[ aquarius records — Japan Noise Free Psych ]

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New Miminokoto, same as the old Miminokoto? Kinda! And that's a good thing, if you're a fan of the Japanese psych underground and this particular manifestation of the "Tokyo Flashback" vibe, Miminokoto both new and old being one of those bands, like LSD-march, Up-Tight, and Suisho No Fune, in the glorious distortodelic tradition of '70s masters/mysteries Les Rallizes Denudes... Yet, it's not it's not the quite same, as the old Miminokoto, 'cause lead guitar wrangler and vocalist Masami Kawaguchi has left the band (forming his own "New Rock Syndicate"). To replace him, they recruited Suzuki Junzo, formerly of Overhang Party, a Tokyo psych scene vet who has no problem at all slipping into the role of New Miminokoto frontman, bringing his own dark aura to bear on guitar and vocals, alongside the bass of Nishimura Takuya and the drums of Shimura Koji (ex-White Heaven). Recorded last year, this release is also actually not all that "new", we've been wanting to list this for a while, just finally got enough of 'em in stock direct from Japan, and can now say: get it, it's great! Gorgeous stuff, when they get mellow, and gorgeous too when all amps are set on 10. There are indeed plenty of languidly paced mellow meanders, as well as fuzz-filled blow-outs, dense and devastating. And even at their loudest, Miminokoto manage to be quite mesmerically melodic, as they do during the more gentle shimmering sections of this set as well. The seven tracks here include two fantastic covers of songs by the late Kaneko Jutok of Kousokuya (another long time Tokyo psych institution, a la Fushitsusha). They utterly fit the Miminokoto vibe, of course. Another vibe we're getting here is that of Neil Young, maybe it's 'cause we've been listening to his heavy new one, Le Noise... there's probably a lot of people who'll pick up that new Neil (also reviewed this list, and recommended) who'll never ever hear, nor hear of, Miminokoto... but we bet they'd like this, as long as the language thing doesn't get in the way for 'em. Sure, you don't know what Suzuki is singing about (only one title is given in English, "Wrong Distance", which is kind of clever) but it doesn't matter. The emotion in his voice - not to mention the emotion cranking through the guitar amps - conveys enough! This has been a go-to late-night listen for us ever since it showed up...

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Last year the Smalltown Supersound label clued a lot of lucky listeners outside of Japan into the wonders of the all-girl, uber rhythmic skronk rock groop Nisennenmondai, by reissuing the trio's Tori and Neji eps together on one cd (Heartworm then doing an lp version). That sure whet our appetite for more, and here it is! Destination Tokyo starts off with a real choo-choo train of a track, "Souzousuru Neji", the crazy choo-choo threatening to go off the rails, propelled by nervous no wavey percussive jitter, feedback scraping around the edges of the beat. It's super repetitive, incessant, awesome. Part This Heat, part Liquid Liquid, part Children Coup d'Etat (a Japanese avant-rock band from the '90s, anyone remember 'em? We mention them 'cause of what sounds like a violin in the mix here). The track builds and builds for about 13 minutes, the bass pulsations protruding, the beats pounding harder, the whole thing getting denser and denser, intensifying until the sudden stop on a dime suck the air out of the room ending at about the 13 minute mark. Whew. Though then the Nisennenmondai girls pick it up again right quick with the chicken scratch groove of "Disco", another seemingly endless build up. That's their formula, and we sure dig it! Relentless high-hat, chiming and chirping guitars, layered and looping... On this full-length, Nisennenmondai's music is still mostly instrumental (with the exception of the brief, a capella babytalk of track 3, "Miraabouru") but is presented with quite a bit LESS noise and distortion than on those two early eps, Nisennenmondai this time going for more of a spare, skeletal, minimalist sound, though still one that effortlessly builds and builds and builds to juggernaut proportions. It is much more "dancefloor" friendly, with song titles like "Disco" and "Mirrorball", not to mention the cover art, that must be the intention, but in a very motorik, krautrocky way. While "Souzousuru Neji" is probably the heaviest cut here, at the opposite end of the disc, the kosmiche synth wooshes and melodic loveliness that adorn the final, title track display Nisennenmondai at their calmest and krautrockiest, it's definitely one for fans of Neu! and Harmonia and the like. Heck this track could be Circle or Salvatore, playing at an ambient airport with planes and helicopters blissfully buzzing around. What is not to love???!

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Motorik Japanese all-female trio Nisennenmondai are back, with a disc that takes the skeletal, minimalist 'choo-choo-choo' sounds of their previous outing, 2009's Destination Tokyo, to a stripped-down extreme. (They've stripped down the titles, too.) Eschewing a lot of variation, they really just lock in and go with the groove here. With standard rock instrumentation, they play what sounds like electronic music - they're an extra-tight 'live' techno band essentially, not unlike Austria's Electro Guzzi (who have a new album, Observatory, we'll be reviewing soon, too). These three long instrumental tracks of purely rhythmic attack are all tck-tck-tck, scht-scht-scht, thup-thup-thup... Ultra repetitive, up tempo percussive jitter that's sleek and steady, subtle yet urgent, constantly building up the mysterious, nervous energy. Based around live 'loops' of snare hits and bass beats, what sound like Morse code blips and Giger counter clicks, it's a brooding sort of thumping techno, with shimmering shoegaze guitars around the edges, distorted and echo-effected, creating quite a mesmeric & mekanikal, noirish mood. Sort of sounds like Circle playing a rave, really! (And we'd LOVE to experience this live!) Considerably compelling as far as we're concerned, and also kinda curious coming from a band who once upon a time sounded a lot like Sonic Youth and Deerhoof, though they've always been about the repetitive trance-induction, they've just honed that aspect and dialed back on their former noisy no-waveisms.

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Motorik Japanese all-female trio Nisennenmondai's most recent album, N, took the skeletal, minimalist 'choo-choo-choo' sounds of their previous outing, 2009's Destination Tokyo, to a stripped-down extreme. Eschewing a lot of variation, they really just lock in and go with the groove. With standard rock instrumentation, they play what sounds like electronic music - they're an extra-tight 'live' techno band essentially, not unlike Austria's Electro Guzzi. N came out last summer, on cd only (which is currently backordered and possibly out of print). But now, for vinyl folks, and especially DJ types, Blast First has put out a 12" vinyl version, called N'. The tracks here are apparently re-recordings/re-workings of cuts from the N cd proper, but our description of those still holds: long instrumental tracks of purely rhythmic attack that are all tck-tck-tck, scht-scht-scht, thup-thup-thup... Ultra repetitive, up tempo percussive jitter that's sleek and steady, subtle yet urgent, constantly building up the mysterious, nervous energy. Based around live 'loops' of snare hits and bass beats, what sound like Morse code blips and Giger counter clicks, it's a brooding sort of thumping techno, with shimmering shoegaze guitars around the edges, distorted and echo-effected, creating quite a mesmeric & mekanikal, noirish mood. Sort of sounds like Circle playing a rave, really! (And we'd LOVE to experience this live!) Considerably compelling as far as we're concerned, and also kinda curious coming from a band who once upon a time sounded a lot like Sonic Youth and Deerhoof, though they've always been about the repetitive trance-induction, they've just honed that aspect and dialed back on their former noisy no-waveisms. (Note: the sound samples below are from the original cd, not this vinyl version.)

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Yay! It's pretty cool that Norway's Smalltown Supersound has put this out, a disc collecting two previously released (in Japan only) eps by this Japanese all-girl avant-rock unit. We'd found out about this band a while back, and had wanted to stock their stuff, but sometimes importing cds from Japan is a daunting task. So our procrastination paid off, as now we have this handy disc, easily available. (It's also pretty cool that the Heartworm Press label has also just issued this on vinyl!) So what's the deal with this band? A mostly instrumental guitar/bass/drums trio who are psychedelically skronky, generating massive walls of distortion underpinned by propulsive no-waveisms. They're not a Japanese "noise" band like Merzbow or Hijokaidan, but certainly get plenty noisy. We could compare 'em at times to the likes of Afrirampo, Lightning Bolt, Melt Banana, Deerhoof, (early) Blonde Redhead... actually Nisennenmodai makes the reviewer's task a bit easier by naming several of the tracks of the Neji ep (2004) which begins this disc after some of their musical heroes, which to a degree they emulate: "Pop Group", "This Heat", "Sonic Youth". The "This Heat" track definitely has the nervous tension and percussive percolations we love about that band, whereas "Pop Group" is ultra-angular and extra-noisy... The Tori ep (2005) that occupies the second half of this collection continues those themes - in fact, they do one of Neji's songs again, the densely rhythmic "Ikkkyokume", probably a signature track for the band as it so well represents their trance-inducing intensity, love of volume and minimalist song structure. Tori's first track "Kyuukohan" is tightly wound, repetitive number full of crashing cymbals, chiming guitar, and bass throb... building, building, building relentlessly to a massive climax. The next song, "Kyaaaaaa", incorporates yelping vocal shrieks and even more noisy feedback guitar. And so it goes, getting ever noisier, more throbbingly repetitive, a distorted, enthralling onslaught of explosive splatter/scatter rock indeed! We'd love to see 'em live someday, apparently there's crazy costumes and stuff, but that seems hardly necessary given the sheer energy of their music. The limited double LP version is a handsome gatefold, on white vinyl. It's already sold out at the label, apparently we got their very last copies... act fast!

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Freaked out Japanese hard rock supergroup, a '70s inspired power trio featuring the talents of million-notes-per-second, whammy-bar-crazy guitarist Kawabata Makoto (of Acid Mothers Temple, Musica Transonic, Mainliner, Toho Sara, etc. etc.),

RealAudio clip: Hoos The Fuk That Et That Rest O Man Schoo
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SORRY. Dedicated fans of Japan's Boredoms will guess that with a name like "Noise Ramones" this disc must in fact be a Boredoms side-project...and indeed it's the work of "Eye-Ramone" and "P-P-Ramone" (aka Eye and Yoshimi). And anybody will guess that with a name like "Noise Ramones" this is...noise! A la Eye's Hanatarash project in fact, but not as physical. High-pitched chattering electronics.

Nord began in 1979 as a minimal electronics / drone-on industrial project for Hiroshi Oikawa and Katayama Satoshi. They only recorded one album together -- their eponymous 1981 release on the Pinakotheca imprint - before they parted ways, but each of them used the moniker Nord for their own projects. Satoshi's Nord involved a handful of Japanese noise musicians including Hiroshi Hasegawa from Astro and C.C.C.C., with a smattering of recordings being released over the decades; but it's Oikawa's Nord that has become a holy grail to those seeking one of the most obscure releases of the Japanese noise underground from the '80s. He released two LPs on his imprint L.S.D. Records, as well as a couple of cassette releases. NG Tapes was one of those cassette releases, only made available as a bonus tape with a select number of copies of Nord's LSD album, itself an edition of just 200 copies. For all of its mystery and mythology, LSD was a dodgy record, in part due to the Surrealistic Pillow citation at the beginning on one side of the record; but the follow-up Ego Trip with its mind-erasing irradiation of post-Schnitzler / post-Monoton / pre-Thought Broadcast minimalist arpeggiation and dour electronics is a watershed album no matter how you slice it. NG Tapes may in fact be even better than Ego Trip, making this reissue all the more necessary. NG Tapes centers upon three long-form tracks of ominous, synth pulsations that capture radio-tunings, blankstare guitar drone/noise, and some disembodied vocal monotone within a psychic black-hole vortex of emotional emptiness. Oikawa girds these longer tracks with some short numbers of noise-junk tactility, scuzzed-out distortion, low impact power-electronics, and primitive rhythm-box programming. Presumably these shorter numbers reflect the aesthetic of the aforementioned Pinakotheca album though that one doesn't seem to be in the cards ever for a reissue. Hypnotic. Narcotic. Desolate. There's the sound of NG Tapes in a nutshell. A one-time only reissue, nicely repackaged in a tip-on sleeve and an obi to replicate the original tape's design.

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KK Null, of Japan's Zeni Geva, releases upon the world another installment of his solo guitar ambient/noise art. Tracks range from "Cosmic Rape" (1:26) to "War Dance" (17:20).

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SORRY. Solo electric guitar improv noise by Zeni Geva's Null, live in Australia.

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The veteran Japanese noisician (and guitarist of heavy prog act Zeni Geva) K.K. Null is back with his first solo album on the Touch label, and it's one of KK's best solo efforts we've heard to date. Perhaps inspired by labelmate Chris Watson (with whom he collaborated a few years ago, in conjunction with Z'ev), K.K. has brought some field recordings (birds, bugs, frogs, fire...) he made on a trip to a national park in Northern Australia to this project, mixing those with his own studio-conjured electronic sounds. No wonder, then, that Fertile is a spooky soundscape of nocturnal hiss and buzz, parts of it sounding like video games played by insects, others ominous with ghostlike voices buried beneath... chattering rhythmic components underlie what sound like shortwave freakouts, tracks often building to stactic-y explosiveness, droning and noisy, extremely dynamic and distorted. You could almost imagine that this is what a hybrid of a John Carpenter soundtrack and a Japanese noise record would sound like. Null calls it "cosmic noise maximal/minimalism." We don't know what to call it, exactly, but we like it!

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SORRY. "Nullsonic" electronic manipulations by Japanese guitarist K.K. Null. Only slightly similar to the ambient noise whoosh of his many other solo projects, and definitely unlike the Swans-metal bludegon of his heavy rock outfit Zeni Geva. "GeV" features bleeping loops, chattering rumbles, and sharp tone-whirr. It's all very sci-fi sounding, like you're in the control room of some alien spaceship.

When Japanese guitarist Null isn't bludgeoning skulls in his heavy prog power trio Zeni Geva (which maybe he isn't, anymore -- we never know if they're disbanded or just taking a long time between albums, as we haven't heard from ZG since, like, 2001) he's been known to indulge in abstract soundscapes via solo guitar and electronics, such as what's presented here, on this new Important release, Kosmista Noisea. Our description, stream-of-consciousness style, goes something like this: Merzbow techno video game insect swarm vacuum cleaner phaser fire! Ultra distortion!! OK!!! There's two tracks, one long (24:25) and one really long (45:15), recorded live and then further processed in the studio. The longer track has more stretches of night-time ambience, electronic chattering cricket drones and high-pitched testy tones. Definitely, though, both tracks are practically and aesthetically quite computer-y and sci-fi sounding, with moments of pulsing beauty, what sound like encrypted outer-space transmissions, and overloading space-battle SFX. Kosmista Noisea is indeed quite "noisea", but it's deftly woven noisea! If you're in need of a Japanese noise fix, don't wait (ha!) for the next Merzbow release, give ol' KK a try.

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Yet another solo electronics album from Japanese guitarist and experimental musician KK Null. Again it's full of the glitchy zip and zap of his "cosmic noises", which are somewhat aggravating at first, but if you stay with it, can be enjoyable in a mad scientist's laboratory gone haywire / crash landing flying saucer sort of way, especially when you get to the more rhythmic parts. At the same time though, we'd much rather KK put his efforts back into his genius heavy rock band Zeni Geva, as we're not sure we really need another one of these solo discs that sound like he's playing video games in the recording studio...

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Fans of Japanese avant-drone guitarist and electronic experimentalist (and sometimes heavy metal dirge-master, when playing in his band Zeni Geva) Kazuyuki K. Null are a happy bunch of late, as his recent "Datacide In Year Zero" cd-r on Crucial Blast (reviewed here last time) is now joined by another new K.K. title, a collaboration with Seattle musician Bill Horist. Null recorded much of the disc's source material, then gave it over to Horist to manipulate and structure (and add to as well, as Horist himself is a textural guitarist akin to Null). The results are, to go along with what Beta-lactam Ring has been saying about this release, kinda in the IDM vein: skittery, bleepy instrumental electronica with crunchy, squeaky (guitar-generated, we'll assume) noises and beats. Like Null's sci-fi sounding GeV cd on Staalplaat, this isn't nearly as "ambient" as some of his past work, though it has its mellow and mysterious moments, amidst many fairly chaotic ones. Indeed, at times this can be harsh (the heavy, grinding "Gravitation"), at other times quite lovely (the acoustic-y "Luminous Lullaby"). In general, you get pulsating, bleeping soundscapes out of which some recognizably human guitar playing will surface, which is what makes these pieces more interesting than your average IDM, I'd say. Null and Horist aren't really breaking any new ground, but they've created a varied and enjoyable disc for fans of quirky computerized electronic music and avant guitar utilization. Pretty cool.

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What might you expect from a collaboration between KK Null, mastermind behind Japanese heavies Zeni Geva, and UK tuba doom duo Ore (you read that right, TUBA DOOM!)? Probably not this. Two tracks of hushed, delicate, droned out ambience. Moody, muted and morose, long tones unfurling gradually in a field of sculpted soft static, and distant keening melodies, slow shifting textures, drifting serenely, over a surprisingly tranquil sonic sprawl, a sort of blackened, nocturnal drift, deftly processed electronics, the mournful moan of the tubas, stuttery rhythmic pulses, all blurred into something downright dreamy and hypnotic. The flipside is even more minimal, the processed tubas transformed into lush, layered swells, pocked with glitch and crackle, and wreathed in field recordings of birdsong, a strange mix of ominous thrum, and pastoral ambience, the sound gorgeously lustrous and thick, the low end massive, a dark slo-mo swirl, that gradually gathers subtle momentum, beneath an increasingly dense cloud of singing birds, that begins to mutate into a tangle of psychedelic squiggles, that is soon subsumed by the churning bass tones and strange skittery fields of clipped static and glitchy electronics. Haunting and sinister and at moments harrowingly heavy, yet somehow still darkly dreamy! Probably super limited too...

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Our pal Mason Jones (formerly of San Francisco space rockers Subarachnoid Space) is known for his Japanese connections as well as for his talent for heavy-duty, effects-laden experimental electric guitar improv. So we're not surprised to find him on this cd live in Japan, teamed up in three separate sessions with three different drummers: Tatsuya Yoshida of Ruins, Shirahata of Up-Tight, and Komatsu of... we're not sure, Mason help us out, is it Bloodthirsty Butchers? Anyway, in all cases, it's darkly psychedelic, freely unfolding guitar/drums jamming, sometimes moody and droned-out, sometimes building up into a howling sonic miasma... when dueting with Yoshida (the only person on here who also uses his voice as an instrument) there's an expected element of progressive spazz. As with all aRCHIVE releases, painfully limited and in fact already sold out at the label.

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SORRY. Incredible improvising rock/funk/freejazz combo - "club music of the 21st century." Members of Ground Zero, Ruins, Omoide Hatoba, Children Coup d'Etat participate. With turntables and psychedelic rock guitar. The live tracks are absolutely killer. One of Allan's top ten for 1995.

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Another amazing cosmic sonic artifact from Japanese reissue label EM, this one a legendary album of galactic analog synth wizardry, originally released in 1978, created by composer / sound designer Matsuo Ohno. He's most famous for his sound design on the animated television show Astro Boy, on which he was assisted by none other than Takehisa Kosugi from seventies fluxus dronelords Taj Mahal Travellers. With the help of Kosugi, Ohno recorded this his first non soundtrack release, a sprawling collection of super abstract cosmic drift, often classified as new age, but really so much darker and mysterious. Separated into 8 parts, beginning with zero and ending with infinity, the record unfurls slowly, almost as if it were in fact the sounds of the universe, as pictured on the record's cover, with some strange all seeing eye hovering amidst the stars. The sounds rumble and whir, smeared into long stretches of deep thrum, and spaced out shimmer, there's plenty of gurgling buzz and dense rumbles, crumbling distortion, and strange little squiggles of sci-fi effects, if anything the sounds here are way more academic, and sonically seem to hew closer to experimental tape music. The swoosh and whoosh of most analog synthscapery is relegated to the background here, with Ohno coaxing all manner of strange sounds from his synths. His experience in sound design is evident throughout, as much of this plays out like some lost soundtrack, the score to some strange experimental film, or how we imagine some seventies planetarium light show would sound on LSD, streaks of melody, shards of chordal thrum, lots of reverb and echo, the vibe is definitely futuristic, but not kitschy, instead, it's ominous and haunting and fantastically otherworldly. Essential listening for analog synth obsessives, but the sort of thing that should appeal to fans of dronemusic and spaced out abstract psychedelia as well. And as if the record proper wasn't enough, also included is a bonus 3" cd that features a rare recording originally released as a super limited flexi-disc, which was created in honor of the 1970 World Expo (as in Expo '70!), and features 6 popular songs of the time, from all over the world, America's contribution being "My Darling, Clementine", recreated using nothing but animal sounds, which had been captured on tape. A trippy bit of outsider tape music for sure, one that in some strange way foreshadows the dogs-singing-Christmas-carols and Jingle-Bell-cats kitsch that would prove to be so weirdly popular decades later. But this is not nearly so goofy, instead, it's strange and wonderful, the animal sounds wreathed in echo and delay, bizarre and beautiful, and again, recorded with the assistance of Taj Mahal Traveller's Kosugi. Gorgeous packaging as always, a full color gatefold sleeve, with reproductions of the original artwork, a big booklet too with liner notes in Japanese and English, the 3" bonus disc, house in a miniature replica of the original World Expo flexi-disc sleeve. Wow!

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SORRY. Boredoms guitarist Yamamoto's trio has made their poppiest record yet and still it kicks ass, never sickly sweet at all, just excellent chiming guitars alongside a whole lot of that genre-twisting racket we already love Hatoba for perfecting. This is the US version of the import, and it has an extra song NOT on the import.

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SORRY. This is Omo's, second major label effort, not scheduled for US release. Their records keep getting better and better, this one reaching new heights of toothy melody and sludgy sweetness, along with their usual tour through the murky depths of rock's weirder edges. Yamamoto (of Boredoms), Tsuyama and friends explore new post-rock-electronica realms...

Japan's Otomo Yoshihide is a noisy, sampling-mad composer and performer, yes, perhaps best known for turntablist chaos in his notorious Naked City-ish outfit Ground Zero, and also for his "onkyo" experiments in groups like ISO and Filament, where he's been known to "play" the turntable without records. But, he's also a jazz guitarist. Of course, noisy and experimental in that mode too, a lot of the time. But with a definite love of the standards. Some years ago, Otomo's New Jazz Orchestra did a whole disc dedicated to Eric Dolphy's Out To Lunch album. And there was Ground Zero's Plays Standards, before that. And Otomo has also covered Mingus, Ellington, Coleman, and others. Now with the stripped down ONJT+ unit, he's got two new discs tackling two more of his favorite jazz touchstones: "Lonely Woman" (from Ornette Coleman's 1959's The Shape Of Jazz To Come) and "Bells" by Albert Ayler (originally released as a single-sided 12" by ESP-Disk in 1965). Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Trio consists of the man himself on guitar, with Mizutani Hiroaki on bass, and Yoshigaki Yasuhiro on drums and percussion. The "plus" part of the name is due to the presence of two special guests as well: Sachiko M with her sine waves, and Jim O'Rourke on EMS synth! The Lonely Woman disc consists of 6 individually tracked interpretations of that composition, the two lengthiest tracks that bookend the disc featuring the full quintet, two more with just the core trio, and two that are solos from Otomo alone, one for electric guitar, the other one for "broken acoustic guitar". So it's sort of a "Lonely Woman" suite, varied throughout, but also like one extended rendition of the tune, a worshipful (but adventurous) "Lonely Woman" tour de force, achingly gorgeous and moody and often noisy too, both outright and subtly, with much electronic crackle, hiss, and whine especially when Sachiko M and O'Rourke are involved. It's clear from Otomo's personal, quite interesting liner notes in the cd booklet, that this disc is really more of a tribute to his free jazz guitar hero, the late, legendary Masayuki Takayanagi, than to Ornette. After all, Takayanagi did his own Lonely Woman album. And exerted a huge influence on his would be "apprentice" Otomo. So this is definitely recommended as much to fans of Takayanagi as to those of Coleman or Otomo... On the other disc, there's two takes of "Bells", one by the quintet, one by the trio. Albert Ayler has always been a horn player beloved by avant-guitarists (Marc Ribot especially, but also Keiji Haino and Sonny Sharrock come to mind) and "Bells" makes a good launchpad for Otomo and Co. to get LOUD and go way out. Particularly since Aylers' wonderful folky melodies have already been proven to withstand (and compliment) any such abuse, by the composer himself. This disc is an intense freakout all right, but with a high degree of listenability due to its loveliness at heart. That Otomo wrote liner notes for this about a served head (Mishima's) he saw a picture of in a newspaper as a kid, and makes some kind of a connection to Ayler, is also interesting... Both discs, quite recommended, come in beautiful digipacks, with similar art, abstract pink jellyfish / balloon / breast images.

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MPEG stream: Lonely Woman track 1 (Quintet)
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Man, it took a while - a REALLY long while - but we finally got enough of these suckers to list. By now, many of you are familiar with Japan's amazing Onna, whose self-titled anthology on Holy Mountain turned many a head not all that long ago (we made it Record Of The Week). Though they first emerged in the early 1980s, the band was clearly carrying on a psychedelic tradition in the vein of many of their countrymen from the previous decade. But even calling Onna a "Japanese psych" band doesn't describe just how strange and awesome this band is. Katawa was released in 2007, and though the sound is drastically different from the band's catchy first single, this is still clearly Onna, which always operated under the leadership of guitarist/singer Keizo Miyanishi. The same unsettling themes still seem to be present - the cover here being quite similar to the anthology but not so grotesque this time around - with the hallucinatory lyrics printed in both Japanese and English... so if you were wondering what Onna might be singing about, wonder no more. The lyrics work perfectly for these songs, pained and sexually deviant laments performed with just acoustic guitars, voice, and lots of feedback. The results are creepy, poetic, and just plain weird at times, tending to focus on lost love, nightmarish delusions, and a general sense of hopelessness. Opener "Salamadra Salamander (The Three Sisters)", which you might remember from the comp, is 13 minutes of rhythmically strummed acoustic guitar and wandering vocals with a dose of electric feedback shrieking above in the atmosphere. Mournful as hell and spacious sounding, it is also murky and ultra depressive, droning on in a sort of Jandek way with lyrics focusing on, um, the narrator's three penises... Damn. The total weirdness here could have come from any time within the last 45 years or so, but it also stands as a definite legacy of Les Rallizes Denudes, especially in the vocal department, as Miyanishi shifts from low moans to high pitched wails. "The Prophet (After Pushkin)", which sounds like it may have been recorded in a live setting, features a discordant acoustic guitar strummed with a heavy hand and bursts of controlled feedback that surface and recede like an earsplitting sonic wave. The song is sort of sour sounding, but also kind of pretty in its own miserable way, with lines like, "Tormented, I stumbled through a gloomy waste". With a super atonal and out of tune guitar adding a sparse, strangely piano-like sound, "Estelle's Making Herself Up" comes off like a Japanese version of the blues that gives a nice glimpse into someone's sad, demented soul. You almost feel like you're spying on Miyanishi as the sounds of a chair shifting gives things a strangely intimate feel. The mood so far is shaken up a bit on the next number, "Silver Dove", with upbeat, folky strumming and lyrics that seem a little more hopeful, but still reeeally fucking weird. "Morning Blues (Moaning Song)", sounds a bit like '60s proto-punks Godz on a bummer before the album closes with "Bamboo Otoko," where a scarlet beast comes around and crushes Miyanishi's balls. So, by now you should probably know whether or not this one's for you. Hardly the easiest stuff to digest, but patience yields some amazing results for the adventurous listener. Nice gatefold mini-lp style sleeve.

MPEG stream: Salamandra Salamander (The Three Sisters)
MPEG stream: Silver Dove
MPEG stream: Bamboo Otoko

Certainly one of the best things about working at a record store is coming across new bands that give you that undefinable, but very real feeling in your stomach where you can't imagine having ever gone on without THIS band. Even better is discovering something from the distant past (not too distant in this case), something whose existence could have eluded you forever had good fortune not smiled down in the form of a reissue. Onna were the Japanese duo of Keizou Miyanishi and Mafuyu Hiroki, whose 1983 7" has thankfully been rescued from obscurity by the mighty Holy Mountain label, and has been blowing minds left and right here at aQ. One of the coolest things about this record is just how surprising and unexpected it all was, the whole "1983" part in particular. With a nod to the past but no doubt out of place in the early 80s, Onna were without question inhabiting a world of their own. The most obvious point of reference soundwise would be legendary psych/noise enigma Les Rallizes Denudes, especially in the vocal department. This is a very good thing for anyone who loves those somewhat lazy, partially detached, Japanese sung vocals of groups like LRD and LSD-March. The use of a drum machine keeps these two songs pulsing like a mechanical heartbeat, which when combined with the fairly free form guitars, definitely gives this record its own vibe. Side 1 begins with a meditative two chord lament before noisy, white hot guitar squalls begin creeping about in the distance as simple and repetitive bass lines keep the foundation strong and focused. The second track introduces catchy psych guitar chords with a machine modified quasi-girl group drumbeat, the bass again holding things down nice and steady. The heavily reverberated strummed guitars bubble about as fake cymbal explosions recede and return over and over again, until a prolonged fadeout is replaced by a locked groove note that keeps this record spinning endlessly, just as it should. The lack of information on Onna only adds to the mystery (and just a note, they are not affiliated with those other Japanese psych monsters Christine 23 Onna). PSF has issued an album by the group called Katawa, which we will definitely be paying close attention to after this 7". Until then, the only things we have to judge the duo by are the perplexing ugly/beautiful cover featuring an androgynous female figure lying naked on a bed (is she sick and decaying? is she just hanging out in bed? waiting for a lover?), and more importantly, their music, which we cannot recommend highly enough. Seriously, how many 7" singles would receive this much of a write up? You know this one is a winner. PS for the non-turntable-havin' folks, apparently these tracks are also to appear on an upcoming cd collection Holy Mountain's putting out with other Onna stuff...

Love her or hate her, Yoko Ono is the rare kind of artist that is hard to be indifferent about. There are those of us who love nearly everything she does, and there are at least one of us here who can't stand her at all (though perplexingly, that said person is a HUGE fan of Harry Pussy whose singer's vocal style is wholly copped from Yoko's, so go figure.). While this is not a new reissue, we recently found out it was still available, and if you were ever going to buy only one Yoko Ono release, this is definitely the one! This double album, Fly, released in 1971 after the concurrently released Plastic Ono Band solo debut lps with husband John Lennon is a widely varied but creatively inspired affair with an amazing back-up band (featuring Ringo Starr and Klaus Voorman) that covers both straight-ahead rock numbers as well as mind-melting experimental realms. The sixteen minute proto-krautrock groover "Mind Train" is a definite highlight, sounding like Yoko fronting Can or Faust, but this disc also covers tender acoustic pieces, outsider blues, femme folk, fluxus noise experiments, as well as her trademark howling scream jams, some full throttle noise, others more restrained inner turmoil. But for all its variation, it flows together like a complete piece that grossly engages and vulnerably assaults in equal measure. Probably not for everyone, but highly recommended nonetheless!

MPEG stream: Mind Train
MPEG stream: Hirake
MPEG stream: O Wind

Remixers make each song sound like themselves: Cibo Matto, the ABA Allstars (Adam Yauch aka MCA, Mario Caldato Jr, Cibo Matto and Sean Ono Lennon), Ween, Tricky, and Thurston Moore, who features in his remix Masonna, Incapacitants, CCCC, Hanatarash, Aube, Monde Bruits, Gerogerigegege, Keiji Haino. There are also some cd-rom-able additional trax.

Plenty of artists we love have mustered beautiful, droney compositions through the act of decay. Look no further than the AQ favorites from William Basinski's sublime Disintegration Loops, the crumbling digitalia of Tim Hecker, and even our own Jim Haynes has his special rusting techniques with sound and image. So when it comes to an album called Entropy which comes from the Japanese drone 'n' field recordist Yui Onodera, we have to wonder how it measures up. We gotta say this is a beautiful piece of grey-smeared ambience, but we're scratching our head over how this sounds like the world falling apart. This would be a perfect rainy day, contemplative soundtrack, but not exactly a meditation on entropy. Well, maybe except for the Loren Chasse-like crumbling of soil, pebbles, and leaves on the untitled second track which quietly tumbles into a series of evolving loops that blur into a sleep-inducing drone of oceanic waves and shimmering tones. The way this track progresses is how the entire record is situated -- a very calm, sedate, yet hypnotizing collection of drones and tones that float out of stacked guitars and processed field recordings. The fourth track is pure drone bliss straight out of the Chalk / Coleclough axis of smeared dronemaking precision; and the sixth has more of a Popul Vuh two-note melody oozing out of Onodera's shoegazing guitar chords, which have been filtered, layered, re-recorded, layered again, echoed, reverbed, and back again. Onodera has produced some great recordings for Mystery Sea and And/OAR, but this one was actually something he released back in 2005 through his Critical Path imprint. Even if this doesn't inspire the idea of entropy for us, Onodera has still made a fantastic and beautiful drone record here. Check it out!

MPEG stream: Track 2
MPEG stream: Track 4
MPEG stream: Track 6

Oh, OOIOO! No one makes spazzed out splashes of sonic color with more energy and spirit than you. While Yoshimi will always be best known for being a member of The Boredoms and the inspiration for a Flaming Lips album (Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots) we think her output with her band OOIOO over the years definitely stands on its own. Able to meld psychedelia into an infectious and dizzying pulsation of sound, OOIOO give us more of what we love with Armonico Hewa, which sonically falls somewhere between the circular and lysergic sounds of our favorite OOIOO record Gold & Green and the more tribal and repetitive groove of their last outing, Taiga. So many folks have taken ingredients from OOIOO and gotten lots of mileage and attention out of it, for instance, we can't help but think that Gang Gang Dance owe much of their sound and visual aesthetic to OOIOO. Herky, jerky and no-wave, rich with the spirit and energy of vintage Plastic Ono Band. Folks who love OOIOO and Yoshimi will of course love this to death, but we also think this will totally hit the spot for Boredoms fans who miss the varied sound of records like Super AE. Also, be sure to see OOIOO live if they come anywhere close to you as they are for sure one of our favorite live bands around.

MPEG stream: SOL
MPEG stream: ULDA
MPEG stream: NIN NA YAMA

Oh, oh, eye oh oh! Drummer/trumpeter/vocalist/Flaming Lips mascot Yoshimi P-We's other main gig besides the Boredoms is back with their first album since 2009's Armonico Hewa. Over the years, OOIOO has honed both the playfully melodic aspects of their sound, and their sheer rhythmic prowess, into something simply magical. Gamel is something even more extra-special though, probably our favorite from the groop since their early outings Feather Float and Gold & Green near the turn of the millennium. As the name suggests, this album takes a lot of inspiration from Javanese gamelan music, in fact adding two actual gamelan players to the core group, OOIOO herein melding the tinkling, metallic (actual metal, not heavy metal) percussive sound of the gamelan with the band's usual tight grooves, vocal chant and electronic textures. They were somewhat "tribal" before, now OOIOO verges on exotica! It's gorgeous, dense, detailed, funky in a funky way, bright and colorful, absolutely captivating right from 10 minute opener "Don Ah" through all eleven kaleidoscopic tracks. Super recommended!! Both the compact disc and limited double vinyl versions come in gatefold sleeves, the vinyl with a free download card.

MPEG stream: Don Ah
MPEG stream: Gamel Kamasu
MPEG stream: Jesso Testa

This came out about five years ago as an expensive Japanese import -- now at last it's been released domestically at a much more affordable price. Thanks Thrill Jockey! Here's what we said about it before: This is the third album from OOIOO (say "oh oh eye oh oh"), the Osaka based, all-female quartet masterminded by Yoshimi P-We (drummer/trumpeter/vocalist for the Boredoms, et al.) At times playful and childlike, Gold and Green abandons the grating, no-wave dissonance of earlier albums for a more textural, atmospheric and melodic experience. "Mountain Book" (which seems to be the musical accompaniment to the lovely artwork for this record) is the beautiful standout track on which they are joined by many guests including Seiichi Yamamoto (Boredoms), Yuka Honda (Cibo Matto) and even Sean Lennon: epic, hypnotic, dreamy psychedelia with piano, dulcimer, and tabla. This Thrill Jockey version lovingly re-creates the original release's stunning packaging, a gatefold complete with a booklet of children's psychedelic fantasy artwork by Yoshimi herself!

MPEG stream: Mountain Book
MPEG stream: Grow Sound Tree

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY.

A carefully crafted, sculptural sonic study in amp buzz and feedback and stereo soundwave interaction, one of Japanese experimentalist Otomo Yoshihide's more extreme offerings of late. The last few albums we're heard from this maverick composer and guitar/turntables improviser have been more on the jazz tip, including two live discs with his New Jazz Orchestra. Sure some noisy stuff got woven into those, along with quiet "Onkyo" sounds and plenty of trad. jazz standard-bearing, but here, though, there's nothing "jazz" at all (unless perhaps the existence of smooth-jazzer Pat Metheny's infamous and atypical Zero Tolerance For Silence album has allowed such metal machine music stylings into the jazz canon). Even Otomo's previous solo guitar album on Doubtmusic, while quite skronky at times, included lovely takes on Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo" and Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman". Whereas Modulation With 2 Electric Guitars And 2 Amplifiers consists of one track, 40 minutes and 16 seconds of the noisy abstraction the title suggests: droning hums, piercing tones, the crinkle-crankle of electrical excess. If Otomo's Fender amps were made of flesh and blood you'd imagine that veins would be standing out on their anthromorphic-amplifier foreheads, bulging with the constantly building pressure exerted by his feedback array... Though there certainly are parts of this disc that do achieve a sort of placid serenity, a steady state of soothing molecular vibrations. Of course it could be that by those points one's senses have been numbed, this disc when played loud enough having an auditory-overload effect. And Otomo does suggest it should be played loud ("at the highest possible volume"!), through speakers, "to obtain the desired results". This recommendation (or requirement) is made specifically because the conceptual, compositional goal here has to do with making music that exists as a physical presence in the space in which it is played, in three dimensions. Otomo explains: "Feedback sound issues from two amplifiers, each connected to one of two guitars placed on a tabletop. Due to this stereo effect, the feedback mutually interferes, producing beatlike fluctuations, creating black holes into which the sound suddenly disappears, sounding completely different depending on the position of the ears, creating the illusion that the sound is coming from only one speaker when the listener is in certain locations, and so on, thus turning into truly interactive music. Because these effects cannot be obtained unless the sound coming from the two amps mutually interferes, we recommend listening without earphones or headphones, through speakers, with the sound as loud as conditions allow. Depending on the positions of the speakers, the interference effect and sound image will surely differ as well." Of course, anybody could hook up a couple guitars and amps and make some noise, the key here is the "Modulation" in the title, something that Otomo has a deft hand (and foot on pedals) with, making this an interesting (if extreme!) listen -- unique repeat listens, in fact, as you experiment yourself with the positioning of both your speakers and your ears.

MPEG stream: Extract 1
MPEG stream: Extract 2
MPEG stream: Extract 3

Yes, Otomo Yoshihide (Ground Zero, etc.) + Yoshida Tatsuya (Ruins, etc.) + Bill Laswell (Painkiller, etc.), that's right! A trio sure to intrigue any avant-Japanophile or Tzadik label lover. In fact, lots of folks will probably buy this on the strength of just one or two of those names alone, and why shouldn't they? Otomo fans will be interested to know that his instrument here is the electric guitar, not the turntables for which he is better known, and he wields his axe with much muscle on Episome's five long tracks, which give free reign to Yoshida's limber drumming, Laswell's liquid low-end, and Otomo's slashing, slow-burn six-string. It's powerful, confident and moody amped-up improv from these three skilled vets.

MPEG stream: Fudge
MPEG stream: Substantiality

Three part composition exploring noise, free jazz and minimalist structures. The basic conditions in which the performance of these pieces are executed: Do not respond to the sound of others / Do not form a course from the introduction to the conclusion / Avoid any popular rhythm, melody, cliche, etc. The first part, "Anode 1", buries a heavy percussive jam (six percussionists!) under an ear splitting assault of sine waves and high frequency test tones. Very much like the electronic works of Greek composer Iannis Xenakis. Parts two and three are intentionally less abrasive, exploring territories reminiscent of John Cage, emphasizing minimalist aesthetics and chance. Another wonderful electroacoustic piece from the amazing Otomo Yoshihide!

RealAudio clip: Anode 2
RealAudio clip: Anode 1