“The history of post-war popular music has been closely associated with concerns for social justice. It is not only that particular ideals (equality, community, rights, an end to oppression and discrimination) have animated the public sphere; it is also that those ideals have – whether we look at blues, gospel, world music, punk or hip-hop, for instance – been central in many music genres.”
César Strawberry rapper get two year prison sentence for lyrics (suspended).
“”In December, 12 members of the rap group Insurgencia each received two-year jail terms, for glorifying terrorism in one of their songs
In February, the Supreme Court confirmed a three-and-a-half year jail term for Mallorcan rapper Valtònyc for glorifying terrorism and insulting the monarchy in his lyrics
Earlier this month, Catalan rapper Pablo Hasél also received a two-year sentence and a fine of 37,800 euros (£33,500; $46,700) on similar charges
Please follow these people on Twitter for updates.
noda tsutomu is the ele-king editor who made the Japanese edition of Agit Disco happen. This playlist is first published on ele-king columns: http://www.ele-king.net/columns/006153/
noda has written this ‘basic’ playlist “to explain what is agit disco to our young readers”!
01. Billie Holiday And Her Orchestra – “Strange Fruit” (1939)
02. John Coltrane – “Alabam” (1963)
03. Bob Dylan – “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall” (1963)
04. Nina Simone – “Mississippi. Goddamn” (1964)
05. Sam Cooke – “A Change Is Gonna Come” (1964)
06. Aretha Franklin – “Respect” (1967)
07. James Brown – “Say it Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud” (1968)
08. The Beatles– “I’m so tired” (1968)
09. ジャックス – “ラブ・ジェネレーション” (1968)
10. Sly & The Family Stone – “Stand!” (1969)
11. The Plastic Ono Band – “Give Peace A Chance” (1969)
12. Curtis Mayfield – “Move On Up” (1970)
13. Gil Scott-Heron – “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” (1970)
14. Jimi Hendrix – “Machine Gun” (1971)
15. The Last Poets – “This Is Madness” (1971)
16. Timmy Thomas – “Why Can’t We Live Together ” (1972)
17. Funkadelic – “America Eats Its Young” (1972)
18. 友部正人 – “乾杯” (1972)
19. Sun Ra – “Space Is The Place” (1973)
20. Bob Marley & The Wailers – “Rat Race” (1976)
21. Fẹla And Afrika 70 – “Sorrow Tears And Blood” (1977)
22. Sex Pistols – “God Save The Queen” (1977)
23. Steel Pulse – Ku Klux Klan (1978)
24. The Slits – “Newtown” (1979)
25. Joy Division – “Love Will Tear Us Apart” (1980)
26. The Pop Group – “How Much Longer” (1980)
27. The Specials – “Ghost Town” (1981)
28. Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five – “The Message” (1982)
29. Time Zone Featuring John Lydon & Afrika Bambaataa – “World Destruction” (1984)
30. The Smiths – “Meat Is Murder ” (1985)
31. Public Enemy – “Rebel Without A Pause” (1987)
32. じゃがたら – “ゴーグル、それをしろ” (1987)
33. N.W.A _ “Fuck Tha Police” (1989)
34. Mute Beat – “ダブ・イン・ザ・フォグ” (1988)
35. RCサクセション – 『カバーズ』 (1988)
36. Fingers Inc. – “Can You Feel It (Spoken Word: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.) ” (1988)
37. Underground Resistance – “Riot” (1991)
38. Sonic Youth- “Youth Against Fascism” (1992)
39. Bikini Kill – “Rebel Girl” (1993)
40. Goldie – “Inner City Life” (1994)
41. Autechre – 「Anti EP」 (1994)
42. Radio Boy – 『The Mechanics Of Destruction』 (2001)
43. Wilco – “Ashes of American Flags” (2002)
44. Outkast – “War” (2003)
45. Radiohead – “2 + 2 = 5” (2003)
46. ECD – “言うこと聴くよな奴らじゃないぞ” (2003)
47. ゆらゆら帝国 – “ソフトに死んでいる” (2005)
48. Digital Mystikz – “Anti War Dub” (2006)
49. 七尾旅人 – airplane (2007)
50. Kendrick Lamar –Alright (2015)
次. Beyoncé – Formation (2016)
Noda writes about item 35: “RCサクセション was like The KLF or Sex pistols or John Lennon, a little bit, that’s band leader, his name is Kiyoshiro Imawano is very famous here, and he has been anti-establishment singer in the j-pop field.
He is very important man for us.
If you [could] understand his lyrics, you’d like him.”
article mentioning Imawano here:
No 49. is ‘Nanao traveller’ a singer songwriter. ‘airplane’ is a track from a three-piece album “911 FANTASIA” which was a response to the 9/11 attacks.
15. Asian Kung-Fu Generation – a massive band going on their high Youtube views, but I can’t find this 2012 song. Could it be this one? – ‘Living in the Now’
There is mention in the following text of ‘Bottom Up Democracy’ and SEALDs (2015/16) which is or was the biggest student protest movement since the Sixties. Prior to WW2 Japan had been an increasingly militarised country in which any civilian democracy was under the thumb of the generals. The post-war settlement and constitution (imposed by the USA) limited the military and provided a civilian democracy and most treasured of all, a period of peace. However, recent economic stagnation has threatened that peace consensus with the spectre of a return to militarism and nationalism. This trend has been vigorously opposed by the SEALD movement which has used innovative methods to try to get Japanese people to value and increase real democracy. (Please correct me if I have that wrong!)
This is alluded to at the end of this article but of course I can’t tell what the relation to the music playlist is. I would have thought that a culturally innovative movement like SEALD would have been reflected in music or had music as part of its actions.
This is the final Japanese Agit Disco bonus selection.
This includes lots of my favourite ‘agit disco’ bands and tracks: Sleaford Mods, M.I.A., Patti Smith etc.
One final track is over the page on p.334 and was new to me. From this I learnt the meaning of “talmbout!” What a powerful ‘call to arms’ this track is!
19. Janelle Monae – ‘Hell You Talmbout’ (2013)
“This song is a vessel. It carries the unbearable anguish of millions. We recorded it to channel the pain, fear, and trauma caused by the ongoing slaughter of our brothers and sisters. We recorded it to challenge the indifference, disregard, and negligence of all who remain quiet about this issue. Silence is our enemy. Sound is our weapon. They say a question lives forever until it gets the answer it deserves… Won’t you say their names?” -Janelle Monae
This looks like a hip one. Interestingly, it includes a Cornelius Cardew composition. He was a big part of my life and is central to my latest book ‘Improvisation Rites’ . I also learnt new people, like Heiner Goebbels, and I looked up Red Krayola, and listened to them for the first time. The question marks indicate that I don’t know the track because it is in Japanese (Japanese readers can see photos of pages below)
01 ? (2007)
02. Heiner Goebbels/ Alfred 23 Harth – ‘Berlin Q-Damn’ (1981)
Evokes, for me, the horror of Kristallnacht 9-10th November 1938
03 ? (1991)
04 Cornelius Cardew and Scratch Orchestra ‘The Great Learning Paragraph 2’ (1971)
05 Charlie Mingus ‘Orignal Faubus Fables’ (1960)
06 Frederic Rzewski – 36 variations on ‘The People United Will Never Be Defeated’. Variation 13 (1975)
I nearly heard this in Athens in 2017 … but lost my iphone in a taxi on the way there. Earlier I had been having a meal with Federic and other members of Documenta 14 in a wonderful cafe in which he was frank in his views. Interesting to hear a US communist!
07 ? (1971)
08 ? (1968)
09 ? (1973)
10 ? (1994)
11 ? (1971)
12 The Red Krayola with Art & Language – ‘Keep All Your Friends’ (1981) from Kangaroo? album
Art & Language are a leading English Conceptual Art group. The Red Krayola experimental US rock band, who remind me of the ethos of the Scratch Orchestra, were formed in 1966 by Mayo Thompson. In 1996 They/he provided the soundtrack for a short film Japan in Paris in L.A.
14 Archie Sheep – ‘Attica Blues’ (1972)
15 Happy End – ‘Turn Things Upside Down’ (1990)
Now here’s an interesting one. This is a Robert Wyatt song done by an English 20+ person left-field political band formed by Mat Fox in the area of London I was squatting in at the time (1983). Their name is taken from the title of a 1929 musical play co-written by Bertolt Brecht and Elisabeth Hauptmann, with music by Kurt Weill. They played over 150 benefit concerts for miners during 1984 strike. Their last concert was in 2000.
BUT it is also the name, I learn, of a highly influential Japanese band 1969 – 72. Even known as the Japanese Beatles. They are credited with bringing the use of Japanese back into Japanese pop songs (from 2000?). So ‘Happy End’ is quite evocative to Japanese people.
Here’s another subject that the first Anglo Agit Disco didn’t get to grips with – Steven Patrick Morrissey. This is a selection of Morrissey covers …. but none by Japanese Bands? I am not a big Morrissey fan. But for all his sometimes unpleasantness (recently nationalistic & anti-immigrant) and erratic thinking, he’s been a prolific working class song writer and I suppose he always ‘thinks for himself’. And it seems that many people do covers of Morrissey songs, so here’s another Japanese chapter that I’m keen to read in English. Looking through YouTube it is possible these versions are widely considered as better than the original Smiths versions. It is tempting to spend hours listening to both versions … but hey! life is short.
Some samples:
Placebo – ‘Big Mouth Strikes again’ (2003)
Bow Wow Wow – ‘I Started Something I couldn’t Finish” (2007)
OK go – ‘Interesting Drug’ (2017)
Jeff Buckley – ‘I know its over’ (1985)
Kitten (Chloe Chaidez’s band) – ‘Panic’ (2011) Kitten also had a song entitled ‘Japanese Eyes’ in 2012.
Marianne Faithful ‘Dear God Please Help Me’ (2008) Lyrically the gender reversal is powerful and weird.
Its difficult to see how some of these lyrics are self-evidently political… an Alienated rebel? Influenced by the Moors Murders and James Dean! A working class poet? In a very different vein to Mark E. Smith! But I’d like to see their lyrics compared sometime.
Statecraft’s ‘Bloodshed revolution’ (Video blocked to me) pretty hardcore death metal? Going on other Statecraft tracks…
Firstblood’s ‘Conspiracy’.
“I’ve liked these dudes since I was 13 back in 2003. Damn I was an angry teenager. Their lyrics still ring true to this day though. Especially since I’m now a combat veteran.” Youtube comment
In the first English edition of Agit Disco we didn’t engage with Death Metal genres – did the genre seem too tainted with right-wing style anger? But I do recognise that Metal goes into that war violence and madness scenario that haunts humanity. Some of this stuff is a nightmare (for me) to listen to. But for people who’ve lived through anything from domestic violence, to rape, to gang fear, to actual imperialist warfare, then maybe it’s a mild echo of those realities that we have to find ways of healing from and emerging from.
It has been said that Heavy Metal springs from the echoes of the C20th British ‘Heavy Industries’ merging with rock and roll. It is, for sure, in its roots, a blue collar music. But in its celebration of noise it also relates to bands like ‘Test Department’ and Paul Burwell and Anne Bean’s art orientated Bow Gamelan Ensemble. Finally: One of the main good job options in the area I grew up in, if you weren’t singled out for academic upward mobility, was to become a metal ‘panel beater’.
So anyway, I wonder what ‘Love Kindstrand’ has to say about it? I see ‘First Blood’ are vegan and drug-free… and of course ‘First Blood’ is the title of 1982 Rambo film.
AA-side selection by Koya Suzuki
Noodles girl band – NO FAN 2013 J-pop?
Les Rallizes Dénudés – White Waking (Cable Hogue Soundtrack Version)
Mysterious and fascinating Japanese rock band that formed in 1962 as a musical theatre troupe then became a Velvet Underground like band, with associations with The Japanese Red Army!
