Kohei Gomi's harsh-noise project, recording since the 1980s: chaotic, dynamic cut-up noise of rips and shifting loops, a defining voice of the dynamic strain of Japanoise and head of the AMP cassette label.
Pain Jerk is the harsh-noise project of Kohei Gomi, and the Bureau files it at Tier II as a leading figure in the dynamic strain of Japanese noise. Gomi began home recording in the 1980s and, by the mid-1990s, had become one of the most prolific and influential noise units operating out of Japan.
The work belongs to what the scene calls the dynamic style: not a single static wall but a chaos of rips, recycled transient sounds and shifting loops, muffled high tones twisting into spastic shapes. It is harsh noise built on movement and sudden change, distinct both from the harsh noise wall and from the pure-feedback school of Incapacitants.
Gomi ran the noise cassette label AMP, which issued around fifty tapes of his own work across the 1990s, making the tape underground the project's natural home. Among those releases, Neurotten, from his most prolific period, reached cult status and is widely held to be a classic of the genre.
Across a long catalogue of solo work, splits and collaborations, Pain Jerk has remained a fixture of the international noise network, sharing releases and bills with peers across the Japanese and Western scenes this archive documents.
The Bureau files Pain Jerk at Artists · Tier II as one of the defining voices of the dynamic, cut-up strain of Japanese harsh noise: chaos as method, the wall refused in favour of constant motion.