The best primer on Yoshida's work is a wonderful compilation from Bloody Butterfly (a tiny Japanese label focused on live and rare releases) called "Devil from the East: A Decade of Tatsuya Yoshida" (title's a link to a mediafire download).
Phaidia live 1984
Phaida, a suprisingly good early '80s Japanese goth band, is one of Yoshida's first bands with any serious distribution. One can hear the beginnings of Yoshida's unique playing style, but one definitely doesn't see him continuing this aesthetic.
Aburadako Live 1983:
Aburadako is another band Yoshida played with in the early eighties, name translates as "Greasy Octopus" Keep in mind, this is almost ten years pre-Melt Banana. Hear the influence?
YBO² (1984-1990)
YBO² was formed after the break-up of early experimental lengends ONNA, by the founder of the equally legendary SSE Communications label, Kitamura Masashi. YBO² has undergone great line-up changes throughout their existence, but the best, and the one featured in this video is Masashi, Yoshida and Kishino Kazuyuki (Zeni Geva). past line-ups have featured Michio Kurihara (of White Heaven, Boris' "Rainbow" EP, and his great solo work "Sunset Notes")
Ruins (1985-present)
Ruins has been Yoshida's most consistent band, although he is the only consistent member the same set up as Hella or Lightning Bolt, but far predating them both. Their first label release, self titled the appropriate "Ruins III," aluding to the previous two self-titled albums which were self-released and impossible to get hold of, at least in the States. Originally inteded to be a trio, the group shrunk to a duo when the intended guitarist never managed to show. They've gone through four bassists, Kawamoto Hideki (1985–1987), Kimoto Kazuyoshi (1987–1990), Masuda Ryuichi(1991–1997), & Sasaki Hisashi (1995–2004). Yoshida is Hugely influenced by the father of "Zheul", Christian Vander, founder of the legendary French band Magma. In both Ruins and Koenji Hyakkei (literally a Zhuel band, extremely close to Magma in form), Yoshida will frequently be singing not in Japanese, but in his own invented language, which smacks of Kobaïan, the language invented by Magma (Zhuel means "celestial" in Kobaïan). Lots of assembled footage, from various Ruins incarnations (Runes Alone, Sax Ruins etc.) attempted to put in chronological order.
1993 w/ Masuda Ryuichi
1998 Pt. one of 3
No date, but definitely Sasaki Hisashi on bass i'd guess early 2000s
Japanese New Music Fest. 2004(?)
After parting ways with Sasaki Hisashi, Yoshida embarked on a tour of Europe and the US billed as Ruins Alone, mostly playing from the Ruins and Koenji Hyakkei back-catalog, Ruins alone sometimes featured Yoshida playing along with a Sampler, and sometimes, playing his bombastic compositions alone.
Another great Ruins project to come out post Sasaki, is Sax ruins, which features Yoshida with Ono Ryoko on the alto saxiphone, and re-arranges the Ruins catalog to suit the range of the sax, with great results. Unfortunately there aren't really any decent quality videos of them preforming live, so a youtube version of a great track off the 2006 CD, Yawiquo, will have to suffice.
Koenji Hyakkei (1994-present):
Kōenjihyakkei (高円寺百景), translated, "Hundred Sights of Koenji," is Yoshida's attempt a forming his own Zeuhl band in the Tradition of Magma. The only truly great Zeuhl band still in existence. Like many of Yoshida's bands Koenji Hyakkei features a constantly changing line-up, their first CD release feature Aki Kubota from the most excellent, Bondage Fruit. Sakamoto Kengo has been the most consistent besides Yoshida playing bass from the second album forward. While the language of the singing sounds not far from Zeuhl's Kobaïan, it seems to have no meaning beyond its sound. While the studio recordings sound great, Koenji Hyakkei's sound is too dynamic to come across well in live concert footage. The combination of this with Youtube's unfortunate audio compression leads to sort of a poor picture of the wild and great sound of this band. Keep that in mind when watching the videos. one high quality video that i can't embed can be found "here"
Korekyojin (1999-present)
Korekyojin is my favorite Yoshida project, generally a power trio featuring the Guitarist from Bondage Fruit, Kido Natsuki, and the bassist from Ground Zero, Nasuno Mitsuru. After their initial release the band fell apart for a few years before returning with the great album Arabasque (the first video is the title track). The composition is all recognizably the work of Yoshida, but yet distinct from his other projects, there are no vocals, and the music hints much more at jazz and funk then his other projects. The compositions/arrangements are tight and complex, allowing little room for improvisation and no room for mistakes.
Zeni Geva (1987-present)
Zeni Geva, (trans. roughly: "Money Violence") features Yoshida with Japanese Guitar legend KK Null. Who he previously played with in YBO2, and Yoshida didn't join until 1988 and left in 1990, rejoined the band in 2009 for their worldwide tour as well as a live LP.
Acid Mothers Temple SWR
Of course Acid Mothers Temple are the undisputed kings of Japanese psychedelic rock, led by Kawabata Makoto on guitar, and changing names for different incarnations, Acid Mothers SWR is a shockingly small group, just a trio with Yoshida, Kawabata, and Tabata Mitsuru.
That just scratches the surface of Tatsuya Yoshida's prolific and insane career, a full list of albums featuring or recorded by Yoshida can be found "here." I didn't even touch his solo work, or collaborations, which have a massive depth and bredth genre-wise and geography-wise. Or his work with legends like Omoide Hatoba, Samla Mammas Manna, Musica Transonic, Ikue Mori, on and on and on... Or the books he makes about incredible rocks of the world.
Go buy some CDs, much love to you and Yoshida...
