Japan has long held a uniquely volatile place within the history of extreme noise music. From the violent walls of distortion made famous by Merzbow to the unhinged vocal delivery of Yamantaka Eye in Naked City, the nation’s underground has consistently pushed sonic experimentation down avenues that many wouldn’t dare tread. Even projects that have managed to find mainstream success, such as Babymetel have carried traces of this experimental nature, chopping up genre distinctions with an irreverence that would have made Sid Vicious look almost angelic.

While much of today’s culture has become increasingly safe, flattened and pumped through the sanitising factories of algorithmic predictability, artists working with Japan’s experimental outskirts continue to look for crevasses they can dig their creative claws into.

Few contemporary acts embody that mindset more than the Violent Magic Orchestra. Originating from Osaka the group has managed to fuse black metal, techno and visual art into an experimental sound bomb.

A reference to the Sakamoto-led band Yellow Magic Orchestra from the late 70s, and inspired by ’90s rave culture as well as Michael J. Moynihan and Didrik Søderlind’s book Lords of Chaos: The Bloody Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground, VMO have made it their mission over the last decade to fuse disparate genres that have very little reason existing in the same room.

Occupying a space that melds black metal nihilism, techno, and digital performance art, the group have become notorious for transforming venues into disorienting “death rave” rituals, built upon punishing sound pressure, blinding strobe assaults and mosh pits that have audiences scrambling for the nearest emergency exit.

Recent collaborator Italian producer Talpah approaches extremity from a different, though equally uncompromising angle. Dissecting elements of industrial, and techno and mashing them with post-trap beats and hardcore, his collaboration with VMO on their latest album EXO SWAG KILLA has managed to push the group into a direction that is refreshing and exciting. With tracks such as ‘The Third Lie’ effortlessly merging the glitchy rhythms of the producer with the heart wrenching cries of VMO’s vocalist Zastar, while tracks like ‘NEW BABYLON’ push the group’s sonic bombardment to new extremities.

In the wake of their latest collaboration GATA chatted with both Violent Magic Orchestra and Talpah to learn more about the lore surrounding their live shows, musical collaborations and their most recent tour of Japan.

GATA: Hi VMO! Hi Talpah! For our audience who might not be so familiar with you can you please briefly introduce yourselves?

VMO: We are an ULTIMATE EXTREME SUPREME ART PROJECT that materialises, in the present day from the perspective of the year 2099, the two cultural extremes of Black Metal and RAVE, both of which peaked in the early 1990s but never intersected at the time.

By the way, our power consumption is by far the highest in the live house scene.

TALPAH: Hello GATA! I make experimental electronic music, blending all the sounds I came across and loved as a kid, from metal to trap to noise to club music. And I’ve probably spent way too much time on the internet.

GATA: You’ve recently just wrapped up your tour across Japan? How was it?

VMO: Across Japan might be a bit of an exaggeration, but we went out west, to places we don’t usually visit. The audiences had their own unique way of enjoying the shows, which felt really fresh to us. This is a totally biased opinion, but I feel like in Japan, the farther you go toward the edges of the country, the better the food gets!

TALPAH: It was honestly amazing. VMO showed me parts of Japan I had never experienced before. I really loved Yamaguchi, it felt a lot like Silent Hill. [Laughs] Of course, we visited a lot of Mandarake stores and it also turned into a bit of an extreme food tour.

GATA: This tour comes in the wake of your hugely successful live show on Boiler Room. How was the reception to that show? Do you feel like anything has changed since then?

VMO: We were hoping the number would explode, but honestly it doesn’t feel like things have changed that much so far. [Laughs] That said, people have been starting arguments on their own about whether what we’re doing is “new” or not, and there are tons of people attacking us as if we’re claiming things we never actually claimed; which weirdly gets us hyped. [Laughs] Also, most of the bands people say we sound similar to are bands that never influenced us at all, so it really makes me realise everyone hears things differently.

GATA: Live performances are at the centre of VMO. What’s the ethos behind your performances? What do you want the crowd to feel and take from each performance?

VMO: We want to affect both the brain and the body. We want to penetrate every sense, unleash every emotion, and leave people with physical exhaustion. Something incredibly dark yet blindingly bright. If we could become something unbelievably quiet and unbearably loud at the same time.

GATA: I actually managed to catch your live show at Circus last week. It was incredible! One of my favourite moments was the way you brought out the sword towards the end of the performance. Does it have any special lore behind it?

VMO: That sword was created by runurunu.

Quite simply, we wanted a sword that looked cool! Also, when we performed on Boiler Room, we wanted some kind of motif that could focus the audience’s attention on a single point and unite everyone’s minds. And then, at the climax, we wanted to sheath that massive sword without hurting anyone. Personally, it was a beautiful moment.

GATA: Let’s talk about the recent collaboration between all of you: EXO SWAG KILLA. How did this come about? What’s it like collaborating with artists from other countries?

VMO: Talpah is a label mate of ours on Berlin’s Never Sleep. Even though we still haven’t actually met in person this year, we gradually started keeping in touch online. He’s incredibly knowledgeable about culture, a total weirdo, and a deeply fascinating creature.

Then I started helping him shop on Mercari, and in order to fulfil his dream of visiting Mandarake, his sacred place, we ended up organising a Japan tour for him. From that completely natural flow, we decided to make a collaborative work together. Honestly, the title probably should have just been Mandarake.

GATA: What was the creative concept behind EXO SWAG KILLA?

VMO: We didn’t really set any particular concept. Without trying to be deliberately eccentric, an incredibly strange work just came together naturally. It feels like something that’s simply super cute, sharp-edged, and wonderful.

GATA: TALPAH, I was wondering if you could tell us a little about the history of your collaboration with VMO? What was it like blending these distinct genres?

TALPAH: Basically I met VMO one random summer in Venice, it was incredibly hot.

I remember we talked about both being Never Sleep artists. Also, everyone in Venice kept giving VMO’s shirts weird looks, they probably seemed kind of satanic or blasphemous. [Laughs] Anyway, that same day we ate black ink spaghetti and somehow ended up deciding to make an album together and go on tour. A sweet memory.

GATA: TALPAH, you are known for your electronic and experimental sound, what do you think you brought to the group that was different that they haven’t explored before? What was the process like working with a more band focused practice rather than a solo project?

TALPAH: I’m used to working alone, only with my own sounds, so when I suddenly saw all these channels of guitars, screams, bass, and drums, I was a bit scared at first. [Laughs] Blending metal and electronics the way VMO does, but with “Talpah sounds”, felt challenging and tricky. But after the first track, I realised our sounds blended much more naturally, and more beautifully, than I expected. I’m not exactly sure what I brought to the group…probably black ink spaghetti.

GATA: What has this collaborative process taught you all about the value of friendship through music

VMO: When it comes to culture, we believe that age, nationality, gender, or ideology don’t matter, through the great shared passion of being otaku, truly wonderful friendships can exist.

We’ve been laughing the whole time, and we even came up with bizarre games we probably can’t talk about here. Basically, it’s just been the absolute best!

GATA: Do you have any plans for the future? What’s next in the creative journey for everyone?

VMO: From here on, we want to create several new songs specifically for the VMO x TALPAH live set. I think an amazing journey awaits; one where people can experience the cute and grotesque music of a nation of beautiful-hearted weirdos. Thank you very much!

TALPAH: The road to the next Japan tour with my friends VMO!

INTERVIEW: JAMES ELLIOTT

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EXO SWAG KILLA: Violent Magic Orchestra Joins Forces with Talpah