All posts by Adam Reifsteck

Contributing Members

About the Contributing Musicians

Toshimaru Nakamura (electric guitar)
Toshimaru Nakamura (guitar) started his music career playing the electric guitar in various bands before joining SADATO (1991-1995) and recorded two CDs with them. 1992, Nakamura formed his own A Paragon of Beauty and released a CD in 1995. In 1997, he gave up playing his guitar for personal and musical reasons. He started to produce electronic music, becoming well-known internationally in the ONKYO scene by making electronic sounds with a No-Input Mixing Board. In addition to releasing solo projects and collaborations, he performs live concerts in Tokyo, Europe, North America, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia, Korea, China, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia.
Masaki Shimizu (fretless bass)
Rei Shimizu began his professional career while still in university. Subsequently, he participated as a session player in recordings and concerts for artists such as Makoto Kawamoto, Ayaya Matsuur, Miki Fujimoto, Morning Musume, and Turf. As a member of the band SADATO, he participated in live performances and recordings in New York and Hong Kong. He has also been active with other bands, including PON, SOH BAND, Gen Hosokawa, and Coyote. Besides, he also teaches bass online.
Ryo Kato (drums)
There’s not much information about him, except that before joining SADATO, he had played with various Pop bands and was the drum assistant for the well-known drummer Hideo Yamaki. After the breakup of SADATO, he retired from playing the drums and became a truck driver.

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Additional info about Masaki Shimizu
Rei Shimizu began his professional career while still in university. Subsequently, he participated as a session player in recordings and concerts for artists such as Makoto Kawamoto, Ayaya Matsuur, Miki Fujimoto, Morning Musume, and trf. As a member of the band SADATO, he participated in live performances and recordings in New York and Hong Kong. He has also been active with other bands including PON, SOH BAND, Gen Hosokawa, and Coyote.
Shimizu has composed and arranged music for commercial jingles, as well as for video games such as “WWE SmackDown.” Since 1993, he has studied under Motohiko Hamase, and since 2007, he has been a part of the Motohiko Hamase The ELF Ensemble. In 2015, he launched his own band, “Rei Shimizu Elements of Quartz.”
In terms of writing activities, he contributed a year-long series of slap bass seminars titled “Brush your SLAPup!” starting from the January 2003 issue of Bass Magazine. He has also served as an instructor for seminars held by electronic instrument manufacturers ROLAND and BOSS.
Furthermore, Shimizu is currently active as an ambassador for the innovative string instrument manufacturer PROiX.
Starting from 2021, he has launched a YouTube channel with the aim of realizing his concept of creating and performing his own video works.

Ground Zero (1994)
Music Style: noise/rock/improv
Jazzy Rock Noise Unit formed by Otomo Yoshihide in 1990 and disbanded after their last concert in 1998. Otomo Yoshihide (samplers, turntable and guitar), Hideki Kato (bass: replaced in 1992 by Kazuyoshi Kimoto), Yasuo Sano (drums), Makio Tada (drums), Uemura Masahiro (drums), Kyoko Kuroda (piano) with guest Koichi Makigami (vocals), Yamatsuka Eye (vocals). The line-up changed in 1994-95: Otomo Yoshihide (sampler, turntable), Sachiko M (sampler), Kazuhisa Uchihashi (guitar), Mitsuru Nasuno (bass), Masaki Shimizu (bass), Yasuhiro Yoshigaki (drums), Uemura Masahiro (drums). 1996: addition of Kikuchi Naruyoshi (soprano sax) and Tanaka Yumiko (gidayu shamisen and futozao shamisen) as regular members.

P.O.N. (https://ru.rateyourmusic.com/artist/p_o_n) – Creativeman Disk (1995)
Music style: Progressive Rock
Members: Masahiro Uemura (drums, percussion), 広瀬淳二 [Junji Hirose] (saxophone, noise), 鬼怒無月 [Natsuki Kido] (guitar, percussion), Masaki Shimizu (bass), 高良久美子 [Kumiko Takara] (vibraphone, percussion), Kazuyoshi Kimoto (bass)

Rinnesya – Creativeman Disc(1995)

Music style: electronic/jazz/rock

Members: Tadasu Yoshida: drums, Kido Natsuki: guitar, Masaki Shimizu: fretless bass, double bass and Tadashi Watanabe: violin.
Music style: Progressive Rock/Art Rock

A Japanese rock act RINNESYA were founded as a one-off hard-avantgarde-jazz rock trio by Natsuki KIDO (guitars), Tadashu YOSHIDA (drums), and Masaki SHIMIZU (bass). They released an eponymous album in 1995 in collaboration with Tadashi WATANABE (violin) via a Japanese independent label / distributor Double Trap / Creativeman Disc, after gigging a couple of times around Tokyo.

Lyrics

1. Yurei

I’m a yurei.
I got no feet to walk on.
And you can’t see my face.
I’m always dressed in white.
And I got no soul.
Nothing can kill me.

2. DEATH

A. Everybody can see him-her-it on TV. Every day you hear about him-her-it on the radio.

B. Everybody can meet him-her-it on in your neighborhood,
Can you guess whom-what I’m talking about?
Religion gave him-her-it the name death.
Death-Death!

C. For some people a beautiful name.
Something they wouldn’t mind to die for.
Mishima is one of them.
The Kamikazes are many of them.
And I tell ya my favorite one of the is Miyamoto Musashi, a samurai.
Now listen!
I was a lucky one.
A couple of years ago I was in California when my dear friend died in my arms.
You know what happened?
I met Him-Her-It. He-She-It came to take my friend away. He-She-It was so good looking. Totally nude. With a juicy cunt. It was pulled and pushed – to get closer. My dead friend was aware of that and told me in an unspoken language “Sadato, don’t go. Don’t let your little penis friend get inside! And I said “I can’t do anything about it!” So he said “Smile.” And I smiled. But it was hard in the beginning. My face wasn’t ready and I really couldn’t do it. After 10 seconds I was smiling and it developed into a big laughter. – And I was ready. It was losing power and retreated from the room.

D. Fahmidi? Wakaru, what I was talking about? There’s no reason to be scared of Death! You’ll die anyway, right? So do it in a nice way! Die like a Gentleman!
Smile?

3. WER WIE WO WAS WARUM

Fragen, Fragen, Fragen aber keine Antwort.
Ich habe die Nase voll, Fragen zu stellen.
Wisst ihr warum? Lohnt sich nicht mehr.
Seit vielen, vielen Jahren versucht die Menschheit auf dieselbe Frage eine Antwort zu finden.
Ich bin aber kein Frager mehr.
Ich will nicht mehr (2x)
Ich sage nein WER WIE WO WAS WARUM (2x)
Versteht ihr? Versteht ihr, was ich meine?

Ja – ha, ha, ha. Ich lache nur auf diese Frager (2x).
Ich lach nur.
Ich bin nicht Punk. Ich bin nicht Dada. Ich bin kein Surealist. Ich bin kein Idiot. Ich bin kein Anarchist.
Ich bin überhaupt nichts. Ich bin kein Frager mehr. Ich bin ein Leer-Mensch.
Leer-Mensch (3x).
Und höre doch auf Deine eigene Stille.
Kein WER WIE WO WAS WARUM.
Kein WER WIE WO WAS WIESO.

WER WIE WO WAS WARUM,
WER WIE WO WAS WIESO!

4. LIFE DRUNK

I’m drunk (3x).
But I don’t drink any alcohol.
I don’t take any drugs.
Oh, I’m so drunk.
I don’t make myself drunk.
Even God can’t make me drunk.
I’m 24 hours drunk.

Life makes me drunk!
I’m drowning in life.
Life is inside-outside me.
I can’t escape from it.
Even when I’m dead, I’ll be drunk.

5. Positiv Ja

Ja, Ja, immerzu Ja.
Nein, nein zu den Neinsagern.
Ja, Ja in allen Sprachen.
Yes, yes always yes!
Bale, bale, hamishe – bale!
Oui, oui encore une foi – OUI!
Hai, hai itsumo – HAI!

6. TAVALOD

Tavalod, tavalod , tavaloded mobarak (2x),
Fekr nakon, fekr nakon faghat yek sal beh donyah miai (2x),
Na, na, na – na,na, na intor nist (2x),
Har, har rouz – ha, ha har rouz beh donya miai wa miravi (2x).

7. 35 Cent Puppy Sandwich

Fu-ga, fu-ga, fu-ga-ziii,
We are opening,
You will close,
You’re yin,
We’re yan.

Fu-ga, fu-ga, fu-ga-ziii,
You-we one circle,
A “wa” – no bullshit in it.

Fu-ga, fu-ga, fu-ga-ziii,
We’re both nothing but something,
Congratulations to both of us.

8. KURUSHI SHIAWASE

Kurushi shiawase.

9. 65

Sixty Five, fuenfundsechzig, rokuju go, shasteh panj,
A number and not a number
Something you know and don’t know
Something that’s dead and maybe alive sometime later
It’s my only chance-now-to-make it alive, cause six plus five is life
Rokujo-go, sjasteh panj, funf und sechzig.

Sixty-five, rokuju go, shasteh panj, funf und sechzig.
It’s alive now. It’s alive.
It’s fuckin my body.
Sechs plus funf gleich elf.
Nothing can kill it!
Nobody can kill it!

It’s alive now. It’s fucking my brain.
Six, sechs, shast, funf gleich zehn.
Nobody can kill it. It‘s alive inside me.

What about youuuuu?