We Don't Care About Music Anyway

“The Koyaanisqatsi of French documentaries about Japanese noise music.” Maryland Film Festival

Noise in, noise out-a fitting response to the cacophonous nature of contemporary life. This is the motivating force behind French codirectors Dupire and Kuentz's provocative portrait of Tokyo's new music scene and certainly no urban environment seems more suited with its frenetic sensorial saturation. The practices of eight musicians-from frenzied turntablists and thunderous guitarists, to a cellist who does wonders with a metal grinder––are featured in a seductive montage of clatter and racket. Perhaps most mesmerizing is Yamakawa Fuyuki, a noise guitarist who prefers caverns for his staging. Using a stethoscope to amplify his chest, he hammers out drone guitar, punctuated by his own heartbeat. The elder statesman of the scene Sakamoto Hiromichi prepares his challenged cello for industrial abuse, while Shimazaki Tomoko strips her guitar bare on a beach strewn with uncivil detritus. All this sound is caught inside a haranguing image track, beautiful in its apocalyptic decay. But We Don't Care About Music Anyway isn't about anarchic music, it's about music that emanates from the very pores of the city.

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