RAGE (After Tokyo 2020)
RAGE (After Tokyo 2020)
A mix in response to the Tokyo Olympics / Triple Canopy
A mix in response to the Tokyo Olympics / Triple Canopy
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2021
2021
“RAGE (After Tokyo 2020),” a mix by the Japanese DJ Mars89, begins with the voice of Emperor Hirohito announcing the country’s surrender following the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “After pondering deeply the general trends of the world and the actual conditions obtaining in our empire today,” Hirohito says, “we have decided to effect a settlement of the present situation by resorting to an extraordinary measure.” The statement is an ironic framing of the nationalist spectacle of the Tokyo Olympics, which has been accompanied by activists and critics in and beyond Japan decrying the made-for-television apotheosis of capitalist excess and calling for the abolition of the Games.
Mixing industrial noise, protest music, and deconstructions of traditional Japanese instruments, Mars89 channels the widespread anger not only at the Olympics—a self-aggrandizing indulgence pushed through by the country’s elites during a pandemic, at incredible cost to the people—but at Japanese conservatism. He describes the government’s campaign to bring the Olympics to Tokyo (while concealing the extent of the Fukushima disaster), and to go on with the Games despite the dire circumstances and popular opposition, as a “death voyage”—and as in line with the country’s deep-seated crony capitalism, sexism, xenophobia, and racism, among other defects.
Tracklist:
1. Emperor Hirohito, “Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War,” August 15, 1945
2. L?K?O feat. Brilliant Tight, “Antena,” Ill-Centrik Funk Vol. 1 (1998)
3. Indus Bonze, “ゴルジェの亀裂 (Rock Fracture at a Gorge),” ゴルジェの亀裂 (Rock Fracture at a Gorge) (2020)
4. Merzbow, “Tokyo Times Ten,” Pulse Demon (1996)
5. Perrot Rollet, “La Troisieme,” Mind Clear Hors Serie 002 (2020)
6. group A, “21st Century,” A (2012)
7. Gore Tech, “Part III—Pulse Tundra,” Pulse Tundra (2021)
8. Crass, “Demoncrats,” Stations of the Crass (1979)
9. BeaverTozan, “Bon Voyage (Death Voyage),” Ondo Dimensions (2015)
10. Shapednoise, “Witness of a Heart Attack Death,” Until Human Voices Wake Us (2013)
11. 暗黒大陸じゃがたら, “季節のおわり,” 南蛮渡来 (1982)
12. Ebalo Red, “MiMiCk (Без негатива edit),” Песка на его погонах хватило на весь этот лёд (2021)
13. Endon, “Born Again,” Boy Meets Girl (2018)
14. Dieb13/Gustafsson/Siewert, “Zoom,” (Fake) the Facts (2011)
15. madam data, “but in the purple light of the heavy star a blow was struck, and we cursed our hands as they grew into talons, and sang out regret as we choked our enemies with our own entrails,” The Gospel of the Devourer (2021)
16. Paysage d’Hiver, “Kälte,” Kristall & Isa (2008)
17. The Bug, “Pressure,” Fire (2021)
“RAGE (After Tokyo 2020),” a mix by the Japanese DJ Mars89, begins with the voice of Emperor Hirohito announcing the country’s surrender following the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. “After pondering deeply the general trends of the world and the actual conditions obtaining in our empire today,” Hirohito says, “we have decided to effect a settlement of the present situation by resorting to an extraordinary measure.” The statement is an ironic framing of the nationalist spectacle of the Tokyo Olympics, which has been accompanied by activists and critics in and beyond Japan decrying the made-for-television apotheosis of capitalist excess and calling for the abolition of the Games.
Mixing industrial noise, protest music, and deconstructions of traditional Japanese instruments, Mars89 channels the widespread anger not only at the Olympics—a self-aggrandizing indulgence pushed through by the country’s elites during a pandemic, at incredible cost to the people—but at Japanese conservatism. He describes the government’s campaign to bring the Olympics to Tokyo (while concealing the extent of the Fukushima disaster), and to go on with the Games despite the dire circumstances and popular opposition, as a “death voyage”—and as in line with the country’s deep-seated crony capitalism, sexism, xenophobia, and racism, among other defects.
Tracklist:
1. Emperor Hirohito, “Imperial Rescript on the Termination of the War,” August 15, 1945
2. L?K?O feat. Brilliant Tight, “Antena,” Ill-Centrik Funk Vol. 1 (1998)
3. Indus Bonze, “ゴルジェの亀裂 (Rock Fracture at a Gorge),” ゴルジェの亀裂 (Rock Fracture at a Gorge) (2020)
4. Merzbow, “Tokyo Times Ten,” Pulse Demon (1996)
5. Perrot Rollet, “La Troisieme,” Mind Clear Hors Serie 002 (2020)
6. group A, “21st Century,” A (2012)
7. Gore Tech, “Part III—Pulse Tundra,” Pulse Tundra (2021)
8. Crass, “Demoncrats,” Stations of the Crass (1979)
9. BeaverTozan, “Bon Voyage (Death Voyage),” Ondo Dimensions (2015)
10. Shapednoise, “Witness of a Heart Attack Death,” Until Human Voices Wake Us (2013)
11. 暗黒大陸じゃがたら, “季節のおわり,” 南蛮渡来 (1982)
12. Ebalo Red, “MiMiCk (Без негатива edit),” Песка на его погонах хватило на весь этот лёд (2021)
13. Endon, “Born Again,” Boy Meets Girl (2018)
14. Dieb13/Gustafsson/Siewert, “Zoom,” (Fake) the Facts (2011)
15. madam data, “but in the purple light of the heavy star a blow was struck, and we cursed our hands as they grew into talons, and sang out regret as we choked our enemies with our own entrails,” The Gospel of the Devourer (2021)
16. Paysage d’Hiver, “Kälte,” Kristall & Isa (2008)
17. The Bug, “Pressure,” Fire (2021)
Protocol:
This archive functions as an interface between documentation and production, bringing together selected works across electronic music, moving image, sound design, and interdisciplinary practice.
Rather than presenting projects as finished objects, each entry functions as a transmission node within a network of recurring signals, references, and experiments. Connections emerge through feedback, resonance, and recursion, allowing ideas to migrate across different media and contexts.
The archive is intentionally open-ended. Rather than preserving a fixed record, it operates as a feedback system in which documentation, production, and research continuously reshape one another. As the archive evolves, existing entries acquire new relationships, revealing patterns that were previously latent and allowing new trajectories to emerge over time.
Access Point:
contact@mars89.com
© Mars89
Protocol:
This archive functions as an interface between documentation and production, bringing together selected works across electronic music, moving image, sound design, and interdisciplinary practice.
Rather than presenting projects as finished objects, each entry functions as a transmission node within a network of recurring signals, references, and experiments. Connections emerge through feedback, resonance, and recursion, allowing ideas to migrate across different media and contexts.
The archive is intentionally open-ended. Rather than preserving a fixed record, it operates as a feedback system in which documentation, production, and research continuously reshape one another. As the archive evolves, existing entries acquire new relationships, revealing patterns that were previously latent and allowing new trajectories to emerge over time.
Access Point:
contact@mars89.com
© Mars89