This numbered, limited-edition double cd from PSF reissues the very first recorded performance by famed underground Japanese avant-folk singer and guitarist Kan Mikami, whom musical Japanophiles may know as a member of Vajra with Keiji Haino as well as for his extensive solo career. Recorded live at a radical Tokyo nightclub in 1970, this material was originally released on vinyl as a double LP in special fan-club edition of just 100 copies. Super rare today of course! And this new compact disc edition is limited to 777 copies, and is apparently already sold out at the label. We've only got a few, so act quick if you're a Mikami Kan fan. It's pretty great, and it's amazing that he's only 19 years old on here! The style of bleak, gripping angst-ridden folk songs showcased is what he's build his legend on, in a career that continues to this day (in fact, we just got a brand new Mikami recording in as well, entitled Bachi, that we'll try to get reviewed for next list). Perhaps this would be even more interesting if we understood Japanese (he doesn't sing in English, of course) but the emotions expressed need no translation. Unless you're made out of money, this is perhaps not the Mikami album we'd expect anybody to start with, but if you're already a fan you should consider splurging on this, it won't be long for this world. We can't resist quoting a bit of the our customer and PSF label translator Alan Cumming's blurb on this, as it really sets the scene:
"These are the very earliest recordings by surrealist folk legend Mikami, captured on tape in 1970 at the legendary Shibuya underground club and hangout, Station '70. The club used to host regular sessions by free-jazz heroes like Motoharu Yoshizawa and Kaoru Abe, while the cream of the city's avant-garde community rubbed shoulders with Japanese Red Army terrorists and Yukio Mishima's private army. Thrust into this ferment comes a nineteen year old police academy dropout from the far north of Japan, armed with nothing but his guitar and a satchel full of coruscating, carnal songs of anger, lust and hate."
The title is "1979", but this is actually brand new, a 2003 release from one of Japan's unique musical treasures, the avant-folk electric guitar troubadour Kan Mikami. Maybe you already know him from his many other PSF-label releases (this one makes it a dozen, we think) or from the Tokyo psych-improv trio Vajra where he plays and sings alongside Keiji Haino. What with the relative popularity of the last Vajra disc 'round these parts, we figured at least a few of you out there would be interested in Mikami's latest solo effort. As with his previous albums, this is full of strenuous electric guitar strum, dextrous string manipulation, and his trademark impassioned, eccentric, fully beauteous vocals. So many voices in one man. Mikami creates music with lots of space, lots of emotion. He's got a keen intelligence that transcends language -- though you should definitely check out the English translations of his lyrics included in the cd booklet, they're weird and wonderful. But even without the words, his languid, then violent guitar playing is interesting enough by itself. Making outsider, non-Western references to jazz and blues, his tangled guitar lines and swampy licks are the perfect accompaniment to his edge-of-the-void vocals.
Subtitled, From Oak Village. Which is, presumably, in France, where this live performance from the legendary Japanese avant-folk singer Kan Mikami was recorded in 2003. Not sure if this is the one to start with if you're not already a fan, but those already obsessed with the man's harsh and harrowing hybrid of Japanese enka and fucked up blues quite possibly will want this in their collections. Guitar and voice stripped to the bone, with the final track being the highlight, adding some satisfying feedback from French guest guitarist Fabrice Eglin. And Alan Cummings provides English tranlations of Mikami's lyrics, a nice plus to this package.
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While our Japanese section at AQ is known for its loud & noisy disposition, we know that there's another side to the wonderful sounds coming out of Japan and this record by Miko is some of the best shoegaze dream pop we've heard from -anywhere- in ages!
Like an amazing combination of everything we loved about The Softies and the first couple records by Mum, Miko uses electronics with such a tender and warm touch while crafting songs that Tujiko Noriko might make if she was on Too Pure or Creation. Swirling melodies that can be both hypnotic and playful, daydream vocals that transport us into wide open blue skies with the most lovely and fluffy soft clouds to roll around in.
What makes Parade such a special record is that unlike so much other dreampop that tends to become a bit monotonous over a whole album, there is enough variety, and really well paced, well crafted songwriting here that the record manages to always be enthralling and intriguing yet never too busy, never distracting from the ultimate beauty of these songs. The album makes us wish we could astrally transport ourselves to the Japanese countryside, floating over rolling hills of lush green grass where Miko plays her breathtaking songs, as we lay on our backs staring into the sky, as the wind takes us wherever it wants. So beautiful!
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Along with LSD-march's Shindara Jigoku, here's another slab of vinyl on Siwa from another excellent underground Japanese psych unit. Tokyo's Miminokoto (who, like LSD-march, have also released a cd on the Last Visible Dog label) present their appropriately titled third studio recording as a limited, vinyl-only edition boasting a nice hand-screened cover. Collectors will want this, but also anyone into garagey guitar psych... And we weren't aware of this before, but Miminokoto is somewhat of a Tokyo psych veteran supergroup, with a line-up that includes: Masami Kawaguchi (Broomdusters, LSD-march, Aihiyo), Koji Shimura (White Heaven, High Rise) and Takuya Nishimura (Che-Shizu)!
Glory be! We've got not one but TWO new albums from Miminokoto, who you may already know as one of the new wave of Japanese psych trios (along with LSD-march and Up-Tight also) making the rounds of late. Miminokoto currently consist of singer/guitarist Masami Kawaguchi (LSD-march, Broomdusters, Aihiyo), drummer Koji Shimura (White Heaven, High Rise) and bassist Hiroaki Takeuchi. How does this particular unit stand apart from their peers? Well, although quite capable of building up into big, burning, fuzzed-out guitar clangor (and when they do, they get just as gnarly as the rest), they have a mellow side to 'em, one that's very melancholic and emotional, that they explore in perhaps greater depth and duration than those other bands tend to do. With weary vocals of which maybe even Jandek would be proud, Miminikoto can create a sense of sadness which makes Kawaguchi's howling guitar, when it kicks in, all that much more cathartic. They also aren't afraid of some poppy jangle too, so you're never sure what's around the corner. From track to track, one cut might be a punked out stormer, the next a gentle web of fragile notes.
Of these two new releases, one's an import studio recording, and the other's a domestically released live album (though this sort of stuff always seems live). There's five magnificently meandering and oft harrowing new tunes on the Alchemy disc Green Mansions, while the live disc on LVD, Orange Garage (named for the venue where these void-vibes were conjured), features new n' heavier versions of three previously recorded Miminokoto tracks plus three other totally new compositions, culminating in the 16+ minute "Kumononaka". Can't really pick between 'em, either or both should be of interest to any Japanese psych-scene follower...
The last time we heard from Tokyo underground psych-meisters Miminokoto, with their 2009 PSF release All About Mimi, they were calling themselves New Miminokoto. On account of how they'd replaced longtime lead singer/guitarist Masami Kawaguchi with Suzuki Junzo (ex-Overhang Party). Well, that's not news any more, so now they're back to calling themselves just plain Miminokoto. Suzuki Junzo is still capably fronting the group, wearing shades (we presume) and wranging his guitar through the usual distortodelic psych storms and melancholically poppy ramshackle jangle we expect from these exemplars of the hazy, heavy lidded, late-night "Tokyo Flashback" sound. Singing in Japanese, his voice is hushed and weary, the music often likewise, though they rev up for some of those feedback filled, Rallizes style blowouts we love at times too. On All About Mimi, the band covered a couple songs by the late Jutok Kaneko (Kousokuya), here they do another one, along with six others of their own, equally emotive and wrecked composition.
The label that put this disc out calls their style "decadent death doom" and while that might be a bit misleading to those of you who think you already know what "death doom" sounds like ('cause this definitely ain't metal, though it may be decadent), that description definitely captures the downer vibe. For sure they've got the blues, though this also isn't "blues" as commonly known, either. What it is, is a sad and gorgeous session of shimmering amp bliss, burbling bass, slow shuffling drums, aching vocals, creaky chords, and minor key melody.
Fans of prior Miminokoto output (new and old) as well as other Tokyo flashbackers like LSD-March, Up-Tight, Suishou No Fune, Kawaguchi New Rock Syndicate, Overhang Party etc. etc. should definitely dig!!
Last Visible Dog brings us the first US release for this Tokyo-based trio, a self-described 'romantic psychedelic band'. Recorded live at Tokyo's Penguin House back in January of this year, this disc starts off with a raucous tangle-jangle of bright garagey guitars ("Tottemo"), followed by a melancholic pop dirge that then erupts into sky-scraping psych guitar overload ("Subeteha"). The rest of the set follows a similar pattern, juxtaposing the quiet and folky with the loud and shrill. You'll get a song that features mopey Japanese vocals over jazzily listless instrumental backing, that'll be followed by piece built around some severe, noisy guitar rockin' and crashing drums. Often one thing builds into the other, which is quite satisfying. Definitely a 'Tokyo Flashback' style band, for fans of Shizuka, Nagisa Ni Te, White Heaven, Kousokuya, all that sort of thing!
Glory be! We've got not one but TWO new albums from Miminokoto, who you may already know as one of the new wave of Japanese psych trios (along with LSD-march and Up-Tight also) making the rounds of late. Miminokoto currently consist of singer/guitarist Masami Kawaguchi (LSD-march, Broomdusters, Aihiyo), drummer Koji Shimura (White Heaven, High Rise) and bassist Hiroaki Takeuchi. How does this particular unit stand apart from their peers? Well, although quite capable of building up into big, burning, fuzzed-out guitar clangor (and when they do, they get just as gnarly as the rest), they have a mellow side to 'em, one that's very melancholic and emotional, that they explore in perhaps greater depth and duration than those other bands tend to do. With weary vocals of which maybe even Jandek would be proud, Miminikoto can create a sense of sadness which makes Kawaguchi's howling guitar, when it kicks in, all that much more cathartic. They also aren't afraid of some poppy jangle too, so you're never sure what's around the corner. From track to track, one cut might be a punked out stormer, the next a gentle web of fragile notes.
Of these two new releases, one's an import studio recording, and the other's a domestically released live album (though this sort of stuff always seems live). There's five magnificently meandering and oft harrowing new tunes on the Alchemy disc Green Mansions, while the live disc on LVD, Orange Garage (named for the venue where these void-vibes were conjured), features new n' heavier versions of three previously recorded Miminokoto tracks plus three other totally new compositions, culminating in the 16+ minute "Kumononaka". Can't really pick between 'em, either or both should be of interest to any Japanese psych-scene follower...
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Sweet lo-fi electro pop for casio from this Japanese woman who put on one hell of a good instore here at Aquarius!
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Following up her recent "Ximer" remix disc, Japanese electronic-pop songstress Minekawa presents a "fun" new full-length.
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With every new record casiopop auteur Takako Minekawa gets miles better, her sampling and arranging techniques more sophisticated and varied. She's so clever to balance her sweetness with smarts! As this 7-song cd begins we wonder if Takako has hijacked "Peter Gunn", but soon we are soothed by the return to the light, dreamy electronic pop she is more known for. Still in full possession of sweet-sweet, breathy child vocals, playful samples and pretty melodies, she adds doses of solemnity and darkness to make for possibly her best record yet. With a guest sitar appearance by Keigo Oyamada (aka Cornelius).
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While Takako has been described as the female Cornelius, her sound is much more simple, clean, and not nearly as sample-reliant. However, this stellar EP finds her getting the remix treatment from Buffalo Daughter (who manage to make that ubiquitous Liquid Liquid sample sound fresh again), Land of the Loops, Trans Am, Pulsars, Portastatic (Mac of Superchunk), and Sukia. Takako's sweet voice holds the whole thing together beautifully. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
What the world needs now is... more BATHTUB SHITTER!!! And what the world needs, our shit obsessed grindmetal pals from the East are here to provide. Two brand new blasts of grinding freaked out, spazzy and shrieking grind metal, occupying some impossible musical space between Brutal Truth, the Boredoms, Cannibal Corpse, skate thrash and eighties hardcore. So weird and so fucking awesome!!! We kind of want to figure out a way to fly the guys in Bathtub Shitter to the US so they could be the AQ house band, blasting and bleating dissonant serenades to our customers 24 hours a day. Okay, maybe not, but we still love 'em!
The 'Shitter are teamed up here with Maryland's own grindmetal destruction crew Misery Index, who unleash one track of downtuned grinding nirvana as well as a blown out blast that is a Napalm Death cover.
Comes packaged in a super swank gatefold 7" sleeve, with BS's side a haunting airbrushed watercolor batwinged, horn headed child demon flipping us the ubiquitous peace sign hand gesture (although his hands sport huge demonic talons!). Cool!
Calm and chaos intermingle on this intriguing solo disc of quirky and uncategorizable improv-avant-pop from experimental Japanese bassist Nasuno Mitsuru (Altered States, Korekyojin, etc.). Aside from one bonus track, it's all stuff recorded about ten years ago, and previously unreleased, except for a couple cuts that were part of the massive 10cd "Improvised Music From Japan" box set, now out of print. He gets a bunch of help from his friends here, including Otomo Yoshihide and his turntables on a few of these pieces!
Already, the very first track isn't what we expected at all. (Not that we really knew what to expect.) It's over 12 minutes long, quite strange and lovely; a countryish song for slide guitar twang and mumbled indie-folk vocals, that's also utterly overrun with stuttery glitch, random noise and electronic skree, like some old-timey back porch blues broadcast on an ancient radio, garbled by jamming and interference. The "alien Appalachia" of Ignatz comes to mind, or Geoff Mullen's abstract banjo experiments, or John Fahey at (and beyond) his most avant-garde. We'd buy this just for that alone.
But of course there's more, other oddities abounding. The very next track features what sounds like an electronic approximation of a Jew's Harp, all zips and zaps and boings and burbles, accompanying some dramatic female vocals, both breathy and wailing. Whereas the third song is sung by a slowed-down, distorted, whispery male voice. Elsewhere, Nasuno explores clamorous rhythmic avenues on several more beat-heavy tracks. Folk/noise is returned to later in the disc, where traditional Japanese shamisen and singing is subverted by waves of electronic glitch and distortion.
All in all, another quite interestin' Doubtmusic disc, providing a glimpse into the fascinating, unique personal soundworlds of one of the many creative musicians on the Japanese scene whom we weren't nearly familiar enough with before.
Yay, the '70s Japanese psych rock reissues continue! Years ago this one was available on cd as a fancy expensive Japanese import, but that's been gone for ages so it's nice to have this new reish. A Path Through Haze (great title, eh?) is the mostly instrumental 1971 solo album from acid guitarist Mizutani, a fixture of the scene as a session axe, you'll find him supplying the fuzzed out leads on such records as Love Live Life +1's Love Will Make A Better You and People's Ceremony - Buddha Meets Rock. With this, he stepped out on his own with what proved to be his only album as leader. It's an ambitious affair, employing not only an all-star cast of his heavy friends from the psych scene, but also both string quartet and woodwind quartets. Also prominent on this record is the Hammond organ, piano, and Moog synth of Masahiko Satoh, who did his own album also entitled A Path Through Haze somewhat later. Confusing, eh? "A Path Through Haze" is also a song on both albums, it seems it's a Satoh composition. Here that song starts off with gentle keyboard shimmer, before Mizutani gets his licks in about halfway through, amidst much spaceiness of effects. And that's sorta how it goes with this record, lots of pretty keyboards, yes, plenty of nice moody melody, but Mizutani (usually) eventually unleashes the fuzz, particularly on rockier/riffier numbers like the Hendrix-y "One For Janis". The "chamber rock" restraint characteristic of some of this record only lasts so long, the likes of "Tell Me What You Saw" being a bit of a freak-out, with mathy prog rock rippage galore. And its Satoh's synth that goes nuts some of the time too.
This one didn't make the top 50 in Julian Cope's Japrocksampler, by the way... in fact, he actually bags on this one a bit, but WE like it, so there. Cope also didn't like Foodbrain either. While we'll agree that we'd have been happy to hear Mizutani wail away here even more than he does, it's still a beautiful album, and even its most stonery sit-com soundtrack fusion moments have a certain charm.
A few years back, Kiyoshi Mizutani ventured into the Tanzawa mountain range located to the southwest of Tokyo in order to document the sounds of that very isolated region. In the liner notes to this album, Mizutani explains that this region enjoys a complex history with centuries worth of military endeavors and legends including one tragedy which Mizutani alludes to about "the losing army's princess." Needless to say, the mountains may have been of strategic importance to any number of rival factions; but by now, their remoteness and desolation harbors only a small population. He focuses his attention upon three aspects of those mountains: the natural (which is the dominant voice of the Tanzawan environment), the ceremonial folklore of the people, and the residual noise of the man-made. Mizutani's love of bird sounds was evident on one of his early sound works simply entitled Bird Songs; and the spirited chatter of many a bird dots Mizutani's field recordings. Crickets, cicadas, and plenty of insect choruses also feature into Scenery Of The Border, as does a broad range of watery recordings from quiet drips from a misty rain to the immersive white noise of waterfalls. The few recordings that feature a human presence are of restrained Shinto and Buddhist ceremonies, which Mizutani mentions have rarely been heard outside of that region. It's these ritualistic stompings and hushed bits of chanting that stand amongst the highlights of this incredible field recording document.
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Japanese noisicians Mayuko Hino (she of dripping candlewax on her naked body performance fame in her other band, CCCC) and Ranko Onishi (dunno much about her) here collaborate as Mne-Mic.
Their album "Gulf Stream" is dominated by muffled blasts of synth-generated white noise, with distortion laden theremin warbles and distant screams. But their more subtle work with contact mic-ed buckets of water and Onishi's "fogphone" (which from the back photo appears to be smoke bellows) is even more effective in creating a jarring dislocation between the slashing noise and the brief interludes of silence. Scary, powerful stuff, culminating in the ultra drone-howl of the final, 16-minute track "A Sigh of Clam".
The dronier, gentler (but not necessarily quiet!) side of Japanese garage rock maniac Shinji Masuko (DMBQ, Boredoms) is revealed here via the guitarist's new project, Moan, a duo with vocalist/keyboardist/bassist Makiko Toba (Water Fei). Waves of shoegazing distortion push needles way into the red on opening epic "The Murmur Of The Zodiac Voices", and it's a beautiful thing. Over 26 minutes of drifting, droning psychedelic soundscapey guitar graced with floating female vocals. It's obvious why they called themselves Moan. Parts sound like Boris at their most blissed out, other passages could be the heavy psych guitar explorations of Ulaan Khol.
With that massive track alone, the disc is already well worth the price of admission, but the murmuring continues on the lovely slowcore song "No No I", Moan dialing down the volume, getting moodier and even more melodic, before Shinji unleashes some searing distorted guitar like he's having a Tokyo Flashback or something in the second half of the song.
The remaining two tracks on the disc, the folky "Soda Song" (Shinji using effects, we assume, to create an effervescent "soda" sound that bubbles along in the background) and the equally-effervescent-even-without-soda-sounds "My Noctiluca Town" are also both individually interesting and pretty and mesmeric. Quite recommended, all in all.
We'd often thought that 'Moan' would be a good name for a funereal doom project, but with a record this fantastic (if non-funereal) we don't mind that Shinji & Makiko snagged it.
Mograg Garage is a Japanese DIY art gallery run out of an actual garage in suburban Tokyo. To commemorate their first year of exhibitions, they published this small, but gorgeously detailed and beautifully produced full-color 40 page catalog documenting the artists that exhibited last year.
Eight artists are represented with six writers contributing columns (all translated into English). Their plan is to release a catalog every year. And if they're all like this one, then sign us up for a subscription! The artworks are highly visual, bold and graphic, lots of colorful psychedelic landscape paintings (including one of a giant cave that is also the head of a sabre-toothed tiger), intricate and epic tattoo-like line drawings, pop-surrealism, embroidery of colorful birds, lush photographs, computer-generated collages and graffitti like drawings. Jim Woodring is cited as an influence, and one can see influences of Hayao Miyazaki and Takashi Murakami here too which should give you some idea of the gallery's core aesthetic. A lot of the art looks like what you would see in Juxtapoz magazine (but without that magazine's air of self-importance). The columns are equally strange, in that they're not so much about the artists or artworks (at least not in a way we can directly understand), but about random experiences and points of view. For instance, one column expounds on the art of booger collecting (!), others are more lyrical and poetic, while still others are more informative and practical like the one on how to run your own art and toy gallery. Which is the best advice to take from this, as the folks who run Mograg certainly know what they're doing and how to have fun doing it too. These are VERY LIMITED!! We only got a handful of these from a local Japanese friend and not sure we can get more. Definitely, a unique publication you won't easily find elsewhere!
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A collection of previously unreleased stuff from this Japanese noise maven. With Jojo of Hijokaidan on one track. For fans of Monde Bruits previous album from years ago on Charnel Music, here at last is some more of his noise-stylings. [/cat/japan24.html]
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There was perhaps a time, when Japanese post rockers Mono were just that, a post rock group, but that time is long gone, now, they are anything but, or more accurately, so much more.
Mono take the soaring sweeping epics of groups like Godspeed into an entirely different dimension. Their sound is so grandiose, so emotional, so absolutley and stunningly epic, that it almost ceases to be rock. Sure there's plenty of rock like bombast, many of the songs culminate in a huge flurry of crashing drums and soaring guitars, but in the grand scheme of Mono's sound, those moments are fleeting. Like the old adage that it's more about the journey than the destination, the sound of Mono is all about the journey, the band weave elaborate soundscapes, that smolder and glow, rhythms pulse and throb, guitars are blurred into lush sonic backdrops, melodies are delicate and crystalline, the sound while instrumental, manages to sound choral, a sky full of weeping strings and angelic hymns. We can only assume that if Arvo Part, or Morton Feldman started a rock band, it would sound something like Mono. Hymn is like some post rock score to a massive role playing game, Final Fantasy 100 or something.... How can you not envision sweeping vistas, endless seas, crumbling cities, heaving seas beneath blackened skies, these sounds evoke so much emotion (this is REAL emo!) and passion, it does seem almost too reductive to call them a post rock band, or to call this 'rock', to us it sounds more like a symphony played by a rock band, or better yet a symphony attempting to play rock music, the result is grand, majestic, moving, stirring, something more momentous than a mere record, or a rock concert, Mono manage to conjure up a sound that seems to be alive, living, something capable of adapting and growing, every song sounding like a collection of sounds blossoming into still greater sounds, eventually a field of blossoming sound becoming Mono. It sometimes sounds like the most dramatic moments from every film you've ever seen distilled and converted into sound, then arranged into music... hyperbole? Probably. But the more we listen to Hymn To The Immortal, the more we're convinced that there's something truly magical going on here. And somehow, without even realizing it, we've listened to this record about 20 times in the last few days, which is most definitely saying something...
Mono are an instrumental rock quartet from Tokyo making their debut on John Zorn's Tzadik label. Let us quote from the obi: "[Mono combine] elements of minimalism, psychedelia and trance rock to create a distinctive and powerful new sound via John Fahey, Sonic
If you've followed Tokyo's Mono, you will know that their brand of post-rock is the kind that is equal parts orchestrated beauty and slow building metallic eruptions. This sound gets them mentioned in the same breath as kindred spirits Mogwai and Explosions In The Sky. There is no denying that they aren't really reinventing this sound by now, but what they are doing is releasing really consistent and good records one after the other. This one unfolds really nicely as an entire album. The slow build, the pretty beginning, the subtle tension building, and then the loud eruption which breaks down in shimmering waves. Unlike some of their contemporaries, they have kept their songs vocal free and we thank them for that as we can all attest to the fact that so often post rock or metallic post rock or whatever you want to call it can suffer from some pretty uninspired sounding vocals thrown sort of randomly on top. You get the feeling listening to this record that Mono are quite particular and precise in a way that doesn't feel forced but instead you can feel their labor and thought as you listen to every note on this record.
Wow. This collaboration between Japanese epic art rockers Mono and their equally arty countrymen World's End Girlfriend is nothing short of gorgeous. Palmless Prayer / Mass Murder Refrain is an absolutely breathtaking five-part mood piece that enshrouds the listener in looming desolate shadows cast by classically composed guitar, strings, piano, saxophone and even a fleeting vocal chorus. A staggeringly moving work definitely for fans of Godspeed You Black Mogwai or anyone else looking to have their jaw dropped by some seriously bleak beauty.
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Psychedelic pioneers in their home country, The Mops (great name!) were one of the originators of the Japanese GS (Group Sounds) scene. They were among the first in Japan to experiment with psychedelic studio effects like flanging and phasing, as well as with
More music from the wonderful Ikue Mori and her drum machines--with some other great downtown NYC performers on board: Anthony Coleman, Zeena Parkins, Erik Friedlander, and others.
Her first collection of all-drum machine (+ effects and bamboo) compositions. Beautiful electronic beat-scapes.
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True to its title, Mucca Pazza's new album is a kitschy kaleidoscopic listen of, yes, marching band styled escapades that tumble out of your speakers with a swooning bump'n'grind exotica flair. Lots of brassy horn, accordion and percussion stimulation! We know it's a totally different thing, but if you loved the recently released Daisies soundtrack or Balkan gypsy music inspired groups such as Beirut or A Hawk And A Hacksaw, we'd highly recommend Mucca Pazza too! An ultra fun album that'll put a gleeful smile on any grumpy face.
Kinda Don Cabish, (mostly) instrumental math-rock from Japan, jazzy and intricate. Tzadik would like us to think this trio sounds like This Heat and Massacre but it's just nowhere near that intense. Pleasant enough, but maybe a bit too tame.
Ms. Mukai and her Chinese er-hu (a bowed, 2 stringed instrument) have been a part of the underground Tokyo improv psych scene since the '70s playing in the PSF "dream-psych" band Che-Shizu, while Osaka's Seichi Yamamoto is known to most AQ customers as the gonzo guitarist for Boredoms, Omoide Hatoba, Rovo and more. This live document, another real cd on the moving-away-from-cdrs label Last Visible Dog, sees the two of 'em teaming up for two long duets of late-night atmospheric rumble and squeak. It's totally dark in the Keiji Haino drone mode, or like Taj Mahal Travellers, all abstract and drifty, cries echoing out in a black, empty space. Real nice in other words. Plus there's a third, thirty-minute track where the Mukai/Yamamoto duo are joined by an all-star Japanese drone trio with the humorous name of Lamones Young (yes, their idea is 'what if Lamont Young played Ramones songs', though that's not necessarily what they sound like). Cellist Fukuoka Rinki, drummer Kosakai Fumio, and bassist Nagakubo Ryuichi (variously, members or former members of Incapacitants, CCCC, G-un, Overhang Party, etc.) add even more scraping, sawing drone to the proceedings, while Yamamoto's guitar and Mukai's voice, percussion and er-hu continue to generate sheer alienated psychedelic beauty as per their duo tracks.
NB. if you liked the Tangerine Dream Syndicate cd we had a while back from the Alchemy Label, be aware that the Lamones Young were essentially an early version of that band. The liner notes by Tokyo psych expert Alan Cummings provide further info...
An electronic improv scrape-scape from world reknowned sonic experimentalists Otomo Yoshihide (electric guitar, turntables, electronics) and Gunter Muller (iPod, minidisc, electronics, and of course 'selected' percussion). Yay iPod!
The duo conjure tones and drones that are quiet, textured, well-paced, and pleasing. Pretty, even. There's unspecified twitter and glitch that could be guitar notes or field recordings of forest birdsounds, or both, and probably is.
Erstwhile has become the most reliable label out there for wonderfully detailed, abstract modern free improv stuff that incorporates electronics as much as it does "regular" instruments. So of course this neither Muller nor Otomo's first appearance on Erstwhile.
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SORRY.
Another quite nice drone/bliss release on the ever reliable Time Released Sound label, available as per their usual operating procedure in two different versions: an ultra-limited edition in super deluxe packaging, and also a cheaper, no frills edition too. We're still enjoying TRS's previous release, by The Inventors Of Aircraft, and this other new discovery of theirs is equally dreamy. A thing of shimmering beauty, from a Japanese ambient artist we'd never heard of before. This may be his first release - we'll certainly be looking out for more in the future.
Ten tracks of slowly unfolding murmer and mesmerism, sunny sleepy afternoon music for sure, with gentle melodies (on piano, we think) and rhythms surfacing amidst the glimmering drones, Murkami's music seemingly inspired by nature and the seasons, possibly ghosts as well� Murkami thanks his ancestors, and one track is entitled "Vorie's Ghost Sanitarium".
The deluxe cd version is limited to 100 copies only, and comes in a handmade (stamped, sewn, assembled) six inch square booklet, composed of antique paper ephemera from Japan including fold out tissue maps and Meiji-era apothecary ledger pages, plus a double sided insert printed on bamboo. This booklet is banded by a strip of vintage 8mm film depicting scenes from the aftermath of the great Japanese earthquake of 1923, and is nestled with the cd inside a "clouded" translucent vellum envelope decorated with cherry blossoms. A Japanophile's dream! But if you don't want the fancy packaging, you can also get the cd more cheaply, packaged in a simple hand printed sleeve. Either way, recommended.
Basically, this is what we were hoping the Acid Mother Temple's "Electric Heavyland" would sound like! Musica Transonic is yet another project featuring the wild guitar playing of AMT's Kawabata Makoto, in a trio with two other notables from the Japanese underground: the Ruins' incredible Tatsuya Yoshida on drums, and High Rise/Mainliner/Ohkami No Jikan leather-and-shades master Nanjo Asahito on bass. They've been around for a while, this is their sixth album of instrumental psychedelic improv rock in fact. Previous efforts were a lot more jazzy and spazzy, and while this has total psych guitar freakouts, they're in the context of some speedy, steamroller, straight-ahead heavy rock n' roll, '70s-style. Hence the title "Hard Rock Transonic" I guess. Not unlike the blueprint for Nanjo's bands High Rise and Mainliner: distorted garagey fuzz-fests with searing psych solos (Kawabata rips on here). The driving, riff-repetitive parts are almost metal, kinda like Circle's "Sunrise" in that way. Nanjo's rumbling Blue Cheer bass and Yoshida's solid beats, along with the aforementioned Kawabata guitar freakouts, are total head banging material.
Add in the Greek song titles, the crazy cover drawing, and boob n' panty baring cheesecake shots of young Asian women in the booklet, and you've got one wild Japanese psych-metal album.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
Third album. Nanjo, Kawabata and Yoshida return, with another blast of...yes, it's the same band as above (Mainliner), with a different name. More spastic, though, and maybe even more fuzz-blasted.
Those who've been paying any attention at all to the extremes of the Japanese prog/psych underground should already be familiar with the band Musica Transonic (responsible for five prior albums on hometown Tokyo label PSF, and one also on Fractal, their last one which came out five long years ago). At the very least, you know the three musical madmen who make up this power trio: drummer Tatsuya Yoshida of Ruins, guitarist Kawabata Makoto of Acid Mothers Temple, and bassist Nanjo Asahito of High Rise. This heavy duty improv freakout summit of theirs is thus a veritable supergroup. All three of these guys have also played together in the band Mainliner. If all that means something to you, then we're pretty sure the news that there's this new 2007 album released on the cool Polish label Vivo ought to be just about enough to get you to want a copy! Or, read on...
This long-running act hasn't changed too much this time 'round. Imagine a hyper-active Blue Cheer abandoning the biker-blues riffs to play instrumental freeform jazz instead. Psychedelic skree spills forth as the band settles in to a variety of unsettled grooves. Passages of moody noodilyness collide with amped-up ADD frenzies. Essentially the album title XYOSFBIGKOU (and equally jumbled-looking track names like "Rtufujowvyt" and "Qoixvudgdoasv"), while cryptic, actually give some sense of what Musica Transonic is about. All caps (loud!!), can't understand it (crazy!), but must make some sense somehow to someone (chops?). You'll feel jumbled too after listening to this sonic spooge, sounding somewhere betwixt Lightning Bolt and the Wes Montgomery Trio or something.
This recording is not as blown into-the-red as their early stuff, though no less spastic, and also is not nearly as lumberingly "metallic" as their last one, the aptly-titled Hard Rock Transonic, but boy do they grind it out with lots o' feedback on the title track at the end of the album!
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
