NEK068: SHUN KONNO -「rusted existence」| tape
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• Hailing from the dark side of urban Japan,
the Blind Beast aka SHUN KONNO is one of the most enigmatic
musical projects of Tokyo's underground, with an eclectic limited catalog of cult releases that consist of lathe cut records, audio tapes and VHS cassettes.
Working from the shadows, the man behind this phantom project
didn't want to share with us any info about himself, except of the following three words, "JAPAN, DESTRUCTION, RECONSTRUCTION". This veil of mystery made us want to research deeper to find out what was possibly hidden underneath SHUN KONNO's obscure character and his music.
As you can imagine, our job to write a few words for this press release was a road to nowhere. Failing to find anything relevant online, other than some b&w photography of the Blind Beast through his personal tumblr account, and trying to match the missing pieces of the puzzle, we soon realised that the best way to unfold the person behind the moniker was through his music itself.
When the demo reached our headquarters,
we instantly thought of the type of work that the Drumetrics collective puts together but with an Alec Empire or Atari Teenage Riot hardcore gabber approach, inspired by the early blasting sound systems at jungle raves in the 90's UK. Though, rather than double time amen breaks, mid-tempo beats are the Blind Beast's choice of weapon. One could describe his music as a bastard child of hip hop..a hybrid that you really rarely come across.
So, what we have here is 26 minutes of lethal doses of
(reconstructed or live recorded?..not really sure) brutal filthy butcher chops + drum breaks as the main ingredient, moody soundscapes and sub emerging noise, evolving into complete compositions.
Imagine a psychedelic soul drummer in the late 60s, solo improvising under the influence of LSD, fighting his demons on top of random processed electronic sounds.
The project as a whole creates a cinematic set of a disturbingly violent movie from the future. A must for all the diggers and drum break freaks who find themselves not being fulfilled with just loop based music, and can't get enough of that hardcore drum programming.
We proudly present「rusted existence」
on limited edition hand numbered cassette tapes,
artistically curated by Joshua Quinlon with a double sided pair
of utopian collages.
CAUTION: This is a HARD LISTENING experience. Enjoy responsibly and don't say we didn't warn you!
P.s.: The reason we present「rusted existence」as two sides
instead of separate tracks is because we urge you to listen to the project as a whole, from start till the very end..for optimum experience, trust our guidelines and don't skip through !
Νίκος Σωτηρέλης
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written by:
Shun Konno
blindbeastshunkonno.bandcamp.com
blind666beast.tumblr.com
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artwork by:
Joshua Quinlon
hazulfro.tumblr.com
divinereworks@gmail.com
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2019 Nekubi_Tapes
released December 1, 2019
