1. A Japanese fr… Read Full Bio ↴There are many different artists called Altered States:
1. A Japanese free / noise jazz / avant-prog group.
2. A gothic rock band from England.
3. A dance music production trio from Manchester.
4. A psychedelic rock band from Dallas.
5. Doom metal from New Jersey.
1. A Japanese free / noise jazz / avant-prog trio.
According to the official source the band has been around since 1989, but some band biographies place the time and place of the group's inception as 1990 in Osaka. Guitarist Kazuhisa Uchihashi was in a jazz and improvisational group formed by drummer Yasuhiro Yoshigaki, and the two established Altered States with bassist Mitsuru Nasuno — they originally played in jazz clubs but apparently found the jazz genre an ill fit for their exploratory style, and therefore chose to pursue a more rock-oriented direction. Jazz purists would undoubtedly be repelled by the notion that jazz musicians could find rock a more productive avenue for musical expression, but perhaps Kazuhisa, Yasuhiro, and Mitsuru were merely following in the footsteps of, say, Miles Davis — although of course "true" jazz fans excoriated the legendary hornman for selling out to a commercial rock audience circa Bitches Brew. In contrast, Altered States could never be accused of selling out to that particular crowd (as if they ever had a large jazz fan base from which to sell out to a larger rock fan base in the first place).
The music draws from a wide range of influences including progressive rock, jazz-rock, psychedelia, metal, noise rock, electronica, funk, ambient, and even country music. It is often purely an improvisational group, although they are also known for arranged music on albums such as Mosaic (1995) and 6 (1997), as well as scored interludes within extended pieces (e.g, the third untitled track on 1996's 4) that take the listener by surprise; it resembless King Crimson's music from the Starless and Bible Black era moved forward 20 years into the future and with two decades of musical advancement might be one way to perceive what the band is capable of accomplishing.
Vocals are a quite rare and can take the form of crazy gibberish (Makigami Koichi on Mosaic) or agitated shouts over the top of high-voltage instrumental jamming (4).
And yet when it comes to technical chops, use of digital-era effects, telepathic interplay, use of wide dynamic ranges and interludes of space, and the building of tension, Altered States can be considered pretty skillful.
Although most appropriately classified as a rock band, Altered States have nonetheless never abandoned certain aspects of jazz, most certainly the genre's improvisational emphasis. After a series of succesful avant rock releases during the '90s, at the close of the decade the band released an album of fractured interpretations of warhorses such as All the Things You Are, Someone to Watch Over Me and A Night in Tunisia titled Altered States Plays Standards, complete with retro '60s-styled cover art suggesting a classic release from the heyday of Blue Note or Riverside.
As for "jazz" of more contemporary vintage, they collaborated with Brooklyn reedman and circular breather Ned Rothenberg in 1994 and 1997; Rothenberg is featured on Mosaic and on the 1996 Phenotype release Café 9.15. Jazz is also not off limits to drummer (and trumpeter) Yasuhiro, an ongoing member of anything-goes sonic experimentalist Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Quintet and New Jazz Orchestra who appears on such albums as the NJO's 2005 Out to Lunch Eric Dolphy tribute. It should also be noted that forward-thinking jazz festivals in Japan and Europe have not hesitated to include Altered States among their rosters of performing artists.
During the '90s the band also made a number of well-received appearances at international new music festivals such as Tactlos in Switzerland, Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville in Quebec, and Ring Ring in Serbia.
A look back at the band's early recording history reveals that Altered States were apparently together for a couple years following their inception before the release of their eponymous debut on Kazuhisa's Zenbei label in 1992. During the '90s, six more Altered States CDs would be released, not only on Zenbei but also on other independent labels such as God Mountain, Trigram, Phenotype and Eyewill/Highways.
The studio releases Mosaic and 6 are good albums to start from but given their dedication to on-the-spot improvisation without reliance on overdubbing, some of the band's most exciting and adventurous music can be heard on such live albums as 1994's Lithuania and Estonia Live, recorded at the Tallinn and Vilnius Jazz Festivals (with Otomo Yoshihide as guest) the preceding year, and 1996's 4, recorded at New York City's Knitting Factory in April 1995. During 1995 the Zenbei label also released a monthly series of videocassettes featuring Altered States in live performance at a variety of locations in Japan, Europe, and the United States, including the Knitting Factory gig. All three members of Altered States were also members of Yoshihide's Ground Zero band during the '90s, and can be heard on such CDs as Consume Red, Revolutionary Pekinese Opera, and Ground Zero's own Plays Standards.
Perhaps due to the bandmembers' involvement in various other projects (Kazuhisa in particular is not only a frequent collaborator with international creative improvisers but also organizer of Kobe's Festival Beyond Innocence), Altered States did not release a new CD following their 1999 album of standards until Bluffs in 2005 (on the Innocent Records label, which Kazuhisa established as a replacement for Zenbei), followed by Bluffs II in 2006. Both albums feature completely improvised music and (especially the two-CD Bluffs magnum opus) reveal the trio's powers to be undiminished from its peaks of the preceding decade.
2. A gothic rock band which was formed in 1986 in UK.
Line-up: Yig Hughes (vocals, guitar), Rob Ryan (bass) and Martin Winbury (drums). They got signed to the Ediesta label — a part of the old Red Rhino empire based in York.
With the debut release Low Life (12", 1987), the band soon found themselves adopted by a keen audience looking for something more raw and less-theatrical than many of the other alternative bands around at that time. They were said to be better at live concerts rather than on studio releases.
Their only LP, Is Anyone Out There?, was released on Ediesta in 1988.
During this time the band gigged almost constantly around the UK. Unbeknown at the time, they were also gathering a fan-base in Germany and especially Italy, where a number of student radio stations had picked up on Low Life and had it top of their charts. About a third of the album went straight into mainland Europe where a mystique started to grow around their sound. The second single was ready to go and was to be re-mixed by Martin Rushent, best known as producer for Human League and Pete Shelley. But the track — Drowning Children — was never released. Red Rhino, in common with the other main indie labels at the time, hit a financial wall and went bankrupt.
The touring continued into 1989 with showcases at the Hammersmith Palais and The Marquee but later that year, with no new label, Altered States Mk1 retired.
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3. A dance music production trio based in Manchester, UK.
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4. A psychedelic rock band. Formed in Dallas, TX in late 2010 over a few beers and a mutual passion for playing music, Altered States is a collective of musicians with contrasting styles.
They combine progressive rock, electronic soundscapes and an undertone of psychedelic blues to create a creative sound. The inspiration comes from artists such as Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Tool, The Mars Volta and Led Zeppelin.
5. A doom metal band from New Jersey with Unearthly Trance, Serpentine Path, Green Dragon, Sweet Diesel, High Disciple, Texas Is The Reason and 108 members.
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You Don't Know
Altered States Lyrics
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'Til you've learned the meaning of the blues
Until you've loved a love you've had to lose,
You don't know what love is.
You don't know how lips hurt
Until you've kissed and had to pay the cost,
Until you've flipped your heart and you have lost,
Do you know how a lost heart fears
At the thought of reminiscing,
And how lips that taste of tears
Lose their taste for kissing?
You don't know how hearts burn
For love that can, not live yet never dies.
Until you've faced each dawn with sleepless eyes,
You don't know what love is.
These lyrics convey the message that true love is not fully understood until it is experienced in its entirety, including the painful side of love. The first two lines explain that the blues are a melancholic music genre that can be used to express pain and sadness. The lyricist suggests that until one has loved and faced the pain associated with it, they have not truly known love. The following lines, "Until you've loved a love you've had to lose," suggest that one has to experience the pain of losing someone they love before they can fully appreciate the meaning of love.
The second stanza describes the physical and emotional pain that come with loving and losing. The line "You don't know how lips hurt" shows that kissing can be painful when one is heartbroken. This pain is magnified by the feeling of having to "pay a cost" for the love that was lost. The lyric "Until you've flipped your heart and you have lost" emphasizes the idea that there is a price to pay for love.
The third stanza paints a picture of the emotional turmoil that comes with having loved and lost. The lyric "Do you know how a lost heart fears at the thought of reminiscing" emphasizes how the memory of past love is enough to strike fear in one's heart. The following line, "And how lips that taste of tears lose their taste for kissing" suggests that after experiencing heartbreak, one loses the desire to engage in future romantic endeavors. The last two lines of the stanza, "You don't know how hearts burn for love that can not live yet never dies, until you've faced each dawn with sleepless eyes," summarize the jarring experience of loving someone, losing them, but still wanting them.
Line by Line Meaning
You don't know what love is
Love cannot be understood until it is experienced.
'Til you've learned the meaning of the blues
Experiencing heartbreak and sadness helps one understand love.
Until you've loved a love you've had to lose,
Loving someone so deeply and losing them teaches one about the depth of love.
You don't know how lips hurt
Kissing someone can be painful when one has to pay the cost of their actions.
Until you've kissed and had to pay the cost,
One cannot understand the pain of kissing someone until they have regretted it.
Until you've flipped your heart and you have lost,
Losing someone whom you loved deeply can be agonizing.
You don't know how hearts burn
The pain of unrequited love can feel like a fire within one's heart.
For love that can, not live yet never dies.
A love that cannot be sustained but remains in one's memories can still be intense.
Until you've faced each dawn with sleepless eyes,
The pain of heartbreak can make it difficult to sleep, and facing each day can be agonizing.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: DON RAYE, GENE DE PAUL
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind