There's a basic disconnect at the heart of Tokyo's Nisennenmondai. A series of small contradictions run through nearly all aspects of what the instrumental trio does, but they add up to make it one of the most intriguing bands to come out of Japan's underground and experimental-rock scene in the past decade.
It's a contradiction that you might be able to see when they go on stage in the cavernous environs of Shin-Kiba Studio Coast for this year's Neutralnation music festival, because as Nisennenmondai get more and more well known, ascending to the status of Japan's international experimental-music royalty alongside the likes of Boris, Boredoms and Acid Mothers Temple, there remains something intimate, introverted and impenetrable about the band.
On stage in front of hundreds of people, the group often forms a tight circle, facing inward toward each other, rarely even looking at — let alone communicating with — the audience. It gives a sense of a band absorbed in a world of its own, although according to drummer Sayaka "Hime" Himeno, speaking (naturally) from behind a veil of e-mail, the reason is more prosaic: "Simply, that's the easiest way for us to play. Plus we're all very shy."