Tohjinbo

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Derek and the Ruins, just for the record, are British improvising guitarist Derek Bailey and Japanese neo-prog duo Ruins. As far as this writer knows (and, please, as ever, put us right if you know better) they've recorded together once before as D&TR, on the rather wonderful Saisoro. This album was recorded last year in London, while they were here to play a gig at the Purcell Rooms. That gig was an extraordinary night. Ruins - drummer and singer Yoshida Tatsuya and (at the time, though has changed since, apparently) bassist Sasaki Hisashi - played a set on their own, the highlight of which was an hilarious, inspired three-minute prog rock medley. The set they performed with Bailey, however, went for the jugular, with Bailey on ferocious (and loud!) form; one sad individual walked out after two songs, yelling abuse at the stage! So Tohjinbo is as ballsy as you's expect. On their own, Ruins already make their own world, a world fashioned by virtuosically-inclined Japanese King Crimson and Magma fans, a world (like Magma's) with its own language and of heartstopping weirdo rhythms and white noise psych-outs. When Bailey joins them, they defer to the older man, dropping their more rhythmic, riffing style for something altogether more fractured, more elastic: energy music, through and through.