Les Rallizes Denudes

Les Rallizes Dénudés was an avant-garde Japanese band whose sound encompassed noise rock, psychedelic rock, and garage rock. Formed in 1967 in Kyoto, Japan, the band originally featured three students from Doshisha University: Takashi Mizutani, Takeshi Nakamura, and Moriaki Wakabayashi. The musicians later moved to Tokyo, where Les Rallizes Dénudés' unique and unconventional sound — one that utilized repetitive chord progressions, waves of guitar feedback, and shrieking melodies — earned the band a cult following. Nevertheless, Les Rallizes Dénudés rarely entered a traditional studio to document this sound, focusing instead on live performances that were occasionally captured by audio engineers. The group disbanded in 1988; three years later, the albums '67–'69 Studio et Live, Mizutani / Les Rallizes Dénudés, and '77 Live were all released. These marked Les Rallizes Dénudés' first three official releases. An independent film, Les Rallizes Dénudés, was released in 1992, featuring more live footage from the band. One year later, the band reunited for three additional years. Following their second breakup in 1996, an ongoing string of posthumous releases maintained the band's popularity well into the 21st century. These included the critically acclaimed bootleg Heavier Than a Death in the Family, which was released in 2002 and documented a live performance in 1977. Mizutani passed away in 2019, and the remaining members collaborated on multiple recordings during the early 2020s, including 2021's White Awakening, 2022's Vertigo Otherwise My Conviction, and 2022's The OZ Tapes.