Bo Ningen: A Quick Chat
As the Bo Ningen get ready for their Album launch at Hoxton Square Bar And Kitchen, With Guitars catches up to find a little more about the London based Japanese band.
London based, Japanese four piece, Bo Ningen are set to release their eagerly awaited new album on Stolen Recordings on the 8th of October 2012. ‘Line The Wall’, the follow up to 2010’s eponymously titled debut, was self produced and recorded at London’s Lynchmob Studios and features ten brand new tracks.
Regarded by many, including WithGuitars as one of London’s best live bands, Bo Ningen have taken huge and exciting strides with this album. I quote, “They’ve introduced elements that expand the structure and alter the sense of time and space in their music. In previous recordings they focused on capturing the live, raw feeling of the songs but now they’ve added musical layers giving further depth and texture.” All I will stress ids that live feel is something special to witness, quite simply it is an intense experience, frequently powerful, on occasion reflective, but always an experience
The Bo Ningen line up of Taigen (Vocal/Bass) / Kohhei (guitar) / Yuki (guitar) / Mon-chan (Drums) formed in 2007, but didn’t release their debut EP ‘Koroshitai Kimochi’ on limited edition 10” vinyl until January 2010. Over the last two years they’ve collaborated with artists Tim Noble & Sue Webster and toured throughout the UK, Europe and Japan with bands such as Keiji Haino, Merzbow, Guitar Wolf, Toy and most recently The Horrors. Although Influenced by the ingenious repetition of kraut-rock and the black hole of angst and abandon at the heart of grunge, they are also something of a unique proposition. As well as lying at the intersection of psychedelic experimentation and cult indie guitar music, they bisect East and West, working in a medium that is the product of a much larger, historic moment of cultural exchange; they are a hybrid within a hybrid.
I come to the world of Bo Ningen, after experiencing a blistering set by Shonen Knife, still fresh in the memory, mentioning the gig to fellow WG writers, some of the South East contingent, told me I have to see Bo Ningen, Your live shows have made a very strong impression, is the live set something you worked hard on?
-Yes. Live performance is very fundamental element of experiencing music, both for audience and ourselves.
How have recent gigs on the South Coast gone?
– It went very well. People were very up for us and it was good.
How did Stolen Records deal get sorted?
– our friend band Screaming Tea Party was onto Stolen around 2007-8. we always went to their gig and met Stolen down there. and they came down to our show for the first time at Vice magazine party. basically we blew Stolen away. that’s how our relationship started.
You made splash with your debut EP ‘Koroshitai Kimochi’ back in 2010 has it been hectic since then?
-Yes, but it’d been already hectic before we made that EP.
How did the Roland session come about? impressive.
-They asked us to try out some of their new gears. Hope to do some more in the future.
Read good things about ‘Line The Wall’, were was it recorded and by whom?
-It’s recorded at amazing Lynchmob Studios in west London by this guy called Funky Nacho. Great studio with amazing vintage amps, synth etc.
Think when writers tell me that Bo Ningen are pretty unique with a intense sound, I have to delve deeper – did this come from rehearsal rooms and / or the bands musical influences?
– As we all have diverse background and different taste in everything, the sound we make become somewhat different from what we all know / like.
Told you recorded most tracks live in the studio, with the amps turned up to give the album that intensity, was it important to give the album a live feel?
– Yes, mixing this live feel and deliberate studio work makes our sound even more special. Not many bands do that recently, they just make either raw live sound or dead, clean sound.
The album has been out for two days any feedback?
– Good ones coming. People are getting more understanding about what we do.
How would Bo Ningen describe their sound?
– The history of psychedelic. Past, present and possibly future.
All the best to all the Bo Ningen – catch Taigen, Kohhnei, Yuki, Mon-chan
UK TOUR
OCT 17TH RUBY LOUNGE, MANCHESTER
OCT 18TH THE COMPASS, CHESTER
OCT 19TH SWN FESTIVAL, CARDIFF
OCT 20TH MAD FERRET, PRESTON
OCT 22ND STEREO, GLASGOW
OCT 23RD CLUNY 2, NEWCASTLE
OCT 24TH STEREO, YORK
OCT 25TH FRUIT, HULL
OCT 27TH VICTORIA INN, DERBY
OCT 28TH MELLO MELLO, LIVERPOOL