Organic Intelligence XXXV: Soak in Hellish Spas – Noise in mid-2020s Tokyo

In the latest antidote to the algorithm that is the Organic Intelligence newsletter, Miranda Remington guides you through the hectic sounds of Tokyo's wildly diverse and noisy underground

In 2024, Tokyo is a city changing under a new set of influences, set against the backdrop of a sputtering economy, shifting demographics, and the erosion of the fantasy of an orderly techno-utopia. The hellish, vibrating soup of noise music has always held special meaning in Japan’s musical underground, where electronic sounds resonate at high volumes. Here, a unique lineage of punk and industrial artists have been slowly nurtured over generations, musicians embracing the analogue equipment and digital artefacts surrounding them in order to disrupt the contradictions of cultural conservatism. Tokyo’s anarchic arts continue to operate within this dystopian modality, with its rebellious technical modifications, indiscriminate genre blends, Buddhist/Shinto techno-spiritualisms and uncompromising musicianship. But the terrain is more disorientating than ever, with music that brims with informational overload.

Despite Tokyo’s micro-scenes being fairly fragmented, there have been a few recent events that have encapsulated these trends. An example was the seventh edition of Evil Spa, held on 16 February, 2024. Run by a community of anarchic bands around the experimental noise/hardcore outfit Moreru, Evil Spa has gradually attracted ever more diverse eccentrics. This year’s event promoted their own affiliated guitar-driven projects, including Moreru (an emo-violent ensemble meaning 'leaking'), Shouchoubunnretu / 小腸分裂 (a harsh-rock outfit meaning ‘intestinal puncture'), ANALSKULLFUCK (a grindcore band whose name requires no explanation), and Guitar Wolf (the iconic 'jet rock & roll' trio playing since 1987), among others.

Others from within Tokyo’s underground sprawl were also invited: DJs from the techno and gabber sphere, performance artists, Soundcloud rappers and Japanese hip-hop artists, digital creators, experimental videographers, and like-minded musicians from abroad. Occurring at a crucial moment for an especially open-minded, openly-frustrated generation of artists, the chaotic energy reached new heights as people in mascot costumes descended into mosh pits, attendees stormed the stage, and there were even reports of strange happenings involving urine.

Evil Spa’s celebration of hellish noise revealed Tokyo’s musical underground to be united by attitude rather than style, with genre dissolving under the absorption of global club genres over recent years, all accelerated through memes, reels and a curious coexistence with new digital software and AI. Distorted J-Pop melodies seep serotonin through the grime and the feeling persists that the chaos is ultimately (and joyously) uncontrollable.