Hijokaidan

Hijōkaidan (非常階段, "emergency staircase") is a Japanese noise and free improvisation group with a revolving lineup that has ranged from two members to as many as fourteen in its early days. The group is the project of guitarist Jojo Hiroshige (JOJO広重), its one constant member, who is head and owner of the Osaka-based Alchemy Records. Other regulars include Jojo's wife Junko and Toshiji Mikawa (also of Incapacitants). 

The group began at the very end of the 1970s as a performance art-based group whose anarchic shows would often involve destruction of venues and audio equipment, food and garbage being thrown around, and on-stage urination. As the group's lineup changed over time, their focus became less performance-based and more musically based, fine-tuning their sound into a dense wall of noise. 

Hijōkaidan originally began in 1979 in Kyoto as a side project of Rasenkaidan members Jojo Hiroshige (JOJO広重) and Naoki Zushi (頭士奈生樹). They played an improvised session at a studio with fellow Rasenkaidan member Ken'ichi Takayama (高山謙一) (a.k.a. Idiot) in attendance. Afterwords, Takayama said "This is not Rasenkaidan (螺旋階段, "spiral staircase"), it is more like Hijōkaidan (非常階段, "emergency staircase")".

This Hijōkaidan played live twice and recorded a few studio sessions. Recordings of this line-up were later released as Original Hijōkaidan or Pre-Hijōkaidan. At the end of the year, Zushi left, and Jojo decided to quit all of his musical projects (Hijōkaidan, Rasenkaidan, and Ultra Bidet). Idiot and Zushi briefly continued Rasenkaidan, and Idiot later formed Idiot O'Clock. [SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA] 

(More info on The Hijokaidan Story)