[ aquarius records — Japan Noise Free Psych ]

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Showing results 301 through 350 of 1109.

The liner notes for Eastanburia's first and possibly only record state that "there was no intention other than having a fun reunion." This vinyl-only limited edition Japanese import picture disc release definitely lives up to that claim, being a percussion and vocal jam session from and all star line-up: Yoshimi P-We (Boredoms / OOIOO), Atr (Boredoms), David Nuss (No Neck

Ok, if you're a fan of the Japanese prog-core duo Ruins and their amazing drummer and musical mastermind Tatsuya Yoshida, you already know he's a big fan of '70s progressive rock. Of course. It's pretty obvious, even if you've never experienced the Ruins' infamous "Prog Rock Medley". Ruins wouldn't be Ruins without the influence of classic '70s bands like Magma, Area, and Henry Cow. Here, Yoshida -really- gets proggy, though, paying tribute to some of his inspirations in that genre (and, classical music too) with a both a batch of worthy originals and several exquisite cover versions as well. At home in yet another duo situation, Tatsuya Yoshida (vocals, drums, programming, keys, acoustic guitar) teams up with Eiko Ishibashi (vocals, piano, keys, flute), to turn in 14 tracks of utter prog nirvana, stuff that's gorgeously melodic and mathematically mindboggling, both. Fans of Ruins, Koenjihyakkei, Tairikuotoko vs. Sanmaykuonna, and other manifestations of Yoshida's prog-obsession will be drooling, from the sweet female vocals and quirky hectic changes of "Festival Of Teeth" to the amusing, impressive ADD-antics of the quite clever "Classic Medley" (all 1 minute, 21 seconds of it), from the dizzying "The Invention Of A Parachute" to the thickly synth-buzzed, heavy and haunting "Planet Of Reverberation" which ends the disc... Wow. While that "Classic Medley" has a tongue-in-cheek, showoffish element we're sure, this duo also respectfully give props to a few of their influences with some other covers, including songs by This Heat ("Twilight Furniture"), Soft Machine ("As Long As He Lies Perfectly Still"), Genesis ("Time Table"), and Debussy ("Doctor Gradus Ad Pernassum")! You know what? Even if you've never ever heard Ruins before, we would still recommend this to the curious, who could just as easily as any old school prog diehard be thrilled by this elegant, intricate music. Especially since, with both the covers and originals, these two manage to strike a stellar balance between the technical, excitingly indulgent side of prog, and truly lovely, uh, songishness. So nice! And now we're curious to hear more from Ms. Eiko...

MPEG stream: Sanctuary
MPEG stream: The Invention Of A Parachute
MPEG stream: Classic Medley
MPEG stream: Planet Of Reverberation

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

SORRY. Not that many of these on stock, we're afraid to say... and we will not be able to get any more of these once they're gone! The label tried to press a decent sized run of 300 copies, but less than half of those made their way into circulation for reasons that seemed to be lost in translation. This strange bit of record-release self-immolation is almost fitting for this strange piece of outsider audio collage. Embudagonn 108 is the work of the hermetic Wataru Kasahara, who smashes field recordings and subconsciously selected radio transitions together into a quivering mass of phased patterns that latch onto the antiquated, syrupy sentiment of forgotten big band arrangements and jitterbug jazz that Leyland Kirby might submerge within his hauntological ambience. But Kasahara punctures the mood with the deadpan delivery of newscasters, hurricane force drones, and unsettled screams. With everything roughly cut and spliced to and from cassettes, there's plenty of hiss to go around; but the effect is hardly the dreamtime din of a Phillip Jeck recording. It's much closer to the Dada discombobulation of Walter Ruttmann's 1930 radiophonic classic "Weekend." Kasahara describes the album thusly, "those tracks have flowed into and merged with the shit-cawing crimson shitbirds that circle endlessly around the mountain of shit on my skull peak." He's bundled the whole thing with a hand fabricated book with pornographic collages, scrawled drawings, and wood block prints. A disturbingly, visionary piece of work!

A clash of the titans like this undoubtedly has noise freaks everywhere salivating like crazy. It sure as heck did back in 1998, when as part of CMJ, it was one of a handful of must see shows. By some weird set of circumstances, I (Andee) actually got to witness said clash, and it was something else. Something else in this case being a noisy, ear drum destroying mess. It was definitely a blast (literally). Easily the loudest show I have ever been to. So much so that we had to leave early. This set of supersonic skree translates a lot better on record than we expected it would. Live it was a minimal set up, Masami Akita hunched over his equipment, Alec Empire behind his sampler, occasionally shouting over the din. Sonically it's much as you might imagine. BIG digital hardcore beats pelted by jagged shards of white hot noise. Occasionally everything clicks and it sounds like the best DHR record that never was, and occasionally it just sounds like you're standing in the hallway of a practice studio listening to Empire and Merzbow doing their own thing, oblivious of each other. Either way, this is a beautifully furious, crushingly caustic set of big beat noise that should hit the spot for those who dig that sort of thing.

MPEG stream: The Destroyer And Merzbow
MPEG stream: The Full Destroyer / Merzbow Meltdown
MPEG stream: The White Man Destroys His Own Race

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

SORRY. "While You Were Out" is a collection of the singles from Japanese noise artist Kazumoto Endo, who specializes in screeching noise tears, distorted lumbering rhythms, and digitally abused techno pop appropriations. Comparisons to Merzbow are quite apt.

We've gotta admit it, due to this comprehensive double cd collection of songs by the legendary Roky Erickson, those of us that weren't already are now newly devout fans of his work. Sure, we always liked his hits with '60s Texas psych pioneers the 13th Floor Elevators, of course, but god DAMN. Wow. This collection touches on the best of the 13th Floor Elevators while moreso elaborating on the multitude of music Roky created afterward, solo and with his band The Aliens (among others). Of course we knew that "You're Gonna Miss Me" was a stone classic of slightly-psycho garage-psych, and that 'chooga-chooga' electric jug sound (the 13th Floor Elevators' trademark) has also never failed to fascinate. But somehow we'd never investigated much further, thinking that perhaps the sad saga of Erickson's life (a psychedelic drug-damaged downward spiral) might be more interesting than his music. How wrong we were... disc two here is all post-1980 and a lot of it is brilliant. And of course totally weird. Maybe you know the story of how, after the inevitable break-up of the LSD-fueled Elevators, Roky was busted for pot in 1969 and, given the choice between spending time in jail or in a mental institution, he chose the latter, claiming insanity. Doing so, however, only led him to suffer through painful shock-therapy and liquid thorazine treatments, rendering him more frail and emotionally damaged than before his admittance. Years after this "therapy", while living in a housing project in Austin, Erickson was busted for mail fraud. He had been stealing his neighbors' mail, taping it up on his apartment walls, unopened. So, you get the gist that the fellow's mental state is precarious at best, right? Add his obsession with schlocky horror films and you get songs like "I Think Up Demons" and his band being called Bleib Alien (bleib, an anagram for Bible). So, disc one (22 tracks) starts off with a bunch of his '60s singles with The Spades and the 13th Floor Elevators, before moving on to the first of several "comebacks" in the mid-'70s. The songs that followed his institutionalization were either blissful country-type psych tunes or outer-space paranoia-laced ragers. "Starry Eyes" is one of our favorites. A beautiful, earnest, heart-felt melody and that lends loveliness to his throat-scratched lyricism. And then there's "Click Your Fingers Applauding The Play." Not really sure how he got his guitar to sound like that, but it's pretty amazing. Searing and raging with electricity. Really, there are so many amazing tracks on the first disc. Listening to 'em all, we were half-expecting the second disc to pale in comparison. BUT NO. It's totally jammin with his later-era songs, 21 of 'em. One (new) fave of ours here is the doomy "Bloody Hammer" from 1981 which totally makes us understand how that Swedish band Witchcraft was influnced by Erickson just as much as by Pentagram -- it sounds so much like it coulda been on Witchcraft's album! But even as late as '95 Erikson was releasing solid material in his inimitable style. With the same effectiveness in songwriting capability as later-era Johnny Cash, Erickson offers us "True Love Cast Out All Evil" (from 1988) among others. Yup, this anthology is some essential stuff all right. And it's nicely packaged with liner notes that give a pretty good biographical picture of Erickson and detail the music and its players. You gotta check out the incredible assortment of photos too!

MPEG stream: You're Gonna Miss Me
MPEG stream: Starry Eyes
MPEG stream: Click Your Fingers Applauding The Play

Here's the second Meteor City full-length from these Japanese stoner rockers. HEAVY, '70s influenced psychedelic metal drawing on Sabbath (of course), as well as Japanese bands of that era like Flower Travellin' Band. But Eternal Elysium aren't that simple to

RealAudio clip: Schizy
RealAudio clip: Feel The Beat

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

SORRY. Easily a shoo-in for heavy metal/stoner rock album of the month! The long-awaited domestic debut by this cult Japanese band of longhaired 70's Black Sabbath freaks. Although they actually sound less like the Sabs than fellow Sabs-worshippers Trouble. Some other influences that come through the pot haze include the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (this disc includes their cover of "Innocent Exile" from Meteor City's Iron Maiden tribute), '70s Japanese heavy psych bands like Blues Creation and Flower Travellin' Band, Thin Lizzy, Saint Vitus, Kyuss, and other heavies. Meaning, in addition to sheer psychedelic doom riffage (a la another Japanese band, Church of Misery) they really can write *songs* in the classic sense--one listen to, arguably, the album's highlight, "Easy Goin'" and you'll know. We didn't think they made 'em like that anymore. And stay tuned for the 'bonus track', an unlisted 15 minutes of improv hippie folk drone in the tradition of Japan's Taj Mahal Travellers. Very recommended indeed!!

RealAudio clip: Easygoin'

If we told Hanatarash fans that this new cd WASN'T chock full of totally insane, random, chaotic noise, they'd be disappointed. So -- don't worry, no disappointment! The first release from Boredoms leader Eye Yamantaka's noise project Hanatarash in many moons (10 years?) is finally here, and it's a collaboration with UK noise artist Evil Moisture, aka Andy Bolus, who's based now in France and has quite a few cassettes and cds of extremely difficult listening under his belt. Together (and you can't tell who's doing what) they've produced 35 brief tracks of ear-hole destroying noise, somewhat in the style of Hanatarash 4: Aids-a-delic from 1994. It's a crazy collage of cut-up sounds, some snippets of recognizable "music" sprinkled amidst a heckuva lot of distorted turntable and microphone abuse, whooshing groaning screaming overload that just keeps on keepin' on, an endless barrage with no discernible structure, noises constantly morphing into some new noises but never making any sense. It's a bit like the sounds you might imagine some truly nightmarish Rube Goldberg device might make. And you've gotta love the "song" titles: "Never Mind The Overdosing", "Fingertip Believer", "Atomichy in the LSD", "Bank Punks / Noise Bank"... Also this includes "covers" of songs by both Survivor and The Exploited, supposedly. Limited edition of 500 copies by the way.

MPEG stream: Sleepwalking Guaide Book At Ohio
MPEG stream: track 34

PSF provides a second installment of freeform electric mayhem from Tokyo's six-member avant-jazz ensemble Exias-J, this time recorded live during a visit to New York in 2003. Still recommended for those into the extremes of noisy improvised music like Borebetomagus and the Blue Humans. But, as before, don't worry if you're not into saxophones -- there's none of 'em here, just guitars, synths, piano, electronics, contrabass, computers, and drums. Dynamic (quiet...and loud!) and droning and abstract and limitless. Exias-J could perhaps be considered the collective spiritual heirs to the the late great Japanese free improvising master Masayuki Takayanagi...

MPEG stream: Broadening Distribution: Invention
MPEG stream: Palestine

It's usually the case that improvised music is best experienced live. It's usually made live after all. Seeing as well as hearing the interactions of the improvising musicians often adds a lot to the experience. A live cd or lp of an improv session can be great, but it's not the same as being there in the moment as the music was happening. Next best thing to being there? A live audio-visual document. Anyone into the extreme sounds of Japanese electronics and jazz improv outfit Exias-J is thus in for a treat with this release, a DVD on the PSF label presenting live footage from three shows, two in Tokyo and one at the Tonic (R.I.P.) in NYC. Exias-J head honcho, guitarist Hideaki Kondo, explains that in addition to the usual free improv process, these performances find his group experimenting with more conceptual, structured forms and restrictions, minimalism, sonatas, compositional stuff like that. Whatever their methods, though, they kick up a heck of a ruckus, featuring guitars, computers, analog synth, piano, live electronics, cello, contrabass, drums and percussion. 142 minutes, region free, NTSC.

Okay, Bore-fanatics, we only have a handful of these and we will NOT be getting more. A brand new book of original art from Boredoms frontman Eye Yamataka, in the style of the graphics of all the many Boredoms and related (UFO or Die, DJ Hellshit & MC Carhouse, DJ Pica Pica Pica etc.) releases over the years. All the colorful, splattery, scribbly, chaotic collaged weirdness we've come to love! It's kinda like children's art, by a very punk rock little kid, on drugs. Eye's "Bore Flag" logo is a repeated motif. Released through Australian imprint P.A.M., these are gorgeous full color 36 page perfect bound books, 5 1/2" by 8 1/2", quite cool. And again: EXTREMELY LIMITED. Once this batch is gone, they are gone for good!

This most definitely has to be the shortest cd we've ever reviewed. And also the smallest. A tiny little two inches by two inches, square shaped cd, clocking in at a whopping two minutes and forty three seconds. Pretty ideal actually for this particular two band, two song match up. Mike Patton and his Fantomas group give us a 44 second Melt-Banana-ish, burst of cartoonish, buzzy, chaotic, short attention span cinematic grind, a brief flurry of staccato downtuned guitar chug and blasts of bizarre vocalization. Melt-Banana go all out timewise with almost two whole minutes of that squeaky, grind pop madness that is so immediately and recognizably Melt Banana. A confusional swirl of MB's usual mind melting ultra complex brutality, with a more than usual bit of melody and harmony intertwined with MB's impossibly dense and serpentine song structures, all chirped indecipherable vocals and rapid fire punk splatter. Short but sweet! Comes in a cool little cardboard sleeve with a tiny full color card affixed to each side. SUPER LIMITED!! We got a handful of these, not entirely sure we can get more, so once these are gone there's a god chance we'll never be able to get more.

MPEG stream: Animali In Calore Surriscaldati Con Ipertermia Genitale
MPEG stream: Cat In Red

They've done the FEFB's 2nd album Nipponjin, and 3rd album Parallel World, not to mention the sole record from pre-FEFB incarnation Far Out, so it's about time Phoenix also reissued the 1975 debut from these Japanese '70s space rock masters, led by the lost-worlds-obsessed Fumio Miyashita. In the Julian Cope Japrocksampler pantheon, this one ranks 41 out of 50, not quite as high as some of those others, but still in the thick of it. This debut demonstrates that even before Klaus Schulze took them under his wing as producer, they were doing just fine at making quite "kosmische" psych-synth symphonies all on their own. If you have any of the other FEFB related stuff you know what to expect! Moogs and Mellotrons galore, in a more krautrock-than-thou Japanese heavy hippy blissout, melodic and meditative and massive, with much ritualistic-sounding vocal drama. Pink Floyd and the Moody Blues were other major Western influences, but the FAR EAST Family Band never let you forget that's where they're from. Some of the tracks here were afterwards radically re-mixed/re-recorded for Nipponjin (originally a Germany-only release, produced by Schulze) but not all of 'em. The compact disc version comes in one of those cardboard "wallet" style digipacks, this one is especially cool though due to the die cutting of the front and back covers, through which you can see the clouds-and-sunset photos on the cd booklet, a nice touch! The vinyl version has the die cut covers too, presumably replicating the design of the original lp.

MPEG stream: Birds Flying To The Cave Down To The Earth
MPEG stream: Wa, Wa
MPEG stream: Saying To The Land

The subtitle here, or perhaps it's their slogan, is "Join Our Mental Phase Sound". It's a good slogan, whatever it means, and if you wonder what "Mental Phase Sound" is, all you have to do is listen. Total Pink Floydian, Tangerine Dreamy synthesizer laden space travel from Japanese hippies with krautrock connections! The Far East Family Band, as their name definitely implies, was a '70s hippie Japanese psych/prog outfit, forerunners of the likes of Acid Mothers Temple. Once known as Far Out (they were!), they got even trippier in their Far East Family Band formation, which included future New Age artist Kitaro as a member. This album was their 2nd, originally released in 1975, and is a classic for sure (#14 in Julian Cope's Japrocksampler Top 50). It was produced by krautrock legend Klaus Schulze by the way, for extra kosmische cred!! Nipponjin is an electronic/organic/rock ritual, a symphonic ceremonial music, effortlessly fusing the spacey synths of the German krautrock scene with authentic Eastern mysticism in a way that probably made the European hippies jealous. Some tracks are propulsive, full of electronically effected drum beats, others more mellow and meditative, with the whooshing of synths... there's ethnic instrumental twang, heavy bluesy electric guitar noodling, stately rhythms, majestic vocal choirs, and it's all quite melodic too, making for memorable music that's a prog classic album for the ages, from Japan or anywhere else in the universe. Heck the side-long title track that opens the album qualifies all by itself. This is the first time we've seen a non-Japanese-import (and thus non-ultra-expensive) cd reissue of this, so get it while you can. It's limited to 1000 numbered copies, packaged in a cardboard "wallet" sleeve like Phoenix did for Flower Travellin Band's Satori and other reissues.

MPEG stream: The Cave
MPEG stream: Timeless

Our '70s Japanese psychedelia section just keeps getting bigger and better, in part thanks to the UK reissue label Phoenix, who brought us Brast Burn last list, also recently Karuna Khyal, Far Out, and another Far East Family Band album, Nipponjin. That one was their second, from 1975, and if you liked it you'll like this, Parallel World being its 1976 follow up, boasting one of the most perfect cover paintings ever, showing the band sitting in a wooden boat, in space, flying through the colorful cosmos. (The guy with the headphones and shades is so cool!) Once again produced by kosmiche electronics master Klaus Schulze (with Gunter Schickert as recording assistant), this proved to be the band's final album, but it's a fantastic one, that deserves honorary krautrock classic status even though the band are Japanese. It's certainly a space rock classic at any rate, beginning with "Metempsychosis", a trippy intro full of spooky synth squiggle and snip-snip-snip drumming that accelerates into a blissed out shimmer, a combo that they take to extended extremes on the next track, the 16 minutes of "Entering/Times", full of buzz and gurgle, propulsive rhythmic scatter-clatter, and grandiose prog moves... it sounds somewhere betwixt Acid Mothers Temple and Zombi, really! Vocals make an appearance on "Kokoro", a mostly gentle, lovely sort of dreamy ballad, but one that also features some searing, soaring electric guitar action to bow down and worship. And THEN there's the title track, a suite, 30 minutes long! It's a doozy, encompassing funky wah guitars, thick synth fuzz, electronic tinkering tingling tinkling, even some dubbiness... At times it's urgently rhythmic, but that can give way to calm, spaced out drone, it's got parts that remind us of Can, parts that could be Funkadelic circa their most lysergic effort Free Your Mind... And Your Ass Will Follow, and parts that sound like Augustus Pablo. If every druggy hippy jam sounded like this, we'd be living in a Parallel World indeed! Obligatory Japrocksampler chart position citation: Julian Cope put this at number FOUR in his top 50. We don't always agree with his rankings, but it's definitely worthy of being up there. And it's in Phoenix's usual "wallet" (whatever) packaging, limited to 1000 numbered copies.

MPEG stream: Kokoro
MPEG stream: Parallel World

The wonderful flood of Japanese '70s psych rock reissues continues, something those folks who have yet to hear these previously hard-to-find gems (many "popularized" by megafan Julian Cope in his Japrocksampler book) can be quite glad of. The item under consideration here, a compact disc reissue of the final, 1977 release by hippie space travellers Far East Family Band, is another nifty one, though we'd probably recommend the other, earlier FEFB albums before this if you don't have those already. Fans looking to complete their collections, though, won't be disappointed - even though by this point keyboardist Kitaro had left the family / band (for eventual New Age stardom), on Tenkujin FEFB were still quite potent at making tripped out, synth-laden, New Age friendly psych. In other words still the kind of band where the same guy credited with operating a pile of synthesizers (Teisco 100F, Hillwood SY 1800, Combo, Basky, Rockyboard, Korg 700S, Mellotron, Yamaha, Solina String Ensemble) also plays the bamboo flute. And then there's all the guitars and other things as well that are part of their big wash of psychedelic sound. The title track, with a driving, almost disco beat, and echoey, dubby FX, would fit in with a lot of late '70s kosmic krautrock, the Ashra, Michael Rother sort of stuff, heck it sound a bit like some bands today too, we're thinking Jonas Reinhardt and Maserati. Lots of burbling electronics and shimmering synth over propulsive percussion. FEFB's usual Pink Floydisms certainly come to the fore too, on the blissful, balladic likes of "Timeless Phase" and elsewhere... Make that blissful AND bombastic, the latter especially on the album-ending instrumental "Ascension". Numbered, limited edition reissue in the usual Phoenix wallet sleeve.

MPEG stream: Tenkujin
MPEG stream: Timeless Phase
MPEG stream: Ascension

Japanese '70s psych alert! Grab yer Japrocksampler and look this one up, you want it!! (It's number eleven on Julian Cope's list of his top 50 Japanese psych faves.) Having reissued the Far East Family Band's Nipponjin, we were hoping that Phoenix would turn their attentions to that band's original incarnation. They made one album as Far Out, and rarely has a band name been better chosen. Their 1973 lp is a stone classic, from that iconic white glove hanging on a clothes line in front of a blue background album cover to the two side long tracks of tripped out, heavy psychedelic music within. Well, Phoenix have granted our wish, which is awesome 'cause we've always wanted to list/review this album but previous cd reissues have been expensive and hard to come by. Track one/side one, "Too Many People", eases the listener into things gently, with an echoing heartbeat pulse, some ambient Moog drone, and sad and mellow vocals, accompanied by delicately grooving guitar/bass... by the halfway point (8 minutes or so in) the track has gotten a lot more menacing, with plodding, heavier beats, thicker bass, adorned with "Eastern" sounding guitar licks and distorted acidic soloing. Yeah! 'Tis something that Flower Travellin' Band fans will find to their liking for sure! Towards the end of the song, when the vocals come back in, it's built up into a rather majestically progtastic piece of work that, when it all too suddenly ends, will leave you, the listener, wondering where your epic Nipponese longhaired fantasyland went, what's with all this boring, non-cosmic, not-so-grandiose reality you've so rudely been reacquainted with? To fix that, at least temporarily, put the headphones back on, and cue up track two/side two, "Nihonjin", another similarly massive trip that can only be described as "far out"... this cut was later reworked a couple years later for the Far East Family Band's Nipponjin opus, though the original here is rawer, less Klaus Schulzified and symphonic. Like we said, Cope had this up at #11, but for us it might nudge right into the top 10...

MPEG stream: Too Many People
MPEG stream: Nihonjin

Acid Mothers Temple. Makoto Kawabata. Bearded gurus shooting energy beams from their eyes. Drifting, droning, eerie psych-scapes. Enough? Naked Japanese hippy women. Can I stop there? I think you've already come in and bought this cd. It's a compact disc reissue of the out of print Father Moo LP from a few years back, perhaps you remember it, or at least the Father Yod-inspired cover pic. I'm sure it goes for $$$$ on eBay now based on the sleeve alone. Anyway, the Acid Mothers Temple fanatics at UK label Swordfish have brought it back, now as a handy cd, for those that missed getting the vinyl when it was available (or who collect all configurations -- actually, this was once a limited edition cd-r, before it was even an LP, so you've gotta look for that too if you don't have it, good luck!). As the many, many Acid Mothers Temple projects and off-shoots go, this one is primo stuff. Lovely female vocal moans (courtesy of Cotton Casino, presumably), electronic drones, keyboard melodies, some sparse, far-off percussion, all very pretty and mysterious, blissful, but kinda dark. No wild Makoto guitar action here, just three tracks (the longest, a half-hour) of otherworldly, almost religious trance-muzz. And that's just fine. We too bow before Father Moo.

RealAudio clip: track 1
RealAudio clip: track 3

Possibly also subtitled "We'll Put It Out If The Boss Insists", which makes sense since the Fifth Column was the pre-Hijokaidan band of Alchemy chief Jojo Hiroshige (he wasn't the main member, just a participant). The Fifth Column (or Dai-Go-Retsu in

RealAudio clip: By-Onnyk Solo
RealAudio clip: Here's A Camel
RealAudio clip: A Picnic At The Bottom Of A Frozen River

We know you've been waiting for this: the sequel to the Early Fifth Column cd, which was a collection issued back in 2001 on the Alchemy label (run by former Fifth Columnist Jojo Hiroshige) documenting the career of this extremely underground Japanese avant-garde collective circa 1976 to 1980. Now, The Middle Fifth Column is here to deal with the years 1981-1990, and anyone familiar with the intriguing weirdness found on the previous disc will find this to be just as weird and interesting if not more so! Fifteen tracks of noisy experiments, freaked out jazz improv, synth boppiness, disturbing tape loops, bizarre vocals, drum machines and electronics... it's eclectic strange DIY madness that takes a definite inspiration from Faust (note the "It's A Rainy Day Sunshine Girl" quote in track two) and assuredly also other NWW-list worthy outfits. This comes with extensive, English-language (as well as Japanese) liner notes that give details on each track, from interviews with the band members (there was a core group that formed various "bands" who released tapes -- about 50 of them -- in the Fifth Column cassette series). About "It's A Rainy Day" they say: "There are times in life that, whatever you play, it turns into that song, and this was one such occasion." Very cool. Whatever the weirdest stuff you have in your record collection is, this disc will no doubt make friends with it!! [sorry, this disc didn't agree with our sound sample making software, so no clips to click...]

Freaky early '70s psych rock from Japan here folks, as you may know already on account of how we highlighted the reissue of this band's second album on our last list. This one, with a truly hard-to-beat title, was Flied [sic] Egg's debut, released originally in 1972, on Vertigo -- with Flied Egg one of the few, if not only, Japanese acts to appear on the roster of that legendary UK-based label known for proto-metal, jazz-prog and other "hairy funk" delights. This album dishes such delights all over the place, ranging from the Blue Cheer meets Uriah Heep heaviness of "Rolling Down The Broadway" to the weird choral interlude of "15 Seconds Of Schizophrenic Sabbath" to the classical prog flourishes of "Oke-Kus" (sounding like a warped version of ELP) to the sheer hippie psych-pop lunacy of the title track. And more! All in all, this is quite as crazy as its Dali-esque cover painting indicates. Definitely an essential for our Japanese '70s psych section, and anyone who loves them some acid rock guitar!

MPEG stream: Dr. Siegel's Fried Egg Shooting Machine
MPEG stream: Burning Fever

This Japanese psychrock reish, now available on vinyl! Yes that's right, it's Flied not Fried Egg. Uh, 'cause they're Japanese. Think about it. Hey, it's their joke. Anyway, this one's for all you '70s heaviness lovin' proto-metal fans who may have missed it before. Good Bye was Flied Egg's second of two albums (both '72, and both on the famed Vertigo label, best known as the home of Black Sabbath). The first one, with the marvelous title of Dr. Siegel's Fried Egg Shooting Machine, is as you might guess is some pretty wild acid psych. Good Bye, however, is the heavier of the two, and we can simply say it's a no-brainer for Blue Cheer fans. Basically, this album is distinctly split between two sides, the first half recorded live, possibly at their farewell concert, we'd guess from the title. This in-concert portion is the heaviest, it's all bad ass fuzzed out blooze rawk swagger that makes us think Blue Cheer, Blue Cheer, Blue Cheer! (Also Grand Funk, Cactus, and Mountain.) Hear 'em rile up a cheering crowd with these party-pleasers: "Leave Me Woman", "Rolling Down The Broadway" (a stompin' composition that appears in a studio version on their debut), BB King's "Rock Me Baby", and the twelve-minute-plus "Five More Pennies", which includes a drum solo in addition to all the acid guitar excess. Following all that, the studio half of the album gets a bit more proggy and wigged out (ending with a multi-part piece entitled "521 Seconds Schizophrenic Symphony", wow!) while also containing a couple of mellower melodic numbers, namely the sad and gentle "Out To Sea" and finale "Goodbye My Friends". FYI, not a favorite of Julian "Japrocksampler" Cope, but WE like it. Members of Flied Egg also did time in some other hard rockin' underground Japanese psych acts whose reissues we've previously reviewed, including Strawberry Path, Brush!?, and Food Brain... if you dig those, or the likes of Flower Travellin' Band, Blues Creation, Speed Glue & Shinki, or Too Much, then Flied Egg is for you too.

MPEG stream: Rolling Down The Broadway (live)
MPEG stream: Five More Pennies (live)

ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE ALERT!!!! Wait maybe we should rephrase that. Totally blissed out and stoned to beautiful perfection ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE alert!!! Floating Flower are a trio composed of AMT leader Kawabata Makoto on electric and acoustic guitars, Yuki on violin, electric sitar and textural vocals and Kaneko Tetsuya on tabla and electric guitar. This is spaced out acid folk at its most trance inducing. Yuki and Tetsuya are said to have been living and traveling around India for many years leading up to these recordings which were originally released as two discs on Acid Mothers Temple's label. We love how space soaked and sundrenched these songs sound. Always drifting, droning, and shimmering with feathers of tripped out voyages into endless days. It's so easy to get lost in the drugged out sonic clouds these folks conjure up. Kind of like the best slow hazy moments of Bardo Pond taken to another planet and planted in alien soil, allowing solar winds to carry beautiful flower petals into deep space, where they will drift weightless forever and ever, never coming down. So good.

MPEG stream: Shizuku No Youni
MPEG stream: Fuwa Fuwa
MPEG stream: Desert

The cd version has again gone out of print, but now we've got it once more on vinyl, a reissue of this all time AQ fave...if you've been wanting it on wax, here's another chance! Our usual review follows: A while back we listed this, just 'cause we happened to order a few in and some of the staff here who were previously unexposed to the wonders of the Flower Travellin Band, notably Byram, became obsessed with it (and them). It was a Japan-only import and we felt that while many might already know this album backwards and forwards, it had most certainly slipped through the cracks for too many others out there. So we listed it and got an overwhelming response. Now it's a constant seller here at AQ. And still to this day, almost any time you come into the store, you might well hear the Flower Travellin' Band blaring. This is an album (and a band) that are not celebrated nearly enough -- possibly out of misguided notions of their being another bad psych knock-off among the many crowding the record racks in the early seventies. But Japan's Flower Travellin' Band were no mere cheesy imitators of occidental rock 'n roll, they were in actual fact a full-fledged, pioneering tour de force of psychedelic progressive hard rock, equalling the krautrock heavies of the era. FTB can be compared favorably to Amon Duul's better efforts with their experimental meandering (think Yeti), and the best trancey spaceouts from Can. Yet there's never a sense that FTB lose track of their compositions no matter how far out they take a track. Perhaps because even more than these experimental Krautrockers, FTB's heavy (fucking ominously heavy) sound points to a major Sabbath, Purple, and Crimson influence. Released in 1971, Satori is the band's second and arguably best album. From the first screech/howl at the beginning of track one -- "Satori Part I" (the tracks on the album are all "Satori", parts I-V) -- from vocalist Joe, who inhabits a zone somewhere between Can's Damo Suzuki and Deep Purple's Ian Gillan, the album gets straight down to business. Joe's scream is followed by a foreboding bass, guitar and drum dirge that's straight up collision between Cream and Black Sabbath in which no one survives. It's got so much more teeth than either, it's not even funny, predating punk by a good many years. "Satori Part II" however is quintessential FTB Over a pounding tribal drumbeat, alternating between a buzzing sitar-esque guitar drone and a melody line that curls ripples and lilts like a plume of burning incense smoke, guitarist Hideki Ishima lays out one of the creepiest, coolest guitar leads ever. If that ain't enough, vocalist Joe's singing is like that of Axl Rose being channelled by the Sun City Girls! Even if the rest of the album were total shit -- which it ain't -- the cost of this cd would still be well worth it for this song alone! "Part III" -- an instrumental -- picks up where II leaves off but slows the tempo down to a deathly pace, which makes it even heavier. This is the Sabbath influence on FTB writ large. Replete with an improv freakout before returning to the original riff and building into a frenzied crescendo. Needless to say, if you weren't bobbing your head at the beginning of the song, you will be by its end. "Part IV" could be considered FTB's "blues" number, with Joe picking up the harmonica instead of singing. But instead of churning out the expected twelve bar formula, FTB truncate the form and construct a minimalist jam around a short riff instead. "Part V" shows yet another facet of FTB's seemingly infinite potential with Hideki (?) playing some kick ass, spooky koto-like guitar overdubbed on top of some heavy psych. Damn! They could have done ten fucking albums around this schtick alone and probably never lost our interest... sigh... Absolutely, fucking recommended!!!!

MPEG stream: Satori Part II
MPEG stream: Satori Part III

Before we launch into what's gonna be relatively long-winded review, let's just state up front that this has the best album cover EVER: the band themselves cruising down a rural highway on choppers wearing nothing but their birthday suits!! And this version sees the orginal gatefold recreated for the cd-era, mini-LP sleeve style. But if that's not enough to get you to buy this, read on... Not long ago we gave a big thumbs up to the album "Satori", the masterpiece from Japanese '70s psych rockers the Flower Travellin' Band (note: we're still waiting to get more of those in stock, they're backordered at our distributor!). Now, however, we've got a brand new reissue of the Flower Travellin' Band's debut album, "Anywhere". It certainly doesn't scale the heights of "Satori" but it'll help you to understand how they got there. Along with a great take on "House Of The Rising Sun" (a nod to Frijid Pink?), this album also explicitly demonstrates, via covers, these Japanese freaks' radical recognition of the genius of two of their Western contemporaries, Black Sabbath and King Crimson. Like many other great artists, with humble beginnings Japan's Flower Travellin' Band cut their teeth on the material of their mentors. Though "Anywhere" -- released in 1970 -- is primarily a covers album, it's also quite a testament to both the band's veracity in their reproductions and their creativity in realigning the building blocks of rock & roll. Their cover of Black Sabbath's self-titled track was actually recorded in the same year as the original and their version of King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man" only a year after its release. And they aren't merely content to play only the "Schizoid Man" opening riff, like so many other bands that have attempted to cover it, but take on the entire piece in all its schizophrenic freaked out glory, getting waaay into the improv element of the mid-section. The same is true for "Black Sabbath" and you have to appreciate singer Joe's take on the unique Ozzy voice. The most interesting track on the record though has to be their attempt at straight-up blues rock -- while their "Louisiana Blues" starts and finishes almost pedestrianly enough on the "Minglewood Blues" riff by Gus Cannon (of Cannon's Jug Stompers) that was popularized in the rock scene by the likes of The Grateful Dead and Captain Beefheart, the interior of the song is a complete departure of sorts. Not only devoid of the original progression, it's not even "bluesy" at all. Here in the extended jam that makes up the meat of this musical sandwich, the Flower Travellin' Band's Eastern roots surface a bit. It's a precursor to the sound of their later albums "Satori" and "Made In Japan" (another great one which we'll be reviewing in the future if we can ever get any stock of it in quantity).

MPEG stream: Louisiana Blues
MPEG stream: Black Sabbath

Flower Travellin' Band mania has gripped Byram and Allan and others of us here at AQ. After the success of our review of the reissues of their masterpiece Satori and their debut Anywhere, we feel we ought to keep going through the catalog of this stellar '70s Japanese heavy psych rock outfit. Those who couldn't get enough of FTB's Satori will be pleased to know that their follow-up, third release Made In Japan is nearly every bit as good. Singer Joe's voice still rings in the creepy falsetto style like Alan Bishop of the Sun City Girls singing balls out heavy metal vocals. As with their previous album, "Made In Japan" continued to fuse the heavy rock of early (contemporary, to them) Sabbath with Eastern melodies. I guess they decided after their perfect rendition of "Black Sabbath" on their first record, that such was their calling. Then again, "Heaven And Hell", the penultimate track here, is as pure a channeling of Jimi Hendrix as anything. The mellow closing track "That's All", with its koto glissandi, parallels "Part V" on Satori and like that track, it's perhaps the most overtly Eastern in tone. But it's Joe's vocal line that really kicks ass. At the end of the chorus he adds a little cadenza to his howl, extending the vocal line just beyond where one's intuitively expecting a cadence. It works so fucking well, makes me stop whatever I'm doing to listen, that I wonder why more song writers don't pull that shit more often.

MPEG stream: Hiroshima
MPEG stream: That's All

NOW REISSUED ON VINYL!! Slipcased, gatefold, 180 gram vinyl. Originally released in 1973, Make Up was the final album (not counting their recent, and unfortunately disappointing, reunion disc) from these '70s Japanese heavy psych rock gods, a gatefold double LP packaged extravagantly in a stitched, brown faux-leather case! (Which this reissue replicates in cardboard slipcase facsimile form!) Despite the fancy packaging, this artifact didn't make Julian Cope's Japrocksampler Top 50, in fact he rather pans it, calling it "useless" and a "disastrous hotchpotch" (it was assembled from recordings from an ill-fated live concert as well as studio demos). However, it must be said that we don't always agree with Mr. Cope. While it may be that Make Up isn't FTB's most essential album, we think any fan will dig it. If it's perhaps a document of the Flower Travellin' Band succumbing to typical '70s dinosaur rock band excess, a la Led Zeppelin (double album, extended soloing, and a '50s rock n' roll cover), that's not necessarily a bad thing! While you need Satori first, your FTB collection will be lacking without this. Lp one contains six songs, some studio, some live, including the rockin' title track, all of which provide singer Joe Yamanaka (FTB's not-so-secret weapon) with plenty of opportunity to wow us with his distinctive wail. FTB's more mellow, pop side is definitely on display here, with the gentle epic "Look At My Window", the bluesy, balladic "Shadows Of Lost Days", and the sad "Broken Strings" all probably prompting lighter-raising among concert goers. Heavier fare there is too, the aforementioned "Make Up", plus the ornate chug of "Slowly But Surely", and ominous opener "All The Days". We name checked Led Zep, but it's Deep Purple that FTB more likely resemble on this disc, what with the keyboards of guest Nobuhiko Shinohara. Lo two is where this set gets really indulgent, starting off as it does with a 25 minute live version of "Hiroshima" (only 5:13 in its original version on their previous album, Made In Japan, padded out here to fill the entire album side, with a lengthy drum solo, of which we heartily approve). Heck, "Hiroshima" could go on for hours and hours as far as we're concerned, since it's chock full of the type of slightly sinister, blown-out riffage that today's stoner rockers try their hardest to recreate. In fact, thinking about it, this sounds a hell of a lot like AQ faves Los Natas! That's followed on the flip by another live track, a somewhat incongruous cover of "Blue Suede Shoes", with FTB producer (and former Group Sounds star) Yuya Uchida on vocals. This seems to the sort of thing that turned Cope off from this album, but we've seen footage of early Black Sabbath covering this tune too, so we'll let it slide. And in any event, that roots maneuver is followed by a rendition of FTB's own classic "Satori Pt. 2", ten tribally-rhythmic minutes of sinuous psych with Joe at his piercing best, a hard rock rock n' roll showman as shaman if there ever was one. And the drifting, semi-acoustic, spaced out "After The Concert" that winds things up wordlessly and beautifully can't be the cause of any of Cope's complaints. In any case, all you proto-metalheads and acid psych loving Japanophiles can decide for yourself, thanks to this new reissue.

MPEG stream: Slowly But Surely
MPEG stream: Shadows Of Lost Days
MPEG stream: Hiroshima
MPEG stream: After The Concert

This is one of those albums that's neither new, nor even a recent reissue, but that we here at Aquarius decided, heck, let's list, it deserves it! (While this disc already appears on our website, it was never actually *listed* in any of our newsletters.) So while many might already know this album backwards and forwards, it has most certainly slipped through the cracks for too many others out there. Being a Japan-only import can't help. Allan wisely reordered some copies recently (when a customer special ordered it for themselves on-line) and Byram, unwittingly playing it in the store, found himself getting progressively more obsessed with the album (and the band)! It wasn't long before Jim and Marcy were also finding themselves hooked. Now almost any day you come into the store, you'll hear the Flower Travellin' Band blaring. This is an album (and a band) that are not celebrated nearly enough -- possibly out of misguided notions of their being another bad psych knock-off among the many crowding the record racks in the early seventies. But Japan's Flower Travellin' Band were no mere cheesy imitators of occidental rock 'n roll, they were in actual fact a full-fledged, pioneering tour de force of psychedelic progressive hard rock, equalling the krautrock heavies of the era. FTB can be compared favorably to Amon Duul's better efforts with their experimental meandering (think Yeti), and the best trancey spaceouts from Can. Yet there's never a sense that FTB lose track of their compositions no matter how far out they take a track. Perhaps because even more than these experimental Krautrockers, FTB's heavy (fucking ominously heavy) sound points to a major Sabbath, Purple, and Crimson influence. Released in 1971, Satori is the band's second and arguably best album (all but the first album Anywhere have now been reissued by Warner Japan). From the first screech/howl at the beginning of track one -- "Satori Part I" (the tracks on the album are all "Satori", parts I-V) -- from vocalist Joe, who inhabits a zone somewhere between Can's Damo Suzuki and Deep Purple's Ian Gillan, the album gets straight down to business. Joe's scream is followed by a foreboding bass, guitar and drum dirge that's straight up collision between Cream and Black Sabbath in which no one survives. It's got so much more teeth than either, it's not even funny, predating punk by a good many years. "Satori Part II" however is quintessential FTB Over a pounding tribal drumbeat, alternating between a buzzing sitar-esque guitar drone and a melody line that curls ripples and lilts like a plume of burning incense smoke, guitarist Hideki Ishima lays out one of the creepiest, coolest guitar leads ever. If that ain't enough, vocalist Joe's singing is like that of Axl Rose being channelled by the Sun City Girls! Even if the rest of the album were total shit -- which it ain't -- the cost of this cd would still be well worth it for this song alone! "Part III" -- an instrumental -- picks up where II leaves off but slows the tempo down to a deathly pace, which makes it even heavier. This is the Sabbath influence on FTB writ large. Replete with an improv freakout before returning to the original riff and building into a frenzied crescendo. Needless to say, if you weren't bobbing your head at the beginning of the song, you will be by its end. "Part IV" could be considered FTB's "blues" number, with Joe picking up the harmonica instead of singing. But instead of churning out the expected twelve bar formula, FTB truncate the form and construct a minimalist jam around a short riff instead. "Part V" shows yet another facet of FTB's seemingly infinite potential with Hideki (?) playing some kick ass, spooky koto-like guitar overdubbed on top of some heavy psych. Damn! They could have done ten fucking albums around this schtick alone and probably never lost our interest... sigh... but this (and the other two that are also available, look for reviews in future) will have to suffice for now. Absolutely, fucking recommended!!!! MPEG Download: "Satori Part II" [/audio/flowersatori2.mp3] MPEG Stream: "Satori Part II" [/audio/flowersatori2.m3u]

MPEG stream: Satori Part II
MPEG stream: Satori Part III

Merzbow, Merzbow, Merzbow. We love the ultra-prolific king of Japanese noise as much as the next person - maybe even more, since several of us here own the 50-cd Merzbox! But, it's almost impossible to keep up - and also, when you've already got at least 50 cds of Merzbow's noise, do you really need any more? However, we do still get intrigued whenever Merzbow goes and collaborates with (or remixes) some other artist, like a rock or metal band. Maybe 'cause we like our Merzbow rhythmic, as in, with drumming. Also a little bit of, uh, music, in the mix tends to make the noise parts even MORE effective and interesting in our opinion. So this new release on Profound Lore caught our ears - East Coast metalcore band Full Of Hell teaming up with Masami "Merzbow" Akita for not one but two cd's worth of intense destructo mayhem. The blasting drum battery, filthy riffage and throat-shredded vokills are all par for the course with Full Of Hell, but the presence of Merzbow's mad noise skillz tips the scales further into the extreme and avantgarde! More "power electronics" feedback, more hellish drone and distortion, more abstract abjection. It sounds as if the pit is feasting upon itself, as FoH's fierce metal core breaks loose from its moorings and plunges into the abyss, accompanied by what sounds like 1,000 vacuum cleaners in a windtunnel, that sort of thing. Of the two discs, there's one that's presented as the "main course" with printed lyrics in the digipack, that one seems more like Full Of Hell doin' their usual thing, with a (powerful) side of Merzbow - and also, some free jazz style horns on a few of the tracks!! The other disc, entitled Sister Fawn, seems intended as a bonus, and finds FoH and Merzbow more fully enmeshed, blurring the lines a bit more, the noise to the fore with beats and demented vocals in the background. Noisefreaks can go straight to that one, the metalheads should start with the first disc...

MPEG stream: Gordian Knot
MPEG stream: High Fells
MPEG stream: Aphid

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

SORRY.

This new disc on PSF from Tokyo's legendary Fushitsusha isn't new at all -- it's a live recording from *twenty five years ago* that goes some way to explaining that legendary status of Keiji Haino's band. So what was Keiji Haino up to in 1978? Not disco! Current fans will have no trouble recognizing his distinctive guitar and vocal stylings. Indeed, the fact that this sounds so much like something Haino & co. could do now -- aside from a certain, slight crustiness to the recording, which adds to the ambiance rather than detracts -- makes us all the more eager for a new Fushitsusha recording that will push beyond, much in the way their last one "Origin's Hesitation" (which took the bold step of removing Haino's guitar from the mix) did. Back in '78 though, Haino's guitar was in full force, his sidemen being, well, sidemen. The two tracks on here (one 14, the other 35 minutes in length) don't stint on the feedback guitar skronk, nor on Haino's lonely, anguished vocal cries. The quieter parts are full of crinkly, piercing tones and drones -- which could be some laptop computer noise but ain't of course. It's his trusty guitar and amp in unholy communion. The rest of the band (a different line-up than more recent incarnations) backs him up ably, the bass plodding heavily or throwing in some jazzy figures, the drums quiet then crashing, the trio together all eventually building (of course) into storming dense chaotic catharsis. Wow. Not too many acts circa '78 could have been bringing the noise like this. So, as the earliest ever released Fushitsusha recording, this cd is gonna be essential for fans who want to check 'em out back at the beginning -- Haino formed the band that very year. And as we said, his trademark style is already quite present, though some stuff he plays on here does sound a bit different from what you'd expect from him these days -- there's some 'no-wave' ish surprise bits that maybe sound more like Rudoph Grey, for instance. One for connoisseurs to debate!

MPEG stream: track 1

This here dvd is pretty much a must for all fans of what might be the world's most intense, original free-rock band. The dark lord of Tokyo psych Keiji Haino and his power trio Fushitsusha were captured on film performing live in Tokyo at the La Mama Club way back on September 26th, 1991. Yes, the same year Fushitsusha released their first cd document, the untitled monumental masterpiece known to fans as Live II or Double Live (PSF 15/16), a true classic of avant-heaviness. They've made a great many great records since then, but it's hard to argue that they ever really topped the output of this era... So of course it's great that this concert was preserved for posterity (they were opening for John Zorn's Painkiller, who were recording the live album Rituals, on which Haino guests) and is finally now being issued on dvd (it was previously available from PSF as a VHS video cassette, and is Fushitsusha's only official video release). Not much point in further description, really -- we figure this one's for Fushitsusha fans and if you're one, you want this. 53 minutes, all regions.

Two new studio albums from black-clad guitar maestro Keiji Haino and band. Both are excellent, edge-of-the-void psych-noise documents in keeping with the Fushitsha legend, recorded in England.

Ok, just like the gone-in-a-flash handful of Keiji Haino's So, Black Is Myself's we listed a few weeks ago, here's another out of print Haino related cd that we have but THREE copies of, that we found hidden in a dusty corner of the same local distributor's warehouse. So, we're not gonna go all out reviewing it, probably either you know you need a copy of this, or you don't, and if you do, act fast! For the record, though, it's the very first (and still one of the only) *studio* recordings by the Japanese guitarist's (former) band Fushitsusha, who were a darkly psychedelic, improvising "free-rock" trio unlike any other. This album, released in 1993, is a particularly unique item in their discography for sure, perhaps due to being a studio recording, this is a bit different from some other Fushitsusha efforts, relying less on amplified distortion and feedback. Instead, it's remarkably clean, quiet and controlled (relatively speaking, this is still seasick miasmic murk, really!), the 10 tracks here, each titled "Magic", I through X, being precisely structured, if counterintuitive, compositions, working their trance-inducing magic via tense, tightly wound repetition, at the edges of which you may hear Haino's familiar angst-filled vocalizations. 'Twas one of the earliest releases on John Zorn's Japan-based label Avant (forerunner to Tzadik), hence the import pricing. While old, these are still "new" copies, complete with obi strip.

MPEG stream: Magic II
MPEG stream: Magic IX

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

SORRY. Keiji Haino's legendary black-clad psychrock trio, live in San Francisco. Seeing 'em live was quite a rush and this is the next best thing if you turn it up loud and stick your head as close to the inside of your stereo speakers as you can.

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

SORRY. Hail, the return of Japanese psych shaman Keiji Haino's legendary psychedelic free rock unit, Fushitsusha! We'll dispense with doing a lengthy background essay, as pretty much anyone who would purchase a $29 import cd by Fushitsusha already knows all about the band; in fact we probably know exactly who you are. Not that we don't want to spread the gospel of Fushitsusha far and wide, it's just that there's some more affordable introductions that could be made. But, even our fellow fanclub members probably want to know if this gets the thumbs up from us. Well, of course it does! But some further attempt at description might help. For a couple reasons, we were quite surprised (and pleased!) when this appeared. We had thought that Haino was done forever with Fushitsusha, actually. There hadn't been a new Fushitsusha release for over ten years (and on the last one, he didn't even play guitar), and it seemed that his 'blues band' Seijaku, and also his trio recordings with Jim O'Rourke and Oren Ambarchi, were what was gonna have to fill the void. Those were great, but nothing knows the 'void' like the true Fushitsusha... Also never thought we'd see a Fushitsusha release with a cover that wasn't mostly black, or at least, purple - but this handsome digipack is a rather lovely blueish green, with metallic silver details, and silver inside and on the obi. Does this shocking new color scheme herald other big changes in the Fushitsusha 'formula' too? Well, let's see... First off, we noted that this cd consists of seven tracks, in just 35 minutes. Good grief, on a lot of other Fushitsusha albums, a single song could last 35 minutes or more, and maybe even continue over onto a second disc! But here, the longest track is a relatively brief 7:04, with most of 'em clocking in at closer to 3 or 4 minutes. But, radio-friendly singles they ain't! Instead, they're intense, concentrated doses of Haino & Co.'s unique reinventions of rock n' roll's most primal urges, rock that's been deconstructed/destructed... The first track, features very prominent bass, played by Mitsuru Nasuno (also of Seijaku, Korekyojinn, Altered States, Ground Zero, Sanhedolin/Sanhedrin, etc.). This repeating, slightly mutating bass riff loops as endlessly as possible for the song's 3:35 duration, accompanied by the stumbling, staggering drummage of longtime Fushitsusha percussionist Ikuro Takahashi (also of LSD March, Kousokuya, and many other projects). Haino isn't playing guitar at all, just singing, in his trademark throat-torn shriek. What? No guitar? Again? But don't worry, it's just a fakeout, he doesn't keep us waiting long, starting with track two, his sweet stabbing sheets of sound come crashing down, Haino's guitar & amp in full effect. Nasuno's bass burble continues, very upfront, but Haino's gorgeously noisy guitar wrangling takes crucial center stage. And the Fushitsusha (blackest of black) magic happens. About halfway into this track, this listener's pulse rate went way up... And so it goes, some songs taking sharp turns you'll need your sealegs for, the disc's relatively short running time crammed with stormy spazzed out improvs, bloodshivering blowouts, and some almost no wavey numbers, again not destined for the hit parade, except on another plane where the likes of the Dead C and Starfuckers and Last Exit are regular Grammy winners. 'Nuff said? No doubt.

MPEG stream: track 1
MPEG stream: track 5
MPEG stream: track 7

"The evasive sense of being momentarily glimpsed in 'I Saw It!...' is musically reconfigured as a blasted Romantic landscape, where drummer Ikuro Takahashi's painstakingly amassed beat towers endlessly tumble into ruin and longstanding bassist Yasushi Ozawa's rollered slabs of impacted noise dissolve in the blackness raining down from Keiji Haino's nightsky guitar, which paradoxically seals the piece at the moment of (un)becoming eternity" - Biba Kopf, one of the many origins of Fushitsusha / Keiji Haino poetic hyperbole.

At last, the long out-of-print-on-vinyl debut double live set by Keiji Haino's Fushitsusha is now available on cd! If you've already got the essential Live II, you'll no doubt be drooling for this, & you'll know what to expect: beautiful black-on-black paper packaging; wild, dark music that takes improv psych guitar to the outer limits...

This, the first compact disc documentation of Japanese dark psych guitarist Keiji Haino's incredible out-rock combo Fushitsusha, is nothing short of essential. Highest recommendation.

Happy days for fans of Fushitsusha! Japanese guitarist and vocalist Keiji Haino's legendary "out-rock" unit is back in action, after a long hiatus. First, a few months back, in the spring, there was the unexpected appearance of a new Fushitsusha cd, Hikari To Nazukeyo, with Mitsuru Nasuno on bass and Ikuro Takahashi on drums. And now, already, before the fall, a follow up, from the same lineup, on the same label! (And that's not to mention the several other excellent Fushitsusha-like improv trio releases that Haino's done recently with drummer Oren Ambarchi and either Jim O'Rourke or Stephen O'Malley on bass.) Yep, happy days indeed. This new disc from Fushitsusha, Mabushii Itazura Na Inori, pretty much takes up where the previous one left off. It even looks quite similar, the digipack cover's color scheme a darker, bluer blue mottled with metallic silver. Beautiful. And again, it consists of several relatively short tracks, by Fushitsusha standards, six of them in 55 minutes. The five minute plus opening cut is a moody, bass-heavy intro to the darkness of this disc, featuring haunting vocals from Haino that are far more gentle than his usual yelps can be� it reminds us a bit of the final track on the Nazoranai disc he did with Ambarchi and O'Malley. This one gets into a fantastic, deep, droning, monk-like moan-zone (with perhaps overdubs involved??) that makes what comes next seem even more striking and extreme - the second track on the disc being an eleven minute session of stark skronk. The rhythm section traffics in tumbling, disjointed skitter, underpinned by thumping thudding bass. Haino hovers close to the mic, unburdening his soul in sudden brief outbursts, accompanied by his scrabbling, stab-in-the-heart electric guitar-shards� it builds and builds with subtlety; initially the jarring blurts and blasts of distortion slice into and out of near silence, but eventually the elements come closer and closer together in a dense web of claustrophobic, controlled chaos. 'Tis tangled, tweaked, terror-inducing. Whew! And that's just track two, there's plenty more in store on the rest of the disc, following the same sort of hallucinatory, counter-intuitive "free rock" (that's more free, than rock) style, one that's seemingly all about attack and decay. Some of this is Fushitsusha at their most Starfuckers-ish, so abstract and intense and precise, all encompassing, indescribable, and a little bit insane. And it's emotionally effecting via the sheer sonics alone, without any Japanese-to-English translation of Haino's whisper-to-a-scream lyrics. Once again, we won't overdo it with the exposition, 'cause you probably know if you want this (like, if you already own Hikari To Nazkeyo). The uninitiated, we won't expect to get into the unique avantgarde wonders of Haino & Fushitsusha via a $29 import disc - not when there's some other, more affordable entry points, just ask us. But fans, we've got what you want...

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'Tis a big day for everybody into the legendary free-rock unit Fushitsusha, lead by Tokyo's dark lord of psych and improv, Keiji Haino. Not one, but TWO new discs have just been released! They're on the same Japanese label, Heartfast, that put out the trio's two previous albums, back in 2012. When those discs came out, several months apart, they were welcomed by fans as the first new Fushitsusha's in over ten years. And, they were brilliant. Fortunately, it hasn't been as long of a wait for these two new discs, this time released simultaneously, and also excellent, staggeringly so. Fans are already hitting the "add to cart" button, but we'll go on with some details... First off, these two, Namaewo Tsukenaide Hosii Namaewo Tsuketeshimauto Subetede Nakunattesimaukara (unofficial translation of title from the unofficial Keiji Haino webpage: "Please don't name it. If you name it, it will cease to become all"), which we'll refer to as the silver one, and Madaatatakaiuchino Konoimani Subetenonazowo Sosogikondeshimaou (unofficial translation: "In the now, while it's still warm, let's pour in every mystery"), which we'll call the gold one, both feature a NEW lineup, different from the previous discs on Heartfast. Now on bass, is Chiyo Kamekawa, a Tokyo psych scene veteran (Yura Yura Teikoku, The Stars, Cosmic Invention). The newcomer on drums, is Ryosuke Kiyasu, from the prolific underground Japanese noise/grindcore band Sete Star Sept. Interesting. Kamekawa is not as 'busy' as previous bassist Nasuno Mitsuru, while Kiyasu brings a LOT of youthful energy to his percussive attack when required. Indeed, with Kiyasu on board, it's no surprise that some of this gets FIERCE. Wouldn't be much of a surprise anyway. But there's also lots of contemplative passages as well on these discs, which are both varied, exhibiting a similar range of 'typical' Fushitsusha sounds... there's moody pieces, with percolating bass and drum skitter and guitar skree and sudden silences, converging and diverging in impossible patterns, Haino tearing his heart out with his lungs over top... some tracks even moodier, quieter and more restrained, like the absolutely lovely penultimate 15+ minute track on the silver album, wherein Haino alternates his chiming guitar strum with gentle (really) vocals, singing what sound like isolated syllables of his lyrics in mesmerically haunting fashion, or the second song on the gold album, all muted rhythmic thump and hushed vocals in the shadows. The finale of the gold disc is another, so stark and gorgeous and intense and emotional. Speaking of emotion, then there are the tracks that blast with beyond-hardcore punk intensity, utter over the top freakery, sounding more like something a grind band like Sete Star Sept would do! You'll find a couple totally Napalm Death-ing it in under a minute, with insane inhuman vokills from Haino that make Khanate's Alan Dubin sound like a contestant on The Voice. And, then there's the ones that find a middle way, like the first track on the silver disc, which erupts with staggering "big rock" chords, in a manner that's both chaotic and precise, with an almost melodic progression. We're reminded of US Maple's confusional no-wave here and elsewhere. We're not gonna lie, we think if you're a Fushitsusha fan, you should of course buy BOTH discs. (If you're not a fan, why are you still reading? 'Cause you're curious? Well check out a sound sample and see what you think!). However we realize that two $28 import discs at the same time might be tough on the wallet. So if you decide to get just one (presumably, planning to get the other later on), then which to get? Well, we can't tell ya. Both are great, and we have equal quantities of both, so the best thing to do is just flip a coin. Or, like we said, get 'em both. Of course, with the 7 tracks on the silver one clocking in at 32:48, and the 8 tracks on the gold one running to 42:42, we can't help but notice that music here coulda fit all on one (long) disc, which would have saved everyone some money. But we're sure there's cryptic artistic reasons why that wouldn't have worked. And they certainly look nice, side by side, in their metallic-colored miniature lp style jackets.

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Keiji Haino and his psychedelic power trio Fushitsusha have long made some of Japan's heaviest, darkest, most fucked up sounds. They're a legendary "free rock" outfit, up there with the Dead C, Skullflower and few others. They're a unique band that with this At their last San Francisco show a few years back, Haino and Fushitsusha's drummer had an "epsiode" that resulted in, upon his return to Japan, the drummer's retirement from music! Rather than drafting in a new drummer, Haino and bassist Ozawa decided to remain a duo, with Haino taking over the drumming duties. This is the first recording by this new, unusual, reduced Fushitsusha line-up. Unusual because Haino's monstrous wall-of-feedback guitar was probably the reason most people listen to the band in the first place. Well too bad, meet the new, stripped-down, guitarless Fushitsusha! Origin's Hesitation starts off with Haino in a maniacal percussion frenzy, as if he'd always wanted to be the drummer in Fushitsusha and is now just so excited to be behind the kit he can't help but try to play all the drums at once. But after the first track, he calms down a bit with the drumming, putting more of his energy into what must rank as some of his most dramatic, tortured vocals ever. And that's saying a lot. These cries and utterances are accompanied by sparse but deliberate drum and bass hits, using space and silence. Both Haino and Ozawa use live electronics to loop their instruments, but this is a lot more primitive sounding than most "sampler" utilizing music! You might have to already be a fan of Haino/Fushitsusha to get into this -- at least, it's probably not the place for novices to start. Very anguished, very abstract. The heavy guitar sounds that linked Fushitsusha's past work to the rock music of Blue Cheer or Crazy Horse are of course gone, but this is still "heavy" in an emotional sense. And certainly "fucked up." So, after reading all the above, you probably still want to know "is it any good?" Well, Andee of course hates it, as he does pretty much any release where Haino opens his mouth. Allan on the other hand thinks this is kinda cool, even though he does prefer Fushitsusha with guitar. But he likes contrary, counter-intuitive rock bands like US Maple and Starfuckers, which in some ways this echoes. Handsomely packaged, as always with PSF Fushitsusha releases, with cd and booklet in a black paper mini-gatefold sleeve. Smells good!

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

SORRY. Second studio recording from the Tokyo trio, led by the self-proclaimed king of darkness, Keiji Haino. Monstrous, in-the-red guitar destruction only Haino can deliver. Recommended as a starter for those interested in the mysterious world of Fushitsusha.

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

SORRY. Housed in a handsome (black!) foldout "digipak" (oh this ugly new jargon), this is heavy duty gtr noise sans vocals from Keji Haino and Co.

Not. For. The. Faint. Of. Heart. Nosirree, you know this is gonna be wonderfully, brutally OUT. And you probably know if you want it or not already... Japanese psych-improv free rock masters Fushitsusha, lead by shamanic guitarist/vocalist Keiji Haino, teamed up with one of the true titans of saxophone skronk, Germany's legendary Peter Brotzmann, holy crap! Batten down the hatches!! Turns out this fancy new Utech triple cd release is not in fact a new recording, it's an archival find from the '90s, thus boasting the classic Fushitsusha lineup of the era, Haino accompanied by Jun Kosugi on drums and Yashusi Ozawa on bass. Plus of course a very special guest on saxophone. And y'know, they're not a band who can have just anybody sit in with them. No, any Fushitsusha guest (and there haven't been many) had better be heavy duty. Peter Brotzmann, he qualifies. Seriously, he's the guy whose perhaps best known album, from 1968, is called Machine Gun, and to this day he's famed for his uber-intense, scorched earth, red-in-the-head playing style. Who better really to collaborate with Fushitsusha, "the most important rock band of the past 25 years" (according to Haino hagiographer Alan Cummings, writing in this set's liner notes - our Allan also agrees). This triple cd set documents an entire concert (maybe the first complete Fushitsusha show on cd?), recorded April 26th, 1996 in Tokyo. That's two days after Haino and Brotzmann went into the studio to record their duo disc on PSF, Evolving Blush Or Driving Original Sin. As fans, it's amazing to find out now that, there's more, and with Haino's whole band, even better! When at full-bore roar, the Fushitsusha trio create a clangorous, cavernous environment for Brotzmann's sax to soar and slither around in, intertwining with the muzzy sheets of sound emanating from Haino's guitar/amp. Rather than the players competing for sound-space, it's a synthesis; you might not even be able to tell what's Haino and what's Brotzmann amidst it all. And despite the potential (often realized!) for noisier-than-thou onslaughts, there's subtle beauty here too, moody melodious moments, quiet stirrings before/betwixt the storm... disc one, for instance, begins with glistening chiming sounds and restrained percussive skitter-scatter, quite lovely. It's a while before Haino's trademark distorted guitar squall, let alone the saxophone of Brotzmann, even makes an appearance, and that's just fine. We can't rightly review the entirety of these three discs (approximately three hours), words fail. Plus, you should have your own experience of discovery - like finding out that Haino busts out the hurdy-gurdy for some drones on disc two! But as any Fushitsusha fan will expect, it's unique, abstract, massive, magnificent, building from delicate solos and duos amongst the players to HEAVY total group aktion, getting more 'rock' than Brotzmann even ever did in Last Exit. And really, that Brotzmann's on board is a bonus, but even if he wasn't, heck, it's a Fushitsusha triple live of uncommon beauty and power regardless. Utech's art and design is always really nice, but this one's especially elaborately packaged, with many, many inserts wrapped/folded together with the 3 discs (though, be careful with the outer plastic sleeve, as that's what's holding it all together).

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