Marcel Winatschek

Group A and the Kōenji Frequency

Group A makes noise music out of Tokyo’s Kōenji neighborhood—a part of the city that operates at a different frequency from the rest, all secondhand record shops and basement venues and the particular kind of person who has decided that melody is beside the point. The music sits somewhere between harsh noise and industrial techno, constructed with a patience that feels almost perverse given how violent the results get. Queens Of Kōenji carries that neighborhood in its name and delivers accordingly—distorted, insistent, indifferent to whether you’re comfortable. Exactly the kind of thing you have to be in a certain mood for, and then it’s the only thing you want to hear.