Pauze festival: Keiji Haino, Kan Mikami

The feeling of seeing two of my all-time Japanese heroes on the same night can't be caught with words, I need mimicry, magic, acrobatics and someone who I can trust to calm me down when I'm on the verge of exploding. Inexplicable but I'll try, you know I'll try, oh I'll try. Ok.

As part of the Pauze festival organised in De Vooruit in Belgian town Ghent, K-raa-K3 hosted three evenings packed with fringe explorers. Thursday saw Jonathan Kane and Ekkehard Ehlers, Joseph Suchy and Jos Steen while friday had one of the main attractions and I'm sad I missed them; freefolk spacemotherfuckers MV/EE & The Bummer Road. Also on friday: Spires That In The Sunset Rise, Charlie Nothing and Fish & Sheep. I know nothing about those last two by the way but I didn't make them up either. A friend even told me Charlie Nothing was one of the better acts of the festival. I do trust his opinion so maybe I need to check his Allmusic entry which doesn't give any info but then there's always a bio on his website.

Saturday it was time for my lazy butt to get up and drive to Ghent as Kazuki Tomokawa, The Overhang Party, Kan Mikami and Keiji Haino ALL took the stage during, as Pauze called it, the Far East Freak Out. I really think this is a rare event, especially in regions like the Benelux but K-raa-K3 is always on edge and they never fail to surprise even the crustiest fanatics. As usual I got there late cos even with navigation it's hard to get past the Kennedytunnel traffic jams in Antwerp, especially when there's a footballmatch and they close down half the city. That pissed me off.

Tomokawa was halfway his set when I arrived, his voice piercing through my skull immediately. No wonder they call him the screaming philosopher, extremely heartfelt though and even if you don't speak his language you feel it in your gut (I've no doubt the effect is less when this kind of thing is done in English though). As with Mikami, Tomokawa's guitarstyle is extremely explosive, every chord he plays feels like it could be his last one. It's overdriven and apocalyptic, but never in a cartoonish, maybe even Current 93 kind of way.

I'm always fascinated by drummers who hit their skins with brutal force. The Overhang Party's elderly drummer boasted a intensely cool white goatee whilst pounding his drums Hulk-style. Musically it's all engines in overload, sonic mayhem, guitars as sound-avalanches hi-jacking every ear they can reach and sending it into rehabilitation afterwards. There were parts when they locked into a groove for some minutes, some vocal parts that didn't really make much of an impression but the sheer volume and bulk of sound they created totally knocked more than a few of their feet.

Kan Mikami then and just looking at the guy puts a smile on my face. Setting up he already starts flexing his facial muscles, tongue in and out, stretching his lips in a weirdlooking way. Fascinating stuff. As is his singing/performing style cos he does perform, playing the part of a wandering folksinger, amazing mimicry. His singing sends shivers down my whole body, on cd already, needless to say I was shaking the entire time. He puts in a couple of different voices as well, creating an amazing array of vocal intensities.

Different intensity with Keiji Haino, clad fully in black he took the stage, the room and everyone inside with a lengthy, kaleidoscopic sonic adventure. Starting off with looping his harrowing vocals, layering tons of blizzard like effects on top of them. Sometimes it came across as a collage, a couple of exercises in a certain order. It all made sense though and seeing him rape his guitar gave a hint of what Fushitsusha must've sounded like live. Brutal.

For some visual understanding I urge you to hop to youtube, or check 'em out here:

Kazuki Tomokawa
Kan Mikami
Keiji Haino