HIR OM I S HINADA
VIOLENT BEAUTY
NOISE
Dustin Wong and Takako Minekawa unleash their savage imaginations BEN SCHULTZ As Tokyo-based artists Dustin Wong and Takako Minekawa were recording their second album, they struggled to Ànd the right title for it. They had some ideas, but they didn’t settle on a name until they started working on a diorama for the cover art. “Takako brought in this wooden board, and she wanted to paint on it,” Wong remembered. “We decided to put [on] more than paint by From the Venus of Willendorf to Carl Jung in two freewheeling steps. choosing papier-mkchp, clay and aluminum foil. While we were doing this, she started making these Venus of Willendorfs—they’re kind of The Quietus in 2013. “My parents still live over “The songs themselves are written pretty these motherly deities from ancient times from intuitively,” Wong said. “Since it is loop-based and here, they experienced the whole shake.” Europe.” Another reason for moving was Minekawa, layer-based, we can go anywhere. If the songs These Àgures tied in with their interest in indigenous cultures and Carl Jung’s belief in an were written on a different day, it would’ve prob- who met Wong at one of his solo shows in 2011. Although she hadn’t released any music in more “explicit, non-censored subconscious.” The two ably been a different song altogether.” than a decade—she’d gone on hiatus after marWong’s intuition has served him well. Born in musicians started thinking of the album as the product of a “savage imagination” or “this kind Hawaii, he spent most of his childhood in a con- rying musician-producer Keigo Oyamada, aka servative Christian school in Tokyo. It didn’t take Cornelius—Minekawa had already enjoyed an of violent beauty of creativity.” him long to Ànd his own way, though: He started impressive career. A former child star, her blend “[It’s] like a well—the things within us that of ’70s electronica and ’60s French pop made listening to Frank Zappa when he was 12 and we ignore,” Wong told Boise Weekly. her one of the most prominent artists of Japan’s experimenting on guitar when he was 14 or 15. Wong and Minekawa’s music hasn’t gone Shibuya-kei movement during the 1990s. “There might have been a friend or two who ignored. Pitchfork’s Nick Neyland called Savage The two became friends and began collaboratshowed me some major chords or a pentatonic Imagination (Thrill Jockey Records, 2014) “a ing, releasing the album Toropical Circle in 2013. jubilant, uplifting work, taking on several shades scale; after that, it was just trial and error,” Wong Wong credits Minekawa with adding fresh and of happiness as it turns through its 43 minutes.” said. “Even doing the band stuff, I didn’t really unexpected elements to their music. Stereogum premiered the album’s single “She He know what I was doing. I didn’t understand “I think Takako’s more in touch with timbre music theory. I didn’t know what playing in a key See Feel” on July 30, and the album has also and texture—more so than I am,” he said. “She received coverage from The Japan Times, Brooklyn meant.” can really pick out a sound and be, like, ‘I like this Wong stuck with it. Before going solo, he Vegan and other publications. Boise music fans performed with guitar duo Ecstatic Sunshine and sound.’ And I’m always intrigued by that because will get to hear Wong and Minekawa’s various before then, it’s always been, ‘What can I do with art-rock band Ponytail, “shades” when the whose albums Kamehame- a guitar? What kind of interesting sounds can I duo plays The Crux DUSTIN WONG AND TAKAKO MINEKAWA make with a guitar?’ But then with Takako, you ha (We Are Free, 2006) on Thursday, Dec. 4, With Paper Gates, Thursday, Dec. 4, 7 p.m., can just start with an interesting sound.” and Ice Cream Spiritual with local one-man $10. Get tickets at theduckclub.com, Record Ponytail fans might hear some especially (We Are Free, 2008) reexperimental act Paper Exchange or the door. The Crux, 1022 W. interesting sounds from Wong in the future: ceived A-minus reviews Gates. Main St., facebook.com/thecruxcoffeeshop. He recently discussed making an album with from critic and former Despite Minekawa’s Village Voice Music Editor ex-Ponytail vocalist Willy (formerly Molly) Siegel. and Wong’s ideas about Robert Christgau. Wong pursued other artistic en- Wong has also started making videos and paintcreativity, Savage Imagination doesn’t sound deavors as well, studying Àlm for two years in San ing, approaching them with the same spirit that particularly violent. Instead, there’s a playful, Francisco and sculpture in Baltimore, where both he brings to his music. hyperactive quality to the album’s lively beats, “You kind of have to take a break and conEcstatic Sunshine and Ponytail were based. quirky samples, serene tunes and dexterous nect to that pure place again of making things Eventually, concern for his family persuaded guitar picking. ReÁecting the duo’s freewheelbecause you want to, rather than making things Wong to move back to Tokyo. ing approach to music making, each song feels because you want to please people around you,” “The earthquake in 2011 and the Fukushima like it could Áy off in any direction at any given disaster deÀnitely got me concerned,” Wong told he said. moment. BOI S EW EEKLY.COM
BOISEweekly | DECEMBER 3–9, 2014 | 29