You're out in space, at the bridge of a pod-shaped starship, blinking lights and cosmic sights on the viewscreen. THIS is the soundtrack. Or, you're exploring deep into inner space, in a isolation tank, or a drugged trance, watching colors play inside your closed eyelids. Again, THIS is the soundtrack. Assuming in either case you're got headphones on, hooked up to Space Machine 2!
Total kosmiche electronics action here, vintage analog synths doing their spaced-out bleepage and bloopage thing under the long-haired guidance of Maso Yamazuki, a Japanese psychedelic noisician extraordinare. This disc was released back in 2002, as part of Space Machine mastermind Maso Yamazaki's special "15th Anniversary Freakout Triplex" series, which also featured cds by two of his other acts, Masonna and Christine 23 Onna. We reviewed Christine 23 Onna's Acid Eater a few weeks ago and promised we'd get to the others in the Triplex soon, now that we're finally able to get a hold of 'em, expensive imports that they are. Space Machine, Maso's tribute to the likes of Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream, has always been a favorite 'round here, and right now this particular Space Machine album is the only one that seems to be in print! If you're a fan already, you know what to expect. This features four tracks, several of them quite lengthy, of wonderfully indulgent synthesizer knob-twiddling, soothing oscillations and droning textures... headphones, please!
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Latest blast of analog synth madness from Takushi Yamazaki, othewise known as Masonna, the one man Japanoise wrecking crew, with a belt full of effects and a wall of white noise unparalleled. But don't expect any of that noise here. Space Machine is the vehicle that Yamazaki uses to indulge his fetish for rare seventies analog synths and all the spacy madness that they can conjure up. This is all swoosh and whir, bleep and swoop, like Acid Mothers Temple at their most unstructured, or better yet, like the music at the planetarium when you're soaring through galaxies, into the farthest reaches of the universe. Gorgeous double lp on orange vinyl in a nice gatefold sleeve. Two sides of solo studio recordings, two sides of live mayhem, four sides of far out, freaked out buzzing blooping bliss.
Osaka-based artist Takushi "Maso" Yamazaki has taken quite a turn these past couple of years. His more well-known alter-ego Masonna is best known for ear shredding cut'n'paste sonic assaults. Masonna's live performances consisted of Yamazaki screaming
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Space Machine is Takushi "Maso" Yamazaki's outlet for the use and abuse of vintage analog synth equipment, where he leaves aside the violence and extremity of his work as Masonna in the "Japanese noise" idiom and instead attempts to channel the spirit of early '70s German electronic experimentalists like Klaus Schulze and Conrad Schnitzler. After three previous full-length recordings (Cosmos From Diode Ladder Filter on Alchemy being our fave) now comes the first two installments in a series of 3" eps, each of which sees Space Machine operating as a duo of Maso plus guest.
For Model-101, the guest is Hiroshi Hasegawa of C.C.C.C./Astro. He also plays the synthesizer. Recorded live at Penguin House in Tokyo, February 2004, this starts with a whoosh and whooshes onward and upward. It's a nice, dense twenty or so minutes of droning, whirring, bleeping spaced-out spirals of psychedelic synth!
On Model-102, Yamazaki and his synths team up with Acid Mothers Temple guitarist Makoto Kawabata for nearly twenty minutes of interstellar exploration, recorded live at Cafe Futuro in Osaka, Japan in April 2003. That it's recorded live in a cafe is evident on the disc, what with the murmer of conversation heard in the background, as Maso and Makoto and their machines hum and drone and drift and glow in the foreground. Abstract yet effective, it's actually incredibly mesmerizing and soothing. Of the two 3" discs, Model-101 is the more bleepy and loud and science fiction soundtracky, while Model-102 is quieter and perhaps less cliched. Both are recommended to all Space Machine/AMT/sci-fi synth fans.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
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Space Machine is Takushi "Maso" Yamazaki's outlet for the use and abuse of vintage analog synth equipment, where he leaves aside the violence and extremity of his work as Masonna in the "Japanese noise" idiom and instead attempts to channel the spirit of early '70s German electronic experimentalists like Klaus Schulze and Conrad Schnitzler. After three previous full-length recordings (Cosmos From Diode Ladder Filter on Alchemy being our fave) now comes a series of 3" eps, each of which see Space Machine operating as a duo of Maso plus guest.
For Model-101, the guest is Hiroshi Hasegawa of C.C.C.C./Astro. He also plays the synthesizer. Recorded live at Penguin House in Tokyo, February 2004, this starts with a whoosh and whooshes onward and upward. It's a nice, dense twenty or so minutes of droning, spaced-out spirals of psychedelic synth!
On Model-102, Yamazaki and his synths team up with Acid Mothers Temple guitarist Makoto Kawabata for nearly twenty minutes of interstellar exploration, recorded live at Cafe Futuro in Osaka, Japan in April 2003. That it's recorded live in a cafe is evident on the disc, what with the murmer of conversation heard in the background, as Maso and Makoto and their machines hum and drone and drift and glow in the foreground. Abstract yet effective, it's actually incredibly mesmerizing and soothing. Of the two 3" discs, Model-101 is the more bleepy and loud and science fiction soundtracky. Quieter and less cliched perhaps is Model-102. Both are recommended to all Space Machine/AMT/sci-fi synth fans.
More analog synth hi-jinx from Japan's Space Machine (the retro electronica obsessed alter ego of Takushi Yamazaki aka Masonna). The nifty Modular Series of 3" cds, the first two of which paired Yamazaki and his synths up with equally psychedelic sparring partners, sees Yamazaki going solo for installments number three and four. Model-201 is the third in the series, and it's an impressive, oppressive 13+ minutes of squelching, zinging, droning electronics (specifically, Yamazaki's credited with playing the Maestro Echoplex EP-3 and P-tronic Sound Lab Mini-Synth here), not unlike the sound of a series of flying saucers taking off and landing at a busy Area 51 UFO base. Soothing music for your inner malfunctioning robot.
More analog synth hi-jinx from Japan's Space Machine (the retro electronica obsessed alter ego of Takushi Yamazaki aka Masonna). The nifty Modular Series of 3" cds, the first two of which paired Yamazaki and his synths up with equally psychedelic sparring partners, sees Yamazaki going solo for installments number three and four. Model-202, Zone Of Avoidance is the fourth in the series, with Yamazaki utilizing Roland System 100, System 100M, and RE-501 to create close to twenty minutes of jittery, minimally repetitive dronage that arcs into a realm of Jurassic birdcalls as recorded by dying, batteries-running-down technology...or something. And just as Space Machine fetishizes their vintage equipment, P Tapes have managed to make these attractively designed 3" discs into fetish objects themselves for fans of this sort of electronic voodoo.
Japanese synth-pop craziness compared to Perrey & Kingsley, Giorgio Moroder, and Yellow Magic Orchestra. And they're not kidding about the vocoder overload! Music for futuristic cartoon characters to party to. On Jim O'Rourke's always interesting Moikai label.
The re-reissue-ance of a lot of crucial '70s Japanese psych rock documents continues apace, with this seminal stoner rock release now on cd (and lp) again via the Phoenix label. Originally released in the musically bountiful year of 1971, Eve was the debut from a psychedelic power trio that made no secret of their predilection for recreational pharmaceuticals, and preferences therefor. "Glue" was bassist Masayoshi Kabe's nickname, "Speed" that of singing drummer Joey Smith. Guitarist Shinki Chen (formerly of Food Brain, as was Kabe) lacks a nickname, so we dunno his drug of choice, but it's obvious he's really into Jimi Hendrix...
Obligatory citation of Julian Cope's Japrocksampler ranking: tied (with Flower Travellin' Band's Satori) for number ONE out of fifty!!! So, yeah, this is considered by some (including us) to be an essential - though we wouldn't personally rate on par with Satori, or for that matter ahead of Speed Glue & Shinki's own self-titled sophomore album, or some others on Cope's list, but it would be up there, nonetheless. 'Specially perfect when you're in the mood for some druggily spaced out, heavy cowbell knockin' acid blooze rawk splurge, laced with loping riffs and lackadaisical vocals, with titles that (of course) couldn't be any more overtly oriented towards the subject of gettin' high, such as "Mr. Walking Drugstore Man" and "Stoned Out Of My Mind"! But you, the listener, needn't be stoned, this music is head noddingly hypnotic all by itself, just turn it up and let yourself veg out to it, all the way through to the relaxing coda of the album's final
track, "Someday We'll All Fall Down", a quietly lovely, folky acoustic number with a doubtlessly prophetic title. Along the way, enjoy garagey rave-ups like "Ode To The Bad People" and lumbering blues blasters like "Big Headed Woman".
The seven tracks here are primal "proto-metal" (VERY proto) for fans of Blue Cheer, Blues Addicts, Moses, Modulo 1000, Human Instinct, Juan De La Cruz (the Filipino band with whom SG&S's drummer Joey Smith later played), Flied Egg (also reissued and reviewed this list), and others of that wasted, rock n' roll ilk from around the world.
Nicely packaged in a mini-LP style gatefold sleeve for the compact disc. Gatefold sleeve for the vinyl version too.
Sniffin & Snortin (parts 1 and 2!), Run & Hide, Bad Woman, Don't Say No, Wanna Take You Home...sound good? Those are some of the song titles on this classic women-and-drugs obsessed dumbo-rock Japanese psych album. It stars guitar whiz and massive stoner Shinki Chen (also of Foodbrain and oodles of other obscure Japanese psych outfits), bassist Masayoshi Kabe (from Foodbrain too), and singing drummer Joey 'Pepe' Smith -- a Vietnam vet whom you might know from the Filipino band Juan De La Cruz, whose album "Shake Your Brains" is one of the few that tops this for sheer truly stoned rock retardation (a good thing). Too bad we can't get those in anymore. But you'll hear at least one of their tunes on this, the second SG&S album, originally released as a double LP in 1972, which we happen to like even better than their 1971 LP "Eve" though Mr. Julian Cope made that one a "record of the month" on his website Head Heritage. Anyway we have this one, not that one.
Speed, Glue & Shinki, as you might imagine from their name, were a goddamn weird, messed up, completely wacked heavy psych/blues/prog band. So messed up that this time out, guest musicans wrote (and performed?) most of it! But it doesn't matter. And even when Joey plugs in a Moog synth to do a whole LP side devoted to the Sun, Planets, Life, Moon, and Angels, this never ever remotely gets pretentious and proggy (not that we don't like proggy). It just can't. Speed Glue & Shinki are primal, so primal, too primal. At least one track hints at the Stooges, some others Zeppelin, while the rest approximates a brain-damaged James Gang. Record collector types might recall the fancy, expensive Shadoks LP reissue that was available a couple years ago for about two seconds. We were enthralled with the lovely tiger cover art and the ridiculous rock and have been hoping ever since to bring in a cd version, and at last we tracked down a few copies that we had to order from Sweden, so act fast for your Speed, Glue & Shinki fix if you think you want it.
MPEG Download: "Red Doll" [/audio/speedgluered.mp3]
MPEG Stream: "Red Doll" [/audio/speedgluered.m3u]
MPEG Download: "Song For An Angel" [/audio/speedgluesong.mp3]
We missed out completely on the Ananta cd-r that Spiracle first released through the Mystery Sea label a few years back. It was limited to 100 copies and quickly disappeared, much to our chagrin. Fortunately, Helen Scarsdale in her sage wisdom has just reissued that static drone opus with a second disc that reworks the original material while keeping the same intent.
Hitoshi Kojo is man behind Spiracle, having wandered from his native Japan to Central Europe where he's been collaborating with the likes of Michael Northam, Maurizio Bianchi, John Grzinich, and Murmer. Much of his work deals with acoustic drone construction, with some of his records taking up the mantle of beautiful tactile noises like those generated by Organum, Jonathan Coleclough, and Andrew Chalk. Ananta, now presented as a double disc, is an album with a purpose; or at least it has a purpose for Kojo as he's one who has trouble falling asleep. So he composed this album as a narcotizing agent to lull him into a deep sleep. But this is also a man who is a night owl, so the time when he's usually falling asleep is when the sun is just beginning to rise. So for this composition, Kojo tuned his drones to match the ruby reds and golden yellows of daybreak. The Mystery Sea Version of Ananta is a linear construct of softened static with wisps of sustained tones spiralling in and out of the mix. The composition shimmers along this focused path with few variations, reflecting a rigor of process much like the champions of minimalism (e.g. Charlemagne Palestine, Roland Kayn, Yoshi Wada) but with a delicate approach found in the likes of Stars Of The Lid. The Strato Version found on the other disc smoothes out the static into a rich undulating surface of warm golden tones, that could easily be an ambient lullaby to accompany a daydream whilst napping at the beach. So, so beautiful!
The Helen Scarsdale reissue does increase the distribution of this disc, although not by much... there's only 300 of these beauties kicking around!
Spiracle's 20 minute composition Iris was actually released well over a year ago, but Clouds Of Static has been dormant ever since Mnortham abdicated his position as the artistic director for the label. It's a real shame, as there were some real gems which might have come out on the label, with recordings by Murmer and John Duncan and talks of reissuing the brilliant first cd-r from Of (aka Loren Chasse). Yet, none of that will probably come to pass; and it was quite possible that the remaining stock of what was released through Clouds Of Static may have languished in some Swiss castle (quite literally) for years. Fortunately, we were able to uncover a few copies of Iris by Spiracle (aka Hitoshi Kojo, whose collaboration with Maurizio Bianchi is reviewed elsewhere on this list). Taking cues from David Jackman's arsenal of growling harmonics from bowed metals, Ellen Fullman's long-stringed instruments, and Akio Suzuki's impeccable ear for tactile events, Hitoshi offers a dynamic drone composition of compacted layers of acoustic sound with slowly scraped strings amassing into a sustained drone made porous by tumbling fistfuls of sand poured out upon the floor and a weirdly compelling flanging bellow. We only got a dozen or so of these in; and we don't plan on storming any Swiss castle anytime soon, so these few copies are probably all that we'll be able to get!
Well, there may not be a new Acid Mothers Temple record this list, but for those of you who find such news disappointing will surely be satisfied with this lp in the interim. SMS features 2/3 of the holy trinity of Japanese psych rock, Kawabata Makoto of Acid Mothers Temple, and Nahnjo Asahito of Mainliner, High Rise, Musica Transonic, etc., missing only the freak out guitar and whale-call wails of Keiji Haino. Oh, so close to being the record that would send all you Japan-psych-freaks over the edge. Haino, Kawabata, Nanjo...I don't think the world could handle it. Instead, the band is rounded out by Shimura Koji from White Heaven, High Rise, and Mainliner, Sasaki Hisashi of the Ruins, and Chicago psychrock freak Plastic Crimewave. And what you get is just what you might expect, massive, rambling, spaced out psychedelic jams, three guitars wide, roiling and seething, rocking and frenzied, occasionally drifting into wild and dreamy cosmic blissouts.
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From the land of Cornelius, Buffalo Daughter, Pizzicato Five, and the like (Japan, specifically Tokyo), come space/pop/electronauts Spoozys. Silly, fast guitar and synth based beat-o-rama, like robot B-52s dancing with a hyperactive Kraftwerk. Undeniably fun.
Perfect Place To Hideaway is the second full-length album from way-cool Japanese psych scene vets The Stars, a band featuring former members of Tokyo flashbackers White Heaven. Guitarist Michio Kurihara (also of Ghost) is perhaps the best known -- you may recall we recently reviewed his fine solo album Sunset Notes, another Pedal Records release. This ain't White Heaven mark II though, as their inspiration stems not so much anymore from west coast '60s psych like The Doors and Quicksilver Messenger Service but just as much from downtown NYC in the '70s -- Television, No Wave, and maybe even avant-disco dance music... But don't worry, The Stars first and foremost are a guitar band. And guitars can be dangerous things. Much of the time, The Stars are happy just demonstrating the truth of that statement. But there's shiny pop moments here that let singer You Ishihara act the crooning rock star, and some simple blissful ones too. These varied six tracks include the moody groove of the 11-minute "Subway (aka Night Walker)", the crashing, apocalyptic, distorto stomp of "Ice Blues" (THE track for those who want to hear Kurihara wail White Heaven style), the angular repetition of "Double Sider", the too-funky "Lemonade", the placid instrumental "Electron Spin Carnnival", and gentle coda "The World I Left Behind".
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This has got the great guitar sound/playing of ex-White Heaven, current Ghost acid rock six-stringer Michio Kurihara. Other folks from that semi-legendary '90s Tokyo psych flashback unit are present, including leader/singer You Ishihara. The Stars debut ep features three tracks, 25 minutes of garage-psych-pop, worth it for fans of Kurihara but probably not for the otherwise uninitiated.
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1st full length from this Tokyo new wave psych act, featuring former members of White Heaven.
Now we've got a nice Japanese cd reissue of this (previously, but no longer, available on the somewhat shady Radioactive label). It's more expensive but better. Our review of it before ran something like this:
Some fairly heavy (maaaan) stoner psych blues rawk action here from 1971. Yep, seventy-one. We won't try to tell you that the lone album from Japan's Strawberry Path was one of the best rock releases of '71, 'cause of course there were so many great albums out that year. But if you're a fan of heavy rock of the era, especially the weirder stuff from overseas, you should check 'em out. There's plenty of wailing guitar and jammin' organ on here, but also some mellow moves too so it's maybe more '60s than '70s sounding, and VERY Jimi Hendrix influenced. And we'd guess they were also into such Western acts as Steppenwolf, early Deep Purple, Grand Funk and possibly Black Sabbath. In the realm of early '70s Japanese hard psych they're on par with Speed, Glue & Shinki and Foodbrain, but not quite as as solid as the best Flower Travellin' Band or Blues Creation. These guys (a duo of Shigeru "Jimmy" Narumo on guitars and keys, and Hiro Tsunoda on drums and vocals, helped out by various guests) went on to form the even heavier Flied Egg, who released an LP on Vertigo, a track from which is heard on Andy Votel's Vertigo Mixed disc in fact. This is totally in that Vertigo vein, with classical flourishes of flute and strings, hard-rockin' boogie blues riffage, wild vocals, kickin' drum breaks, acoustic interludes... it's an acid-prog mix that isn't always in the proto-metal direction we might want but we'll take what we can get. Plus you've gotta love the song titles, which are either really cool and weird like "Maximum Speed Of Muji Bird (45 Seconds Of Schizophrenic Sabbath)" or totally indicative of what you'd expect like "I Gotta See My Gypsy Woman" and "Mary Jane On My Mind". Woah, yeah.
Recently we've reviewed the two excellent Flied Egg albums, reissued on cd by Universal Japan, as is this -- if you dug those, Strawberry Path is also up your alley (Path?).
Some fairly heavy (maaaan) stoner psych blues rawk action here from 1971. Yep, seventy-one. We won't try to tell you that the lone album from Japan's Strawberry Path was one of the best rock releases of '71, 'cause of course there were so many great albums out that year. But if you're a fan of heavy rock of the era, especially the weirder stuff from overseas, you should check 'em out. There's plenty of wailing guitar and jammin' organ on here, but also some mellow moves too so it's maybe more '60s than '70s sounding, and VERY Jimi Hendrix influenced. And we'd guess they were also into such Western acts as Steppenwolf, early Deep Purple, Grand Funk and possibly Black Sabbath. In the realm of early '70s Japanese hard psych they're on par with Speed, Glue & Shinki and Foodbrain, but not quite as as solid as the best Flower Travellin' Band or Blues Creation. These guys (a duo of Shigeru "Jimmy" Narumo on guitars and keys, and Hiro Tsunoda on drums and vocals, helped out by various guests) went on to form the even heavier Flied Egg, who released an LP on Vertigo, a track from which is heard on Andy Votel's Vertigo Mixed disc in fact.
This is totally in that Vertigo vein, with classical flourishes of flute and strings, hard-rockin' boogie blues riffage, wild vocals, kickin' drum breaks, acoustic interludes... it's an acid-prog mix that isn't always in the proto-metal direction we might want but we'll take what we can get. Plus you've gotta love the song titles, which are either really cool and weird like "Maximum Speed Of Muji Bird (45 Seconds Of Schizophrenic Sabbath)" or totally indicative of what you'd expect like "I Gotta See My Gypsy Woman" and "Mary Jane On My Mind". Woah, yeah.
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The Japanese, we all know, are no slouches when it comes to heavy, psychedelic rock n' roll. From seventies masters like the Flower Travellin' Band and Far Out and Blues Creation to current heavies like Boris and Green Machine and DMBQ (to name but a few from either era), there's a tradition of long-haired, amped-up mayhem over there... Well if you're like us and big fans of all that, you should know about this band, Subvert Blaze. They were a late '80s, early '90s psychedelic metal / stoner rock outfit, retro bellbottomed badasses doin' Sabbath and Hendrix covers alongside equally heavy originals just a few years before it was all that cool to do so. Their drummer later joined Ghost, but it's here where you'll really hear him put his gong to good use. Subvert Blaze did two albums for the Osaka-based noise and psych label Alchemy, Subvert Art and Subvert Art II, which have been out of print for some time, until recently when this double cd set appeared, reissuing the tracks from both those albums, and more! So we figured some of you might be interested...yeah it's thirty bucks but it's an import and a double cd, and getting the two original discs would have cost more and you wouldn't have the bonus tracks, which include a cover of "Summertime Blues" as well as a twelve-minute epic original entitled "Elegy (Of Turkey City)", and the band's two tracks from the Osaka Greasy Truckers compilation (early versions of "Butterfly" and "Innocent"). Convinced? Or do you need more description? Let's see... Kinda like Can meets Sabbath, total heavy psych rockin' and rollin', with gargly rough vocals and a dark energy. Yeah, if you can dig a band that combines heavy riffage with technical progginess and spacious, psychedelic moodiness, and is prone to the occasional extravagant drum solo, you might be a Subvert Blaze fan too! (NB. their singer/guitarist went on to form even heavier Alchemy act Garadama.)
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Finally took Eric of Giant Robot's advice and listened to this toothsome collection of their first 2 EPs. Excellent! This Japanese boy/girl duo cross My Bloody Valentine with Galaxie 500 into a thick sweet mixture, and add dreamy girl vocals. Every time we play this in store, someone asks "Wow, who is this!". Richly melodic. Very appealing on even the first listen, especially if all the new "drone" music is too spaced out for you.
Japan's Taku Sugimoto is best known for super minimalist guitar improvisation. But he also writes for other stringed instruments, as this new collection of Chamber Music will attest. The first track, which clocks in at just under a half hour, is entitled "Sonata for Violin and Piano". Yet, there's a third 'instrument' here, one present on all Sugimoto recordings: silence. Part of listening to and enjoying Sugimoto's music is, simply, waiting. Waiting for the next sound. It's not music for the impatient. Brief bleatings from the violin take turns with lonely notes from the piano. When one instrumental voice occupies the sound field for longer than a second, it's an event. Next is the 33 minute "Music for Violin, Cello and Piano" which follows the same minimalist scheme, the cello certainly not elbowing the silence out of the picture. There's almost a monk-like discipline required to enjoy this music. It's meditation as much as it is listening, the pay-off is in the process. A three minute coda for guitar and banjo (and silence) wraps things up, jaunty by comparison to the rest of the disc, but just barely. As always with Sugimoto, spending an hour with this will provide a kind of perverse delight to those attuned to his aesthetic.
We're always been interested in the work of Japanese improvisor Taku Sugimoto. There's no one else quite like him, though one could draw some parallels to the work of sometime collaborator Kevin Drumm, the solo guitar work of David Grubbs, and certainly several of Sugimoto's peers in the Tokyo "onkyo" improv scene like Toshimaru Nakamura, Tetuzi Akiyama, and Otomo Yoshihide -- three gents who, not surprisingly, constitute Sugimoto's Guitar Quartet on this disc along with Sugimoto himself, some playing acoustic, and some playing electric guitars. Now, usually we prefer to hear Sugimoto just by himself, because recordings with collaborators usually get cluttered up with other people's playing, which tends to detract from the beauty of Sugimoto's restrained, minimal aesthetic. But this guitar quartet doesn't suffer from that at all -- indeed, it's really hard to imagine that there's actually four guys playing on this, as the results sound like they were barely there at all! Over these two half-hour plus tracks, the ratio of sheer silence to notes actually played is quite high, as we of course expect from Taku Sugimoto & co., whose careful placement of sound in silence leads to active, anticipatory listening from the audience. This leads us to wonder about their working practice in recording this -- it's over an hour long, but maybe there's actually ten minutes, if that, of audible "music" spread out over that hour. So, did they just play ten minutes worth and then "stretch it out" in ProTools? Or did they play for hours and hours and then edit the recording down to cd-length, picking the best stuff, silence included? Even if this is simply the entirety of a live performance (which it probably is), it's interesting to imagine the silent interaction of non-verbal gestures and delayed musical cues between the musicians, to say who was going to play something and when, with everybody most of the time just sitting there. All that's not to imply that this isn't worthwhile, you just have to be ready for what goes to a particular extreme of "difficult" listening. I personally enjoy it very much. Patience, and anticipation, and concentration, are required of the listener -- it's a meditative experience of sorts, and its beauty is in part your heightened awareness of your own environment.
One of our favorite Japanese improv guitarists takes his brand of minimalist abstraction to a new level on this disc, which 1) you have to turn WAY up to even hear the notes he's playing, 2) features lots of notes *not* being played, and 3) is fucking gorgeous. What we mean by 2) is that the three long tracks on here would be a lot shorter without all the silence. Not everybody will be
Japanese guitar improviser Taku Sugimoto (whose gentle, sparse style has made him an AQ-fave) teams up with German electro-acoustic guitarist Annette Krebs (who must live in Japan, as she constantly collaborates in that scene), to make a duo record of popping, scraping, droning, hissing, chiming, buzzing, crackling sounds for Sugimoto's Slub label. Sugimoto's measured, quiet playing, with his isolated melodic moments, is almost too fragile to successfully blend with the random percussive sound-events being conjured by Krebs (we assume, though of course it's hard to tell who is making what sound). This Eine Gitarre Ist... disc certainly IS worthy of investigation by Sugimoto and/or Krebs fans (and Keith Rowe or Kevin Drumm fans too for that matter), but to be honest we'd rather have seen this live, and just listen to a solo Sugimoto disc at home. There IS plenty of the silence and near-silence that characterizes Sugimoto's style, it's just that it too often comes as a relief from the parts that sound like someone (Krebs most likely) is slowly breaking her guitar into little bits. We like to listen to stuff like that too, just not when Sugimoto is playing. But others may disagree, so check it out.
Another meeting between these two friends and improvisers, Tokyo guitarist Sugimoto and Chicago guitarist Drumm. Their guitars (and electronics) will gently and delicate scrape at your brain. It's all very abstract and pretty and full of tiny sounds, good with earphones. Quite nice.
Just got these in today, list day, four new aRCHIVE dvd titles (Ai Aso, Mick Barr, Khlyst, and Suishou No Fune). So, we haven't had a chance to watch 'em yet but since they're limited and all we figured you'd rather we just went ahead and listed 'em now rather than waiting 2 weeks. And all four artists are pretty cool after all.
So, this one is from Japanese Tokyo Flashbackin' bleak psych-folk unit Suishou No Fune, featuring live footage from their 2007 East Coast USA tour, as shot and edited by James Plotkin. There's material from shows in NYC and Philly, and a segment where they jam with Bardo Pond and somebody called Harmonica Dan (like we say, we haven't seen it yet, but we'll guess he plays harmonica). So that all sounds pretty rad, if you like this band as much as we do. And Bardo Pond too!
The dvd is approximately 1 hour long, and is packaged in a swank four-panel foldy card thing in a PVC bag, with art/design by Stephen O'Malley. Limited, OF COURSE, to 600 copies!!!!
Oftimes, in the past, the drifting dark psychedelia of Tokyo "bleak folk" combo Suishou No Fune has been on the dreamier side, never quite as distorted and heavy as some of their amp-frying Japanese peers. Up-Tight and LSD-march and Acid Mothers Temple and so forth tend to crank it up more brutally, more often, while Suishou No Fune, though often displaying flashes of heaviness, are usually content with wallowing in a more atmospheric, delicate sort of murk... so a title like "Mystic Atmosphere" is to be expected... yet on this new limited edition cd-r, Suishou No Fune (here a trio, with occasional drummer Tail on board) are fairly quick to turn it up to 11! The dreamy drift is still there, but also lots of clattery drum-pound and guitar grind, taken to its most loud n' distorted degree on the final, 14:48 monster jam "SUSANO'O". Elsewhere Suishou carve canyons of feedback through the mists of opener "The Memory Of Ancient Times" (also 14+ minutes), plod ritualistically into sweet oblivion on "Endless Descent" (11 minutes), and throw a lo-fi thrashing psych tantrum on "UZUME" (3 minutes). Definitely a SNF disc for those hankering to hear 'em heavy it up and freak out a bit more than usual. WAY limited. We only have a very small handful and they're the last copies ever...
There's been a batch of cool releases recently from this underground Tokyo flashbackin' "bleak-folk" duo, including live albums on both the aRCHIVE and Important labels. How best to follow those up? How 'bout with a two-disc, two-hour studio set on Holy Mountain, all the more room for the Suishou two (Pirako and Kageo, both on guitar and vocals) to sprawl out and let their heavy lidded (if not quite heavy) psychedelia bleed so bleakly and beautifully, including a few tracks previewed in live versions, like "Cherry" and "Til We Meet Again". Even if you haven't heard those, if you've heard any Suishou No Fune chances are you know what you're in for... the usual Suishou blend of fragile vocals wailing ever so gently over meanderingly melodic string strum and amp hum, a downer droney trance-out that's super languid and echoey, relaxed and Rallizesized.
The extended, lethargic and lovely lo-fi shimmer that Suishou No Fune conjures is embellished by some percussive rattling ritual at the opening of "Prayer", and enhanced elsewhere by occasional amped-up moments of distortodelic heaviness ("Resurrection Night" being a solid sixteen-minute example), though it's generally far to the softer side of countryfolk Boris and Acid Mothers Temple (for instance). We can guess you'll be filing this with your Shizuka, LSD-march, and Nagisa Ni Te cds... that is, filing it only after playing it over and over quite a bit, lost in a hypnotic reverie each time.
Prayer For Chibi was recorded with the help of Steven Wray Lobdell (David Redford Triad, Faust) and the cd booklet features Japanese-to-English translations of all the lyrics by the always helpful in that regard Alan Cummings, lyrics full of flowers, dreams, rain, stars, fireflies, and la la las...
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
What does Japanese underground psych-folk, limited to 300 copies, we only got a dozen mean to you? That we don't have to write a lengthy review of this? Thanks, we thought so.
It's criminal that they made this so limited, 'cause some fans of this band are going to be disappointed (the ones that don't get a copy, of course, not those that do). This disc is another bleak trip into the "mystic atmosphere" of Suishou No Fune's lo-fi soundworld, the six long tracks here wandering a metaphorical, musical labyrinth golden with the glow of a setting sun. Some tracks generate a droning din, others more languidly flow with fragile vibrations, the band almost nodding off, but *nervously* never quite achieving that sad bliss. It's a hazy and gauzy interplay of (mostly) subdued electric guitar, clattering drums, and morose, wailing vocals that sound like the singer is singing *to himself*, trying to stave off existential loneliness and despair in the depths of the labyrinth. The guitar will sometimes build up, threatening full-on psych storms, but only really reaches max volume on the disc's final track, "Exit From The Labyrinth".
We'd recommended this to fans of LSD-march, Fushitsusha, etc. but it's not necessary. Firstly those folks probably already know about Suishou No Fune and secondly, we only have enough of these for Suishou No Fune fans first and foremost.
As always with our reviews of aRCHIVE releases, there's two things we can say about this, right off the top: the packaging is swank (in this case, the cd is affixed inside a glossy trifold card, itself enclosed in a translucent vellum wrapper). And it's hella limited (600 copies). So act fast if you want to score one of these documents of late-night, slow-burn psych from the duo of Tokyo's Pirako and Kageo. Recorded live in Philadelphia, PA on the 19th of March, 2007, The Light Of Dark Night consists of one 42 minute long track, featuring renditions of three songs flowing together: "Till We Meet Again (You Returned Home To The Heavens)", "A Rose Bloomed", and "You Look At The Night Sea". It begins with their guitars gently droning out of an ambient gloom, bleak yet beckoning... as their music meanders moodily forth, there's stretches of quiet, crystalline beauty, graced with soothing melody and yearning vocals... at other moments the proceedings are also graced with heavy duty distorto crunch, guitars amped up into sheer sheets of flashback fuzz! With no drums this night, it's more about the drone and the drift... definitely a disc that folks into the aura of Boris' Feedbacker might melt for.
Another excursion into the bleak, be-shadowed world of Tokyo psych-folk trio Suishou No Fune. Four long, shoegazing songs recorded live at several shows/venues. All share certain elements...
Aching, drifting guitar lines quietly howl of beauty and despair, melodies gracefully soaring and then expiring tenderly alongside the echoes of weary vocals and lethargic percussive clatter. This disc is definitely a slow-burn, late-night affair, all-embracing in its epic downer aesthetic.
While Suishou No Fune never sound like they're going to break a sweat (nodding off is more like it), they do channel an additional level of emotional energy into the pentultimate track 3, "A Rain", wherein the drum crashes and vocal cries and guitar wailings all crank it up a notch, more volume and chaos and sheer beauty. But that's the mere precursor to the wall-of-noise presence of the last and longest (21:50) track here, "The Storm Of Light / The Cherry", a grand fuzz finale of amped-up distorto drone... still gorgeously bleak and blissful!
A while back we had this band's self-titled debut (remember the nice pink cover?). Unfortunately we can't seem to get that one anymore, but we do now have this, Suishou No Fune's latest, Where The Spirits Are, released on the Holy Mountain label (home to Six Organs Of Admittance, Davis Redford Triad, Om, Mammatus, etc.). If you've heard that previous album of theirs you'll have an idea what this is about... Or also if you just peep the cover photo: three Japanese guys in shades and Keiji Haino haircuts. Yes you're guessed it, Tokyo Flashback style downer drone psych. Quietly drifting, distorted, dark sheets of guitar accompanied by abyssal cries, not altogether unmelodic however. They can rev it up cacophonously when they want, but for the most part they hold back the heaviness in order to generate a more gentle sort of atmospheric gloom, on such appropriately named tracks as "Apparition On A Moonless Night" and "Black Phantom". Again, murky majesty for fans of Up-Tight, LSD-march, Shizuka, and the like.
3rd album of super bleak, slo-mo deep drone psych from these Tokyo Flashback vets, the follow up to their 2006 Holy Mountain release Where The Spirits Are. There's three loooong tracks here in the gently morose mode you'd expect, with distorted whale-call guitars and hollow, lonely vocals... what you might not expect is the distressed psychedelic harmonica soloing that now features prominently (on track two)! Who knew the wheeze of the harmonica could be so fitting with such mysterious and murky surroundings? The gasping, dying breaths of monomaniacal melody it brings to the proceedings are usually appropriate however.
And we've gotta say, that's a great title ain't it? Writhing Underground Flowers. Like you've wandered into some gloomy cave full of bleached-white fungal growth, trembling in a subterranean breeze, a living mockery of true sunlit floral splendor... beautiful yet terrible too.
Housed in a nice pink cover-sleeve, this album's floating guitar psych is the work of another relatively new Japanese underground psych outfit that we first got turned on to via the PSF label's recent, excellent Tokyo Flashback 5 compilation! In our review of that comp, we described them/their track thusly: "bleak folk duo, very lovely, eventually overcome by space-out distortion". And that same assessment applies likewise to this self-titled debut disc of theirs, except that here they're a trio, with the core pairing of Pirako and Kageo (both guitar/vocals) joined by drummer Tail. 69 minutes, five tracks, delicate, dreamy and drifting. With gentle vocals and electric guitars mostly engaged in ethereal exploration (but capable, at times, of generating speaker-rattling stormclouds, when the trio get into their more slow-burning Rallizes-ish moments) this should be right up the alley of any of you into such bands as Nagisa Ni Te, Doodles, Shizuka, Overhang Party, and Up-Tight.
We took preorders for this (and the deluxe box set version too) a few weeks back, but now we have it in stock, we got a few extras of the regular edition so folks who maybe missed out on the preorder now have a chance to grab one of these!
A long in the works new release from one of our favorite labels, Brazil's Essence Music, who in the past have brought us amazing records from Boris, Circle Acid Mothers Temple, Aidan Baker, Henrik Nordvargr Bjorkk, Atomine Elektrine, Merzbow, Drakh, Rapoon, Wolfskin and more. This latest comes from Tokyo psychedelic drifters and longtime aQ faves Suishou No Fune, who are teamed up here with local psyche rockers Numinous Eye, aka Mason Jones (Subarachnoid Space) and Mike Shoun (The Oh Sees), whose recent Clockwork Moon lp we raved about recently on the aQ list.
And this is not a split, no this is both bands together, we imagine in some dark dimly lit space, in the middle of the night, no words exchanged, just a gradual opening up, everyone slowly losing themselves in a sonic trance, and letting the music carry them off, cuz that's what this sounds like, woozy and washed out, laid back and lysergic, the rhythm section simple and shuffling, motorik and darkly propulsive, while the multiple guitars weave tangled melodies, and smear strange shadowy streaks of ambience and atmosphere. Chordal swells pulse of deep rumbles, wound around the unwavering rhythm, while above, the sky is filled with prismatic streaks, aching, lilting melodies, soaring, drifting, ethereal and ghostlike one minute fierce and fiery the next. There are vocals too, wordless croons, that slip into strange falsettos and then back again, a sort of monklike chanting, that becomes almost operatic, there's harmonica too! On the more abstract nearly 30 minute second track, the drums skitter loosely beneath streaks of melodies and shards of disembodied guitar skree, little bits of twang, and distant reverby textures, while the harmonica wheezes and whispers, that track occasionally coalescing into a sort of almost-krautrock, but more often than not, simply dissipating into loose clouds of drifting sound, free form psychedelic exploration, lush and textured, but super open and abstract, the various guitars holding things together with their aching melodic explorations.
"The Rainbow Dissolving In The Ocean" channels a little Haino, in the wailed vocals, over moaning, keening guitar buzz, peppered with flurries of drum skitter and cymbal shimmer, all blurred and smeared into heaving dreamlike billows, eventually building to a wild multi-guitar, psych-noise tangle, swirls of echo and reverb, thick thrumming bass, and swirling percussive shimmers, all wrapped in a prickly field of distorted guitar swirl. And finally, closer "Space Cruising", locks things down rhythmically, the drums and bass, laying down a languorous, sinewy slither, wreathed in shimmery guitar strum, and again, surrounded by constantly shifting streaks of psychedelia, twangs, rumbles, whirs, melodic squiggles, slow smoldering chord progressions, eventually the whole thing builds again to one final blowout, aching vocals, blown out guitars, wild drum pound, the sound noisy and heavy, but still strangely lilting and lovely, definitely channeling the spirit of Les Rallizes Denudes, as does much of the record!
This is a special pre-order for two different versions of the latest release from one of our favorite labels, Brazil's Essence Music, who in the past have brought us amazing records from Boris, Circle Acid Mothers Temple, Aidan Baker, Henrik Nordvargr Bjorkk, Atomine Elektrine, Merzbow, Drakh, Rapoon, Wolfskin and more. This latest comes from Tokyo psychedelic drifters and longtime aQ faves Suishou No Fune, who are teamed up here with local psyche rockers Numinous Eye, aka Mason Jones (Subarachnoid Space) and Mike Shoun (The Oh Sees), whose recent Clockwork Moon lp we raved about recently on the aQ list.
And this is not a split, no this is both bands together, we imagine in some dark dimly lit space, in the middle of the night, no words exchanged, just a gradual opening up, everyone slowly losing themselves in a sonic trance, and letting the music carry them off, cuz that's what this sounds like, woozy and washed out, laid back and lysergic, the rhythm section simple and shuffling, motorik and darkly propulsive, while the multiple guitars weave tangled melodies, and smear strange shadowy streaks of ambience and atmosphere. Chordal swells pulse of deep rumbles, wound around the unwavering rhythm, while above, the sky is filled with prismatic streaks, aching, lilting melodies, soaring, drifting, ethereal and ghostlike one minute fierce and fiery the next. There are vocals too, wordless croons, that slip into strange falsettos and then back again, a sort of monklike chanting, that becomes almost operatic, there's harmonica too! On the more abstract nearly 30 minute second track, the drums skitter loosely beneath streaks of melodies and shards of disembodied guitar skree, little bits of twang, and distant reverby textures, while the harmonica wheezes and whispers, that track occasionally coalescing into a sort of almost-krautrock, but more often than not, simply dissipating into loose clouds of drifting sound, free form psychedelic exploration, lush and textured, but super open and abstract, the various guitars holding things together with their aching melodic explorations.
"The Rainbow Dissolving In The Ocean" channels a little Haino, in the wailed vocals, over moaning, keening guitar buzz, peppered with flurries of drum skitter and cymbal shimmer, all blurred and smeared into heaving dreamlike billows, eventually building to a wild multi-guitar, psych-noise tangle, swirls of echo and reverb, thick thrumming bass, and swirling percussive shimmers, all wrapped in a prickly field of distorted guitar swirl. And finally, closer "Space Cruising", locks things down rhythmically, the drums and bass, laying down a languorous, sinewy slither, wreathed in shimmery guitar strum, and again, surrounded by constantly shifting streaks of psychedelia, twangs, rumbles, whirs, melodic squiggles, slow smoldering chord progressions, eventually the whole thing builds again to one final blowout, aching vocals, blown out guitars, wild drum pound, the sound noisy and heavy, but still strangely lilting and lovely, definitely channeling the spirit of Les Rallizes Denudes, as does much of the record!
There are two versions of the record, a super deluxe boxset version, with extra music in addition to the extravagant packaging, and this one, the standard version, which is nearly as limited as the deluxe box, only 170 copies made, and each comes in a handmade and hand painted tip-on style mini lp sleeve with a printed Japanese obi, every one totally unique, we're only gonna order as many copies as we actually get orders for, so if you want one, and you probably do, you should definitely order it now. We'll have them in a few weeks and can send them off then.
Summons Of Shining Ruins is the nom de plume of Japanese post-shoegazing guitarist Shinobu Nemoto, who had released a rather exceptional piece of cinematic ambience for Experimedia in 2009 that came and went rather quickly. This is another one that will disappear in the blink of an eye as well, given the tiny edition of this pressing. There's only 53 copies around, probably due to the inclusion in the packaging of an antique chemists label culled from chain of British drug stores that at one time sold such things as 'liquid extract cascara sagrada' and 'camphorated oil.' A nifty piece of esoterica to go along with this tape of woozy, muffled drones from Nemoto. The tracks are much less dramatic than the album he did for Experimedia, instead these sullen ambient movements slowly waver along grey streamlined tones with upwelling melodies moving to the foreground from time to time. Certainly on par with the murky cassette work that Maeror Tri and Troum produced way back when, or maybe even some of the Lovesliescrushing driftworks but given a tape hiss makeover. Nice.
Craziness courtesy Mssrs. Yoshida (Ruins) and Yamamoto (Boredoms, Omoide Hatoba). 29 tracks with titles like "Rush In Outer Space" and "Dream, Scum, True!!".
Hey folks, here's one of the few releases on Japan's rather eccentric (and excellent) EM Records label that's NOT a reissue or archival collection, but new music by a new band! Weird. (Of course.) The oddly-named Supernatural Hot Rug And Not Used is one for those into free-rock improv noisiness, being a duo on electric guitar and "sort-of" electric bass. No effects. No "songs". Lots of quiet noisiness (but it's not "noise"). This Osaka-based outfit consists of Bunsho Nisikawa (guitar) and expatriate Canadian Tim Olive (bass), whom some might remember from a band called Nimrod, also Twerdocleb and Soap-Jo Henshi. Somehow, in a Osaka studio, they're able to conjure up stuff that sounds more like a creaky, glitchy field recording than two guys playing instruments. Together they weave a weird n' wild collision/collusion of sounds, some subtle, some not so... The more dronily mysterious, stretchy-scratchy, almost-rhythmic moments bring to mind the prepared turntable works of Pierre Bastien and Strotter Inst, or a more relaxed Voice Crack. Or even Coelacanth. This also sounds like something you might expect to hear on the Erstwhile label, from the likes of Keith Rowe or Toshimaru Nakamura. A pretty cool find for those who consider themselves connoisseurs of such interesting, abstract sounds! By the way, the band name is an example of the absurd "Japlish" prevalent on T-shirts in Japan...
Two new Utech's this list, and that's something to be stoked about, 'cause the label rarely disappoints, if ever. This one's from Japanese guitarist Suzuki Junzo, who's played in Tokyo flashbacking psych rock bands like Overhang Party, Miminokoto, and Astral Travelling Unity, though here he's solo, just him and his guitar and the black void. Yes, it can be bleak and ominous... but pretty, calm, mesmeric, too. There's four long tracks, beginning with the 20-minute title track, inspired by bluesman Lonnie Johnson's "Blue Ghost Blues"... though again, this isn't blues. Something far darker. For the first half, it could be a folky James Blackshaw on luudes kind of thing... then it enters eerie ambient suspense soundtrack territory... before around the 12 minute mark when Junzo puts the pedal to the metal and his amp begins to howl and fry Keiji Haino style. For reals, for Rallizes. Track two, "Beyond The Yellow Clouds", is 11 minutes of dark shimmering drone bliss, segueing smoothly into the disc's shortest (8:33) but most badass track, its title a tribute to the Pink Fairies, "Shivering Larry's Last Freakout", totally monomaniacal, distortodelic, repetitive riffarma that comes across like one of Tetuzi Akiyama's brilliant/dumb "Don't Forget To Boogie" cuts mixed maybe with some NWOFHM (Circle) stuff, frantic primitive minimalist ZZ Haino in a wind tunnel action - damn! Then as a comedown, chillout, final piece, there's 13 more minutes of ghostly guitar grind, a la Ulaan Khol or Li Jianhong, "Studies For Three Broken Canes Of Dr. Dream", that lives up to its fantastic title, whatever that means. We like, but we'll be queuing up ol' Shivering Larry again in a second, that's the jam!
Utech wins again with this one - grab a copy and put on your shades and enjoy. Limited to 300 copies only. And as usual with Utech stuff, packaged in a nice oversized sleeve. The artwork's mostly black, the only image, a half-seen Junzo holding his ghostly guitar. He's NOT wearing shades, which seems strange.
Keiji Haino, Takashi Mizutani, Munehiro Narita, Kawabata Makoto... these are (some of) the gods of Japanese psych guitar. Add Suzuki Junzo to the list, if you haven't already. He's quickly becoming one of our faves, for blacker-than-blues guitar/feedback wrangling. Back with another solo disc for the always-on-it (and out-there) experimental Utech label, Junzo, who has played guitar for such bands as Overhang Party and Miminokoto, delivers a gorgeous, darkly entrancing mixture of both noisy, heavy-duty distorto drone whoosh and quietly lovely acoustic atmospheres. Regarding the former, the epically titled (and epic otherwise as well) opener "When The Grey Skies Turns Into Blood Red" launches right into a session of wind-tunnel psych guitar grind, tumbling end-over-end with skittering percussion accompaniment to match, courtesy of Junzo's colleague Ikuro Takahasi (LSD-March, ex-Fushitsusha, etc.). That 15 minutes and 15 seconds of amp-worship improv is beautiful in its way, as is the quite contrasting next track (and title cut), Junzo shifting gears for an intimate acoustic reverie, a la James Blackshaw or Jack Rose.
Junzo is back to laying on the ghostly reverb (and some whispery hushed vocals too) with track 3, "La Notte", and the freely-textural percussion returns as well. That one's lovely enough, but then the finale, at 17 minutes even more epic than the opener (and with an even more epic title, too: "Dance Of The Inhabitants Of The Invisible Tower In The Ring Of Holy Mountain") takes us a way on a tremulous trip of slow sad strum and minimalistic string buzz. Tune in, zone out.
Yeah, another very nice one from our man Junzo!! In the usual swank Utech packaging.
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
SORRY.
*** COLLECTIBLE USED VINYL ***
Rare 1975 Avant Jazz from Japan.
Media: NM
Sleeve: VG
Sleeve has some minor seamwear and corner wear but otherwise solid.
For whatever reason, the recordings of Akio Suzuki are not easy to come by. Most of the output from this visionary Japanese instrument builder and improviser have quietly emerged and quickly disappeared. So this very subtle and very delicate 2003 improvisation with David Toop from the good folks at Sound 323 in London certainly caught our attention. One of Suzuki's most well known instruments is his collection of stone flutes, and the sounds from these instruments feature prominently in this set with David Toop. These curious objects product an eerie and ancient sound whose rasping whistles and watery trills embody an earthiness that predates the nomenclature from the history of music. Suzuki matches these sounds with delicate scrapes and textures from a couple of cymbals and a handful of small rocks. Toop does his best to articulate similar gestures within the purely acoustic improv strategies of the New London Silence school which developed in parallel Bernhard Gunter / Lowercase aesthetic of very quite electro-acoustic music and out of the late period works from AMM. For better or for worse, some of Toop's elements speak of a particular time and of a particular place (e.g. London, 2003) whereas Suzuki's offerings are beautifully non-specific in their cultural references. At other times, the two spiral metallic textures and softened drones of feedback with whirring flute glissandos, which all quietly float out of periodic silences. We've been told that during one of the quieter moments in the session, a woman next door can be heard singing in the bath. But like Suzuki's previous Kogezan Koukiji of temple improvisations recorded against a backdrop of a dramatic rainstorm, we've been thwarted in hearing these sounds by the patter of a springtime rainstorm and the constant blur of traffic sounds on Valencia Street. We're pretty sure Suzuki would be okay with those interruptions.
"Mind Blowin' Hippie Music" they do say so themselves. Ah, I remember we used to stock this album back when it was a vinyl-only offering (to/from the gods of Psych) around ten years or so ago. Ten years...wow. Now the good folks (and Ghost fanatics) at Drag City have at last made it available on cd, along with the reissue of Ghost leader Masaki Batoh's Collected Works cd. Batoh was also the guitarist in this band, a Tokyo psych quartet that flourished circa 1989-1993. Their lone album Live At Your Cosmic Mind is a fine slab of whooshing, driving, badass, acid space rock freak out stuff, by and for the stoned. What at the time was Hawkwind and Les Rallizes Denudes worship, contemporary with the likes of Fushitsusha, High Rise and White Heaven, now fits in perfectly with the current crop of psych-overload-overlords like Comets On Fire, Pharaoh Overlord and LSD-March. And Acid Mothers Temple too, of course -- in fact it's surprising not to see Kawabata's name on the sleeve! A sleeve decorated with (as I think someone else has pointed out before) some really rad Pedro Bell (Funkadelic cover artist!) styled color felt-tip pen psychedelic artwork. From the side-long opener "Badstone" to what was formerly side two, "White Lightnin' Boogie" and "Last Cosmic People Still Dreaming", this half-hour three-tracker is altogether heavy and blissful. Or, as Sweet & Honey put it, "Far Trippin' Out, So Cosmic--So Deep". So, thanks Drag City for doing this reish (and the Batoh one too, especially!) but we have one small complaint: Drag City, c'mon, we know you could spring for more than a single square of paper as the cd "booklet"...if you're gonna do that, at least use heavy cardstock or something! Well that's our cd packaging pet peeve Number 493...
