Buck-Tick Zone

Members

At the core, Schaft is Hisashi Imai and Maki Fujii (Soft Ballet). They later they recruited Raymond Watts (Pig, sometimes KMFDM) for their 1994 album and live shows.

2008 reunion to play 1 song live: Hisashi, Maki, and Yukihiro on drums.

Schaft formed a proper band for their 2016 album and tour. That band included Yow-Row (Gari) on vocals, Takeshi Ueda (The Mad Capsule Markets, All Animals Are Equal) on bass, and Yukihiro (L'Arc~en~Ciel, Acid Android) on drums.

History

The two musicians are friends and collaborated for a song in 1991 for a compilation album (Dance 2 Noise) and also performed for said compilation album's live event (December 16, 1991). The performed for 25 minutes but it was comprised of only 2 songs. They enjoyed the collaboration so much they went on to do an album a couple years later. Listen to that first collaboration, Nicht-Titel.

For the album, Maki recruited his friend Raymond Watts. Maki was also able to get many guest musicians to work with Schaft through his connections. (Maki once studied in London.) As for the writing and recording of the songs, Hisashi did not have the songs prepared ahead of time, in other words Schaft was not built on top of Buck-Tick leftovers. He tended to compose the bass line or rhythm guitar first, approached Maki with the demo tape, and then they worked out the arrangements. As for singing on "The Hero Inside", Hisashi felt that something was needed in addition to Raymond's vocals but was nervous singing English in front of a native speaker. Part of the recording was done in London (June 1994) and Hisashi and Maki stayed in separate apartments.

Schaft released 1 studio album, 1 remix album, and 1 live video. The music video for "Arbor Vitate" is hard to find but it has been made available thanks to the internet and Schaft archival release.

"Broken English" is a cover of a Marianne Faithfull song.

SKF-10047 was the developmental code name for alazocine, which is more commonly known as N-allyInormetazocine (NANM). It is a synthetic opioid analgesic and hallucinogen. The molecular formula is C₁₇H₂₃NO.

I tend to read the second track's title multiple ways based on the booklet type spacing, the lyrics, and of course the pun. It could be a variation of "The Hero Inside" or "The Heroin Side."

On March 3 1999, the Zilch remix album Bastard Eyes was released. It features "Fuctrack #6" remixed by Schaft and entitled "Superschaftrack". [Originally I had written the title was "Fuctrack #6 Super Schaft Mix" but I think that may have been from an early advertisement or interview and was not the finalized published title.] The title of "Super Schaft" may have come about from an interview conducted in 1997 between Hisashi, Maki, and Hide (X Japan). At the very end of the interview, the interviewer joked that they were "Super Schaft".

Schaft reunited for 1 song, "The HERO INside," at the "Music and People" event on November 3, 2008 at Yokohama Blitz, Kanagawa. This event had performances by Lucy (Hisashi's side project) Suilen (Maki's project), and Acid Android (Yukihiro's project). Maki sang Raymond's part and Yukihiro was on drums.

In 2015, Schaft announced that they have reformed as a band proper with Yow-Row (Gari) on vocals, Takeshi Ueda (The Mad Capsule Markets, All Animals Are Equal) on bass, and Yukihiro (L'Arc~en~Ciel, Acid Android) on drums. An album was released and tour took place in 2016 as well as archival box set of the 1994 releases. From this tour, a live video and essentially a live album was also released. Music videos were made for "Vice" and "Deeper and Down" (live footage video).

Der Zauberlehrling is a poem by Goethe (1797). It is known in English as "The Sorcerer's Apprentice."

Studio/Live Musicians

Susanne Bramson sang on "Visual Cortex" and she also provided backing vocals on Buck-Tick's 1995 album Six/Nine. She released the solo album Lifting the Veil in 1995.

DJ Peah was in the band M-Age. Other members of M-Age have worked with Buck-Tick members in side projects as well. M-Age reunited in 2020.

Lynne Hobday is a vocalist who has worked with Maki Fujii's Soft Ballet and She Shell, Guniw Tools, Abingdon Boys School, etc. She worked out of the UK to coordinate Japan-UK music industry relations before relocating to Japan.

Sugar J is the name John Gosling goes by when he does remixes. He currently makes music under Mekon. He was a member of Psychic TV and created Zos Kia with members of Coil as well as Bass-O-Matic with William Orbit.

Morota Koh was the bassist in Doom until he died in 1999.

Keith Le Blanc is a drummer and record producer. He is a member of Tackhead, has released several solo albums, and has worked with Nine Inch Nails.

Logic Freaks is the name Yuji Sugiyama goes by when he does remixes. Sometimes spelled as Logik Freaks.

Motokatsu Miyagami, who goes simply by Motokatsu, is the drummer for The Mad Capsule Markets (formerly spelled The Mad Capsule Market's) and side projects Rally and Ace of Spades.

Michiru Oshima is a composer whose credits are too numerous to list, having worked in music, film, tv, and video games. Most notable, she's worked on franchises such as Godzilla, Fullmetal Alchemist, and The Legend of Zelda. Her work with Schaft was early in her illustrious career.

Julianne Regan was the singer of All About Eve and has sang backing vocals for The Mission since 1986. She would go on to have a project with Wayne Hussey (The Mission) in 2011. Hussey wrote a song for Atsushi's 2004 solo album and later released his version for the Mission's 2007 album God is a Bullet, which Julianne also appears on.

Reload was a project by Mark Pritchard and Tom Middleton. The pair also formed the label Evolution (Music). I am not sure if the formal name was just Evolution or Evolution Music as credited in Schaft's remix album.

Jonny Stephens was a member of Meat Beat Manifesto at the time of Schaft's first album.

Seiichi Teratani is a session drummer who has worked with Soft Ballet, She Shell, Ken Morioka, Mari Hamada, Pizzicato Five, etc.

Takeshi "Cra¥" Ueda is the bassist in The Mad Capsule Markets (formerly spelled The Mad Capsule Market's) and has his own project All Animals Are Equal (abbreviated as AA=).

Raymond Watts creates music using the Pig moniker and first made a Buck-Tick connection when he made the Schaft album in 1994. He would later go on to tour in Japan with Buck-Tick and do a remix of a song. Atsushi and Hisashi would appear as guest performers on Pig's album as well as form another side project called Schwein (German for "pig"). Raymond also wrote a song for Atsushi's 2004 solo album that he released under Pig as well with his own lyrics/vocals.

Steve White is a guitarist who worked with Pig and later went on to be in KMFDM.

Kazutoshi Yokoyama plays synthesizer and does programming. He has worked with Buck-Tick as a guest musician since 1992 but even before that worked on Hide's 1991 solo song.

Concert Chronology

December 16, 1991 (debut performance)
"Dance 2 Noise 001"
Club Yellow, Nishi Azabu, Tokyo

August 9, 1993 launch of five date tour "LSB", consisting of main headliners Luna Sea, Soft Ballet, Buck-Tick. Sometimes Schaft would also play.

In 1994, Schaft played a few proper shows in Tokyo and Osaka with Raymond Watts and Motokatsu (The Mad Capsule Market's) on drums.

September 25, 1994
"One Hour Over Drive Unit"
Nisshin Power Station, Tokyo

September 26 and 27, 1994
"One Hour Over Drive"
Shibuya Koukaido, Tokyo

October 1, 1994
"One Hour Over Drive Unit"
W'ohol, Osaka

October 3, 1994
"One Hour Over Drive"
Osaka Kosei Nenkin Kaikan

One Hour Over Drive Unit setlist:
Slice
Feitd Air
The HERO INside
Nothing
Arbor Vitate
Cold Light

One Hour Over Drive setlist:
Olive
Visual Cortex
SKF10047
Information
Merry Christmas On Mars
[rest of setlist same as One Hour Over Drive Unit]

Merchandise: jacket (not sure if this was sold), knit cap, keychain, ring, camouflage t-shirt, longsleeve t-shirt, zippo

(Please note that Hisashi and Maki did make guest appearances playing live with Zilch in 1999 but they did not play as Schaft nor did they perform any Schaft songs. Hisashi played with Zilch on August 11; Hisashi and Maki played with Zilch on August 12 and 14.)

November 3, 2008
1 song (The HERO INside) at "Music and People" event with Lucy, Suilen, Acid Android
Yokohama Blitz, Kanagawa
(Maki sang Raymond's part, Yukihiro from Acid Android on drums)

In 2015, Schaft reformed with Hisashi, Maki, Yow-Row, Takeshi Ueda, and Yukihiro. In 2016, they held a tour that played Tokyo, Osaka, and Kanagawa prefecture.

2016 Tour Ultra -The Loud Engine- (6 dates):
January 22 at Club Citta Kawasaki, Kanagawa
January 24 at Yokohama Bay Hall, Kanagawa
January 25 at Ebisu Liquid Room, Tokyo
January 27 at Akasaka Blitz, Tokyo
January 28 at Ex Theater Roppongi, Tokyo
February 6 at Umeda Club Quattro, Osaka

Tour Ultra -The Loud Engine- setlist: (Jan 22 and 24 unknown)
The Loud Engine
Vice
Drift
Anti-Hedonist
ReVive
Der Zauberlehrling
Sakashima
Leidenschaft
Arbor Vitate
Thirsty Fly
Swan Dive
Adam's Rib
Mi

Encore #1
Deeper and Down
H.N.A.
The HERO INside (Jan 25) or Broken English (Jan 27, 28, Feb 6)

Encore #2
The HERO INside (Jan 27, 28, Feb 6)
Slice
Cold Light

Images from Switchblade Visual Mix

group

Hisashi

Maki

Raymond

Images from "Arbor Vitate" video (1994)

Images from "Vice" video (2016)

Images from "Deeper and Down" video (2016)