One of the most confounding of Japanese noise groups, The Gerogerigegege is a vehicle for Juntaro Yamanouchi, whose concept for the group seems hard to pin down, though he’s stated in interviews that The Gerogerigegege’s first cassette was borne out of a mutual love for noise music and The Ramones – and indeed, you can hear Yamanouchi referencing The Ramones’ legendary “1, 2, 3, 4” countdown in this clip, as you can on The Gerogerigegege’s albums. The group were never as ‘streamlined’ in their approach as other Japanese noise – Yamanouchi’s just as likely to embrace punk rock, field recordings, ambience, and detournement. Yamanouchi’s also said the group rose out of Japanese S&M clubs, with Yamanouchi and their other longstanding member, GERO 30, giving performances at clubs. GERO 30’s exhibitionism is another part of The Gerogerigegege’s legend – he’s known for masturbating on stage. It’s easy to be reductive about the performance antics of Yamanouchi and GERO 30, but they’ve also, along the way, produced some of the most queerly compelling music from the Japanese noise scene: at times hilarious, oft times bracing, and at other times utterly befuddling, there’s nothing else like them, something their recent, excellent album, Moenai Hai, still proves. The sleeve notes to 1994’s Instruments Disorder (170 Songs CD) seem definitive, though: “Fuck compose, Fuck melody, Dedicated to no one, Thanks to no one, ART IS OVER.”

• Jon Dale