THE GERO-P, STUDIO & LIVE

(special guest review by Gero Sebastian)

This is a promo tape from the same period as Senzuri Power Up (1985-6). The Gero-P was a collaboration between The Gerogerigegege & NP.

The front cover is a picture of a Japanese man (Gero-30?) looking bored. On the backside is the tracklisting, a cartoon picture of a woman (!) holding a whip and a note saying "NOT FOR SALE!!".

No label is listed, but it was probably put out by Vis-a-Vis to promote Senzuri Power Up & Tokyo Anal Dynamite.

Now, this casette is divided into two parts, "Studio" (side A) and "Live" (side B). The live side is Tokyo Anal Dynamite as it appears on Recollections of Primary Masturbation.

Since we all know about Tokyo Anal Dynamite, let's focus on the A side:

First track "Gero-P '85". An extended version of "The Gero-P 1985" from Senzuri Power Up. Parts of the song is panned to the left for some reason.

Second track "Anti-synthe-music". About 2 minutes of harsh, murky gero-trash with some feedback and screaming on top.

Third track "Shit US-JUNK Band". Pretty standard all guitar/bass gero-noise. The feedback creates a kind of "chopped-up" effect at some occations during this song, which is kind of cool.

Fourth track "I wanna be your pantie" An extended version of the Senzuri Power Up-track.

Fifth track. Single guitar + (what I think is a) drum machine.

This is a very good piece, actually. The thick, pulsating layers of guitar feedback in combination with the drum machine makes for a somewhat hypnotic experience. Like being sunk into a vat of gero & geri.

The drum pattern of the drum machine is the same as "Car Sex McDonald Drive In Let's Go". I'm not 100% sure if The Gero-P is using a cheap-o drum machine or some very, very lousy second-hand drums.

Sixth track. Strange! This is a somewhat extended version of "Boogie Woogie Lonesome Onanie Style" from Senzuri Power Up with a piano introduction.

However, I don't think that it is Juntaro playing the piano since 1) it is actually a bit structured & melodic and 2) there is a noticable amount of extra tape hiss during the piano part, so J. is probably just playing back some record in the studio before the noise onslaught begins.

A while ago, before his e-mail adress broke down, Juntaro had
this to say about THE GERO-P:

IN 1985,I RELESED "THE GERO-P (GERO+NPPROJECT).VERY LIMITED!! WE HAS SERCHING FOR THE LABEL!THIS RECORDING IS ULTRA(!)GREAT STUFF AS PROMISED!! TOTAL TIME IS 35min, AND INCLUDES ([1]THEME[2]MELODY[3]CODA[4]WE GOT NORMAL[5]LONG AGO AND AND FAR A WAY.AND,FOR BONUS TRACK FOR CD,[6]WE WE WERE THE GERO-P.

I am not sure if it is this cassette he is talking about, since most of the tracks appeared on Senzuri Power Up.

additional information:

The original self-titled cassette was released in 1985. Most people assume that the Gero-P tape isthe same or at least a verssion of this self-titled tape. Juntaro must have re-released this cassette several times as there are at least three known covers for the tape.

This above tape is apparently a 1986 version of the self-titled debut cassette. Both tapes were released by Merzbow's ZSF Produkt label. The track titles are the same as those named in the quote from Juntaro in the review. Juntaro may have just renamed the tracks or maybe The Gero-P(the "group") had two albums. Anybody with more information please contact the site !!