HISTORY

HIZUMI is the Japanese word for distortion. It was also the title of the final demo recording of the Industrial-Metal band "KINDERGARTEN" before it split up in 1999.

KINDERGARTEN was led by Scarecrow Rottinghouse and E.M. Hearst (who were also joined by 'Rustr' and 'Eklyps Nopd'). This entity existed between the years 1995 and 1999.

It was mainly a "live band" (perhaps more of a secretive cult), playing "Industrial Music" (beating on scrap metal for percussion / screaming through distortion effects for vocals -- with the occasional "chug chug chug" from a detuned guitar or bass).

Over the years this band would come together in a dank, dirty, damp, dimly-lit basement, hook together their various electronic gadgets, set up their scrap heaps and oil drums and perform noisy, demonic "Industrial music" rituals. These rituals were known to the cult members as "Hizumi".... summoning ugly, destructive, dischordant, distorted, and overwhelming noise... the cultists would often fall into a trance-like state and become lost within the all-consuming, breathing, pulsating, rhythmic noise. They never played to a crowd larger than 2 or 3 people (invited guests to their filthy basement rituals).

The band managed to record two lengthy "demo tapes" of their rituals during their years together. There are no known copies of their first tape (1996's "Sinthethic") left in existence, and very few cassette copies of their second tape (1998's "Hizumi") are known to still exist.

Kindergarten self-destructed and imploded in late 1999.

NEO HIZUMI was founded in Spring 2005 by E.M. Hearst and Scarecrow Rottinghouse to continue in the direction that KINDERGARTEN was going before it's untimely demise. The band's name is a reference to Kindergarten's final dying gasp of life... "Hizumi". Neo Hizumi is the "New Distortion", created simply to pay tribute to the spirits of the past that still haunt the two remaining Hizumi cultists. Neo Hizumi was formed to keep the memory of the 'Cult of Hizumi' alive and to perform new rituals of rhythmic noise and destruction magick.

Containing the same core members, NEO HIZUMI can also be seen as the Electronic alter-ego of the Horror Metal band WRAITH OF THE ROPES.

To keep as much seperation between the two bands as possible, the decision was made to keep NEO HIZUMI purely an Electro-Industrial band in the old-school way, and to include as few organic elements as possible... meaning, very few guitars or "real" instruments (that are prominently featured in WOTR) will ever be used in Neo Hizumi. The intention is to keep these bands very distinct and seperate entities.

In 2006, the duo released it's first demo CDR "Demo-N". The band is now recording a full-length album's worth of new material hopefully for release in 2007.

more to come.....