Lovely as Les Rallizes Dénudés are, I have been sick as a dog since Monday night, and their particular sonic onslaught is now doing nothing for my aching an pounding head, so we’re going to wrap up Live Month today with a brief double-header. It’s one that makes sense, though: two blasting shows at the Yaneura live house in Shibuya, Tokyo. And because we established that linear time has little meaning to a band so unstuck in its tick-tock mechanisms, we’re going in order of release but in reverse chronological order, starting with YaneUra Oct. ’80 and then moving back to YaneUra Sep. ’80. Let’s do this so I can give my clogged and pressurized ears a break…

The selling point of the two releases is the lineup: for just under a year the Mizutani was joined by Fujio Yamaguchi on second guitar. A veteran of bands like The Dynamites, Murahachibu, and Teardrops (three bands admittedly I’ve never heard of), Yamaguchi’s more blues-influenced sound is a unique match for Mizutani’s searing noise solos. The pair are backed by Kiyohiro Takada (Doronco) on bass and Kodo Noma on drums. Running through a 90-minute set that kicks off with a tightly focused version of “Deeper Than The Night” things really start to take hold on the Doors-leaning “I’m The Darkness”.

That sense of darkness continues with “Flame Of Ice” with Noma laying down a steady dirge rhythm while Mizutani and Yamaguchi trade off with some killer guitar work. Old friends “Enter The Mirror” and “The Night, Assassin’s Night” make welcome appearances before ending with – you guessed it – “The Last One”. This time it feels like a coiled serpent, ready to strike. The fire for a lot of this performance is suppressed, bursting to get out but tightly controlled. It’s an interesting contradiction to the explosiveness of the Citta show over a decade later, and when compared to the show at the same venue a month earlier, you can see how at this stage of LRD’s career Mizutani was playing with how to surgically release that aural fury.

When getting the YaneUra Oct. ’80 release together, another tape was found and thought to be a lost studio recording. Closer examination showed that in fact this was the same lineup, getting their stuff together a month earlier. Shorter (the set is only 44 minutes), punchier, YaneUra Sep. ’80 continues that Doors-heavy vibe as Mizutani and Yamaguchi echo and vibe their way through four concise (for them) tracks, starting with maybe one of my favorite renditions of “Flame Of Ice”. There are clean guitars that mimic keyboards, a more groovy, punchy rhythm section, and the recording adds a gnarly layer of fuzz to the the guitars – they sound positively ferocious to my ears. There’s also plenty of space in the mix: once again Makoto Kubota does a sterling job cleaning up the recordings and giving them a life and ambience that is completely immersive without sounding fake.

“Reapers Of The Night” goes full on old school rock and roll, and this loose, shaggy joyous version of LRD is something I’ve really come to appreciate; I’ve probably listened to this recording more than both the Baus ’93 and the YuneUra Oct. ’80 shows combined, despite having owned them for longer. No Les Rallizes Dénudés recording would be complete without both “The Night, Assassin’s Night” and “The Last One” and both those tracks close out the album in fine fashion. Both are also significantly shorter than both earlier and later versions, and again I think the brevity (not to mention the sonic clarity) of this show makes it a favorite for me.

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I would say that Les Rallizes Dénudés are a band that deserve more attention, but that attention would take away from the mystique and aura that have been cultivated for so long. If you dig anything from the late 70s and 80s noise rock scene, I would definitely urge you to check the work of Takashi Mizutani out. If I had to choose a starting place, I’d probably go with Live ’77 for the full experience, followed by either CITTA’ ’93 or YuneUra Sep. ’80 if you’re not ready for two-hours feedback marathons. Any way you slice it, LRD have over the past year or so become an essential music touchstone for me.