June 9th, 2026, I crouch on a street corner in downtown Manhattan to re-splint my broken finger. I am four days sick with an unidentified viral illness. I think I’ve lost my sense of smell entirely until I tear the gauze off and am completely beset by the putrid scent of my necrotic looking finger. It takes me a second to tear the medical tape with my teeth. I pull too hard and my finger rings for a long time. I instinctively try to breathe through my nose while my mouth is occupied and choke on mucus going down my windpipe. I spit out a golf ball amount of phlegm along with two day soiled medical tape onto the street as pedestrian traffic mosquitos around me. In my ear I’m listening to Destruction Of Human Body By Head Crushing And Dismemberment by Ekitai Ningen. Out of the three shirts I took with me to New York, that day I had decided on a frilled tank top covered in rhinestones. I blow my nose into the sleeve of the tattered black hoodie tied around my waist and feel paranoid about the skimpy top + sickly visage giving off the impression I’m hustling again.

In my ear I am listening to Destruction Of Human Body By Head Crushing And Dismemberment by Ekitai Ningen. It makes me think of a John I had when I was 15 who introduced me to goregrind. I met him on the beach in Seattle on a day when it was raining, he was the only other person outside. I approached him and he took off his headphones. I asked him what he was listening to and he replied “porn audio.” I don’t remember the specific albums he played while I was at his apartment, only that he said they were goregrind. I saw glimpses of pictures of people crushed to death, disemboweled, etc on his phone on his dresser next to a skin-toned dildo. I thought the dildo looked as scary as his penis but in a different way. While he touched me I thought about Godzilla. The music he was playing reminded me of Godzilla and I thought what if Godzilla was outside destroying Seattle and this room would be destroyed any second. I thought that a picture of Godzilla would fit the album better than a picture of a guy hanging himself in his bathroom. The top half of his body was less decomposed than the second half of his body for some reason. I remember that, and thinking that this guy’s body looked similar, or made me feel similar. I thought about it more, about Godzilla, as the image of the guy hanging himself kicked down the road a bit more. Kicked down the road in terms of how long until you have to think about a real dead body, but eventually you have to regardless. And I wondered if the point of the music was to alchemize the provided gore picture into Godzilla by first showing it to me, and then being music that was made to call back to that picture. Gore and then aesthetics, Godzilla from first principles, or a mold to make a Godzilla. I thought this as he unhinged his jaw from the bottom of my nose to my eyebrow like he was eating me. His breath was hot and made my eye feel sticky.

Another monster movie, Bijo to Ekitai-ningen or Beauty and the Liquid Men. Creatures created by H-bomb tests off the pacific that reduce anyone they touch into a puddle. In my ear I’m listening to Destruction Of Human Body By Head Crushing And Dismemberment by Ekitai Ningen. The four minute long tape starts with a minute of talking. “[Japanese] brutality comes from our emotions, it is never mechanized like Nazi’s brutality, and I think the brutality might come from our feminine aspects, and elegance comes from our nervous side.” The voice cuts out, is kicked down the road. And 3 minutes of guitar, synthetized tin can snare, and water bubbling sounds. The voice of the liquid men, the sounds of the insides of people, people being liquified fictionally and historically. The snare drum under water sound effects begin to sound like a sonar ping alerting me to imagined danger. I imagine every fifth man I see getting dissolved by the liquid men leaving a red stain on the ground. From above the pedestrian body would look like an arm covered in hives. I make my way to an appointment to discuss a surgery I have to have. During my meeting with the surgeon I try to breathe very softly to avoid giving away my stuffed nose. The surgeon pulls out her iPhone and shows me pictures of women she cut open, before, during, and after when they’re all better like reverse necrotizing. I tell her I’ve had heart surgery before and ask if that increases risks of any complications, she asks “why would it?”

After meeting with the surgeon I walk to the MOMA. I take out my headphones upon entering. Immediately I see Unknown Pleasures by Matthew Wong and hold my breath. It’s so beautiful that I can’t help but get frustrated all over again by the discussion of his work exclusively being about how it relates to his suicide. It’s such a beautiful painting, but for some reason it is only good if it betrays some kind of hidden darkness, or some instability. A mountain landscape, but voyeuristically imbued with a man’s death, so it’s good. Like Van Gogh. I see Gerhard Richter’s Dead and I stop breathing again. I had searched online before coming if the MOMA had any Gerhard Richter and it said not currently, so I’m even more shocked. An abstracted blurry shape, and then you realize it’s a dead body. I feel something like embarrassment at staring unintentionally at a dead body, at looking without reverence, maybe a fear of looking luridly. In bold letters above it says “Tote,” Dead. Flattening of death into only death. There is no context, no past. In present is “Dead,” bluntly. I think about reading police reports pronouncing loved ones dead, how new the word “dead” looks when it is conveying information relevant to you. How strange it reads as an informative, practical word, instead of a metaphor. I sit down on a bench and weep for 30 minutes in front of Rothko’s No. 10. And I see Starry Night. There is a guy next to me wondering aloud to the woman he is with “I wonder how much later he added that green shape in the foreground after doing the sky. I mean, it’s obviously only there to balance the composition.” I want to kill this guy with my bare hands. I get disgusted by how crass people can be. 

Back in Arizona I try to find an old song I used to listen to a lot when I was a teenager. I know I liked it on my old youtube account. I scroll all the way to the bottom of my liked videos and see a video of the John from Seattle. It’s a video I found on my own of him playing a guitar cover of When You Sleep by My Bloody Valentine. I sing When You Sleep under my breath for my entire shift at work. After work I visit a friend who is destroying all the furniture in his house with a sledgehammer before moving out. In the light of four flashlights he tells me he feels like an ape, like a lower form of being, and that violence feels good. I watch him smash the hammer into the center of a wooden table, revealing a black widow nest. I get woozy watching the sawdust swirl around it in the light of my friend’s headlamp and decide to go home. By the time I get back to my apartment I can’t shake the feeling that my entire body is covered in black widows. I run into my room and throw all my clothes off, turn everything inside out revealing a single ant in my pant leg. Sitting naked on my floor, I pick up one of my nonslip Sketchers I had just kicked across the room and whale on the ant until it’s dead. I pause and inspect its crumpled body: “Tote,” and then I whale on it four more times for no reason. I search my body all over for bug bites but nothing is there, and then I feel so bad for killing the ant that I sob.

-M. Dusky

Bothersome Fly Records is a DIY gorenoise tape label based out of Japan, run solely by one Shunya T. Of their myriad releases, the vast majority are created by Shunya himself using different aliases, where he is responsible for all instrumentation and sample sourcing. Marie and I discovered Bothersome Fly earlier this year, when she stumbled upon a Bandcamp page entitled 遊星より愛をこめて with the artist name “12”; a reference to the infamous banned episode of the tokusatsu series Ultraseven, which depicted an alien monster with keloid scars resembling those of Hiroshima victims. We dove into the Bothersome Fly catalog and were both blown away by the blurred intensity found in these recordings. The sonic palette that Shunya works with is so much more smeared than that of typical goregrind purveyors. It is a virtualized, in the sense of its complete abstraction; the gore evoked is that of a polygonal head blown apart in Perlin noise red mist, a prosthetic arm wrenched out of its socket in a no-budget sci-fi flick, in a low-rez photo of a harlequin fetus. Hooks and hacksaws are beaten into precise medical accoutrement, camera tubes laced inside the larynx, microphones inside a stomach bubbling chyme. I wanted to reach out to Shunya directly to get a feel for his process and influences, the death-world in which he lives. He happily responded to all of my questions, which I present to you now.

-Daphne Dhalgren

DAPHNE: How long have you been a part of the gorenoise/goregrind scene, and what got you interested in making this kind of music? Is there a strong local scene in Japan, or did you mostly find other people online?

ゴアノイズ／ゴアグラインドシーンにはどれくらい前から関わっているのですか？また、このジャンルの音楽制作に興味を持ったきっかけは何ですか？日本には活発なローカルシーンがあるのでしょうか？それとも、主にオンラインで仲間を見つけたのですか？

SHUNYA: As BFR, I started getting involved in this scene at the end of 2023. I first launched a YouTube channel and released my music”K” on December 30, 2023 (the account has since been deleted). My interest in producing music”K” in this genre stemmed from my experience as a drummer, listening to various extreme music”K” genres. I encountered music”K,” the global Goregrind/Gorenoise music”K” that began with Last Days Of Humanity, became a fan of the genre, and gradually started thinking about creating it myself. Regarding the Japanese scene, I apologize, but I don’t know much about it to explain, as I have very little personal connection to it. However, besides Gorenoise, there is also Japanoise, and I am certain that there are many wonderful projects in other extreme subgenres as well. Most of our communication, both domestically and internationally, is online (email). I have made my contact information public, so I receive messages from people at any time, and we exchange information about split releases and other projects.

BFRとして、このシーンに関わり始めたのは2023年の末です。初めにYouTubeのチャンネルを立ち上げ、音源を公開したのが2023年12月30日でした(今は既にアカウントを削除しています)。このジャンルの音楽制作に興味を持ったきっかけは、元々自身でドラムを演奏していて、様々なエクストリームミュージックを聴いていく中で、Last Days Of Humanityをきっかけに世界中のゴアグラインド/ゴアノイズのMusic”K”に出会い、このジャンルのファンになり、次第に自身でも作ってみたいと考えたのがきっかけです。日本のシーンについては、私自身日本のシーンとほとんど接点がないので、申し訳ございませんが、説明するほどあまりよく分かっていません。ただ、ゴアノイズ以外にも、もちろんジャパノイズもありますし、他のエクストリームサブジャンルを含めて、素晴らしいプロジェクトが沢山存在することは確かです。日本国内外問わず、交流はオンライン(eメール)がほとんどです。連絡先を公開しているので、随時連絡をいただき、スプリットリリースなどのやり取りをしています。

D: A lot of your samples come from both science fiction and horror movies, you have projects named The Fly and スウィートホーム  (one of my favorites!!). Do you see these movies as just a suitable source for samples, or are you influenced by them in a deeper way? 

あなたの作品には、SF映画やホラー映画からサンプリングしたサンプルが多く見られますね。「The Fly」や「スウィートホーム」（私の大好きな作品の一つです！）といったプロジェクト名もあります。これらの映画は単にサンプリングに適した素材として捉えているのでしょうか？それとも、もっと深いレベルで影響を受けているのでしょうか？

S: Of course, I’m always conscious of finding movies suitable for sampling, but I mostly quote from my personal favorites. The Fly and Sweet Home are among my absolute favorites, so I not only sample from them but also directly quote them in the project names. Sweet Home, in particular, has greatly influenced me in terms of filmmaking. I’ve been influenced by their approach to filmmaking, such as using special effects instead of CG to give the visuals impact, and I’ve incorporated that into my own creation.It seems like I’d get along well since you also love Sweet Home,HaHa!

もちろんサンプリングに適した映画を探すことは常に意識していますが、メインは私個人のお気に入りの映画から引用することが多いです。The Flyやスウィートホームはその中でも特にお気に入りの映画なので、サンプリングに留まらず、プロジェクト名にもそのまま引用しています。特にスウィートホームは作品作りという面でも非常に影響を受けています。CGを使わずにSFXを駆使して映像に迫力を持たせる点など、そういったものづくりの姿勢の影響を私自身の創作に反映させています。スウィートホームが大好きなあなたとは気が合いそうです（笑）

D: I am interested in your project Le Samouraï, especially the tape Self-Immolation “Bonzo” Protests Against The Republic of Vietnam. Is there a political meaning with this particular tape, or did you choose this because of the brutal suicide imagery?

あなたのプロジェクト「Le Sa mouraï」、特にカセットテープ「Self-Immolation “Bonzo” Protests Against The Republic of Vietnam」に興味があります。この作品には政治的な意味合いがあるのでしょうか？それとも、残酷な自殺のイメージに惹かれて選んだのでしょうか？

S: This release was created with the themes of self-sacrifice, anti-war, and peace. When I conceived the idea, there was a war in Ukraine, and I think that was a main factor in why I watched and read so many books and documentaries about the Hiroshima atomic bombing and the Vietnam War etc. The photograph of Vietnamese monk Thích Quảng Đức’s self-immolation used on the jacket embodies the theme of this release. I understand that many artists around the world have used this photograph as artwork in the past, and I don’t think it’s original, but I wanted to incorporate the impact of this photograph into my own creation and release it. In this release, I also express the transience of human lives lost in war through short-cut Gorenoise. The themes of anti-war and peace are also featured in another project, Hiroshima.

この作品は自己犠牲・反戦・平和をテーマに作りました。構想当時はウクライナの戦争があり、それをきっかけに広島の原爆やベトナム戦争などの書籍やドキュメンタリー映画を多く観ていたことが大きいと思います。ジャケットに使用したベトナム人僧侶のThích Quảng Đứcの焼身自殺の写真は、この作品のテーマを体言しています。過去世界中の多くのアーティストがこの写真をアートワークに使用していることも理解しており、オリジナルティは無いと思いますが、この写真の持つインパクトを是非自身の作品に取り込みリリースしたいと考えました。また、この作品では戦争で失われていく人命の儚さをショートカットゴアノイズで表現しています。反戦・平和というテーマは別のプロジェクトのHiroshimaでも掲げています。

D: On your tape release notes, most of the releases show Vox and Drums, but I noticed that OILIX #1 maybe also includes bass. How do you produce so many different sound styles on the tapes? Do you use a wide variety of instrument sources? 

あなたのカセットテープのリリースノートを見ると、ほとんどの作品でボーカルとドラムと記載されていますが、「OILIX #1」にはベースも含まれているようですね。どのようにして、これほど多様なサウンドスタイルを作品に取り入れているのですか？様々な楽器音源を使用されていますか？

S: My projects are basically built around three main elements: vocals, drums, and bass (though I sometimes use electric guitar).Therefore, while the basic materials used are mostly the same, I subtly change the effects and editing style to create differences between projects, which is important in this genre where sounds tend to be similar. I don’t do anything particularly special, I’m constantly exploring and seeking new sounds.

基本的に私のプロジェクトではボーカル・ドラム・ベースの3つを基本に作られています(エレクトリックギターを使う場合もあります)。ですので、基本的な使用素材はほとんど一緒ですが、エフェクターや編集スタイルを少しずつ変えることで、同じようなサウンドになりやすいこのジャンルにおいて、プロジェクト毎に違いを持たせています。あまり特別なことはしておらず、常に新しいサウンドを求めて日々探求中です。

D: I love all of the references to Kojima projects, Decoy Octopus is my favorite Bothersome Fly project. What do you like about MGS/Kojima productions? Are there other games you are inspired by? 

小島秀夫氏の作品への言及はどれも素晴らしいですね。中でも『Decoy Octopus』は私のお気に入りのBothersome Fly作品です。MGS/小島作品のどんなところがお好きですか？他に影響を受けたゲームはありますか？

S: What I like about Director Kojima is how he incorporates homages to films and other works he likes into his own creations. At first glance, it might seem like imitation, but I think of homage not as copying, but as respect for the work in question. I feel that these deliberate elements of homage are what entertain and attract fans. I’ve also been influenced by this, and in the release of BFR, I’ve incorporated homages not only to the Goregrind/Gorenoise of the pioneers I admire, but also to the works released by various other artists. Perhaps die-hard Goregrind/Gorenoise/extreme music”K” fans have already noticed, HaHa!

小島監督の好きなところは、監督自身が好きな映画などの作品のオマージュを自身の作品に取り入れているところです。一見、模倣に捉えてられてしまうかもしれませんが、私の考えるオマージュとは模倣ではなく、その作品に対するリスペクトだと考えます。確信犯的なオマージュの要素がファンを楽しませ、惹きつけていると感じます。私もそれに影響を受け、BFRのリリースには私が崇拝する先人のゴアグラインド /ゴアノイズのみならず、様々なアーティストたちがリリースしたオマージュを随所に取り入れています。おそらくダイハードなゴアグラインド /ゴアノイズ・エクストリームミュージックファンなら既に気づいているかもしれません（笑）

D: You have various projects that focus on birth defects due to biological testing or experimentation. What interests you about these themes? 

生物学的実験や人体実験による先天性異常をテーマにした作品がいくつかあるようですが、これらのテーマのどんなところに惹かれるのですか？

S: Biological and human experiments explore themes of curiosity and exploration of the unknown, the morbid desire to see the strange that lies deep within the human psyche, and congenital abnormalities represent individuality and identity. It’s not simply about the grotesque or the freakish sideshow feel. In particular, the release on Ciclopia conveys the message that we should not be buried in the majority but pay attention to minorities and have the tolerance to accept them.

生物学的実験や人体実験は未知への探求心や興味・人間の深層心理にある怖いもの見たさ、先天性異常は個性やアイデンティティという意味をテーマにしています。単にグロテスクだったりフリークスのような見せ物小屋の感覚ではありません。特にCiclopiaでのリリースでは、多数派に埋もれず少数派に目を向けることや、少数派を受け入れる寛容さを持つべきというメッセージを込めています。

 D: Your first tape on Bothersome Fly is dedicated to Episode 12 of ウルトラセブン , which was lost for a long time. Why does this episode interest you? Is it related to the themes of your other releases? 

Bothersome Flyからの最初のカセットテープは、長らく行方不明だった『ウルトラセブン』第12話に捧げられていますね。このエピソードに惹かれた理由は何ですか？他の作品のテーマと関連はありますか？

S: HaHa! actually, release 12 is the release before BFR-038 Thalidomide, so it’s a relatively late release in the current lineup (the first BFR release was BFR-001 Ekitai Ningen – Melted And Faceless Body Autopsy). The theme is ウルトラセブン episode 12, which is treated as a missing episode, so the release number is BFR-***, which is confusing,HaHa! But back to the story, there are three reasons why I was create to this work. Firstly, I am a fan of ウルトラセブン. Secondly, episode 12 is a sealed episode, and therefore currently unavailable for viewing through official channels, so I am simply curious to see it. Thirdly, when I delved into why it was sealed, I found that the people who protested episode 12 did not properly investigate or try to understand the theme the creators intended, and their protest was one-sided. Furthermore, the production company sealed the episode without offering any counterarguments or explanations, and simply let the matter slide. In short, what I want to say is that creative works have freedom of expression, and I wanted to express my protest against the suppression of that freedom by the majority through this project and release. I believe this is related to the theme of Ciclopia mentioned earlier.

ははは! 実は12のリリースはBFR-038 Thalidomideのひとつ前のリリースなので、現時点でのリリースでは比較的後期の作品です（BFRのファーストリリースはBFR-001 Ekitai Ningen – Melted And Faceless Body Autopsyです）。テーマにしているウルトラセブンの第12話が欠番扱いなので、リリースNo.をBFR-***にしている為、紛らわしいですね（笑）話を戻しますが、この作品に惹かれた理由は3つあります。一つ目は、ウルトラセブンのファンであること、二つ目は、単純に第12話が封印された作品の為、現在も正規ルートでは視聴ができず、観てみたい、という好奇心によるもの、三つ目は、何故封印されたのかを掘り下げていくと、作品に抗議した人々が、製作者が意図していた作品のテーマをきちんと調べずに、また理解しようともせずに一方的な抗議だったこと、また製作会社も何も反論・弁明をせずに封印をして、事なきにしてしまったこと、つまり私が言いたいのは創造する作品には表現の自由があるという点で、マジョリティによりそれが潰されてしまうことへの抗議を、このプロジェクトおよびリリースで表現をしたいと考えたことです。これは先述したCiclopiaのテーマと通ずるものがあると考えています。

D: What is the future for Bothersome Fly records? Will there be any new projects from you, or any new collaborators? What about any live shows? What is your personal favorite Bothersome Fly release so far? 

Bothersome Fly Recordsの今後の活動予定は？新しいプロジェクトやコラボレーションの予定はありますか？ライブ活動は？これまでのBothersome Fly作品の中で、個人的に一番好きな作品は何ですか？

S: Lately, my daily work has been very busy, and prioritizing spending time with my family has made my release pace very slow. Despite this, I receive many orders and split release offers, and I apologize for not being able to respond in a timely manner. However, I still have many ideas I want to release, so I plan to continue releasing Music”K” at my own pace, taking my time to create pieces I’m truly satisfied with. I don’t have any live performance plans at the moment, it will likely be a studio release style, like Burzum or Darkthrone, HaHa! However, I do hope to one day perform some of my released tracks with my own drumming. I put a lot of thought and effort into creating all of my released Music”K”, so I’m attached to each one, but if I had to choose, it would be the following three releases. These releases are the origin of BFR, and they contain all the elements of Goregrind/Gorenoise that I’ve always wanted to create. Therefore, I would be especially happy if you enjoyed these releases.

• BFR-001 Ekitai Ningen – Melted And Faceless Body Autopsy

• BFR-002 Akira – Untitled #001

• BFR-003 Le Samouraï – Do It First, Do It Yourself And Keep On Doin’ It!

Finally, I would like to express my respect and gratitude to Daphne who planned this interview, to everyone who read this article to the end, and to everyone who always supports and enjoys BFR Music”K”! Thank you!

Shunya

→最近は日常の仕事が忙しく、また家族と過ごす時間を確保することを最優先にしている為、リリースするスピードが非常にマイペースになっています。その中で沢山のオーダーやスプリットリリースのオファーをいただきますが、タイムリーな対応ができず申し訳ないと思っています。ですがリリースしたいアイデアはまだ沢山ありますので、時間をかけながらマイペースに自分がきちんと納得する作品を今後もリリースしていきたいと考えています。ライブの予定は今のところ無く、BurzumやDarkthroneのようにスタジオリリースのスタイルになるでしょう（笑）ただ、いつか自身のドラムプレイでリリースした楽曲を演奏をしたいとは考えています。リリースした作品は全て思い入れを持って製作している為、どれも愛着がありますが、敢えてあげるのであれば、下記の3つのリリースです。これらのリリースはBFRの起源であり、私が過去より自身で創造したかったゴアグラインド /ゴアノイズの要素を全て詰め込んだものだからです。なので、特にこれらの作品を気に入ってもらえるととても嬉しく感じます。

・BFR-001 Ekitai Ningen – Melted And Faceless Body Autopsy

・BFR-002 Akira – Untitled #001

・BFR-003 Le Samouraï – Do It First , Do It Yourself And Keep On Doin’ It !

最後に今回インタビューを企画してくれたDaphneと、この記事を最後まで読んでくれた皆さん、そしてBFRのMusic”K”をいつもサポートし楽しんでくれるみなさんに敬意と感謝の意を表します!ありがとう！