K2

[bobMarinelli]

so I spent the night trying to mend a broken noise track with a remix, while drinking maybe a few, two, tree dozen beers. I finish up by spinning K2 Rainy Tritium v3 and wake up to find my last notebook scribbling of the night was. . . . "K2 = thats beautiful beyond my wildest dreams".

may your weekend be as enjoyable as my wednesday night. and now I don't know if I should find joy in the beauty of the sounds of K2, or despair in fact that I will never be close enough to touch that.

oh well, off to get a coffee . . . .

[adult human]

Nobody should try to touch the sounds of K2 but K2. K2 should remind us of why it's important to carve out our own niches. K2 is wonderful.

[SS1535]

While I have dipped into this project in the past, I have not taken any sort of deep dive. What albums are the most important/best?

[fenian]

Nobody should try to touch the sounds of K2 but K2. K2 should remind us of why it's important to carve out our own niches. K2 is wonderful.

K2 set i was lucky enough to witness/record in Shibuya 2016
https://youtu.be/nPM_AJhTilY?feature=shared

[Ineffable Slime]

I listened to They Live We Slave again recently and that is absolutely top tier K2

[adult human]

Nobody should try to touch the sounds of K2 but K2. K2 should remind us of why it's important to carve out our own niches. K2 is wonderful.

K2 set i was lucky enough to witness/record in Shibuya 2016
https://youtu.be/nPM_AJhTilY?feature=shared

Amazing. I'd absolutely love to see him play live.

[Capers]

While I have dipped into this project in the past, I have not taken any sort of deep dive. What albums are the most important/best?

I'm missing a few of the classic era albums, but out of the stuff I have, Autopsy Soundtrakks (industrial, dark ambient), Tekhnodrug (psychout industrial of sorts) and Metal Dysplasia (massive, dramatic cutup STEEL noise).

I really need to get my hands on Metaloplakia and Molecular Terrorism at some point. Then I'll be content.

[Lactating Tardigrade]

The discography is so massive and I've heard so little of it, but the Sexencyclopedia boxset is one of the most consistent and perfect releases I've ever heard from anyone.

The split with Endo from 2016, Yomishura, cannot be fucked with either. I'll need to pull the Biometrics release with Macro off the shelf soon and revisit.

He seems pretty committed to the modular rig now, right? I haven't kept up with releases but that is the impression that I got.

[Natalia]

Metal Dysplasia is a beast-like, incredible album. Love the metal sounds on it.

[SS1535]

While I have dipped into this project in the past, I have not taken any sort of deep dive. What albums are the most important/best?

I'm missing a few of the classic era albums, but out of the stuff I have, Autopsy Soundtrakks (industrial, dark ambient), Tekhnodrug (psychout industrial of sorts) and Metal Dysplasia (massive, dramatic cutup STEEL noise).

I really need to get my hands on Metaloplakia and Molecular Terrorism at some point. Then I'll be content.

The steel cut-up one sounds very interesting---I will have to check it out!

[Tribe Tapes]

Timeline of K2 discography is eclectic. Early 1980s releases under his real name Kimihide Kusafuka (Re-Musik, Demise Symphonika, both originally DD Tapes) were largely in genres of synth / dark ambient and on the surface bear little resemblance to the K2 we know today. Then, the surfrock-infused Techno Menses was one of a few experimental rock outfits he was involved with too. The first releases using the K2 pseudonym like N.G. Musik (1983) combined these more musical influences with his early noise works. After ~1985 until 1993 the project was largely inactive.
New round of Kinky Musik Institute tapes began in 1993, with aforementioned Autopsy Soundtracks and Tekhnodrug being highlights from the Institute's year. First KMI CDs Metal Dysplasia and The Rust (both 1996) may represent his most well-known sound -- gloriously tape-corroded explosions of steel metal. Those sessions were excerpted and de-mixed further into the '96 tapes Carthago (Bloodlust!) and Bite My Hands (Betley Welcomes Careful Drivers). Was very honored to release K2's most recent vinyl LP Hybrid Dub Metal Musik, which compiles edited material from both tapes.

[moozz]

New round of Kinky Musik Institute tapes began in 1993, with aforementioned Autopsy Soundtracks and Tekhnodrug being highlights from the Institute's year. First KMI CDs Metal Dysplasia and The Rust (both 1996) may represent his most well-known sound -- gloriously tape-corroded explosions of steel metal. Those sessions were excerpted and de-mixed further into the '96 tapes Carthago (Bloodlust!) and Bite My Hands (Betley Welcomes Careful Drivers). Was very honored to release K2's most recent vinyl LP Hybrid Dub Metal Musik, which compiles edited material from both tapes.

That early '90s stuff was very industrial with noisier elements creeping in release by release. Using/abusing metal objects was very strongly present also in the material that followed, up to late '90s or so(?) when it started to be more straight up harsh noise (some of the best kind!). Urashima's 6xCD box set contains 4 of those early '90s "industrial" releases and two noise ones from 1996, box set well worth getting if it is still available. The already mentioned Sexencyclopedia is also great harsh noise from beginning to end. In mid 2000s he seemed to have a break of some years but came back as strong as ever. After that his material started to have more synths(?) and lazer electronics. I haven't heard much of the stuff recorded in the last 10 years but like someone mentioned I also have the impression that he's gone more modular. And he has been extremely prolific. Good luck if you're a completionist :)

Hybrid Dub Metal Musik LP is great! When I saw that the material was from mid '90s I knew it would rock. And it did. Metal object abuse is very clearly present on that LP, with sudden cuts.

I'd say it is not very easy to go wrong with K2 from 1993-2013.

[Joie de la Blumpy]

Not naming names but let's face it, we destroyed barcelona.

[Joie de la Blumpy]

Oh alright, he says with self originating indignant resignation, we fucking destroyed Barcelona (which may be saying plenty for a lot which apparently couldn't even spell Barcelona, at least on bc). Happy? I mean I couldn't even begin to count the number of times I've trotted out this particular title, but it'd probably be at least like uh seven. But it's been a while tbh cause it's a title, and a tape, and a tape inside a buncha welded metal which gets the call approximately as often as I keep my tetanus shots up to date.

As I play it back here on ye olde bc I'd say the bc edition somehow sounds way more hectic than my mindsear, or sadly morbid recollections thereof, would have it. But still. The er essence, namely, the very and I will not say brutal but rather brute-ish. A descriptor I've flopped out wrt projects like um that Shogun, the violent one (a project which would know all about keeping tetanus shots au currant I'm sure, I digress). Brute, right. These cuts that would seem to have been administered with a handsaw, or hacksaw, or one or another sorta jagged not-terribly-precisioned shaky hand-held severing-of-favorite-parts implement. Instrument. Very brute, this brutish proto Neanderthal, with understated epilepsies dutifully clocking up the overtime, but the good if brutish brute-ly proto Neanderthal assuming that were a thing. (Trust me, it is, re- that much championed one syllable project with the umlaut stuck in the middle, not to name names.)

Funny now, listening now to these seemingly cherry picked Mass-Sound-Pain-Pleasure gems, for that they are, gems, which might casually shit on just about everything without even trying, like to imply, like, how little context seems to matter when in fact I'd say it (the context) matters plenty, or fairly so, never one to hedge my bets more than just a few smidgens or two, no sirreebob. But like we're talking like grab bag of ear candy or ear hosing or, look. Just get that hacksaw to work buddy boy. As far as the earholes are concerned, highly doubtful that anybody can catch up with this but like tell it to the judge already. Fuck!

[Joie de la Blumpy]

Attempting and failing to pick all that (previously posted) apart, I think I'd meant to chuck something in there (in that blubbering about brute-ish hacksaw-lery) about a relationship to the more au currant sort of cut-up as perhaps it is sometimes presented. To the point where you can almost see that pendulum swinging in real time.

Which is not to knock pendulums swinging in real time. Some of my best friends are pendulums swinging in real time.

[murmur]

The CDr he put out on Solopsism, Schizophereniak Signal Transduktion, is absolutely incredible.

[k.p.g]

Timeline of K2 discography is eclectic. Early 1980s releases under his real name Kimihide Kusafuka (Re-Musik, Demise Symphonika, both originally DD Tapes) were largely in genres of synth / dark ambient and on the surface bear little resemblance to the K2 we know today. Then, the surfrock-infused Techno Menses was one of a few experimental rock outfits he was involved with too. The first releases using the K2 pseudonym like N.G. Musik (1983) combined these more musical influences with his early noise works. After ~1985 until 1993 the project was largely inactive.
New round of Kinky Musik Institute tapes began in 1993, with aforementioned Autopsy Soundtracks and Tekhnodrug being highlights from the Institute's year.

This whole period is where most of my favorite K2 work resides in. I understand why so many love the metal bang & clang to death. I never found that his style of it did anything for me. I have the Sexencyclopedia boxset sitting at my desk right now, so maybe a proper revisit is in order before I fully die on that hill.

With all of that being said, I think that the best K2 is actually In the Monotonous Flowers. Every time I put it on, I realize how special that disc is; not just in the K2 discussion, but the greater discussion of noise on the whole. I have been subconsciously ripping off that shit for years now. It is something too great for words.