Aquarius Records: Search Results for Keyword: Masami Kawaguchi
search by:
view shopping cart

home
staff
audio clips
newest arrivals
about the store
art / photo exhibits
catalog / list archive

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O
P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Other

20th century composers
compilation / split
country/folk/blues
country/folk/blues ("no depression")
dvd / video / film
electronic
exotica / novelty
experimental
finland
found sounds, field recordings, oddities
hip hop
hip hop (turntablism)
hiphop
hiphop (turntablism)
international
international (africa)
international (asia)
international (central / south america)
international (cuba)
international (europe)
international (french pop)
international (latin american psych/tropicalia)
international (middle east)
japan
japan (noise/free/psych)
japan (pop)
jazz
local
metal
metal (black metal)
metal (stoner/doom)
print
reggae/dub
rock/pop
rock/pop ('60s psych/garage)
rock/pop (goth/industrial/darkwave)
rock/pop (krautrock)
rock/pop (prog rock)
rock/pop (punk/hardcore)
soul/funk
soundtracks
spoken word & comedy

Records of the Week
Alison's Favorites
Allan's Favorites
Andee's Favorites
Andrew's Favorites
Antaeus's Favorites
Ashley's Favorites
Byram's Favorites
Cameron's Favorites
Christine's Favorites
Cup's Favorites
Frank's Favorites
Irwin's Favorites
Jason's Favorites
Jenny's Favorites
Jim's Favorites
Jon's Favorites
Kerry's Favorites
Lauren's Favorites
Matt's Favorites
Michael's Favorites
Nick's Favorites
Pam's Favorites
Sally's Favorites
Scott's Favorites



IMPORTANT (Please read to avoid confusion):
Some items below may be tagged with a bold, red, all-caps "out of print/unavailable" notice. This does NOT mean that all other items not so tagged are, in fact, in stock -- or for that matter, in print and available, though there's a good chance they are. Some folks get confused on this point, and we can see why, so please read this for further clarification and other important before-you-order information. Unlike some mailorder websites, we don't have an electronic inventory system linked to our site, so you can't be sure of what we actually have or don't have in stock at any given moment without asking us -- please email our mailorder department for availability status -- or better yet, just go ahead and place your order using our shopping cart function and we'll get back to you with the status of each item. If you have general non-mailorder questions, email the store.


album cover KAWAGUCHI, MASAMI & NEW ROCK SYNDICATE s/t (Purifiva) cd-r 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Lots of Japanese psych this list, eh? Not one but two Acid Mothers Temple releases, the psych-tinged doom of Garadama, and also this half-hour, limited edition debut cd-r release from Masami Kawaguchi's New Rock Syndicate. Masami Kawaguchi? That's the former guitar guru who dealt the high-decibel damage in underground Japanese psych outfit Miminokoto (he's also been a member of Broomdusters, LSD-march, and Keiji Haino's Aihiyo). But now Miminokoto are no more -- long live the New Rock Syndicate!
Miminokoto, over several desirable releases that had come our way in recent years, carved a niche for themselves as a particularly melancholy and melodic Japanese garage psych band, one that pushed the VU meters (and comparisons) both with heavy duty guitar excess and almost-poppy punk jangle. Kawaguchi's new trio carries on the tradition, his guitar and vocals well supported by bassist Akira Kikuchi and drummer Nao Shibata over the course of these five tracks, which vary from all-out psych overload, as displayed by wailing opener "(Theme From) New Rock Syndicate" for instance, to more relatively restrained fare like "Mienakunaru" (which hints at the trippy grooves of The Doors) and the (mostly) gentle balladry of "Everything Is", wherein everything is aching with misery. None are untouched by the shrapnel coming off of Kawaguchi's six string, though, which is definitely a forced to be reckoned with on the final track, "Tottemo", which channels "Louie Louie" just a bit, but with more than enough distortion and feedback and destructiveness to give you Tokyo Flashbacks for weeks...
We're definitely looking forward to seeing Kawaguchi & Co. when they come play out here in SF and perhaps elsewhere Stateside in October.
MPEG Stream: "(Theme From) New Rock Syndicate"
MPEG Stream: "Melt"

album cover KAWAGUCHI MASAMI'S NEW ROCK SYNDICATE Cat Vs. Frog (Palindrone) lp 17.98

album cover LSD POND (LSD MARCH + BARDO POND) s/t (aRCHIVE) 2cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This one hardly needs a review. Space rockers Bardo Pond, jamming with Japanese psych-rockers LSD-March! Two discs, looooooooong songs, plenty of sprawling druggy psychedelia, throbbing serpentine basslines, busy groovy drumming, and lots and lots and lots of guitars, buzzing and whirring, grinding and roaring, wailing and howling.
Culled from two stoned, late-night recording sessions on days off from the 2006 Bardo Pond / LSD-March / Masami Kawaguchi's New Rock Syndicate East Coast tour, these tracks were edited together by Bardo Pond-er Michael Gibbons with no overdubs, just a document of epic, swirling, lurching, grooving spaced out psych rock.
Incredible recording, super clear, almost studio quality, multiple drummers, multiple guitar players, the sound is loud, and intense, sometimes blissing out into laid back stretches of near ambient tranquility, but always building back up into howling squalls of freaked out psychrock nirvana. The first disc is the more jammy of the two, more loose and improvised sounding, even the opening track fades in with the track already in full swing, like they had already been jamming for a while before we even got to the part.
The second disc introduces flute, and some electronics, and begins with a looped lick, over some skittery drumming, and some serious grinding growling low end, it goes on for ages, and we never really wanted it to stop. It does eventually, which is okay as the band has already moved on, locking into some new looped rhythm, the guitars fiery arcs of sound, that low end continuing to grind and buzz, the multiple guitars and guitar parts careening wildly over a roiling backdrop of howling moaning distorted buzz.
The second track on disc two is almost entirely ambient, sounding more like Toho Sara or something, the guitars smeared and blurred, everything buzzy and rumbling, clouds of tinkling shimmer and random percussive clatter, hand drums, glitchy electronics, streaks of feedback, thick swaths of distorted abstract riffing, culminating in a soaring blown out multiple guitar-ed Ur-drone. The disc finishes off with a 20 minute scorcher that goes from furious psych skree meltdown, to stumbling abstract freeform flutter and back, the players locked in a battle to the death, full freakout, ultra-noise mode, vocals scrambling over a dogpile of grinding electronics, a sea of shrieking feedback, an avalanche of drum chaos, and about a ton of blown out guitar damage. Phew.
Every time we play this in the store, someone buys one, or someone comes out from the back to see what the heck is playing. This might just be one of the most played discs in the store recently. And rightfully so.
As always, aRCHIVE spares no expense on the packaging, but they may have outdone themselves this time. A thick textured black ink on cream cardstock gatefold sleeve, the words LSD and POND embossed and printed in reflective silver ink, inside an 8 page black and white booklet affixed to the sleeve, with live photos and liner notes, each disc in it's own black sleeve, printed in silver ink, Japanese characters, the two discs held together by a Japanese style obi, in the same style as the cover. WOW.
LIMITED TO 1000 COPIES. A one time pressing, so don't miss outŠ
MPEG Stream: "We Are LSDPOND (2nd Version)"
MPEG Stream: "Sugatanaki Kyofu"

album cover LSD-MARCH Big Jar Solo Sets (aRCHIVE) dvd 15.98
Japanese heavy psych guitar exploders LSD-march performing live in a book store?? What happened to shhhhh, quiet please, people are reading? Well actually this DVD document of LSD-march live at Philadelphia's Big Jar books is actually a triptych of solo sets from each of LSD-march's three members, so they are relatively quiet (as compared to the usual full-band blow-out volume dealing). Filmed whilst on a brief US tour last fall, the softer side of each individual in the band is revealed. Drummer Ikuro Takahashi gets the most avant-garde, with an odd apparatus of oscillators giving off experimental drones... while both guitarists Shinsuke Michishita and Masami Kawaguchi do sets of gentle vocal/guitar folkiness, a la the calm in the storm often heard in LSD-march sets. Totally personal, and perfect for this intimate setting. Some use of video effects adds to the psychedelic atmosphere. And of course aRCHIVE has packaged this 550-copy limited edition (natch) dvd handsomely in a hand silkscreened folder with some very cool artwork commissioned for this release.

album cover LSD-MARCH Live (aRCHIVE) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We could go on and on about how this is some awesome, super blown out and distorted Rallizes-like Japanese psych here but let's mention the important stuff first: this nicely-packaged live disc is limited to 500 copies, and is already sold out at the label and thus out of print! So the few copies we have now are the last ones we're gonna see. Maybe Archive (same folks who've brought us equally precious live documents by the likes of Boris, Khanate, Growing, and Keiji Haino, some of which went so fast we never even listed 'em) ought to up their press runs?
If you've never heard LSD-march before, we'd direct you to investigate their not-so-limited album Suddenly, Like Flames -- if only so as to leave more of these Live discs for all the fans who're sure to be elbowing each other aside to grab one of these.
But to fulfill our descriptive duties, we'll go on... Bookended by two different versions of "Black Bouquet" done by different lineups, this disc captures performances that were distorted to begin with, but whose clangor is only enhanced by the "recorded-in-a-concrete-garbage-can" atmosphere. And that's PERFECT for them, making this sound even more like of of those rare Les Rallizes Denudes boots... so we're not complaining at all! Lotsa flaming wreckage of wailing guitar, feedback and murk. Headnodding, driving beats. Slowing down for stretches of gentle balladry before kicking in again with the jams and cranking the VU meter...well actually their "VU" (as in Velvet Underground) meter is always cranked, isn't it?
Five of the eight tracks here were recorded in 2002 by guitarist/vocalist Shinsuke Michishita, bassist Masami Kawaguchi, and drummer Ikuro Takahashi (ex-Fushitsusha). The other three date from 1997 and thus feature an earlier LSD-march lineup with Shinsuke Michishita joined by Makoto Inoue on bass, and Eddie and Bill from the band COA on guitar and drums!
MPEG Stream: "Physical Bud"
MPEG Stream: "Clepsydra Flames"

album cover LSD-MARCH Shindara Jigoku (Siwa) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The second vinyl-only release we've had from Tokyo's LSD-march, whose LP Kanashimino Bishouen on HP Cycle and cd Suddenly, Like Flames on Last Visible Dog were both devastating dark psych-out outings in the tradition of Les Rallizes Denudes. This one, handsomely presented in hand-screened cover in a limited edition (of course), hews to their murky brand of psychedelic blackness, while leaning perhaps towards the gentler side of said blackness... Fans will recognize three of the six tracks here as being reinterpretations of cuts from the Suddenly, Like Flames cd. Again the line-up features guitarist/vocalist Shinsuke Michishita joined by drummer Ikuro Takahashi and guitarist (not bassist, this time) Masami Kawaguchi. We've only got a few...

album cover MIMINOKOTO 3 (Siwa) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Along with LSD-march's Shindara Jigoku, here's another slab of vinyl on Siwa from another excellent underground Japanese psych unit. Tokyo's Miminokoto (who, like LSD-march, have also released a cd on the Last Visible Dog label) present their appropriately titled third studio recording as a limited, vinyl-only edition boasting a nice hand-screened cover. Collectors will want this, but also anyone into garagey guitar psych... And we weren't aware of this before, but Miminokoto is somewhat of a Tokyo psych veteran supergroup, with a line-up that includes: Masami Kawaguchi (Broomdusters, LSD-march, Aihiyo), Koji Shimura (White Heaven, High Rise) and Takuya Nishimura (Che-Shizu)!

album cover MIMINOKOTO Green Mansions (Alchemy) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Glory be! We've got not one but TWO new albums from Miminokoto, who you may already know as one of the new wave of Japanese psych trios (along with LSD-march and Up-Tight also) making the rounds of late. Miminokoto currently consist of singer/guitarist Masami Kawaguchi (LSD-march, Broomdusters, Aihiyo), drummer Koji Shimura (White Heaven, High Rise) and bassist Hiroaki Takeuchi. How does this particular unit stand apart from their peers? Well, although quite capable of building up into big, burning, fuzzed-out guitar clangor (and when they do, they get just as gnarly as the rest), they have a mellow side to 'em, one that's very melancholic and emotional, that they explore in perhaps greater depth and duration than those other bands tend to do. With weary vocals of which maybe even Jandek would be proud, Miminikoto can create a sense of sadness which makes Kawaguchi's howling guitar, when it kicks in, all that much more cathartic. They also aren't afraid of some poppy jangle too, so you're never sure what's around the corner. From track to track, one cut might be a punked out stormer, the next a gentle web of fragile notes.
Of these two new releases, one's an import studio recording, and the other's a domestically released live album (though this sort of stuff always seems live). There's five magnificently meandering and oft harrowing new tunes on the Alchemy disc Green Mansions, while the live disc on LVD, Orange Garage (named for the venue where these void-vibes were conjured), features new n' heavier versions of three previously recorded Miminokoto tracks plus three other totally new compositions, culminating in the 16+ minute "Kumononaka". Can't really pick between 'em, either or both should be of interest to any Japanese psych-scene follower...
MPEG Stream: "Echo"
MPEG Stream: "When"

album cover MIMINOKOTO Orange Garage (Last Visible Dog) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Glory be! We've got not one but TWO new albums from Miminokoto, who you may already know as one of the new wave of Japanese psych trios (along with LSD-march and Up-Tight also) making the rounds of late. Miminokoto currently consist of singer/guitarist Masami Kawaguchi (LSD-march, Broomdusters, Aihiyo), drummer Koji Shimura (White Heaven, High Rise) and bassist Hiroaki Takeuchi. How does this particular unit stand apart from their peers? Well, although quite capable of building up into big, burning, fuzzed-out guitar clangor (and when they do, they get just as gnarly as the rest), they have a mellow side to 'em, one that's very melancholic and emotional, that they explore in perhaps greater depth and duration than those other bands tend to do. With weary vocals of which maybe even Jandek would be proud, Miminikoto can create a sense of sadness which makes Kawaguchi's howling guitar, when it kicks in, all that much more cathartic. They also aren't afraid of some poppy jangle too, so you're never sure what's around the corner. From track to track, one cut might be a punked out stormer, the next a gentle web of fragile notes.
Of these two new releases, one's an import studio recording, and the other's a domestically released live album (though this sort of stuff always seems live). There's five magnificently meandering and oft harrowing new tunes on the Alchemy disc Green Mansions, while the live disc on LVD, Orange Garage (named for the venue where these void-vibes were conjured), features new n' heavier versions of three previously recorded Miminokoto tracks plus three other totally new compositions, culminating in the 16+ minute "Kumononaka". Can't really pick between 'em, either or both should be of interest to any Japanese psych-scene follower...
MPEG Stream: "Tokedasu"
MPEG Stream: "Dokonimon ver. 2"

album cover V/A Crows Of The World (Last Visible Dog) 2cd 16.98
From the same folks who brought us that amazing Invisible Pyramid six-cd compilation of the free/drone/folk/cdr/etc. underground, comes another dose of the same, this time "just" a double cd (but apparently the first in a series?). The international array of artists include: The Free Players, The North Sea, Western Automatic, Ilya Monosov and Preston Swirnoff, Andrea Belfi, Paper Wings (Antony Milton and Anthony Guerra), Northern Cross (Geoff Mullens and Kris Lapke), Brasil & The Gallowbrothers Band, Sunken (Antony Milton again, and Stephen "Pumice" Neville), Kawaguchi Masami's New Rock Syndicate and Oaxacan. Everything from ritualistic rumbling drone ceremony from New Zealand to lumbering distorto Tokyo psych rock! It's all sorta dark and dreamy, there's plenty of instrumental mellow droning bliss and pensive folk guitar picking, mysterious field recordings and electronic shimmer.
You can pretty much trust that this would be gritty and gorgeous and evocative and everything you'd want a comp from these farflung, dusty corners of the "New Weird" to be. Immersion in the contents of these two discs ought to both relieve stress, and make you want to hear more from any and all of these folks...
MPEG Stream: THE NORTH SEA "Albino Deer Transmissions"
MPEG Stream: WESTERN AUTOMATIC "The Burlap Tundra"
MPEG Stream: MONOSOV/SWIRNOFF "The Sea Within"

album cover V/A Tokyo Flashback 6 (PSF) cd 16.98
The venerable compilation series devoted to sampling the dark and demented delights of the Tokyo psychedelic underground returns! While the previous Tokyo Flashback number five (from 2005) included both quite a few veteran artists (Keiji Haino, Marble Sheep, Overhang Party, Kyoaku No Intention, White Out) as well as several hitherto unknown to us up-and-comers (Aural Fit, Hisato Higuchi, Suishou No Fune, etc.), this installment has only one or two acts among the dozen featured that we'd heard of before, so it's arguably all the more underground. Certainly the discerning folks at PSF must have done the rounds of the more obscure practice spaces and performance venues of Tokyo to find all these bands (or endured a lot of cd-r demo submissions).
First up is the quartet Ahousen, who, with dramatic vocals and agitated saxophone, sound something like a like a freaked out Maher Shalal Hash Baz. Next, things get a bit calmer and prettier with the accordion and trombone laced "The World Of Mirror" by Hanaoyouni, a outfit who like Ahousen have female vocals but use them in a more melodious fashion. Then, someone named Onna does the melancholic guitar/voice folk troubadour thing in the vein of Kan Mikami. That's followed by the spooky-but-lovely droning instrumental soundscape of the mysterious Yamashirube, entitled "Under Young Moon.Lost.". The next piece comes from a duo called S.A.R.O.D. (Safeness Audio Resource Of Dominant), featuring one of the guys from Aural Fit doing some heavy-duty "tone bending" alongside a drummer, and if you've heard Aural Fit, that we're telling you that is noisy, loud and grinding will be no surprise. Following that, there's a group called Retolt Mandala, who play a loose, skittering, abstract sort of psych-improv, and are a lot quieter than the S.A.R.O.D. guys. Next, the raggedly distorted guitar/guitar/drums trio Ainotamenishis lets loose with "Bad Dreams" and we can immediately hear the reason why they have an LP due out later this year on the Holy Mountain label, as they give us a Tokyo Flashback flashback. That brings us to something completely different: the plucking, squeaking, neo no wave of The Kinky Pigeon, who ask us to "EAT SHIT!!" as politely and artily as they can. Back into the more expected Flashback zone, the mellow (but for some serious bursts of distortion) sixties-ish psych-rock of the trio Yakouchu is quite nice, taking us on an extended 8 and a half minute trip... Ogikubo Connection are next, a "free style folk duo" with the Fukuoka Rinji of Overhang Party strumming and singing in anguished fashion accompanied by alto sax of Mochizuki Harutaka, doing a cover version of a song called "Staring At Blood" by the late Kaneko Jutok of Kousokuya. Then we get this disc's perhaps most properly Rallizes-y rockin' moment, with a blast from motorpsycho guitarist Kawaguchi Masami (ex-Miminokoto) and his power trio the New Rock Syndicate, called "Oblivion". And then finally this Flashback winds up with the gorgeous, plaintive acoustic folk track "A Moonlight Night" by singer/guitarist Genshi. Wow. Something here for everyone (well, everyone who would consider buying a Tokyo Flashback disc that is)! We imagine we'll be hearing more from many of these artists, and looking forward to it too.
As with all Tokyo Flashbacks, we're pretty sure all the tracks are exclusive to this disc. Info/photos/web addresses and suchlike stuff is included in the cd booklet for each artist.
MPEG Stream: AINOTAMENISHIS "Bad Dreams"
MPEG Stream: YAMASHIRUBE "Under Young Moon.Lost."
MPEG Stream: YAKOUCHU "Mugen"

Showing results 1 through 11 of 11.

top of page