HAINO, KEIJI Next, Let's Try Changing The Shape (Swordfish) 2lp 38.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Holy moly. Yes this limited-edition, import double LP goes for $38 bucks. But we've only got a handful, quite possibly won't ever see any more and it IS one of the only vinyl releases ever (certainly the only one currently-if-not-for-long in print) from the shamanistic psychedelic maestro that the world (well, very small portions of the world) knows as Keiji Haino, either solo or in his Fushitsusha combo. So it's got that arcane relic quality to it, y'know?
'Next' Let's Try Changing The Shape already came out on cd last year (also on Swordfish) but it's already out of print in that format, and this lp -- packaged in a 'hand-crafted', hand-numbered sleeve -- is thus also the only way to get this music, which (the important part) is pretty great. Let's revisit our review of the cd:
I know this is gonna sound dorky, but I (Allan) sometimes feel blessed to be in the presence, even via recorded media, of Keiji Haino. Yeah I'm a pretty devout fan of the 51 year old Japanese psychedelic shaman-in-black. It's a shame that outside of the realm of indie/underground/Japanophile music geeks, Haino is not better known. As far as I'm concerned, he's a 20th (now 21st) century artistic genius deserving of recognition and reverence from the wider world's institutions of high culture. Why? Well as my roommate likes to put it, his shit's just so tight. He can make harrowing, dark, cosmic, soul-bearing music out of anything: his trusty guitar and feedback, a tambourine, his own voice... But even fans like me might have found his last solo release on PSF, the all-acoustic guitar workout Hikari Yami Uchitokeaishi Kono Hibiki, tough going. But THIS new disc is one I'd wholeheartedly recommend even to the uninitiated. According to the label it "sees him developing themes on from his last PSF release." I think by that they're not referring to Hikari Yami Uchitokeaishi Kono Hibiki but to his previous PSF disc, the 'grey album' Mazu Wa Iro O Nakuso Ka. That was an incredible, hypnotic document of Haino in a gentle, ghostly mood, recording at home presumably, accompanying himself via overdubs on a 4-track, quite unlike his more typical live, over-amped, no-overdubs method. Now on 'Next' Let's Try Changing The Shape, Haino again experiments with overdubbing. However his guitar sound on this tends towards the harsher electric tones of 'classic Haino' (solo and with his band Fushitsusha), much less 'jazzy' than on Mazu Wa... the grey is gone and he's back to the blackness. The six tracks found here all feature layers of electric guitar and vocal overdubs, a multitude of Keiji's playing together. To some this may sound chaotic and confused, but careful listening will reveal the ways in which Haino has carefully constructed these pieces. On the more guitar-heavy tracks his web of sound builds and builds in density, becoming a narcotic drone not unlike some Skullflower stuff, while other tracks are based more around Haino's vocal parts -- there's one I thought was gonna be all acapella until his guitar appeared a few minutes in -- raw and repetitious, almost Reynolisan. The album ends with a final descent into the abyss, a 26 minute trip that gets so seriously spooky that you suspect the overdubbing is Haino's way of not feeling so alone... Definitely Keiji Haino (and this album) is not for everybody, but it's worth finding out if he's for you because your life will be better for it, if you find his art speaks to you the way it does to me.
MPEG Stream: "Surely Here too There Is Something"
MPEG Stream: "A Secret"

HAINO, KEIJI Percussion (PSF) video 44.00
In honor of Haino's 50th birthday, in addition to his long overdue recognition on the cover of highbrow experimental music rag The Wire, PSF has issued a video document of a rare performance for voice and percussion instruments. Enigmatic and mysterious when merely only listened to, this video gives an anticipated insight to the physicality and trancendence of space experienced when witnessing Keiji Haino in full force, for seeing Haino perform in the flesh is an experience like no other. Unlike the previous video offered by PSF, an excerpt of a Fushitsusha performance (only 45 minutes of a supposed three hour set!), this offers a complete peek into the mystical genius of Keiji Haino. See Haino reduce a poor tambourine to its raw elements, tearing away at its flesh, drawing away its spirit, and exposing its corpse.

HAINO, KEIJI Reveal'd To None As Yet - An Expedience To Utterly Vanish Consciousness While Still Alive (aRCHIVE / Important) 2cd 26.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
First things first -- be aware that this double disc of live pagan ritual drone from Japan's dark diminutive pyschedelic overlord Keiji Haino is a strictly limited release, just 1000 copies pressed, of which only 500 are available in the States. Of which we've got 30. It's jointly released by both the Important label and Scott Slimm's Archive -- the latter who previously brought us the so rapidly sold out that we couldn't even list it triple live cd Boris release, and also the now equally out of print live disc by Growing, and if those two are any indication, this will be long gone soon too!
Of course the music's the main attraction, but it's nice that as with Archive's other previous releases this looks great too: Beautiful, simple double cd packaging. Black on black, of course. Letterpressed printing. A cover image of Haino in an action pose, intently focused on a table-top of electronic gadgetry.
And what's Haino up to on the sonic front here? The two discs are different, the 54'27" disc one featuring electronics, percussion, and vocals; and the 46'54" disc two devoted to Haino's hurdy-gurdy playing (plus voice). Both are combinations of the lovely and the difficult in proportions to which Haino's fans are accustomed. Let's listen more closely...
Disc one, entitled "A temporary freezing of the time axis that turns at the end of this profound now": Restrained electronic whine, drone, squiggle. Simmering, dubby passages of typewritery percussion. Brief outbursts of Haino's trademark vocal exhortations. Overall, ominous and soothing both. It's an aural glimpse into a mad scientist's laboratory, experiments automatically percolating away, Professor Haino occasionally lecturing his visitors intensely...
Disc two, known as, incredibly, "That, which while enfolding this now and present perfume, speaks, 'I will use to the fullest this form bestowed upon me' and blurs into the firmament - ah, where and in what form will it next be devised": Haino's hurdy gurdy playing conjures a grating, broken drone. Like a creepy-crawling Tony Conrad. Halting rhythms, staggering back and forth, on and off, scraping and soul wrenching. But beautiful too, with moments sounding "classical", melodic. Some more of that typewritery percussion. And then there's his voice, which, when reveal'd, hovers serious and fragile over the black drone clouds roiling out of his instrument...
Further notes: this recording was mastered by James Plotkin, while the graphic design was handled by Stephen O'Malley -- thus, two members of Khanate having a hand in this release. Hmm, that gets me on a line of speculative thinking...Haino did a collaboration with Boris a while back, so why not with Khanate?? Hearing him on the mic dueting with Alan Dubin would be amazing!
MPEG Stream: "A temporary freezing... (excerpt)"
MPEG Stream: "That, which while... (excerpt)"

HAINO, KEIJI So, Black Is Myself (Alien8) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We'll keep this brief, as we only have but 3 copies to disperse (we actually acquired twice that number, but already sold some in the store)! So act fast, Haino fans, if your collection is lacking this long out of print 1997 release, bearing one of the most straightforward of the Tokyo psych shaman's poetic album titles, which are often much lengthier and more cryptic.
This disc contains one long track (67'31") of wavering, haunted drone, its meditative mystery eventually enhanced by rattling, rustling percussion, abstract Eastern string strum, and hoarse, mumbled chant (a far cry from Haino's usual anguished shrieks). Sparse and ceremonial sounding, this is the calm side of Keiji, not amped up and/or abrasive like some of his other releases. Like we said, it's out of print, a "warehouse find" we unearthed from an undisclosed location, and according to the internet it now sells for up to $60! While even the most devoted Haino fans here find that a bit insane, it's certainly worth the price we're charging... to at least, and unfortunately ultimately at most, three of you, we're sure.
MPEG Stream: "So, Black Is Myself [excerpt 1]"
MPEG Stream: "So, Black Is Myself [excerpt 2]"

HAINO, KEIJI Tenshi No Gijinka (Tzadik) cd 15.98

HAINO, KEIJI The 21st Century Hard-y Guide-y Man (PSF) cd 17.98
Keiji whoops it up on the hurdy gurdy and ends up sounding a lot like that recent, excellent Tony Conrad album. But what's up with Option's review of Haino's recent acoustic record (not this one)? 'Music writer' Paul Semel claims "this fool...makes a mess even my mother wouldn't clean up," that the album is "a piece of crap," and ends the review with "please, please, please don't buy this record." What the hell? Negative reviews are refreshing, to be sure, but all-out meanspiritedness (and zero information or insight) isn't. (catalog number PSFD-68)

HAINO, KEIJI Uchu Ni Karamitsuiteru (PSF) cd 17.98
The title, translated from the Japanese, means something like "Tangled up in the universe, my pain" and so of course it's the latest from Japanese musical shaman Keiji Haino of Fushitsusha. Wherein he plays the theremin. Yes, theremin, of "Good Vibrations" fame. It's almost a running joke here, about how Haino, though best known (and loved, or not) for his unique and high-volume guitar-wrangling and also his banshee-in-anguish vocalizations, can make himself, in his own way, the master of ANY instrument. He's been recorded playing acoustic guitar, tamborine, wave-drum, drum machine, hurdy-gurdy, piano, and even turntables (turning in an amazing "DJ set" on the recent Tokyo Flashback 5 compilation). We even thought of making up a Keiji Haino rap album for our April Fool's edition of this list, but then who would believe us when we reviewed this new, entirely real, album of Keiji playing the theremin? To be precise, this is Haino's "first ever all-electronic album" and it finds him using/abusing a plethora of electronic gadgetry (as depicted on the uncharacteristic color cover pic adorning this lovingly packaged cd) that include quite a few hands-off, theremin-like instruments (digital theremin, air synth, air FX) that in the live setting doubtless allow Haino to indulge his penchant for dramatic dance-like movements, waving his arms and contorting his body to conjure sounds from the ether. Probably a sight to behold. On disc, though, these are just another set of devices for processing Haino's deep sonic urges. In, or rather, near, Haino's hands, the theremin (an instrument already associated with both sci-fi and haunted house sound effects) is both spacey and scary here, to the extreme. More Merzbow than Clara Rockmore for sure. Four long tracks. Dark, fluttering, hissing blackness. Monsters inhabit the void. Beware.
MPEG Stream: "track 1"
MPEG Stream: "track 2"

HAINO, KEIJI Un Autre Chemin Vers L'Ultime (Prele Records) cd 16.98

HAINO, KEIJI Yaranai Ga Dekinai Ni Natte Yuku (PSF) cd 17.98
It's interesting for us to note that the last few releases we've had from black-clad Japanese psychedelic shaman* Keiji Haino have been big sellers, doing better even than usual for Haino discs here at AQ, perhaps on account of how they were put out by limited edition specialists aRCHIVE in super swank packaging (also, they were definitely excellent albums). So we've got to figure that a lot of folks who'd never before bought a Haino cd got one or both of those aRCHIVE releases as their first. Which is great, more people should definitely be getting into Haino's music -- he's an intense, impassioned talent (if an acquired taste...). It's funny, though, 'cause what he's really best known for is his searing guitar playing (and equally intense vocals). But those aRCHIVE cds, and several other of his recent releases, have highlighted other areas of creative exploration: electronics and hurdy-gurdy drones, solo percussion, a collaboration with a twenty-piece sitar orchestra, and primitive acoustic guitar improv... Not the heavy-duty, feedback-filled, freeform electric guitar he plays in Fushitsusha. As if on cue, this new solo release from Japan's PSF label documents just that: an hour-plus long set of electric guitar and vocals. So, Haino fans new and old, here's a must-have. Utilizing overdubbing (an infrequent technique for Haino), Yaranai Ga Dekinai Ni Natte Yuku starts all sinister and ominous, notes vibrating alone in the darkness, joined by more guitar lines, sounding totally HAUNTED but marching quietly forward, joined eventually by Haino's unique, plaintively tormented vocals (here sometimes hushed, sometimes oddly pretty). It builds and builds, becoming more urgent, more tense, more disturbed. Repetitive, feverish yawing, quite hypnotic. At about the halfway point, the volume gets dialed up, and there's an attack of swirling guitar violence... then back to the haunted void, and on, and onward... Haino fans will hear echoes his old classic Affection, and also the multilayered textures of his Next, Let's Try Changing The Shape and Mazu Wa Iro O Nakuso Ka solo albums. Good company indeed.
Such harrowing atmosphere. Such dark beauty. Such power -and- restraint. So emotional, so expressive, and all from one person -- well if there was more than one Haino could the world bear the weight? Hear this, feel it, and maybe you'll understand what we mean.
*shaman, dark lord, some title like that always seems appropriate in describing him!
MPEG Stream: "Yaranai Ga Dekinai Ni Natte Yuku (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Yaranai Ga Dekinai Ni Natte Yuku (excerpt 2)"
MPEG Stream: "Yaranai Ga Dekinai Ni Natte Yuku (excerpt 3)"

HAINO, KEIJI & COA You Should Draw Out the Billion and First Prayer (Hšren) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The dark elf of the current Japanese noise/psych scene, Mr. Keiji Haino (from Fushitsusha, and many other projects) teams up with Eddie and Bill (they're girls, really!) from the heavy Japanese bass/drums combo COA. Previously Haino has collaborated in a similar fashion with Tokyo heavies Boris, so he's obviously into rockin' with some younger musicians outside of the typical PSF psych/folk axis. That's not to say this isn't folky and psychedelic, as parts of it surely are. Together, Bill and Eddie and Keiji produce a varied disc of skronky guitar storms, ritual drum pound & string strum, yelping vocal duets, and other outsider-y avant rock weirdness.

HAINO, KEIJI & KK NULL Mamono (Blossoming Noise) cd 16.98
This it-had-to-happen collaboration between heavy duty Japanese psych/noise/guitar maestros Keiji Haino (Fushitsusha) and KK Null (Zeni Geva) is a swirling dark maelstrom of electric extremity. The first couple tracks, featuring Keiji Hanio's voice, and electronics from both gentlemen, kinda sounds like Keiji Haino trapped in a.. uh... cyclotron? Yeah, the electro-static charge making his bangs stand on end, and hence he's screaming in anguish amid the swoops and zips and zwooshes flashing around him, sorta like a mix of sped up tape sounds and wild sci-fi FX. Then, sudden silence... has his heart stopped? No, he's still alive. Thank God.
The third track adds some of Haino's stark percussion (a la Origin's Hesitation) plus even more murderous vocals, while on track four and five Haino switches to guitar while KK plays the drums, resulting in some skronky improv mayhem. The final two tracks are both extra-long (22 and 16 minutes, respectively) and go back to the disturbing, droning sci-fi cyclotronic soundscapes of the first few tracks, with added drums and drum machine action. It's as if these two wanted to prove that such a "clash of the titans" couldn't not result in massive (if indulgent) devastation!
MPEG Stream: "Mamono track 1"
MPEG Stream: "Mamono track 3"

HAINO, KEIJI & MICHIHIRO SATO Tayutayuto Tadayoitamae Kono Furue (PSF) cd 22.00
Stark and beautiful sounds flow from this disc, that takes an avant garde approach to traditional Japanese music making. The duo documented here consists of Michihiro Sato on tsugaru jamisen, a three-stringed traditional folk instrument from Northern Japan, and noted psychedelic explorer Keiji Haino on nylon-string "classic guitar". We're fans of both artists, so this is a treat. The team-up isn't all that strange -- champion jamisen player Sato has a couple of previous, exciting and adventurous PSF solo discs and has also collaborated with John Zorn and slew of downtown NYC improvisers, while Haino has already appeared on a PSF release accompanying another master of the tsugaru jamisen, Chisato Yamada. Haino and Sato work together well, as Haino doesn't amp up and overpower Sato...it's quiet plucking and picking from him too (and some fuzzy strumming we liked quite a bit). It's more Sato's world, one of rustic intensity and raw, string vibrating beauty -- but near the end of the disc some vocal outbursts will certainly remind you of Haino's presence!
MPEG Stream: "track 3"
MPEG Stream: "track 7"

HAINO, KEIJI & SITAAR TAH! Animamima (aRCHIVE / Important) cd 27.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Even when recording entirely solo, master musician of the Tokyo psych underground Keiji Haino is capable of realizing a depth of sound that leaves all pretenders to his lordly shamanic throne gasping in his blackened cloud of cosmic dust. And fans know that he doesn't need many instruments (though he'll seemingly play anything) or the help of other musicians (though he leads several units of his own, most famously Fushitsusha, and has collaborated with an interesting array of artists including Boris, Derek Bailey, Kan Mikami, Shoji Hano, Peter Brotzmann, Coa, and members of both Masada and Ruins). So we're always interested in hearing from Haino whatever the circumstances. But this time we can't help but be slightly more intrigued than usual. That's because this new double cd is co-billed to something called Sitaar Tah! (their exclamation point, but you'll see why it's deserved). What is Sitaar Tah!? They just happened to be a twenty-piece sitar orchestra!! Damn. Just when you thought "Eastern psych" couldn't get any more Eastern psych, they come up with this. Keiji Haino + 20 sitars!! We couldn't wait to hear it. And this IS great, and beyond our imaginings of it.
Recorded live in 2004, the one-time only performance documented here definitely evokes the spirit of '70s Japanese psych drone legends the Taj Mahal Travellers. It's an organic mass of sound that finds a "oneness" despite the size of the ensemble. Keiji, not one to be out gunned, brings the drone as well with electric hurdy gurdy, electric sruthi box, electric tanbur, rhythm box, flute and voice. And, giving the proceedings an additional Tuvan touch, Fuyuki Kamakawa guests on the igil and throat singing. So there's a lot going on, but it all merges well, with sureness of purpose, a constant flow. Sitaar Tah! can't be said to dominate, their 20 sitars managing to have something of a phantom presence, their multiplicity weightless, like a mirror-within-a-mirror reflection. To the extent that this suggests a raga, it's the most abstract and eerie "raga" as you're ever going to hear, unfolding from quiet to loud, with buzzing and dynamic awe.
The 46 minute disc one's big surprise is the flute blown by Keiji. Lovely, lovely. Reminds us a bit of Akio Suzuki. A nice companion to the chorus of heavenward cries conjured by Sitaar Tah!'s string scrapings. Disc two (51 minutes) rachets up the throaty drone intensity, being more actively sitar-shrill and sounding perhaps like Haino went to India to record the soundtrack to an Alfred Hitchcock thriller. It develops a pleasantly suspensefully pulse-beat that (maybe because we were just listening to the reissue of that Basic Channel comp) weirdly enough seems to us to hint at the ambient throb of "heroin house"É But it's to such things as the aforementioned Taj Mahal Travellers, and Thuja or Hala Strana, the Double Leopards, Acid Mothers Temple, and Haino's own drone group Nijimu that Animamima's eerie, immersive environment should more obviously draw comparison.
This is the second double cd set by Keiji Haino to be released by the aRCHIVE label. Last year's Reveal'd To None As Yet - An Expedience To Utterly Vanish Consciousness While Still Alive was the first. (Hmm, could it be that a whole series is in the works? we're hoping.) And you know what? Reveal'd has been probably the best-selling Haino thing we've ever had here at Aquarius. Perhaps because of the ultra-desirable, limited-edition nature of aRCHIVE releases and the always-superb packaging (in this case, a very special letterpressed, die-cut folder designed by Stephen O'Malley) with which they are so carefully presented. But also 'cause we have a lot of customers who love the psychedelic, dark drones! And Keiji Haino is the king of that realm. Sitaar Tah! now joins his court. Recommended just as much as its predecessor.
MPEG Stream: "Disc 1 excerpt 1"
MPEG Stream: "Disc 1 excerpt 2"

HAINO, KEIJI & TATSUYA YOSHIDA Hauenfiomiume (Magaibutsu) cd 15.98
This here's the third ear-boggling duo offering from the titanic team-up of Keiji Haino (Fushitsusha) and Tatsuya Yoshida (Ruins), two of the most masterful and distinctive artists in the Japanese psych/prog underground, you know 'em, you love 'em (if not, you're in for some bizarre, bewildering listening if you pick up this disc - what the heck, do it!).
This time around, we'd say it's a bit more Ruins-y than their earlier efforts Until Water Grasps Flame and New Rap, perhaps because it was edited and mixed by Yoshida, in somewhat the same manner though not quite to the same extreme degree as his computer-assisted collaborations with Imahori Tsuneo. Both Haino and Yoshida are accomplished improvisers, but this process of improvising and then later composition via computer edits is not something typical of Keiji Haino's work at all, in fact normally he doesn't even do overdubs. It's a "forbidden area" according to Yoshida's Magaibutsu label website! Here's the entire, somewhat confusional description they provide:
"Yoshida studio sessions to demolish and rebuild. Haino Keiji is playing Yoshida edit, it is a forbidden area depth issues that I think works. Contemporary, piece acoustic number, hard-core and edited by extreme impossible to reproduce surprisingly pop songs... Two wide variety of music to unite and condensation. New possibilities could look at things."
Of course, Yoshida is playing as well (drums, keyboard, bass, vocals), while Haino does his thing on electric and acoustic guitar, flute, soprano laute, and vocals. And the results should appeal to fans of either/both (and for that matter, also sounds something like an Acid Mothers/Melt Banana hybrid). There's both hectic and lumbering rhythms, weird vocal warble, frantic noise, tangled blasts of no-wavey guitar, fucked up grooves, chiming math-rock complexities, spooky synth ambience, droning chant ranging from silly to sublime, and echoing psych weirdness... basically a blenderized mix of Yoshida and Haino's musical tendencies, that despite the seeming chaos, Yoshida has structured into 16 remarkably cohesive individual song identities. For instance, take a track like "Loksooidgiifj". It could easily BE a hyper Ruins track up til about the 1:50 mark, when Haino's void-treading guitar makes its atmospheric entrance, transforming the piece into a more stark percussive space. Or "Lakdddffkouwwe", an extreme example of chopped-up prog skitter, with piano and fluttery flute o'er the top.
If you liked the Yoshida/Tsuneo discs on doubtmusic, you'll definitely like this, and it's got that special Haino mystique as well. Also look out for another Haino/Yoshida duo disc, Uhrfasudhasdd, to come out on Tzadik really soon, it's apparently a continuation of these sessions, 'cause they were so into it they recorded much more than the 50 minutes found here. And no, we don't know what's with the random letter explosion alphabet soup album and song titles, that's a Yoshida thing...
MPEG Stream: "Wacqdhiepdhii"
MPEG Stream: "Tyusijuffuchio"
MPEG Stream: "Loksooidgiifj"

HAINO, KEIJI & TATSUYA YOSHIDA New Rap (Tzadik) cd 16.98
No, there's no rapping on here (or, if there is, it is indeed an extremely NEW style of "rap", consisting of intense screaming in what may or may not be Japanese -- yeah how's that for a "new rap dialect"?). So no, it's not Keiji gone MC. It's the Fushitsusha guitarist (and all around Tokyo psych shaman) Keiji teamed up again with Ruins drummer (and fellow Tokyo underground music titan) Tatsuya Yoshida for a disc of presumably improvised duets featuring Yoshida's amazing octopoidal drumming and Haino's shards of guitar and agonized throat-rasps.
Each track is named after a different New York City neighborhood, and based on Haino's vocals you might think that he'd had some traumatic experiences in these places, if a track like "Lower East Side" is somehow descriptive of its namesake. A violent mugging perhaps? Maybe the NYC theme suggests that New Rap is influenced by, or an homage to, Downtown New York jazz skronk a la John Zorn, who released this on his Tzadik label. But it's also unmistakably the sort of thing you'd expect to hear from Haino and Yoshida, and in fact have heard before from 'em on their previous duo disc from a few years back Until Water Grasps Flame, and to some extent their collaborations in Knead and Sanhedolin. This strikes a good balance between the controlled spazzcore of the Ruins and the primal emotions of Haino's many projects. Harsh energy indeed!!
MPEG Stream: "Lower East Side"
MPEG Stream: "Canal Street"

HAINO, KEIJI & YOSHIDA TATSUYA Uhrfasudhasdd (Tzadik) cd 16.98
And here's the Tzadik-issued part II to the latest collaboration between Japanese prog/psych legends Tatsuya Yoshida (Ruins) and Keiji Haino (Fushitsusha). Part I, Hauenfiomiume, came out on Yoshida's Magaibutsu label, and we highlighted it last list. The equally easy to say, remember, and spell Uhrfasudhasdd consists of 16 more tracks from the same sessions... also with crazy alphabet soup song titles. So, what we said about Hauenfiomiume pretty much applies here too. Compared to earlier Yoshida/Haino team-ups, it's more on the Ruinsy side, in part 'cause Yoshida computer-edited and mixed it, splicing and dicing their original improvs (?) into condensed, intense compositions, ranging from eerie ambience, to heavy progspazms. There's lots of quick cuts and giltched-out passages, making for manic spires of spiralling energy... For instance, on the track "Thuguigodssphiff", This Heatish percussion is punched in next to blasts of distortion and Magmoid vocal choruses. Maybe this is what a 'screwed and chopped' Koenjihyakkei would sound like! Except that most of this seems sped up, not slowed down. "Dhoidvophkjiff" could have been constructed from samples of Orthrelm and Brise-Glace.
It's the sort of insanity you expect from Yoshida in other words, everything from attention-deficit keyboard tinkling to fried synth soundz to rubbery bass riffage to howling guitar (well that's probably Haino's doing). The black-clad Haino's ability to conjure utter darkness bleeds through as well (check out the track 12, "Zhuddiposshk" for some harrowing, horrific atmospheres and creepy guttural vocal stylings, which crop up again on the ominous "Fiuijkdfgpokwom")... Basically if you're at all into either Haino or (maybe moreso) Yoshida, you'll enjoy this crazy cornucopia of their most extreme tendencies, multiplied by studio technology! Recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Dhoidvophkjiff"
MPEG Stream: "Cchjdisoiugpodf"
MPEG Stream: "Oodiffipoawhull"

HAINO, KEIJI / JIM O'ROURKE / OREN AMBARCHI Now While It's Still Warm Let Us Pour In All The Mystery (Black Truffle / Medama) cd 17.98
Hey, these three must really like playing together (and WE really like 'em playing together too). 'Cause this Haino/O'Rourke/Ambarchi collaboration has turned out to be not a one-off, or even two-off; this international power trio are on their fourth full album, now, in just four years. And just getting better and better it seems. This outing again combines the colossal void-sculpting electric guitar & emotive, echoing vocal yawp of Japanese psych shaman Haino, with sturdy rhythm section backup from indie/experimental superstars Jim O'Rourke (bass) and Oren Ambarchi (drums). You can imagine the latter two doing the whole 'we're not worthy' routine in the face of Haino's overpowering black-on-black aesthetic, but actually they ARE pretty worthy, O'Rourke's Brise-Glace background (and oh, yeah stint in Sonic Youth) aligning with dronester-by-day Ambarchi's interest in motorik krautrock percussion stylings (e.g. Sagittarian Domain) to definitely hold up their end and provide plenty of interest and umph to the improvised (?) soundscapes through which Haino's guitar carves wide swaths.
This time round, there's some surprises, too - including a cameo appearance by famed minimalist drone-pioneer Charlemagne Palestine! That's on the opening, nearly 10 minute track, which also features Japanese guest Eiko Ishibashi, both playing wine glasses (yes wine glasses) making dulcet drones over which Haino gently (yes gently) sings and plays guitar. That's another surprise, how quietly and peacefully this begins, and continues, on the spacious second track too, where Haino plays flute (yes flute)É quite nice. But have no fears, fans of the Fushitsusha-freakout-mode of Haino's guitaring, as despite the relative restraint and loveliness of those first two tracks, this set does get heavy and noisy as it goes on, the group erupting into amped-up action by the time track three rolls around, replete with the choppy attack and grinding tones of Haino's guitar. Ambarchi provides a steady beat, steadier than on your usual Fushitsusha fare, pounding away alongside the distorted bass of O'Rourke in cyclic rhythmic grooves, providing compelling, mesmeric support for Haino to do 'his thing' - and this is very much his thing - as the cryptic/poetic song titles will attest. Somewhat in contrast to Haino's reactivated Fushitsusha unit, which has gone in the direction of dealing in beautifully difficult, short, sharp shocks, getting almost no-wavy on their two recent Heartfast label albums, this Fushitsusha-like trio has stayed more in stretched-out jam territory, all right with us too. So, recommended for any fan of Fushitsusha OR this band, and we do consider them a band at this point, albeit as mentioned, and as it should be, a Haino-centric one.
MPEG Stream: "Who Would Have Thought This Callous History Would Become My Skin"
MPEG Stream: "A New Radiance Springing Forth From Inside The Light"
MPEG Stream: "Even That Still Here And Unwanted Can You And I Love It Just Like Us It Was Born Here Too"

HAINO, KEIJI / JIM O'ROURKE / OREN AMBARCHI Now While It's Still Warm Let Us Pour In All The Mystery (Black Truffle / Medama) lp 26.00
Hey, these three must really like playing together (and WE really like 'em playing together too). 'Cause this Haino/O'Rourke/Ambarchi collaboration has turned out to be not a one-off, or even two-off; this international power trio are on their fourth full album, now, in just four years. And just getting better and better it seems. This outing again combines the colossal void-sculpting electric guitar & emotive, echoing vocal yawp of Japanese psych shaman Haino, with sturdy rhythm section backup from indie/experimental superstars Jim O'Rourke (bass) and Oren Ambarchi (drums). You can imagine the latter two doing the whole 'we're not worthy' routine in the face of Haino's overpowering black-on-black aesthetic, but actually they ARE pretty worthy, O'Rourke's Brise-Glace background (and oh, yeah stint in Sonic Youth) aligning with dronester-by-day Ambarchi's interest in motorik krautrock percussion stylings (e.g. Sagittarian Domain) to definitely hold up their end and provide plenty of interest and umph to the improvised (?) soundscapes through which Haino's guitar carves wide swaths.
This time round, there's some surprises, too - including a cameo appearance by famed minimalist drone-pioneer Charlemagne Palestine! That's on the opening, nearly 10 minute track, which also features Japanese guest Eiko Ishibashi, both playing wine glasses (yes wine glasses) making dulcet drones over which Haino gently (yes gently) sings and plays guitar. That's another surprise, how quietly and peacefully this begins, and continues, on the spacious second track too, where Haino plays flute (yes flute)É quite nice. But have no fears, fans of the Fushitsusha-freakout-mode of Haino's guitaring, as despite the relative restraint and loveliness of those first two tracks, this set does get heavy and noisy as it goes on, the group erupting into amped-up action by the time track three rolls around, replete with the choppy attack and grinding tones of Haino's guitar. Ambarchi provides a steady beat, steadier than on your usual Fushitsusha fare, pounding away alongside the distorted bass of O'Rourke in cyclic rhythmic grooves, providing compelling, mesmeric support for Haino to do 'his thing' - and this is very much his thing - as the cryptic/poetic song titles will attest. Somewhat in contrast to Haino's reactivated Fushitsusha unit, which has gone in the direction of dealing in beautifully difficult, short, sharp shocks, getting almost no-wavy on their two recent Heartfast label albums, this Fushitsusha-like trio has stayed more in stretched-out jam territory, all right with us too. So, recommended for any fan of Fushitsusha OR this band, and we do consider them a band at this point, albeit as mentioned, and as it should be, a Haino-centric one.
MPEG Stream: "Who Would Have Thought This Callous History Would Become My Skin"
MPEG Stream: "A New Radiance Springing Forth From Inside The Light"
MPEG Stream: "Even That Still Here And Unwanted Can You And I Love It Just Like Us It Was Born Here Too"

HAINO, KEIJI / KAWABATA MAKOTO / YOSHIDA TATSUYA Ichi To Ichi To Ichi Ga Kasanatte Shimaumade (Live At Missions) (PSF) dvd 27.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Three gods of the Japanese underground, captured on film!

HAINO, KEIJI WITH BORIS Black: Implication Flooding (Inoxia) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
1998 collaboration between Boris and Tokyo's black-clad elfin lord of all that is anguished and psychedelic, Keiji Haino (of Fushitsusha fame). Haino plays the wave drum, electronic sruthibox, and ethnic oboe as well as contributing with his more usual psych guitar and emotive vocals. He's apparently responsible for the song titles too -- only he could come up with stuff like "Don't Be Cheated By The Oozing Silt From Both Of The Accuser And The Accused, Which Is Always There, Saying 'Everything Have To Be Done'"! Meanwhile the youngsters in Boris pound and drone away, sometimes quietly, sometimes loudly, reacting to the master's dark urges. Together, Boris and Haino sound like neither and both at the same time, the sign of a good collaboration. This disc never gets fully as heavy as Boris can be (or Fushitsusha, for that matter) but certainly IS heavy, and is also so terribly creepy, always teetering on the edge of some awful abyss. Black indeed.
MPEG Stream: "The Decision of a Dream Which Will Never Be Completely Red"
MPEG Stream: "From The Distance, With Their Own Gentle Eyes Always Fixed On Us, They Are Affectionately Gazing At The Black: Implication Flooding"

HAINO, KEIJI, JIM O'ROURKE & OREN AMBARCHI Imikuzushi (Black Truffle / Medama) cd 17.98
For some folks (you know who you are), this has got to be the most exciting entry on this week's New Arrivals list. The second recorded collaboration by this heavy duty international trio, each with their own dedicated following. But let's not kid ourselves. Only one is truly a cult, he of the dark shades and bangs. And, not to discount the impassioned contributions of Mssrs. O'Rourke and Ambarchi, both talented musicians and noisemakers in their own right, this is, as all such collaborations ultimately are, Keiji Haino's album, he's the star of the show (cf. Keiji Haino & Boris, Keiji Haino & Pan Sonic, Keiji Haino with Bill Laswell & Rashied Ali...). This is how it should be, how it must be, how it always shall be. So, if, say you were interested in an Ambarchi or O'Rourke record that just happens to have the Dark Lord of Japanese psych playing a little guitar on it, this isn't it. This is a new Haino album, with O'Rourke and Ambarchi in the roles of very capable sidemen, essentially manifesting a 2011 version of Haino's classic power trio, Fushitsusha! And O'Rourke and Ambarchi are here for a reason (for the 2nd time). That reason, being to bask in the darkly-shining psychedelic magnificence channelled uniquely by Haino, to be a part of that, to experience and share in it, and probably be changed by it. For the same reason we listen, but more so. O'Rourke, whose usual instrument is guitar, plays bass (as he did in Sonic Youth). Ambarchi, best known for his guitar-based dronemongering, plays drums. The implication is obvious. Both do their utmost to help Haino achieve, well, Haino-ness. And he does. On these four loooong tracks, recorded live in Tokyo, January 2011, washes of distortion and feedback are sculpted with eerie otherworldly angles only possible in some non-Euclidean musical geometry... shrill, sparking tendrils of guitar cascade over steady percussive plod and skitter. Haino's emotive vocal shriek is wrenched forth poetically o'er some select passages, but mostly this is about the ominous glorious grinding interplay of the three instruments. There's quiet stretches, and rocked-out bass-heavy ones; rhythmic moments of softly pulsating distorted shuffle, others where all players meld in one slomo explosion of dense churning muzz. Fans of Haino, fans of Fushitsusha, you want this. Those more familiar with the *other* two guys, well, they're introducing you to something special... And if your soul has ever cried out in the void, you'll like it. (PS if it's not obvious, a huge Haino fanboy here wrote this review!)
Nice graphics/design by Stephen O'Malley. Cd in digipack; vinyl in nice gatefold, cut at Dub Plates and Mastering, Berlin.
MPEG Stream: "Imikuzushi track 2"
MPEG Stream: "Imikuzushi track 3"
MPEG Stream: "Imikuzushi track 4"

HAINO, KEIJI, JIM O'ROURKE & OREN AMBARCHI Imikuzushi (Black Truffle / Medama) 2lp 29.00
For some folks (you know who you are), this has got to be the most exciting entry on this week's New Arrivals list. The second recorded collaboration by this heavy duty international trio, each with their own dedicated following. But let's not kid ourselves. Only one is truly a cult, he of the dark shades and bangs. And, not to discount the impassioned contributions of Mssrs. O'Rourke and Ambarchi, both talented musicians and noisemakers in their own right, this is, as all such collaborations ultimately are, Keiji Haino's album, he's the star of the show (cf. Keiji Haino & Boris, Keiji Haino & Pan Sonic, Keiji Haino with Bill Laswell & Rashied Ali...). This is how it should be, how it must be, how it always shall be. So, if, say you were interested in an Ambarchi or O'Rourke record that just happens to have the Dark Lord of Japanese psych playing a little guitar on it, this isn't it. This is a new Haino album, with O'Rourke and Ambarchi in the roles of very capable sidemen, essentially manifesting a 2011 version of Haino's classic power trio, Fushitsusha! And O'Rourke and Ambarchi are here for a reason (for the 2nd time). That reason, being to bask in the darkly-shining psychedelic magnificence channelled uniquely by Haino, to be a part of that, to experience and share in it, and probably be changed by it. For the same reason we listen, but more so. O'Rourke, whose usual instrument is guitar, plays bass (as he did in Sonic Youth). Ambarchi, best known for his guitar-based dronemongering, plays drums. The implication is obvious. Both do their utmost to help Haino achieve, well, Haino-ness. And he does. On these four loooong tracks, recorded live in Tokyo, January 2011, washes of distortion and feedback are sculpted with eerie otherworldly angles only possible in some non-Euclidean musical geometry... shrill, sparking tendrils of guitar cascade over steady percussive plod and skitter. Haino's emotive vocal shriek is wrenched forth poetically o'er some select passages, but mostly this is about the ominous glorious grinding interplay of the three instruments. There's quiet stretches, and rocked-out bass-heavy ones; rhythmic moments of softly pulsating distorted shuffle, others where all players meld in one slomo explosion of dense churning muzz. Fans of Haino, fans of Fushitsusha, you want this. Those more familiar with the *other* two guys, well, they're introducing you to something special... And if your soul has ever cried out in the void, you'll like it. (PS if it's not obvious, a huge Haino fanboy here wrote this review!)
Nice graphics/design by Stephen O'Malley. Cd in digipack; vinyl in nice gatefold, cut at Dub Plates and Mastering, Berlin.
MPEG Stream: "Imikuzushi track 2"
MPEG Stream: "Imikuzushi track 3"
MPEG Stream: "Imikuzushi track 4"

HAINO, KEIJI, JIM O'ROURKE, & OREN AMBARCHI In A Flash Everything Comes Together As One There Is No Need For A Subject (Black Truffle / Medama) 2lp 29.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

HAIR POLICE Blind Kingdom (Ultra Eczema) lp 29.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We've never been that into Hair Police, but this 12" has been weirdly getting tons of repeat play. Gorgeously packaged, some crazy squiggly luminescent blue on black artwork, it's one sided, the B side is a cool etching, and the music is pretty freaky and dark, droney and weird.
Downtuned guitar rumble and buzzy synth wound into thick undulating backdrops for all manner of fucked up electronics, lots of glitch and squelch, some strange alien melodies, the low end constantly heaving and pulsing, the clouds of effects and electronics alternating between shimmer and skree, the whole thing very creepy and ominous and cinematic, occasionally slipping into some serious NOISE and some intense Wolf Eyesian grind and rumble, lots of feedback and tons of tripped out FX, eventually drifting back into a jagged synthbuzzdrone. Cool stuff!
We only have SEVEN copies of this. It's not brand new, so odds are these are the last copies, which means if you really want one of these, act fast.

HAIR POLICE Blow Out Your Blood (Freedom From) cd 8.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Are the Lexington, KY group unfortunately named Hair Police attempting to dethrone the Digital Hardcore crew? Sure sounds like it. Cacaphonous art punk angst in a head-on collision with a very DHR sonic barrage. One dozen brief, thick'n'murky tracks of hyper-distorted wall of feedback and barely discernable freaked-out vocals. Some may find it rather cathartic, others may find it simply annoying.
RealAudio clip: "That's Not Blood"
RealAudio clip: "Dan Ape"

HAIR POLICE Constantly Terrified (Troubleman Limited) cd 13.98
Primitive electric no wave noise planes. Sound pretty good huh? It is, actually! For certain moods, certain people, certain places, times and things.
The Lexington, KY trio of Robert Beatty, Mike Connelly (Wolf Eyes) and Trevor Tremaine open our ears enough to bleed all over the place with this penetrating severist noise. You can even catch Wolf Eyes' John Olsen for a brutal saxophone cameo on the title track. Constantly Terrified will be most utterly enjoyed by brutal noise fans and others who heart the pummelling noise/rock of Burmese, Wolf Eyes, Dead Machines, etc.
MPEG Stream: "The Haunting"
MPEG Stream: "My Skull Is My Face"

HAIR POLICE Drawn Dead (Hanson) cd 14.98
Hair Police bring us a fucked-up sludgey noise jam in the Wolf Eyes/1996-era Black Dice vein. Not bad, but not really anything new sounding. There's no dynamicism on Drawn Dead, though maybe that is the point. If you're a noise enthusiast you could be interested in its abrasive, suffocating tape sludge. Or not. It's possible that their newer recording, Constantly Terrifed (scheduled for release soon on Troubleman) will be more... uh, better?
MPEG Stream: "Untitled"

HAIRDRESSERS Our Lives in Show Business (Musette) cd 11.98

HAIRE, DOUG Nineteen American Waysides (Anomalous) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"Nineteen American Waysides" features 19 recordings from highway rest-areas made all across the US, including insect choruses, garbage truck hydraulics, twittering birds, gentle rain storms, and lots of rushing din from the nearby freeways. Occasionally, Haire played back processed versions of the "Victrola Favorites" cassettes curated from the Climax Golden Twins' collection of Victrola 78s. These murky waltzes, operatic arias, and spoken word snippets -- all swimming in the lo-fi grime of antique 78s -- are wonderful and wistful sounds, that contrast nicely with the clarity of the rest of Haire's recordings. A curious but meditative piece of recording that is well worth checking out.
Having worked as a studio engineer and producer in Seattle for the past 15 years for a broad array of musicians such as Joe McPhee, Jeff Grienke, Carl Stone, Kill Switch...Klick, and Eyvind Kang, Doug Haire is a man obsessed with the nature of sound. While professionally he deals with relatively traditional realms of composition, his obession lies in field recordings, as he explores "the ways in which we recognize, differentiate, map and navigate our sonic environment," to quote the manifesto of the Seattle organization Phonographers' Union, which Haire belongs to. Not as much a purist as Douglas Quinn or Chris Watson, but far less process oriented than Eric La Casa, Haire has built a series of pristinely recorded and produced collages which elegantly crossfade between environmental focal points.
Super limited so don't dawdle.
RealAudio clip: "Tarkio, MT 3:30 am / Sumatra, MT 2pm"
RealAudio clip: "Elk River, MN 9am"

HAIRY BUTTER s/t (Lo Recordings) cd 17.98

HAIRY CHAPTER Can't Get Through (Second Battle) cd 25.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

HAKARISTI s/t (Legion Blotan) 7" 10.98
LIMITED TO 300 COPIES!!

HAL s/t (Rough Trade) cd 15.98
Hey, pop fans! We humbly proclaim that this cd is worth getting just for the second song "Play The Hits". If you dig Posies, Raspberries, Silver Sun, Redd Kross as well as maybe Squeeze and XTC too, you might wanna set a place at your pop supper table for Hal... especially if you have a soft spot for unbridled, toothsome falsetto vocals. For the most part, these Irish lads' sound is super vibrant, sunshine rock, but the further you go into the album the more folksy they get. This is the album you want to be playing when they show that delirious montage of you at the summer fair, riding the Ferris Wheel, throwing darts at balloons, winning the giant stuffed animal, and getting wonderfully nauseous over too many mini doughnuts, sno-cones and cotton candy. Sweet, squeaky clean fun.
MPEG Stream: "Play The Hits"
MPEG Stream: "Don't Come Running"

HALA STRANA Fielding (Last Visible Dog) 2cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This incredible double disc from Hala Strana made several of our year-end best of 2003 lists after it was first released in a super-limited edition cd-r format last year. It quickly, oh so quickly went out of print and has been highly sought after in the realm of eBay ever since. Now, at last, the not-too-long-promised reissue is here, done as a proper cd release, two cds that is. Everyone who missed it before has another chance to grab it, and of course we recommend that you do. (If you already are one of the lucky ones who DID get the original cd-r version, be aware that this new version does contain a ten-minute BONUS track...but the fancy handmade booklet of art and text included with the cd-r edition is NOT replicated here, so you do still do have a collector's item if you have that). We love the self-titled Hala Strana on Emperor Jones too, and also Hala Strana's more recent These Villages disc on Soft Abuse, so it's difficult to pick this as our favorite. But maybe it is. Here's what we said about this before, when it was a limited edition cd-r deal:
In terms of 'keywords' this review should go something like this: Hala Strana, Jewelled Antler, Thuja, Steven R. Smith, Mirza, limited edition cd-rs, Eastern European folk music. Eh? Ok, now some of you are already clicking ADD TO CART or headin' down to our store. But if all that was more-or-less gobbledygook to you, let's elaborate. Hala Strana, which you may already have encountered as an entry in the Jewelled Antler Library series of 3" cdrs, is a project of LA-based multi-instrumentalist (and multi-instrument builder) Steven R. Smith, who is a member of Jewelled Antler flagship improv psych group Thuja and a solo artist in his own right. Hala Strana is his vehicle for instrumental droned-out Eastern European folk music appreciation/interpretation, and really represents some of his finest work to date. Multitracking turns Steven R. Smith into a one-man village orchestra, playing everything from violin to optigan, bul bul tarang to gourd guitar, harpsichord to clay flowerpots! Bouzouki, cello, harmonium, percussion, etc. These songs also incorporate snippets of field recording tapes and sampled recordings of traditional music. Plus some of his Thuja cohorts also show up to help out.
Many of the tracks are based on traditional folk tunes from Hungary, Albania, Macedonia, Croatia, and other Balkan backwaters. If you've heard any of the wonderful Muszikas records, you'll understand Steven R. Smith's inspirations. His arrangements and instrumention turn 'em into total folk-psych gems, reminding us of certain krautrock bands, International Harvester, the Dirty Three, Kemialliset Ystavat, Black Forest/Black Sea, all sorts of good things. Utter old world beauty meets underground drone aesthetics = some kind of Transylvanian trance music. Really nice.
Really really nice in fact. We're so glad this is back in print!! THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
fe130pp
MPEG Stream: "Herding Slip"
MPEG Stream: "Balada Conducatorului"
MPEG Stream: "Lament"

HALA STRANA Fielding (Jewelled Antler) 2cd-r 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In terms of 'keywords' this review should go something like this: Hala Strana, Jewelled Antler, Thuja, Steven R. Smith, Mirza, limited edition cd-rs, Eastern European folk music. Eh? Ok, now some of you are already clicking ADD TO CART or headin' down to our store. But if all that was more-or-less gobbledygook to you, let's elaborate. Hala Strana, which you may already have encountered as an entry in the Jewelled Antler Library series of 3" cdrs, is a project of LA-based multi-instrumentalist (and multi-instrument builder) Steven R. Smith, who is a member of Jewelled Antler flagship improv psych group Thuja and a solo artist in his own right. Hala Strana is his vehicle for instrumental droned-out Eastern European folk music appreciation/interpretation, and really represents some of his finest work to date. Multitracking turns Steven R. Smith into a one-man village orchestra, playing everything from violin to optigan, bul bul tarang to gourd guitar, harpsichord to clay flowerpots! Bouzouki, cello, harmonium, percussion, etc. These songs also incorporate snippets of field recording tapes and sampled recordings of traditional music. Plus some of his Thuja cohorts also show up to help out.
Many of the tracks are based on traditional folk tunes from Hungary, Albania, Macedonia, Croatia, and other Balkan backwaters. If you've heard any of the wonderful Muszikas records, you'll understand Steven R. Smith's inspirations. His arrangements and instrumention turn 'em into total folk-psych gems, reminding us of certain krautrock bands, International Harvester, the Dirty Three, Kemialliset Ystavat, Black Forest/Black Sea, all sorts of good things. Utter old world beauty meets underground drone aesthetics = some kind of Transylvanian trance music. Really nice. And we're looking forward to *another* new Hala Strana disc, a cd being released on Emperor Jones next week. That one's gonna be good too. But Fielding is hard to top. After all, there's TWO discs worth of music, and a handsome, handmade lil' booklet of art and text included. Unfortunately, there's only about 25 of these still available, so act fast!
MPEG Stream: "Villages"
MPEG Stream: "Time"

HALA STRANA Heave The Gambrel Roof (Music Fellowship) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally available on cd!!
Pretty much every Hala Strana release has been a unanimous AQ favorite, most finding their way on to many of our year end top ten lists, and this new one looks to follow suit. Hala Strana is the work of Steven R. Smith, who many of you might recognize as a member of AQ faves Thuja as well as from a handful of solo records that have been heaped with praise on this here very list. Hala Strana is a vehicle for Smith to explore, cover, rework and reinterpret Eastern European folk music. Each record contains a handful of cover songs, some straight, some completely reinvented, and originals informed by Smith's love of that musical tradition.
The originals on Heave The Gambrel Roof are dark and drone-y, plenty of steel string buzz, all stretched out into moody psychedelic free folk drone drift divinity. Subtle melodies, simple strumming, over lush backdrops of shimmery ambience, woven together from all manner of traditional and homemade instruments. A dark moody Appalachia with an Eastern sensibility, folky for sure, but with a definite raga component. One in particular, "Marl", introduces drums and sounds almost like country rock, albeit with a decidedly lo-fi production and a distinctively un-poppy vibe, but it's propulsive with mandolin and acoustic guitars, simple shuffling drumming, moaning distant ambience, it's maybe the most out of place song on the record, but it's a testament to Smith's skill that somehow it fits just fine amidst all the drone and buzz and drift.
The covers here, of which there are a handful, Smith makes his own, gorgeous bits of traditional strummy folk become mesmerizing and hypnotic, figures and melodies looped and repeated, sympathetic notes allowed to buzz and wash into one another. A few of the covers sound pretty straight, with just a tiny bit more buzz or drone, but a few are completely transformed, becoming extended atmospheric dreamscapes, like on "Wedding Of The Blind" which sounds like seventies Japanese psych drone ensemble Taj Mahal Travellers jamming with Jack Rose. Absolutely gorgeous.
MPEG Stream: "Returning"
MPEG Stream: "Motra Dhe Vellai"
MPEG Stream: "Marl"

HALA STRANA Heave The Gambrel Roof (Music Fellowship) lp 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Pretty much every Hala Strana release has been a unanimous AQ favorite, most finding their way on to many of our year end top ten lists, and this new one looks to follow suit. Hala Strana is the work of Steven R. Smith, who many of you might recognize as a member of AQ faves Thuja as well as from a handful of solo records that have been heaped with praise on this here very list. Hala Strana is a vehicle for Smith to explore, cover, rework and reinterpret Eastern European folk music. Each record contains a handful of cover songs, some straight, some completely reinvented, and originals informed by Smith's love of that musical tradition.
The originals on Heave The Gambrel Roof are dark and drone-y, plenty of steel string buzz, all stretched out into moody psychedelic free folk drone drift divinity. Subtle melodies, simple strumming, over lush backdrops of shimmery ambience, woven together from all manner of traditional and homemade instruments. A dark moody Appalachia with an Eastern sensibility, folky for sure, but with a definite raga component. One in particular, "Marl", introduces drums and sounds almost like country rock, albeit with a decidedly lo-fi production and a distinctively un-poppy vibe, but it's propulsive with mandolin and acoustic guitars, simple shuffling drumming, moaning distant ambience, it's maybe the most out of place song on the record, but it's a testament to Smith's skill that somehow it fits just fine amidst all the drone and buzz and drift.
The covers here, of which there are a handful, Smith makes his own, gorgeous bits of traditional strummy folk become mesmerizing and hypnotic, figures and melodies looped and repeated, sympathetic notes allowed to buzz and wash into one another. A few of the covers sound pretty straight, with just a tiny bit more buzz or drone, but a few are completely transformed, becoming extended atmospheric dreamscapes, like on "Wedding Of The Blind" which sounds like seventies Japanese psych drone ensemble Taj Mahal Travellers jamming with Jack Rose. Absolutely gorgeous.
[sorry the following info is for historical purposes only, these $30 wooden editions are all gone: While they last, we have the super limited deluxe version that comes wrapped in black felt, packaged alongside a thick piece of LP sized wood, with the cover art and the liner notes silkscreened directly onto the wood (and it smells amazing too, fresh wood, all foresty and outdoorsy). LIMITED TO 250 COPIES!! Each one is hand numbered with the number hand carved / branded into the wood! Once these are gone, we will have the less expensive regular vinyl version, which is probably a good thing as we imagine these will go pretty damn quick.]
MPEG Stream: "Returning"
MPEG Stream: "Motra Dhe Vellai"
MPEG Stream: "Marl"

HALA STRANA Karst e.p. (Jewelled Antler Library) 3" cd-r 5.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The fourth in the Jewelled Antler Library series of 3" cd-r releases comes from Thuja's Steven R. Smith, who has taken up the Hala Strana moniker for his Eastern European-folk music inspired meditations. "Karst" continues down the path of his previous Jewelled Antler production "Kohl" (which is slated for a reissue on 12" by Emperor Jones) with a more ramshackle production for his dense acoustic arrangements for guitar and scratchy violin, which often hints at Eastern European timbres but as played by Nikki Sudden. In fact two of Smith's tracks are versions of traditional Polish and Romanian folk songs. Often beginning with a clutter of loose sounds, Smith coaxes his orchestrations into melancholic melodies and has smothered everything with an unusual patina of crunchy vinyl static, giving the 18 minutes a distinctly antiquated feel. A great entry in a great series.
MPEG Stream: "Sztajer"
MPEG Stream: "Cantecul Miresei"

HALA STRANA s/t (Emperor Jones) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Ok, here's a Hala Strana cd that we won't (or shouldn't) run out of, unlike the super-limited Jewelled Antler double cd-r release we reviewed last list. But hurry up n' buy it anyway, 'cause it's also a good one! As splendid as the double, if less sprawling.
Hala Strana, for those just tuning in, is the Eastern European inspired psych-folk-drone project of the prolific and talented Steven R. Smith (Thuja, Mirza, his own self). SRS wrote all but two of the 13 tunes on here (there's a trad. Moravian and trad. Transylvanian credit for those two) and plays ALL the myriad instruments, from guitar to harmonium to cello to drums to accordion to melodica to glockenspiel... With the magic of overdubbing, he's a one man orchestra. But we wish this was a band, just 'cause we'd *love* to hear this music live!
Though only two of the tracks are actually based on traditional Eastern European folk, they all share that spirit, the "Transylvanian trance" lure mentioned in the review of that other Hala Strana. Some of the songs have an epic vibe that comes across like a Balkan Godspeed You Black Emperor!, others are more intimate, with melodic hooks that make 'em sound a bit like instrumental Decemberists tracks -- maybe that's the accordion making us think that. Very recommended.
MPEG Stream: "Stria"
MPEG Stream: "The Strictness of Beauty"

HALA STRANA These Villages (Soft Abuse) cd 14.98
Every time we get in a new album from Steven R. Smith's Hala Strana it's as if we've been magically, mystically transported to one of the Olde World vistas with which he always adorns his cd covers (this one comes from the Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493). He's an Eastern European influenced, drone-folk one-man-band, crafting gorgeous, mesmerizing, sometimes melancholic instrumental compositions in his home studio, incorporating sundry ethnic instruments and tapes and field recordings, in a manner quite in keeping with that of his Jewelled Antler brethren (instrument-builder Smith is an alumnus of Thuja, you might know). Only three of the songs here are authentic traditional tunes (from Latvia, Hungary, and the Caucasus), but all the rest of them also seem to derive from an ancient, far-off land of Smith's imaginings...organic, rustic, autumnal...music for meandering along a trickling stream, lazing in a meadow, peering at distant crags through a morning mist, or drinking in a ruined old tavern at night. Harmonium drones and gently plucked strings and wheezing accordion and keening hurdy gurdy (and more) are all woven by Smith into the medieval tapestry of Hala Strana's music. Ah, we love it. These Villages is Hala Strana's fourth release -- we can't say it's the best yet, only because the others were also so superlative too. Quite recommended.
MPEG Stream: "October"
MPEG Stream: "Nepdal Tarogaton"

HALA STRANA White Sleep (Soft Abuse) 7" lathe cut 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Three songs from Steven R. Smith and his Hala Strana, ultra limited lathe cut, hand numbered, only 60 copies pressed. We got FIVE.

HALF FILM East of Monument (Buzz) cd 11.98
Local trio whose sweetly mournful, thickly atmospheric tunes will appeal to fans of Red House Painters and Radar Bros.

HALF FILM The Road To The Crater (Devil In The Woods) cd 14.98
Long overdue second full length from these San Francisco mope rockers. Dark and intense and delicate and absolutely beautiful. Think Low, Labradford, Codeine, Radar Bros. etc...

HALF JAPANESE Bone Head (Alternative Tentacles) cd 10.98
21 songs performed by Jad Fair and crew. Includes "Movin' On Up".

HALF JAPANESE Hello (Alternative Tentacles) cd 13.98
This may be only the second Half Japanese album to find a home on the Alternative Tentacles label, but it's one in such a long line of HJ/Jad Fair projects (upwards of 30!)... don't even think of shaking a stick at 'em. At any rate over twenty years after the very first clattering cacaphony was heard coming out of the Fair family's basement, HJ has definitely gotten more composed and melodic, but the primitive charm and child-like vision are still very much intact. Y'know, it's nice to hear Jad hasn't lost his penchant for singing about vampires. In past incarnations such d.i.y. music luminaries as Moe Tucker and Don Fleming have played on the HJ team, and this time around the line-up is Jason Willett, Gilles-V. Rieder, John Sluggett.

HALF MAKESHIFT Aphotic Leech (Utech) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
As much as we love downtuned sludge and the whole dronedoomdirge static guitar buzz thing, and we do, believe us, we do, we love it even more when bands take that sound and warp it into something completely new. Such is the case with Aphotic Leech, a 35 minute single track from the duo known as Half Makeshift. Well, not sure if it's a duo as one guy is credited with piano, guitar, organ, glitch work and manipulation, while the other guy apparently "unknowningly provided all [the] percussion". Strange...
As is this disc. It begins with a sudden flurry of glitchy static that quickly gives way to dark dolorous piano, picking out a mournful, funereal melody, the notes drifting over simple chiming percussion, while beneath hover stretched out marimba melodies and a low distant thunderous rumbling. This dour march is occasionally enveloped in dense clouds of crumbling distortion and thick swaths of damaged electronics, always returning to it's spacious dark lilt. It's all very dynamic as well, with dark clusters of notes punching through the shimmery moodiness every once in a while, always retreating to a glacial drift. The notes on the piano gradually change form, wreathed in glitch, turned inside out, flipped backwards, often just subtly altered to flicker like some old projector, eventually erupting in a thick, grinding low end drone, the notes completely obscured, wrapped in thick swaths of crackle and glitch, the whole thing threatening to split apart, like watching the sky blacken and crumble above you, not long after the piano is swallowed up by a thick molten flow of black downtuned guitar drone, and you may think SUNNO))) is heavy? But this is more than heavy, caustic and black, a dense sludge so thick it barely makes it out of the speakers, but this low-end assault is peppered with strange production glitches, malfunctioning electronics, the notes, the sounds, all damaged and decaying, as if they might fall to the ground and break into a million pieces, but as long as they retain their shape, they are capable of crushing everything in their path.
Eventually the piano returns, but the notes are chopped into strange skipping rhythms, the rumbling, guitar crumble relegated to a swirling black backdrop, and finally, after one brief blast of black hole guitar grime, the track reverts to it's blissed out black ramble, culminating in a dark stuttering piano fade out....
Absolutely essential for the drone-doom-death-dirge inclined, fans of all things SUNNO))), Nadja, Fear Falls Burning, Trollmann, Boris, Marzuraan... Packaged in a super striking fold over sleeve, with a black on gold jellyfish on one side, and a truly revolting, but gorgeous penis-head-mask thing on the other, an amazing photograph by Max Aguilera-Hellweg, who was also responsible for the amazing photos on the sleeve of Fantomas' Delerium Cordia.
LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!!
MPEG Stream: "Aphotic Leech (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Aphotic Leech (excerpt 2)"

HALF MAKESHIFT Final (Small Doses) cd-r 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We mention elsewhere on this list, about the strange viral spread of underground bands via cd-r labels. One super hyped release is all it takes, suddenly more releases begin popping up on all the other usual cd-r labels. Thankfully this usually happens to bands who deserve it, and who we can't get enough of, so more releases in that instance is definitely good news.
Such is the case with Half Makeshift, who actually started out with some proper full length cd releases, before they began dabbling in limited cd-r releases. We've listed two of their discs so far, both fantastic, dark and heavy, dense and thick, ominous and intense. Much heavier and more aggressive than your typical cd-r floorcore fare.
And 'they' is actually a 'he', he being Nathan Michael, who takes sounds low and slow, and assembles them into strangely propulsive downtuned dirges, hovering sonically somewhere between the glacial sludge of SUNNO))) and the muted minimal shimmer of folks like Aidan Baker or Jonathan Coleclough.
On Final, Michael explores a bit of both. The opener is a fierce plodding lurch, slowed way down to an almost crawl, the beats are big and effected, but they are buried in the mix, and pitched down, above the beats, guitars grind woozily and swirl weightlessly, it almost sounds like a Nadja 45 spinning at 33, or Jesu slowed way dooooooooown. A blissed out post industrial shoegazey doom, more pretty than heavy, but still shot through with bits of sharp riffage and thick crunch, but by the end, the track has transformed into a muted minor key drift, soft and serene. The second track takes the end of the first and stretches it out into a whole track of whispered whir and warm chordal swells.
The third track of four begins with piano, processed and spun backwards, a dreamily dizzy bit of swell and swoop, that continues throughout the whole track, at one point passing through thick black clouds of low end rumble, before emerging on the other side spare and sparse and hovering in an austere wide open space.
The final track, the title track, appropriately called "Final", is another piano driven jam, more moody and murky, a funereal dirge, a somber musical death march, the sounds changing timbre and tone subtly, the various notes wrapped in effects and slipped back into the melodies, gorgeously forlorn and sweetly sinister.
Like all Small Doses discs, incredible packaging, two different colored and textured paper rectangles, glued together and then folded to create a super striking two tone layered sleeve, printed with gorgeous austere photos, each copy hand numbered. LIMITED TO 151 COPIES!
MPEG Stream: "The First And Second Passing"
MPEG Stream: "Final"

HALF MAKESHIFT L'Anse Amort (20 Buck Spin) cd 13.98
Last year we raved about this oddly named, mysterious one-man-band's debut disc on Utech, entitled Aphotic Leech, saying stuff like "Absolutely essential for the drone-doom-death-dirge inclined, fans of all things SUNNO))), Nadja, Fear Falls Burning, Trollmann, Boris, Marzuraan". We've been letting Half Makeshift's second cd (four tracks this time, instead of one long one) sink in for a while now, and are convinced that it's just as amazing, even more spacious and atmospheric. Though maybe we should stress that while we think that the drone-doom-death-dirge inclined are likely to dig this, it ISN'T really all that heavy. More super moody and slow and atmospheric. It's not until like the end of the seventeen minute track 1 "The Whale's Heart", and again halfway through the 14 minutes of track 3, the title track, that some truly loud and heavy guitar destruction is heard. A lot of the rest of the time, this is way more restrained. The first track, for instance: Chiming tones and majestic chords, slow and gorgeous. Building slowly, ponderously, into a massive cloud of distorted rumble, joined by a broken, staccato rhythm track right, blast beat style, at the end that eventually glitches out as the song fades away, piano notes suspended amidst the silence hum reverie in silent reverie. Later on, you get gentle music box melodies combined with fuzzed guitar worthy of a black metal horde. And slo-mo doom, with seagulls and ocean samples, that's mesmeric but never all that heavy.
It's all the work of one guy, Nathan Michael, who is credited with piano, organ, strings, drone, machines, manipulation, glitch work. He hails from Maryland, a hotbed of old school doom, but Half Makeshift is closer to Nadja than Pentagram. Also way more post-rock! Sorta like Coh meets SUNNO))). Heck not too unlike KTL.
Mastered by James Plotkin, and packaged much like an aRCHIVE release, in an oversized rectangular 4 panel cardboard sleeve with four postcard-like arty photo inserts featuring super striking images of towers and piers and tunnels and back alleys...
MPEG Stream: "The Whale's Heart"
MPEG Stream: "Oblivion"

HALF MAKESHIFT Omen (Profound Lore Records) cd 13.98
We have yet to be disappointed by the restrained, doomic ambience that Half Makeshift (aka Nathan Michael) provides. More atmospheric than absolutely heavy (most of the time), Half Makeshift makes chilling chill out albums for the SUNNO))) scene. This new one is called Omen and it is indeed quite... ominous. It lets you get about 8 minutes into the first track before the crashing waves of distortion kick in. Even then, despite the volume, it still seems somehow hushed. And before the track is over, it retreats again into a melodic, melancholic realm of looping loveliness for guitar; spare and spacious and unhurried. Elsewhere on this album that pattern repeats itself, this moody work having a stretched-out set of dynamics like a somnolent post-rock band... it's quietly droning much of the time, adorned with plaintive piano and guitar, building a seductive sense of despair, that occasionally reaches level of cathartic release when Half Makeshift so subtly cranks it up and gets heavy. Loops and backwards effects and digital glitch figure into the mix throughout, but no vocals. Omen has a baleful prettiness to it that could appeal to fans of recent Earth, KTL, Fear Falls Burning, Nadja, Fun Years, and Oren Ambarchi amongst others.
And this time Half Makeshift makes its home on the Profound Lore label, who, not unlike the likes of Southern Lord, 20 Buck Spin, and often tUMULt, teeters on various edges of the metal/doom/drone/blackened/experimental zone, with releases from the likes of Alcest, Atavist, Nadja, Wold, and (reviewed last list) Krallice.
MPEG Stream: "track 1"
MPEG Stream: "track 2"

HALF VISCONTE s/t (Decimal Cinque) cd 8.98
Arizona's Half Visconte channel all the good things about indie/post rock (Drive Like Jehu, Rodan, Blonde Redhead, Sonic Youth) into something really great, especially considering the glut of 'post rock' bands. The first three songs are complex mathy workouts, along the same lines as Rodan, A Minor Forest and Sweep the Leg Johhny. But track four is where they really come into their own. A twenty minute epic combining post rock rhythms, hypnotic krautrock drones, ambient industrial soundscapes, and experimental click and clatter. If this strange musique concret/post-rock hybrid is where HV are headed, they will be unbeatable.