glad you came along for the ride.



About Test Tone...
Test Tone is a free monthly event that promotes varied and, we hope, interesting live music to a wider audience in Tokyo. We wanted to create an event that highlights the diversity of great music and visual art being made here and give more people an opportunity to see and hear it.

To make Test Tone as accessible as possible we wanted a central Tokyo space with a good sound system; a place where people would want to come and hang out, eat, drink and meet people. And listen to some live music that they may not otherwise get exposed to. As a further encouragement, we wanted to make the event free—not only for the audience, but for the performers too.

All this could easily have been an order too tall were it not for the exceptional people at Super Deluxe that made it all possible. Their enthusiasm for live music and visuals and faith in the event, allowing us complete creative freedom in booking artists, has allowed Test Tone to grow into something even broader in scope than we could have hoped for back in February 2005 when we proudly presented volume 1.

Our aim is to create a wider community. To further that, please get in touch if you are interested in playing, or want to be kept up to date with Test Tone events.

Finally, we'd like to say thanks to everyone that has been involved with Test Tone, especially all the artists that have made the events such a continuing success.