Les Rallizes Dénudés (裸のラリーズ, Hadaka no rariizu) were a Japanese rock band formed in 1967 at Kyoto's Doshisha University.

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Les Rallizes Dénudés
Les Rallizes Dénudés in 1974. Left to right: Mikio Nagata, Takashi Mizutani, Shunichiro Shoda, Takeshi Nakamura
Background information
Also known as	裸のラリーズ
Origin	Kyoto, Japan
Genres	Psychedelic rock[1] noise rock[2]
Years active	1967 (1967)–1988 (1988) 1993 (1993)–1996 (1996)
Labels	Rivista Temporal Drift
Past members	Takashi Mizutani Takashi Kato Takashi Tada Moriaki Wakabayashi Takeda Kiyohiro Tsutomu Matsumoto Takeshi Nakamura Shunichiro Shoda Hiroshi Nar Fujio Yamaguchi Toshirou Mimaki Makoto Kubota Doronco Gumo Mikio Nagata Noma Yukimichi Maki Miura[3]
Website	lesrallizesdenudes-official.com

History

Les Rallizes Dénudés was formed in 1967 by a group of students at Kyoto's Doshisha University. Initially, the band planned to record in a studio, but after being dissatisfied with the results, agreed to exclusively play live shows.

The band was initially active between 1967 and 1988, and then again briefly between 1993 and 1996 before permanently disbanding. It is believed that the band's name comes from a corruption of French: valises dénudées (literally "naked suitcases") which was derived from fake French slang invented by theatrical group Gendai Gekijo. The band's style is typified by simple, repetitious instrumental passages, shrieking, cacophonous guitar feedback and folk arrangement. Their discography is made up mostly of live bootlegs, soundboard archives, and even a few rare aborted studio recording attempts as they have never officially released any of their material, although there are archive releases on independent labels such as Univive, Rivista, Phoenix, and Bamboo, as well as releases from former members and affiliates of the band.[4][5]

Although the band itself was not explicitly political, members were known to participate in various protests, with the band even performing at a university auditorium while it was held by students during a protest. In 1970, original bassist Moriaki Wakabayashi, who was known to have attended several of these protests, assisted in the hijacking of Japan Airlines Flight 351 orchestrated by the Communist League's "Red Army Faction."[4][6]

Very little is known about the band's frontman Takashi Mizutani, aside from his former affiliation with members of the Japanese Red Army and involvement early on in theater at Doshisha University. After the hijacking of Flight 351, Mizutani became extremely paranoid and went into hiding for many years, only occasionally emerging to play shows. The last public appearances of Takashi Mizutani were two live performances in 1997 with jazz saxophonist Arthur Doyle and drummer Sabu Toyozumi.

A film about the band was released on VHS in 1992 by an independent filmmaker named Ethan Mousiké (who many believe to be a pseudonym of Mizutani), consisting of over 2 hours of live footage of the band.[7]

In October 2021, an official website was launched for the band by record label The Last One Musique, claiming to be a collaborative effort by former band members and associates of Mizutani. It announced its intention to release official Rallizes recordings with "more alive and striking sound than the bootlegs that have been circulating over twenty years".[8] The website states on its homepage that Mizutani passed away in 2019,[9] and this is further supported by statements from Aquilha Mochiduki (sometimes spelled Mochizuki), a photographer who was very close to Mizutani. In a 2020 interview, former member Makoto Kubota (who is himself credited on the official website) stated that he had recently had a phone call with Mizutani, in which he told him "this is how it is in America right now," referring to the popularity of the band in that country, and that it's even possible for the band to play a large concert there. The article was updated on 28 October 2021 to state that the phone calls had taken place in late 2019.[10]

Discography

Official releases

Releases that are stated to be authorized or released officially by the band.[11] [12]

• 1991 – '67–'69 Studio et Live (Rivista, CD) (rereleased by Temporal Drift in 2022)
• 1991 – Mizutani / Les Rallizes Dénudés (Rivista, CD) (rereleased by Temporal Drift in 2022)
• 1991 – '77 Live (Rivista, CD) (rereleased by Temporal Drift in 2022)
• 1992 – Les Rallizes Dénudés (VHS)
• 1996 – Romance of the Black Grief (Otherwise Fallin' Love With) (7")
• 2021 – White Awakening (Digital, Single, Temporal Drift)
• 2022 – Vertigo Otherwise My Conviction (Digital, Single, Temporal Drift)
• 2022 - The OZ Tapes (Digital and Vinyl, Album, Temporal Drift)

Featured On

• 1973 — OZ Days Live

Bootleg releases

Significant or well-known bootlegs include:

• Blind Baby Has Its Mother's Eyes
• Cable Hogue Soundtrack
• Double Heads
• France Demo Tape
• Great White Wonder
• Heavier Than a Death in the Family (2002)
• Mars Studio 1980
• Flightless Bird Needs Water Wings (溺れる飛べない鳥は水羽が必要, Oboreru tobenaitori wa Mizuha ga hitsuyō)
• Yodogo-A-Go-Go

References

Further reading

• Cope, Julian (2007). "Japrocksampler", Bloomsbury Publishing.

External links

• Official Les Rallizes Dénudés site
• Unofficial Les Rallizes Dénudés site (Japanese)

На других языках

[de] Les Rallizes Dénudés

[es] Les Rallizes Dénudés

[ru] Les Rallizes Dénudés