[ aquarius records

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

SORRY. Psychedelic pre-Ghost Japanese trio with Masaki Batoh.

Or, title SWR, band name Acid Mothers Temple SWR? It could be the other way around, hard to tell, does it matter? Either way, this is the debut disc of jamming from a rather warped power trio formed by members of Japan's Acid Mothers Temple -- specifically guitarist Kawabata Makoto (him again!), bassist/vocalist Atsushi Tsuyama, and sometime AMT drummer Tatsuya Yoshida, whom you should also know from Ruins! SWR stands for Stone Woman Record, three things these guys like a lot. Yoshida is especially well-known for his interest in stones, Kawabata's album covers tend to emphasize his appreciation of feminine beauty, and records, well, AMT wouldn't exist if vinyl hadn't been invented eh? So, song titles include "Do You Know Where The Second Hand Record Shop Is?" and "More Stones, More Women, and More Records" -- along with other, more puzzling titles like "There Is Nothing To Make You Happy In This Box!", "Eat A Pebble" (an ELP reference?), and "Gustavo Hendi". The records that SWR specifically might be spinning in their practice pad could include krautrockers Guru Guru (is the cover alluding to this?) and the free form freakouts of Hawkwind... There's lotsa weird vocals and effects. The sleeve just lists the instrumentation as bass/guitar/drums with only Tsuyama getting vocal credit, but we're pretty sure we can hear Yoshida's warble as well, along with some violin and perhaps flute. Very trippy and silly and psychedelic. It's more of the '70s psych fantasy that these guys have made themselves masters. Fans of the incestuous Japanese psych/prog scene to which AMT and Ruins belong may be able to get a sense of SWR if we tell you to imagine a cross between Nishinihon and Musica Transonic. That is almost what this is, in terms of who is in the band. Yoshida and Kawabata are both in Muscia Transonic, Kawabata and Tsuyama both in Nishinihon. And for that matter, Tsuyama and Yoshida are both in Akaten, and we could go on and on naming other bands with some shared membership: Zoffy, Mainliner, Seikazoku... oh, actually SWR has *exactly* the same lineup as Seikazoku. But this, while equally as weird as that band, is more aligned with the surreal heavy rock spoofing of Nishinihon... Don't expect anything too easily-digestible here, this ain't gonna convince your pal for whom Queens of the Stone Age is as weird-as-it-gets. SWR's equal parts riff rock and indulgent insanity, with the chaos/groove balance teetering wildly, will make him/her run for cover. Lastly, we've said it before and we'll say it again. How do they find the time?? I mean, sleeping and eating and other necessary bodily functions somehow must all take place when these guys aren't playing (and likely, recording) music. When the heck that is, we don't know. But we hope they never stop.

MPEG stream: Do You Know Where The Secondhand Record Shop Is?
MPEG stream: Bad Buddha
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New from Zorn's Tzadik label, a 1988 live recording from this Japanese "avant" pop girl duo. They sing, one plays violin, the other a Harry Partch style 43 tone organ. Thus, the obi says: "Microtonal pop for the 21st century!" By "microtonal" do they mean shitty '80s jazz fusiony crap? Well, some of this is quite pretty, and a few parts are wheezy and weird, but cute and fluffy and

At long last, the debut solo full-length from Mitsuru Tabata (ex-Boredoms, ex-Leningrad Blues Machine, and of course still K.K. Null's longtime guitar partner in heavyweights Zeni Geva)! Self-described as "monumental abstract rural eastern psych" and that sounds about right. Avant-guitar-drone-ophiles line up here. Beautiful!

Yay, here's another new solo album by Acid Mothers Temple member Tabata Mitsuru (who also has Zeni Geva and the Boredoms on his heavyweight Japanese underground musician resume). We mentioned this one in our review of his other recent solo disc We All Gonna Face The Rising Sun not long ago, and it's pretty similar, again getting the thumbs up from us, for it's gorgeous, droning blend of guitar, loops, backwards tapes, and noisy (but not too noisy) glitch. The tracks Mahhagogo parts 1 and 2 (with their cute little vocal intros) bookend this disc, being the hissingest, harshest dronewerks here. In between them you'll find four other pieces that are mostly much mellower, prettier and placid... mostly. All instrumentals, made from bits of simple guitar melody and swooshing pulses of gentle psychedelic electronics. The likes of "Hydrozoa" are a lazy drift of ambient abstraction, for a sundappled afternoon nap... So nice! Feedback and distortion transformed into utter, sweet blissfulness. So, it's been two Tabata Mitsuru albums in a fairly short span of time, but we've been fans of him for forever and by Acid Mothers Temple standards, he's not really that prolific. So, if he keeps doing what he's been doing on these, we'd be happy with a few more this year please!!

MPEG stream: Mahhagogo Part 1.
MPEG stream: Dust To Dust

Japanese guitarist Mitsuru Tabata's name should be better known than perhaps it is... he was an early member of the Boredoms, is a current member of Acid Mothers Temple & The Cosmic Inferno, and has served as KK Null's axe associate in Zeni Geva for many many years, among other activities. He's also made some brilliant solo albums, of which this is one (his third -- a fourth, on Utech, also just came out)! Rather than making much use of the heavier guitar blurt that so many of his other projects feature, on this solo disc Tabata works with layers of lovely loops, quietly cycling 'round a spacey cosmos of his own invention... well for the most part, though the track "Annihilation" does sound appropriately amped up and ferocious. But most of these pieces are built from backwards tapes, shortwave drones, guitars and synths spinning out gentle folky melodies amidst soothingly tripped-out electronic effects. Abstract psychedelic lullabies, calm and spacious and really nice! Highly recommended, all Acid Mothers Temple fans should check this out -- and not just them!

MPEG stream: Slave March
MPEG stream: Seagulls

Yet another release in Tiliqua's Erotic Oriental Sunshine series of Japanese erotic music from the sixties and seventies (the fourth of five!). We reviewed Kokotsu No Sekai from Japanese sexy action heroine Ike Reiko a while back, Kuwabara Yukiko To Anata from Japanese "Play Girl" Kuwabara Yukiko not long after that, and most recently, Modae No Heya from seventies bondage / S&M queen Naomi Tani, music recorded and released in 1979 to commemorate her retirement from the world of porn. And now we have Tokyo Emmanuelle Fujin - Amai Yoru No Tameiki from legendary porn actress Taguchi Kumi. For those just discovering the wonderful world of Iroke Kayoyoku for the first time, it's a sort of loungy exotica, equal parts Les Baxter and Ennio Morricone, a bastardized version of a more popular Asian music of the time, a funky, groovy, soulful soundtrack music, but sexed up with chanteuse like crooning, and most important of all, an amazing array of moaning and groaning and cooing and giggling, very playful and silly and sexy. Originally released in 1976, Tokyo Emmanuelle Fujin is a compilation, culled from the various porn movies which catapulted her to immediate stardom. This is not your average porn movie music, while some of this is funkier and a little bit groovier than the other volumes in the series, it's still rife with subtle Eastern melodies, spaghetti western guitars, soaring super dramatic strings, wild wah wah guitar, some seriously blasts of disco dance floor funk, some trippy Lawrence Welk style easy listening, a bit of twangy country guitar, dreamy piano balladry, some mysterious Pink Panther / Mission Impossible Mancini-esque minor key shuffle (in fact the last track pretty much IS the theme from the Pink Panther!), but over it all is Taguchi's breathless vocals, whispering, coo-ing, moaning, groaning and giggling. Not as sexy as it is kind of cute actually... Erotic and exotic, sexy and silly, funky and fun, and pretty dang strange really. Definitely essential listening for lovers of weird music, and all sounds strange and sexy. Packaged in a super deluxe Japanese miniature gatefold style cd sleeve, with a printed obi, saucy nude photos of Kumi on the cover, and extensive liner notes in English and Japanese! ULTRA LIMITED!!! Only 1000 copies pressed. Already almost sold out, so you know what that means...

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

SORRY. Metallic hardcore along the lines of Biohazard. Heavy and chugging, with a vocalist that sounds remarkably like Lemmy from Motorhead.

The wonderful, surprise second album from this all-star Japanese outfit (with members of Ruins, Omoide Hatoba, Bondage Fruit, etc.) whose main songwriter is Tatsuya Yoshida of Ruins. Musically this combines the manic, complex prog of his main band with elements of jazz, pop, cartoon music, and unclassifiable weirdness with instrumentation that includes guitars, keyboards, bass, drums, sampler, trumpet, violin, clarinet, sax, and of course lots of bizarre vocals. This is some of the most intensely strange, happy, lovely, beautiful, well-played "rock" music of 1998.

FINALLY BACK IN STOCK. THE ULTIMATE DRONE RECORD. We love this record so much. The Taj Majal Travellers are so utterly mind blowing. This is a double cd reissue of this legendary Japanese psych ensemble's second lp which has been unavailable for several years now, but when we did have it in stock, if anyone asked about drones, this is the record we would always suggest. One of the most hallowed artifacts of the psych-rock collector scum scene (originals on vinyl could set you back more than $1000!), this album is an epic higher key improvised drone extravaganza, all performed live on beaches and deserted hills in Sweden, India, Iran and England. Slow, complex, irregular throbbing waves of sound, broadcast through distant loudspeakers and recaptured and reincorporated. Feedback, time-space lag, horns, echo machines, and primitive handmade electronic devices all contribute to the ever shifting clouds of sound. So unbearably awesome. And this is not electronic music, or studio based carefully constructed drone music, this is massive and organic, dreamy and natural, waves of sound drifting through sun and sky, rain and fog, trees and electrical wires, the shape of the earth, the temperature, the wind, all affecting the sound, changing the timbre ever so slightly, band members spaced out over hundreds of yards, improvising on an impossible grand scale, the earth as their stage, nature as their recording studio, a deliriously abstract sound world of subtle drones and drifting ambience. Imagine some long hairded seventies Japanese psych rock combo, but filtered through the Jewelled Antler Collective, jamming with Chris Watson, set up on sandy dunes, grassy knolls, forest glades, each not necessarily -playing- their instruments, but instead coaxing sounds from within the instruments, setting those sounds free and sending them skyward, watching it drift downwind, where a bandmate snatches the sounds and coaxes complimentary sounds from his instrument, sending a sonic respone, until these messages, these sounds weave into and around each other, the sky full of warm warbly mysterious sound. Psychedelic for sure, but more a sort of eyes closed, mind open dream drift drone psychedelia. ONE OF OUR ALL TIME FAVORITE RECORDS!!

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The Taj-Mahal Travellers double cd 'August 1974' has to be one of the most essential drone music documents of the 20th century. Our description of that record describes the Taj Mahal Travellers sound perfectly: "epic higher key improvised drone extravaganzas Three extended tracks of sublime and transcendental musique concrete/drone. Sparse and spacious. With vocals and electronic trumpets augmenting the violin, contrabass, harmonica, sheet iron, castanet, vibraphone, guitar, percussion and radio oscillators. Dreamy and otherworldly, three epic tracks of hum and rumble, squeak and skree, clatter and tinkle envelop you in a completely new world of sound. So essential.

RealAudio clip: Between 6:20-6:46P.M.

This all time aQ psychedelic / drone favorite reissued for the first time on vinyl. One of our favorite groups of all time, whose rare recordings are psych-drone holy grails, we gushed extensively about the (now out of print) cd version ages ago, so for those of you who have somehow yet to discover the transcendental sonic beauty of TMT, or even if you've just been dying for this to come out on vinyl, read on� In the AQ canon of all time essential artists, of groups who have shaped all the music that followed in their wake, somewhere very near the top spot would be Japan's Taj Mahal Travellers. This sprawling seventies�psych drone unit led by Fluxus legend Takehisa Kosugi, were crafting gorgeous abstract drone drenched ambience long before most of the current crop of dronesters were even born.� The Taj Mahal Travellers were masters of the organic, of vibration, texture, timbre, utilizing bowed cymbals, violins, loudspeakers, tape loops and all sorts of unique source material, this collective created some of the�most enduring and unique psychedelic music ever recorded. Their music and performances were the physical embodiment of a philosophy, a way of life more than just simple 'playing music.'� It's hard to imagine the Skaters or Birchville Cat Motel or the Yellow Swans or even Wolf Eyes without the Taj Mahal Travellers. Often referred to by the press as "La Monte Young on acid", in a review of another, unfortunately out of print TMT album, we described their sound as "epic higher key improvised drone extravaganzas performed on beaches, deserted hills in Sweden, India, Iran and England. Slow, complex, irregular throbbing waves of sound, broadcast through distant loudspeakers and recaptured and reincorporated into the sound. Feedback, time-space lag, echo machines, and primitive handmade electronic devices all contribute to the ever shifting clouds of sound."� The music of the Taj Mahal Travellers thought is stubbornly indescribable. No words can possibly do justice to the spirits they were able to invoke, the atmosphere they were able to create, dark and dense and mysterious and ominous, but at the same time beautiful and brilliant and epic and spacious. This double lp features nearly 100 minutes of improvised droning captured live in Stockholm, Sweden in 1971, the group run stand-up bass, tuba, trumpet, select percussion, violin, flutes, mandolin, harmonica and synthesizer, not to mention "suntool" and "electronic technique" through primitive tape loops and delay effects for an awesome ritualistic performance, predating the likes of Zoviet France and about a million others by decades! The live sound is just as amazing as their records, which makes sense since their albums were essentially documents of live aktions.� The first lp is a single nearly hour long low end ritual, strings buzz and reverberate, as do voices, and bits of bowed metals, all beating against each other and creating all manner of cosmic vibrations, all accompanied by simple bells, or a single plucked note repeated over and over. Near the end, the vocals are soaring, and the tones have become long buzzing streaks, with plenty of spacey echo and strange damaged FX, it's hard to hear this and not exactly where Sunburned Hand and No Neck found their inspiration, these guys were creating the same sort of primitive primeval sounds, nearly 4 decades earlier, and with so much depth and emotion. The fact that a music so minimal and abstract can be so utterly moving is testament to the Travellers' unparalleled skill.� The second lp is much less low end rumble, and more a dizzying swirl of strange sonic events, here the horns are in full affect, sounding like a herd of alien elephants, moaning and bleating, the tones stretched out and draped across all manner of lower register rumbles and whirs. Percussion surfacing now and again like an angry rattlesnake roused from a midday nap, or a swirling cloud of tiny buzzing insects. Vocals drift in and out, shamanistic and chant like, moaning out strange melodies, mostly low and throaty but sometimes like curious feline mewling, all intertwined with the various other drawn out sounds. An incredibly intense organic ritual, purified by its intransitive nature, the improvisation guaranteeing that each performance belonged to the time and the place as much as the players. Absolutely and utterly breathtaking. Absolutely essential, and like pretty much ALL Taj Mahal Travellers records, probably more recommended than nearly any other record we've ever reviewed! REALLY!

MPEG stream: Improvisation, Part 1 (excerpt 1)
MPEG stream: Improvisation, Part 1 (excerpt 2)
MPEG stream: Improvisation, Part 2 (excerpt 1)
MPEG stream: Improvisation, Part 2 (excerpt 2)

Yay! Another old favorite finally reissued and back in stock. We first listed this back in 2000, and we still love it more than ever. First we had a Drone Syndicate edition, then a more expensive one on Walhalla, and now the DS version has been repressed, at the same cheaper price (though it lacks the liner notes, photos, and overall fancier packaging of the Wahalla one). In the AQ canon of all time essential artists, of groups who have shaped all the music that followed in their wake, somewhere very near the top spot would be Japan's Taj Mahal Travellers. This sprawling seventies psych drone unit led by Fluxus legend Takehisa Kosugi, were crafting gorgeous abstract drone drenched ambience long before most of the current crop of dronesters were even born. The Taj Mahal Travellers were masters of the organic, of vibration, texture, timbre, utilizing bowed cymbals, violins, loudspeakers, tape loops and all sorts of unique source material, this collective created some of the most enduring and unique psychedelic music ever recorded. Their music and performances were the physical embodiment of a philosophy, a way of life more than just simple 'playing music.' It's hard to imagine the Skaters or Birchville Cat Motel or the Yellow Swans or even Wolf Eyes without the Taj Mahal Travellers. Often referred to by the press as "La Monte Young on acid", in a review of another, unfortunately out of print TMT album, we described their sound as "epic higher key improvised drone extravaganzas performed on beaches, deserted hills in Sweden, India, Iran and England. Slow, complex, irregular throbbing waves of sound, broadcast through distant loudspeakers and recaptured and reincorporated into the sound. Feedback, time-space lag, echo machines, and primitive handmade electronic devices all contribute to the ever shifting clouds of sound." The music of the Taj Mahal Travellers thought is stubbornly indescribable. No words can possibly do justice to the spirits they were able to invoke, the atmosphere they were able to create, dark and dense and mysterious and ominous, but at the same time beautiful and brilliant and epic and spacious. This double cd features nearly 100 minutes of improvised droning captured live in Stockholm, Sweden in 1971, the group (minus Kosugi for some reason) run stand-up bass, tuba, trumpet, select percussion, violin, flutes, mandolin, harmonica and synthesizer through primitive tape loops and delay effects for an awesome ritualistic performance, predating the likes of Zoviet France and about a million others by decades! The live sound is just as amazing as their records, which makes sense since their albums were essentially documents of live aktions. The first disc is a single nearly hour long low end ritual, strings buzz and reverberate, as do voices, and bits of bowed metals, all beating against each other and creating all manner of cosmic vibrations, all accompanied by simple bells, or a single plucked note repeated over and over. Near the end, the vocals are soaring, and the tones have become long buzzing streaks, with plenty of spacey echo and strange damaged FX, it's hard to hear this and not wonder where in the hell Sunburned Hand and No Neck get off, these guys were creating the same sort of primitive primeval sounds, nearly 4 decades earlier, and with so much more depth and emotion. The fact that a music so minimal and abstract can be so utterly moving is testament to the Travellers' unparalleled skill. Disc two is much less low end rumble, and more a dizzying swirl of strange sonic events, here the horns are in full affect, sounding like a herd of alien elephants, moaning and bleating, the tones stretched out and draped across all manner of lower register rumbles and whirs. Percussion surfacing now and again like an angry rattlesnake roused from a midday nap, or a swirling cloud of tiny buzzing insects. Vocals drift in and out, shamanistic and chant like, moaning out strange melodies, mostly low and throaty but sometimes like curious feline mewling, all intertwined with the various other drawn out sounds. An incredibly intense organic ritual, purified by its intransitive nature, the improvisation guaranteeing that each performance belonged to the time and the place as much as the players. Absolutely and utterly breathtaking. Absolutely essential, and probably more recommended than nearly any record we've ever reviewed!

MPEG stream: Improvisation, Part 1 (excerpt 1)
MPEG stream: Improvisation, Part 1 (excerpt 2)
MPEG stream: Improvisation, Part 2 (excerpt 1)
MPEG stream: Improvisation, Part 2 (excerpt 2)

In the AQ canon of all time essential artists, of groups who have shaped all the music that followed in their wake, somewhere very near the top spot would be Japan's Taj Mahal Travellers. This sprawling seventies psych drone unit led by Fluxus legend Takehisa Kosugi, were crafting gorgeous abstract drone drenched ambience long before most of the current crop of dronesters were even born. The Taj Mahal Travellers were masters of the organic, of vibration, texture, timbre, utilizing bowed cymbals, violins, loudspeakers, tape loops and all sorts of unique source material, this collective created some of the most enduring and unique psychedelic music ever recorded. Their music and performances were the physical embodiment of a philosophy, a way of life more than just simple 'playing music.' It's hard to imagine the Skaters or Birchville Cat Motel or the Yellow Swans or even Wolf Eyes without the Taj Mahal Travellers. Often referred to by the press as "La Monte Young on acid", in a review of another, unfortunately out of print TMT album, we described their sound as "epic higher key improvised drone extravaganzas performed on beaches, deserted hills in Sweden, India, Iran and England. Slow, complex, irregular throbbing waves of sound, broadcast through distant loudspeakers and recaptured and reincorporated into the sound. Feedback, time-space lag, echo machines, and primitive handmade electronic devices all contribute to the ever shifting clouds of sound." The music of the Taj Mahal Travellers thought is stubbornly indescribable. No words can possibly do justice to the spirits they were able to invoke, the atmosphere they were able to create, dark and dense and mysterious and ominous, but at the same time beautiful and brilliant and epic and spacious. This double cd features nearly 100 minutes of improvised droning captured live in Stockholm, Sweden in 1971, the group run stand-up bass, tuba, trumpet. select percussion, violin, flutes, mandolin, harmonica and synthesizer through primitive tape loops and delay effects for an awesome ritualistic performance, predating the likes of Zoviet France and about a million others by decades! The live sound is just as amazing as their records, which makes sense since their albums were essentially documents of live aktions. The first disc is a single nearly hour long low end ritual, strings buzz and reverberate, as do voices, and bits of bowed metals, all beating against each other and creating all manner of cosmic vibrations, all accompanied by simple bells, or a single plucked note repeated over and over. Near the end, the vocals are soaring, and the tones have become long buzzing streaks, with plenty of spacey echo and strange damaged FX, it's hard to hear this and not wonder where in the hell Sunburned Hand and No Neck get off, these guys were creating the same sort of primitive primeval sounds, nearly 4 decades earlier, and with so much more depth and emotion. The fact that a music so minimal and abstract can be so utterly moving is testament to the Travellers' unparalleled skill. Disc two is much less low end rumble, and more a dizzying swirl of strange sonic events, here the horns are in full affect, sounding like a herd of alien elephants, moaning and bleating, the tones stretched out and draped across all manner of lower register rumbles and whirs. Percussion surfacing now and again like an angry rattlesnake roused from a midday nap, or a swirling cloud of tiny buzzing insects. Vocals drift in and out, shamanistic and chant like, moaning out strange melodies, mostly low and throaty but sometimes like curious feline mewling, all intertwined with the various other drawn out sounds. An incredibly intense organic ritual, purified by it's intransitive nature, the improvisation guaranteeing that each performance belonged to the time and the place as much as the players. Absolutely and utterly breathtaking. A really nice reissue of this long out of print two disc set, with liner notes, a history of the band, the story of this recording as well as amazing photos. Not sure how long we'll be able to keep these in stock, so please be patient if we run out, and it takes us a while to track down more. Absolutely essential, and probably more recommended that nearly any record we've ever reviewed!

MPEG stream: Improvisation, Part 1 (excerpt 1)
MPEG stream: Improvisation, Part 1 (excerpt 2)
MPEG stream: Improvisation, Part 2 (excerpt 1)
MPEG stream: Improvisation, Part 2 (excerpt 2)

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

SORRY.

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

SORRY.

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

SORRY.

Takagi Masakatsu's electronic ambience has been glitchified as another laptop excursion, yet he maintains a whimsical sense of melody rarely heard since Oval's "Diskont 94" and a sly use of the field recordings, allowing for the laughter of children and various sounds of domesticty to intervene in the subtly shifting glitch collages. Only disc one has audio, with disc two being a CD-Rom for both Mac and Windows.

The packaging here is real nice and maybe should be mentioned even before the music: the cd is nestled between two white cards screenprinted in silver-and-black with someone's intricate, abstract artwork (a fine-lined tangle of grass? or bones?). These cards and cd come in a plastic sleeve, inserted into a slot in a slender wooden box. The box is itself painted/printed in dark grey and white with identical artwork. Yup, very nice! This is a limited edition, of course. What manner of music is deserving of such special packaging? Well, Japan's Ikuro Takahashi is a percussionist who has played in or with all sorts of amazing bands from the Tokyo psych-rock underground, including Fushitsusha, High Rise, Kosukuya, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Nagisa Ni Te, Overhang Party and LSD-march. As a solo music-maker, though, he also experiments with electronics. So this release is quite different from most of those bands, though sharing a "darkness" that several of them possess! Domori To Sanshu consists of two long tracks (27 and 31 minutes apiece), one of 'em live, the other rendered on a computer. The live track comes first, immersing you in what (you might imagine) could be the night sounds from outside a rural temple...a high-pitched insectoid flutter and hum, in fact produced by the keening of Ikuro's oscillators and electronic effects. Subtle and strange. Eventually the echoing rattle and clatter of percussion enters the sound-field, but emptiness and hum are still the main attraction. This track builds in drone-ful intensity, with long notes drawn out into abstract mystery. Abstraction that continues with additional density on the second, computer-composed track, which is basically one seemly unchanging but in truth slowly undulating drone... both cuts provide some serious meditative 'music' for drone-heads to get lost in.

MPEG stream: Domori To Sanshu (live)

When an avant-garde free jazz outfit plays, and the audience is moved not just to boo and jeer but to also THROW THINGS at them, that's when real fans of outside improv insanity should go, man, I've got to check this out! That the band in question featured the legendary Japanese guitarist Masayuki Takayangi makes perfect sense, since back in the day he was pretty much THE most shockingly extreme electric guitarist in the realm of "jazz." As would likely be the case today, too, were he still alive. What we have here then is the notorious "La Grima" ("Tears"). 41 minutes, 45 seconds of EXPLOSIVE densefreejazzfreakout from a true power trio: Masayuki Takayangi on guitar, Kenji Mori on sax, and Hiroshi Yamazaki on drums, recorded live at the Genya Festival on August 14th, 1971. This wasn't a normal music fest, rather it was more of a demonstration organized in protest against the expansion of the Narita airport. And as radical as the protesters were, they apparently couldn't handle Takayangi's "new jazz" music AT ALL. His New Direction For The Arts group was NOT well-received at Genya. Those folks who were throwing stuff would probably be surprised to learn that 36 years later, "La Grima" would be a handsomely-presented cd release, eagerly awaited in fact by fans not even born back then! Yes, here at last is the full unedited recording -- previously just a tantalizing six minutes were heard on the Genya compilation LP, reissued on cd a few years ago. It's been remixed and remastered, and packaged in a miniature LP-styled gatefold sleeve. If you're familiar with Takayangi's work, you can guess that this is what he'd term a "Mass Projection" piece, nobody in the group holding anything back, Takayangi's guitar rumbling heavily under Mori's flights of sax-skronk, the splattery drumming of Yamazaki running circles 'round the other two, everything endlessly tumbling forward, into the abyss of amplifier abuse spawned by Takayangi, who simultaneously offers up scrabbling leads, dissonant drones, and fierce feedback attack. We suppose the saxophone is the most "jazz" sounding element, offering some snippets of melody amidst the blasting cacophony, but even then serving to highlight, in contrast, the electric violence of Takayangi's playing. With so much energy being released, maybe it's no surprise that the audience couldn't help but give some back!

MPEG stream: La Grima

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

SORRY. Tabletop guitar noise from the legendary late Japanese jazz guitar god, recorded 1985.

We have precisely ONE of these (although, we may be able to order more, eventually). So no big review, you (YOU?) either want this or you don't, several hours of archival live performances full of squealing, squeaking, squalling skronk by this Japanese improv jazz guitar legend and his New Direction Unit from the late '70s. Five separate shows, on five cds in individual slimline jewel cases packaged in a plastic sleeve/box with booklet (in Japanese): Regular Concert no.35 1977.6.2, Regular Concert no.36 1977.8.4, Another Situation First Concert 1977.9.4, Regular Concert no.39 1978.2.10, and Regular Concert no.43 1978.10.6, to use the formulations they do. Not sure what's so "Regular" about these concerts, exactly... Most of the discs/concerts consist of 2-5 lengthy pieces, the NDU improvising in various instrumental combinations, Takayanagi playing electric guitar or "gut guitar" (acoustic), others in the outfit variously on flute, clarinet, saxophone, bass, percussion. Sometimes it's the full ensemble, sometimes trios, duos, few solo tracks too. Obviously if you're a Takayanagi fan, and only if you're a Takayanagi fan, you just might be interested in this, to get some more "Mass Projection" into your life. "Gradually Projection" too! Good stuff as you'd expect, from quiet textural moodiness to utter gurgling frenzy. Limited edition of 500 copies. And, the one we have happens to come shrinkwrapped with a free bonus dvd disc, footage of Takayanagi performing in Tokyo, 1990. (Any further copies we might order, if we even can, won't have that.)

MPEG stream: Improvisation 4, Another Situation First Concert 1977.9.4
MPEG stream: Improvisation 1, Regular Concert no.43 1978.10.6

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

SORRY.

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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SORRY. Yay! Yet another astonishing and beautiful Takayanagi document becomes available (again). Solo electric "jazz" (quotations theirs) guitar improv from this Japanese legend, working with tunes by Ornette (the title cut, of course), Charlie Haden ("Song For Che"), Lee Konitz, Lennie Tristano, and his own self, as well as a version of "Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair". Definitely on the more inside, trad jazz side of his ouvre, but that's only relatively speaking, since the "outside" includes tabletop guitar noise fests that would make Thurston Moore run for cover. Again, fans of Fred Frith, Sonny Sharrock, Ray Russell, and the like should get in line. Recorded in '82.

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SORRY. From 1979, Japanese improv legend Takayanagi's "Second Concept" quartet plays some perhaps uncharacteristically straight ahead, "cool" jazz...there's none of his famed guitar freakouts here, but it's still a nice jazz date, demonstrating that his facility with "outside" avant-garde free jazz playing was rooted in an appreciation of "inside" stuff as well. Japanese import in handsome hardback digibook packaging.

The sequel to the "Mass Projection" disc (reviewed last list), here's more live guitar/sax improv action drawn from the same 1970 performance by these cult Japanese free jazz masters. This release explores an equally "out" but just not as quite as noisy side

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SORRY. From the black-on-black packaging worthy of a Keiji Haino release, complete with badass photos of these two '70s Japanese free jazz legends (the soon-to-die-young saxophonist Kaoru Abe clutching his horn in a suitably doomed pose, and jazz-meets-noise guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi looking commanding in shades), you know that this disc is going to be a serious listen. And intense it is, drawn from the harsher portions of a 1970 live performance (the somewhat mellower remainder of the set is also soon to be released, as "Gradually Projection"). Unlike several recent Takayanagi archival releases, this doesn't have anything to do with his more straight ahead jazzy "Cool Jojo" style. No, this is all loud, scary skree looking to fuck with your head. Abe takes the lead, actually, his saxophone sounding utterly desperate and apocalyptic, but Takayanagi doesn't flinch from the fray either. Not for the faint of heart!

Some of the heaviest "jazz" ever, recorded in 1970 amazingly enough. The drummer should be in a hardcore band, the guitar player (the legendary Masayuki Takayangi) makes Sonny Sharrock sound like a wimp, and the bass and sax are equally intense. Our fave Takayangi release. Noise guitar way ahead of its time. Beautiful, beautiful noise.

RealAudio clip: Extraction

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SORRY. More 1970 out-jazz from a trio version of pioneering noise guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi's New Direction unit. Two long tracks, "Herdman's Pipe of Spain" and "Mass Projection" that are a little more mellow and melodic than the stuff on the "Call In Question" cd, but not much more.

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SORRY. Oh man. Over the past year or so we've been lucky enough to get a hold of reissues of a bunch of rare albums by Japanese jazz legend Masayuki "Jojo" Takayanagi performing with his New Direction(s) unit: Axis Another Revolvable Thing Parts 1 and 2, Eclipse, La Grima. Lucky 'cause we LOVE way-out-there improv electric guitar, which Takayanagi provides in spades, 'specially when he and his group are off on one of his "mass projection" freakouts. Well this here cd reissue (a deluxe gatefold mini-LP sleeve styled import on the always interesting and well-packaged Tiliqua label) is another must have for any Takayanagi fan, documenting his first recording session in 1969 as leader of the initial incarnation of his New Directions group, a trio consisting of drummer Sabu Toyozumi and bassist Motoharu Yoshizawa along with Takayanagi. That's right, no saxophone for you sax haters out there! Just amped-up, feedback-filled guitar skree, brutally bowed bass and crashing drums on such lengthy mass projections as "The Galactic System" and "Piranha". There's also quieter, "gradually projection" pieces here too, some really beautiful, abstractly atmospheric ones including "Herdsman's Pipe Of Spain" (with Yoshizawa on folk-pipe) and the interludes "Deepnight...Swamp" and "Sick...Sick...Sickness...My Aunt". Wow what great titles!! This Tiliqua reissue of this classic adds a bonus track, from the 1970 compilation LP Guitar Workshop, that in fact is maybe the most intense thing on here. There are also liner notes from the perceptive and well-informed Alan Cummings, who proceeds to really set the scene for this music with his evocative description of the seedy Tokyo jazz quarter of Shinjuku in the sixties and early seventies, a place where Takayanagi's revolutionary jazz explorations fit right in with experimental artists and acid rock radicals.

MPEG stream: The Galactic System
MPEG stream: Herdsman's Pipe Of Spain

Fans of heavy duty improv jazz guitar freakout awesomeness, who were so recently thrilled by the sudden, first time on cd re-release of Japanese electric guitar improv legend Masayuki Takayanagi's super-rare Axis Another Revolvable Thing Parts 1 and 2 (those cds reviewed here two lists back) now have *another* incredible Takayanagi document from way back in the day to get excited about! Again from 1975, this album by Takayanagi and his fierce New Direction Unit is definitely in the same mind blowing mold as the Axis discs. Side one (tracks 1 and 2 here) are slow-burning "Gradually Projection" pieces, to use Takayangi's unique terminology. Side two (the 25+ minute third track) is a "Mass Projection". Whether "gradual" or "mass", these "projections" all share a dense, dark, energetic sound (potential energy in the case of the former, energy fully unleashed with the latter). Here, as on those Axis albums and elsewhere, Takayangi's music is filled with sinuous drones, sharp-edged feedback, trilling fret frenzies, scabrous sax soloing, freeform flute flutter, roiling percussion... the group really creates a living thing, compelling, threatening, electric, violent, beautiful. Thirty years later, this still destroys!! This reissue is on a different Japanese label than the Axis reissues, but comes in similarly nice packaging, a miniature replica of the original LP sleeve, which came out in an edition of just 100 copies back in '75.

MPEG stream: First Session I
MPEG stream: Second Session

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The late electric guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi is a legend in Japanese free jazz circles, a bold creator and explorer, who from the late '60s through the '90s broke down or went around the inside/outside jazz dichotomy, putting his axe to work in settings ranging from cool post-bop standards to textural tabletop noise experiments. Definitely an original, it's only for our convenience that he could be described as kind of like a Sonny Sharrock, Fred Frith, and Derek Bailey, all rolled into one. Even, say, Wolf Eyes teaming up with Anthony Braxton couldn't outgun Takayangi at his fiercest (by the way, that believe-it-or-not collaboration actually exists and is pretty cool, see elsewhere on this list for a review!). And here is a two volume set documenting the power and beauty of Takayangi's heavy duty, feedback-shaping skree circa 1975, in the context of his New Direction Unit, a quartet also featuring Nobuyoshi Ino on bass and cello, Hiroshi Yamazaki on percussion, and Kenji Mori on reeds. Originally released on vinyl by a Japanese label called Offbeat, these two LPs have been coveted rarities pretty much ever since. A bit of a Holy Grail to some. So, we were excited (and expect some of you to be too) that these records have now officially reissued on compact disc, in nice miniature LP jacket styled cardboard sleeves, reproducing even the misspelling "Revolable" on their covers. They're Japanese imports on a great avant-garde music label called Doubtmusic (we'll have some other titles from them listed soon, including Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Orchestra doing a cover of Eric Dolphy's classic Out To Lunch album reviewed elsewhere this list) but we were able to get them for a decent price, $17, not bad at all considering we just saw that someone sold one of these very cds on eBay as a buy-it-now item for $40! Then again, who can put a price on wild and wooly, freeform "jazz" improv action like this? Actually, both albums have their more quiet and gentle passages, of delicate string-scrabble, spacious drum-clank, and abstract, pretty reed blowing like birds a-twitter (in Takayangi's theoretical terminology, these pieces are called "gradually projection") that build up into denser, stormier freakouts wherein his guitar is fully unleashed and the rest of the group strains mightily to match (what Takayangi terms "mass projection"). On volume two, you get one gradually and two mass projections, while volume one features one gradually, one mass, and also a 13-minute percussion solo! These reissues include the original liner notes by Teruto Soejima (translated into English, yay!). One paragraph stands out as being particularly descriptive: "Drifting through all of New Direction Unit's music is the scent of blood. Not old, clotted blood, but fresh blood. This isn't mere semblance of music; it's sound through which the blood of human beings has passed. Which is why, in the group's performances, blood seethes, flows against the current, burns, oozes, rises, congeals, is spewed out, gushes forth. Vivid red blood. Takayanagi's ultimate artistic aim may well be the the color of this blood." You might say ew, but listen and see if that doesn't seem true. Additionally, for techies who need more than blood, we're provided with an obsessively detailed list of the specific microphones used for these recordings, along with the type of mixing console and tape recorder and even the precise brand of tape! It's a bit like the Fucking Champs do on their albums...

MPEG stream: Fragment VI
MPEG stream: Fragment II

The late electric guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi is a legend in Japanese free jazz circles, a bold creator and explorer, who from the late '60s through the '90s broke down or went around the inside/outside jazz dichotomy, putting his axe to work in settings ranging from cool post-bop standards to textural tabletop noise experiments. Definitely an original, it's only for our convenience that he could be described as kind of like a Sonny Sharrock, Fred Frith, and Derek Bailey, all rolled into one. Even, say, Wolf Eyes teaming up with Anthony Braxton couldn't outgun Takayangi at his fiercest (by the way, that believe-it-or-not collaboration actually exists and is pretty cool, see elsewhere on this list for a review!). And here is a two volume set documenting the power and beauty of Takayangi's heavy duty, feedback-shaping skree circa 1975, in the context of his New Direction Unit, a quartet also featuring Nobuyoshi Ino on bass and cello, Hiroshi Yamazaki on percussion, and Kenji Mori on reeds. Originally released on vinyl by a Japanese label called Offbeat, these two LPs have been coveted rarities pretty much ever since. A bit of a Holy Grail to some. So, we were excited (and expect some of you to be too) that these records have now officially reissued on compact disc, in nice miniature LP jacket styled cardboard sleeves, reproducing even the misspelling "Revolable" on their covers. They're Japanese imports on a great avant-garde music label called Doubtmusic (we'll have some other titles from them listed soon, including Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Orchestra doing a cover of Eric Dolphy's classic Out To Lunch album reviewed elsewhere this list) but we were able to get them for a decent price, $17, not bad at all considering we just saw that someone sold one of these very cds on eBay as a buy-it-now item for $40! Then again, who can put a price on wild and wooly, freeform "jazz" improv action like this? Actually, both albums have their more quiet and gentle passages, of delicate string-scrabble, spacious drum-clank, and abstract, pretty reed blowing like birds a-twitter (in Takayangi's theoretical terminology, these pieces are called "gradually projection") that build up into denser, stormier freakouts wherein his guitar is fully unleashed and the rest of the group strains mightily to match (what Takayangi terms "mass projection"). On volume two, you get one gradually and two mass projections, while volume one features one gradually, one mass, and also a 13-minute percussion solo! These reissues include the original liner notes by Teruto Soejima (translated into English, yay!). One paragraph stands out as being particularly descriptive: "Drifting through all of New Direction Unit's music is the scent of blood. Not old, clotted blood, but fresh blood. This isn't mere semblance of music; it's sound through which the blood of human beings has passed. Which is why, in the group's performances, blood seethes, flows against the current, burns, oozes, rises, congeals, is spewed out, gushes forth. Vivid red blood. Takayanagi's ultimate artistic aim may well be the the color of this blood." You might say ew, but listen and see if that doesn't seem true. Additionally, for techies who need more than blood, we're provided with an obsessively detailed list of the specific microphones used for these recordings, along with the type of mixing console and tape recorder and even the precise brand of tape! It's a bit like the Fucking Champs do on their albums...

MPEG stream: Fragment IV
MPEG stream: Fragment V

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SORRY. Limited edition re-issue of an ultra rare 1970 recording by Japanese free improv legends Masayuki Takayanagi on guitar and Kaoru Abe on alto sax, bass clarinet and harmonica. Very noisy, "out" stuff for fans of Derek Bailey and Evan Parker.

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SORRY. Sort of a "Best Of" Toru Takemitsu, the highly acclaimed film score composer from Japan. Features the original music from Harakiri, Woman In The Dunes, Dodes'kaden, Kaseki, Banished Orin, Empire Of Passion & Rikyu. Plus there are three extra tracks of Takemitsu's music recorded by John Adams & the London Sinfonia from the films Jose Torres, Black Rain and The Face Of Another.

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Longtime AQ fave Nobukazu Takemura -- ex-Mo'Wax-style club DJ, Steve Reich remixer, Tortoise collaborator, Powerbook maestro -- offers a new full length of bubbly electronica / pop with attention to texture, whether it is bass like a quiet heartbeat, or chiming bell-like electronic tones cavorting in the background like Raymond Scott gone minimalist techno, or glitchy clicks goodnaturedly jockeying for position. On 10th, Takemura also really gets into the frankly-fake casio-filtered vocals that have made occasional appearances in his past work. This time the vocals, often sung in English, are cut up into delightful little snippets, sounding like a happily hiccupping big sister of the sad Mac guy on OK Computer. Fans of Mouse on Mars and other burbly bloopy fun electronica, take note!

RealAudio clip: A Puff of a Word
RealAudio clip: Wandering

[ aquarius records — Japan ]