HIROSHIGE, JOJO Crimson Voyage (Alchemy) cd 21.00
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Japan's Alchemy Records has started releasing discs in a new cosmic-music-oriented series called "Inner Mind Music", and label boss Jojo Hiroshige's Crimson Voyage is one of the first offerings. With guitar, keyboards and percussion he creates some spacey electronic soudscapes in the vein of the '70s kraut masters. He's joined by a female singer, Yoshiko Sai, who adds some high, perhaps wordless vocals to the three lengthy tracks found here. (Actually, she is credited with lyrics, so I suppose she's singing something in Japanese, but her delivery is still pretty effective for us non-Japanese-speakers.) Crimson Voyage is dark and droney, but a far cry from the extreme noise that Jojo is known for in his band Hijokaidan. Rather beautiful.
RealAudio clip: "Ko-Ku"

HIROSHIGE, JOJO Donari Chirasu Boku No Koe Wa Amari Ni Mo Chiisai (Alchemy) cd 21.00
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Er...we think that's the title. Anyway this appears to be a collaboration between Jojo Hiroshige (boss of the Alchemy label and guitarist for legendary Japanese noise band Hijokaidan) and one-half of the all-girl psych-rock duo Doodles (who you'll also hear on the first Night Gallery comp of "21st Century Psychedelic Underground" music, also on Alchemy), plus a couple other friends. And it's great. Press start and you're immediately confronted with some totally heavy, thudding noise rock, dense and rhythmic. With the ripped-from-the-throat vocals of Jojo (screams of anguish as much as they are singing), this reminds us of KK Null's Zeni Geva. Track two follows, a lumbering, stoner rock, slow-mo stomp. These gals and guy are a noise band, a psych band, a tripped out doom band. What's not to like? And it's not quite ALL distortion-infused bludgeoning, dundering, damaged Blue Cheer riffage. There's some spacier, haunted sound-worlds to wander lost and lonely in on here as well, melodic minor key melancholia that soon enough is joined by crashing waves of heavy guitar and drums. We wonder, has Jojo borrowed Keiji Haino's shades and black clothes? Certainly Jojo and the Doodles girl's mutual love of heavy psych and krautrock freakiness bear massive, ripe, deformed fruit here. Goes well with the Up-Tight album, also new on Alchemy, reviewed this list too!
MPEG Stream: "track 1"
MPEG Stream: "Love Over...."

HIROSHIGE, JOJO Kimi Ga Shinette Ieba Shinu Kara (Alchemy) cd 21.00
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Solo album from Hijokaidan guitarist.

HIROSHIGE, JOJO Kokoro No Uta, Saigo No Uta (Alchemy) dvd 21.00
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BACK IN STOCK. Japan's Jojo Hiroshige, self proclaimed King Of Noise (noise fans commence argument now), has been abusing guitars for years as the leader of seminal 'Japanoise' outfit Hijokaidan. He's also responsible for many solo recordings and collaborations, many of them tempering the pure noise aesthetic of Hijokaidan with more rock, psych, or folk elements... likewise with the label he runs, the eclectic and extreme Alchemy, which delves into noise, psych, punk, improv, and heavy rock. In the Japanese noisy underground music scene, Jojo's the man. And he's also quite the performer, as this dvd will prove. He very definitely has a stage presence -- and knows how to make a racket!
One track will feature Jojo solo, shirtless, dramatically lit, with a mirrored stage backdrop, Gibson SG and microphone his weapons for unleashing relentless drone and cathartic screams... or, you'll find him in another segment wearing a leather jacket, wielding a baseball bat and a boombox, on stage with Masonna... or, in a more sedate setting, seated, jamming with the girls in Doodles, or members of Angel In'Heavy Syrup... there's even an MTV style promo video for a track from Jojo's Boku Wa Mo Utawanai Daro album (which also appeared on the Alchemism 2dvd collection). All in all, in addition to that promo clip, you'll find 15 different performances from the past few years documented here, including the bonus track that finds Jojo kicking out the jams with free folk legend Kan Mikami! It's a really nice package of music and visuals for the Jojo fan.

HIROSHIGE, JOJO Konomama Shinde Shimaitai (Alchemy) cd 21.00
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Jojo Hiroshige is the founding member of the Osaka-based noise unit Hijokaidan. Along with Merzbow, Hiijokaidan is one of the oldest post-Masayuki Takayanagi noise artists in Japan, with recordings that date back to the late seventies. In addition, Jojo runs the Alchemy label, known for their consistent output of quality noise (and occasional punk / avant rock) records. "Konomama Shinde Shimaitai" is his third solo record. Songs here range from harsh guitar feedback outbursts accompanied by painful vocals (think Keiji Haino, only more vulnerable and revealing), to cold hushed vocals over eerie synth drones, to drums/noise freakouts scarier than anything on a black metal record, to the pulsing krautrock-inspired "Black Night, White Snow". Not strictly a "noise" record, recommended for the more adventurous noise-freak!

HIROSHIGE, JOJO Minna Shinde Shimaeba Iinoni (Alchemy) cd 21.00
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Another Solo album from Hijokaidan guitarist.

HIROSHIGE, JOJO The Very Best Of Jojo Hiroshige (Alchemy) cd 21.00
Yes, it's true. Though his solo discography is quite small, Jojo has assembled a great introduction to his post-Hijokaidan world of painful dissonance. As founder of said group as well as the mighty Alchemy label -- responsible for the most cohesive and consistent output of powerful noise artists from around the world, Jojo's history is long and impressive. A true visionary, full of integrity and a dedicated advocate of difficult and extreme musics, he is the Eastern Godfather of noise. Collecting some of the strongest moments from his three solo records, this is an indispensible peek into the sonic malevolence and brute force that is Jojo Hiroshige. If you've been afraid to step into his world, give this disc a chance. But still, be very afraid!
RealAudio clip: "Black Night, White Snow"
RealAudio clip: "Love Love Love"

ICHIYANAGI, TOSHI / AKIKO SAMUKAWA / TOMOMI ADACHI Experimental Music of Japan: Live Document, Hommage For Space (Omega Point Archive) cd 27.00

ICHIYANAGI, TOSHI / MICHAEL RANTA / TAKEHISA KOSUGI Improvisation Sep. 1975 (Phoenix) cd 17.98
Originally released in 1975, this is one serious slab of mind blowing Japanese improvised kosmiche drone music, featuring legendary composer / performer Toshi Ichiyanagi (a student of John Cage who was once married to Yoko Ono!), Takehisa Kosugi, the mastermind behind one of our favorite bands ever, the Taj Mahal Travellers, here teamed up with Stockhausen percussionist Michael Ranta, for two extended free drone workouts.
The trio employ reverbed ring modulators, threaded vocals, melodicas, pianos, violins, gongs and Japanese biwas and shamisens, and weave an elaborate and lush tapestry of sound, one that is really not that far removed from Taj Mahal Travellers. Brooding, shimmering expanses of muted tones, of layered rumbles, dreamlike melodies, peppered with strange electronics, haunting and otherworldly, with a distinctly krautrock vibe, or krautdrone, all of the current practitioners of spaced out kraut inspired dronemusic, as good as they may be, can't even touch this.
The music is alive, a living thing, that the players breathe life into and guide, letting the sounds love and drift and fluctuate, creating something organic and expansive and breathtaking. The percussion adds a unique element, not really adding any propulsion, but instead, contributing texture, and a framework that the players often let collapse, before bringing it right back. The second track begins with a cool skeletal groove, all clank and clatter and thump, the space around the sounds as much a part of the overall sound, eventually slipping back into something more murky and subterranean sounding, the percussion switching to something more tabla-like, draped over an oozing sea of rumbles and growls, scrapes and whirrs.
This is one of those rare pieces of music that manages to be two things at once, a gorgeously dreamlike, relaxing bit of sonic ambience, but also something elaborate and dense, opening up the listener to dual experiences, drifting off on the surface, or strapping on the headphones, letting that extra weight carry you down into the swirling blackness at the heart of this recording.
Incredible. And essential. About the closest we'll ever get to a lost Taj Mahal Travellers record...
MPEG Stream: "1"
MPEG Stream: "2"

ICHIYANAGI, TOSHI / MICHAEL RANTA / TAKEHISA KOSUGI Improvisation Sep. 1975 (Phoenix) lp 24.00
NOW ON VINYL!!!
Originally released in 1975, this is one serious slab of mind blowing Japanese improvised kosmiche drone music, featuring legendary composer / performer Toshi Ichiyanagi (a student of John Cage who was once married to Yoko Ono!), Takehisa Kosugi, the mastermind behind one of our favorite bands ever, the Taj Mahal Travellers, here teamed up with Stockhausen percussionist Michael Ranta, for two extended free drone workouts.
The trio employ reverbed ring modulators, threaded vocals, melodicas, pianos, violins, gongs and Japanese biwas and shamisens, and weave an elaborate and lush tapestry of sound, one that is really not that far removed from Taj Mahal Travellers. Brooding, shimmering expanses of muted tones, of layered rumbles, dreamlike melodies, peppered with strange electronics, haunting and otherworldly, with a distinctly krautrock vibe, or krautdrone, all of the current practitioners of spaced out kraut inspired dronemusic, as good as they may be, can't even touch this.
The music is alive, a living thing, that the players breathe life into and guide, letting the sounds love and drift and fluctuate, creating something organic and expansive and breathtaking. The percussion adds a unique element, not really adding any propulsion, but instead, contributing texture, and a framework that the players often let collapse, before bringing it right back. The second track begins with a cool skeletal groove, all clank and clatter and thump, the space around the sounds as much a part of the overall sound, eventually slipping back into something more murky and subterranean sounding, the percussion switching to something more tabla-like, draped over an oozing sea of rumbles and growls, scrapes and whirrs.
This is one of those rare pieces of music that manages to be two things at once, a gorgeously dreamlike, relaxing bit of sonic ambience, but also something elaborate and dense, opening up the listener to dual experiences, drifting off on the surface, or strapping on the headphones, letting that extra weight carry you down into the swirling blackness at the heart of this recording.
Incredible. And essential. About the closest we'll ever get to a lost Taj Mahal Travellers record...
MPEG Stream: "1"
MPEG Stream: "2"

IDIOT O'CLOCK Original First Album (Alchemy) cd 21.00

IIDA, HIROYUKI & ATSUSHI TOMINAGA s/t (WrK) cd 16.98
The conceptually leaning WrK label out of Japan presents a solo piece from both Hiroyuki Iida and Atsushi Tominaga as well as a collaborative piece. Iida's solo piece "BPM 60" ampilfies two quartz watches using the electro magnetic inferference caused by two loop antennas, producing a noxious hypnosis of clattered rhythms. Tominaga's "050" piece is an ominous recording of bass rumbles which occurred when he recorded the sound of boiling water using speakers as the microphone. "Grainness" - the collaboration between the two - is a performative piece for a vibrating plate glass and a steel pipe. Fluxus to say the least.

IKEDA, RYOJI Matrix (Touch) 2cd 21.00
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"Matrix" completes the trilogy of releases that Japanese electronica-experimentalist Ryoji Ikeda has put out through the Touch label (also including "0¡C" and "+/-"). Inspite of what the title may imply, Ikeda hasn't taken to computer-assisted wire stunts, battling Keanu Reeves in a kung fu competition for the title of Cyber-Christ, though we think that the first half of "Matrix" could use a little more high-flying, ass-kicking action...of which, thankfully, there's plenty on the second half! Let's explain: "Matrix" is a double cd that explores a conceptual relationship between the body and architecture within a controlled sonic field. Disc one concentrates on the architectural metaphor as Ikeda unleashes two closely matched sine wave frequencies which quickly fill up any enclosed space which can offer body-cavity-churning standing waves or warm blissful drones, depending on where you stand in that room. An interesting conceptual piece but one that you might not listen to too many times...
Disc two, on the other hand, is the reason to pick this up. Ikeda explores the idea of broadcasting his sine waves through the much more complex architectural system of the body, which with its amorphous surfaces and natural electical field reacts in a much more interesting way than a boxy cube. Ikeda begins the second half of "Matrix" with some amplifications of his own heart pulse, then phases in top quality Raster / Noton digital rhythms in only the low and high frequencies, sounding much closer to Mika Vainio's earlier recordings. So, focusing on disc two, this turns out to be a pretty exceptional release! Regard disc one as a bonus disc of conceptual-ambient stuff, with the main disc (disc two) being completely amazing and powerful clicking and humming "dance music". His tones are so pure and his sense of dynamics, contrasts and rhythms so exciting that this is already Allan's favorite "party" album of the year...
Joking about "The Matrix" aside, one can imagine that this style of "techno" should have been used on the soundtrack to it (or better yet, "Run Lola Run") but I don't know if theatre audiences would have survived. Certainly the action on the screen would have taken on secondary importance!
RealAudio clip: ".matrix (track 5)"

IKEDA, RYOJI op. (Touch) cd 15.98
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We're used to hearing clinical clicks from Japanese electronic composer Ryoji Ikeda -- so what's this then? 21st century classical, all acoustic stringed instruments, no electronics at all?? Yes, and it's great. With help from Belgian chamber-prog group Art Zoyd, Ikeda has crafted a gorgeous soundtrack-like suite of droning string bliss, that's far from the chopped-up aesthetic of his earlier use of orchestral elements in the electronic realm.
Two years ago, Ikeda released "Matrix" -- an amazing double cd split between pure sinewave aggrevation on one disc and smooth, post-techno click 'n' grooves on the other. While that album was the conclusion of a trilogy of electronic works that also included "0 Degrees Celsius" and "+/-," it remains unclear if the arrival of "op." also marks a disavowal of electronics altogether (as good as this is, we hope not). While the German avant-garde ensemble Zeitkratzer have done very well for themselves in translating electronoise works by John Duncan and Merzbow into atonal orchestrations for classical instruments, Ikeda's "classical" debut bares little resemblance to anything he's done in the past. No cyclical pulses. No clinical precision. No irritants to speak of. Instead, Ikeda's compositions for strings (one piece for 9 strings and the rest for quartet) gracefully glide in and out of complex timbres, with plenty of breathing room in between all of the harmonic tones. Indeed, the closest resemblance to Ikeda's past work is how initial attack of bows on strings can sound uncannily like the electronically-generated tones on the sinewave half of "Matrix"... Soon they reveal themselves for the acoustic orchestra instruments they are, Ikeda apparently using them to tap into the emotions of sadness and majesty, which rock musicians also have appropriated from romantic composers. Yet, with its stoic simplicity and stately pacing, "op." also mirrors the fascination that fellow minimalist Bernhard Gunter holds for Morton Feldman and Luigi Nono, although Gunter's approach has remained within the scope of sampling and hasn't yet arrived at full blown orchestrations.
As beautiful and compelling as Ikeda's "op." is, Ikeda has to ask himself how he can build a language that not only reflects back upon successes of his previous electronic works but also understand the peculiarities intrinsic to this form of composition. He's already issued vague statements about his electronic works building "invisible patterns filling the listening space." Is this a strong enough bridge between Ikeda's electronic masterpieces and the possible future for other classical compositions? Only time will tell...
RealAudio clip: "op.1 movement 2"
RealAudio clip: "op.2 version 2"

IKEDA, RYOJI See You At Regis Debray (OST) (Syntax) 2cd 23.00
Ryoji Ikeda scored the soundtrack for CS Leigh's film See You At The Regis Debray; and this two disc set is the entire soundtrack to the film split into two sections, approximately 45 minutes each. We've not seen the film; but from what we can gather, it describes a few days in 1969 when Andreas Baader (of Baader-Meinhof fame) spent with the French intellectual Regis Debray, while Baader was on the run from the German authorities. Debray himself had quite a storied past, having spent time in a Bolivian jail for associating with Che Guevera.
Ikeda's soundtrack begins as you would expect any Ikeda album to start: with a slow-building ascension of precisely micro-shifting digital tones. Ikeda cuts to a collage of the jarring ring of telephones that dissolves into a repetitive strum of a low-slung guitar that sounds very much like a Morricone sample from The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly. This detours into a subterranean field recording of various clanks, muffled rumblings, and distant voices. Then an elegiac chorale of reverb saturated drones with snippets of radio transmission (bells? gongs? chimes? those same digital tones?) completes the first disc. The second disc returns to that Morricone riff, only flushed out this time, given more of an Achim Reichel energy of bad-ass Western twang matching futurist arpeggiation. These 15 - 20 minutes of the soundtrack are the highlight of the album, and make us wish Ikeda would do more of this type of work. The rest of the second disc consists of an eerie collage of someone panting heavily transitioning to a collage of chimpmunked AM radio hits then to dissonant guitar squalor sort of like early Nurse With Wound, before turning to a collection of old Spanish political speeches, perhaps Che Guevera?
MPEG Stream: "01"
MPEG Stream: "MoRT"
MPEG Stream: ""

IKEDA, RYOJI Time / Space (Staalplaat) 12" 12.98
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Strange that a piece by Ryoji Ikeda would get released on vinyl, but Staalplaat has always been known to defy convention. Originally released as a double 3"cd back in 1998, "Time / Space" found Ikeda first exploring the now commonplace glitch 'n' sinewave agenda. "Space" is incredibly quiet with deep low end rumbles, unwavering midrange tones, terse pinprick pings, and surface noise scrapes (...well we're pretty sure they're supposed to be there as they're in perfect rhythm with the subtle rhythm shifts). "Time", on the other hand, is Ikeda's more active side, with those low end rumbles tightened into mid-tempo techno pulses while blistered glitches, morse code shards, and very tense dueling sinewaves spiral throughout the skeletal rhythms. Of course it's on white vinyl, and of course it's limited to 500 copies.

IMAHORI TSUNEO YOSHIDA TATSUYA Dots (Doubtmusic) cd 24.00
Japan's Ruins are/were a bass and drums prog-spazz duo lead by octopoidal drummer Tatsuya Yoshida. Ruins have been longtime faves 'round here for their manic precision and complex catchiness, kind of a cross between Melt-Banana and Magma, played by a two-piece. Hopefully, you know all about Ruins already. And if you're a fan, then you're reading the right review!
Goddamn, if you thought that Ruins were crazy... believe it or not, Yoshida's latest duo project has upped the ante quite a bit. Teaming with guitarist Imahori Tsueno, and further augmented by computer processing, this takes Yoshida's brand of frenzied prog palpitations into hyperdrive. Considering what we know Yoshida can do live with no overdubs (and even all by himself) it's positively dangerous to allow him and his collaborator to crank up the craziness with technology. Yet the Doubtmusic label has allowed them to do it, twice -- this is their second disc. As you may recall, we already raved about the first one, Territory, last year. This one is equally awesome, if you're at all inclined towards this sort of technical musical mania. It will leave you breathless, staring at your stereo, jaw on floor. There's 17 tracks, ranging from one minute four seconds to eight minutes fifty seconds. All of 'em action packed, constructed through a partially improvised creative process that incorporates malfunctioning video game sounds one nano second, virtuoso jazz fusion licks the next... kecak-like vocal parts, blasting rhythms, heavy guitar rippage. And there's also artificial speed manipulations, pitch shifting, and jump-cut electronic edits -- yeah just when you thought it couldn't get any more dense or intense, it's like they flip a switch and suddenly achieve superhuman levels of prog rock performance (beyond even what the Ruins are known for!).
It's not all speedy spasmodicism, as they also delve into some momentary moody, much calmer atmospherics... always ready to turn a corner into utter ADD insanity, however. While still always retaining a knack for ear-catching riffage, as per the Ruins at their best. And this IS the most Ruins-y thing we've heard in a while!! Of course. Boy this makes us happy.
MPEG Stream: "Quantum"
MPEG Stream: "Expiry"
MPEG Stream: "Gene"

IMAHORI TSUNEO YOSHIDA TATSUYA Territory (Doubtmusic) cd 24.00
Jeepers. Could Tatsuya Yoshida of Japan's Ruins make his music even MORE hyperkinetic and choppy and rapidfire and precise??? I mean, he already holds the undisputed "King of Japanese Crazy Prog Rock Composition" crown doesn't he? Even when performing live just by himself with no overdubs, which we've seen him do, he does more playing/drumming/singing on multiple instruments than a whole concert hall full of Berklee grads, AND his music is as catchy as it is chaotic and complex. So, team him up with another equally amazing/absurd musician, and give 'em both a computer assist and then you've got some serious insanity -- and that's what this is. Yoshida (drums, darbuka, voice, devices) in a "Japanese hyper duet" with Imahori Tsuneo (guitars, devices) who was a founding member in the eighties of experimental prog-fusion outfit Tipographica and currently has a career in the field of anime and PS2 videogame soundtracks. Their collaborative process consisted of "composition and improvisation; and file exchange, overdubbing, and extensive editing on computer." That computer probably blew a few fuses along the way. This Territory disc is sorta like the intense Magmoid prog of Ruins meets the electronic metallic complexities of James Ploktin's Phantomsmasher project. A blender on high stuffed with stabbing shards of guitar, plentiful percussion, video game FX, vocal babble, jazz licks, blissful synths, and even some campfire country ("Autonomy"). Several of the 17 tracks here, while not entirely "calm", are definitely interludes that allow the listener can catch their breath, although in most cases these relaxed moments soon give way to an outburst of frantic action.
Any Ruins fan should be pleased, particularly since there hasn't been a Ruins release in quite a while (we're not even sure if Yoshida's got a bass player for that band anymore, hasn't he been performing as "Ruins Alone"?). Though of course he has been keeping busy with a variety of other collaborations and projects like Acid Mothers Temple SWR, Sekkutusu Jean, Korekyojinn and Koenjihyakkei, and now this excellent piece of work, another new direction for the Ruins style of sound...
By the way, it's also the latest release from doubtmusic (the great, relatively new Japanese label, whose releases we've reviewed already include two crucial Masayuki Takayanagi reissues and several Otomo Yoshihide efforts, among them his Out To Lunch album), chalk another one up for them!
MPEG Stream: "Irritation"
MPEG Stream: "EST"
MPEG Stream: "Ferrichrome"

IMAI KAZUO TRIO Blood (Doubtmusic) cd + dvd 33.00
Maybe not your typical jazz trio, this Japanese group. Not that we'd expect anything typical from the Doubtmusic label. Bandleader Imai Kazuo (of Marginal Consort) plays amplified acoustic guitar, Suzuki Manabu is credited with electronics, and the third member of the trio, Ito Atsuhiro, performs on something called an "optron". As near as we can tell, that unusual instrument is a homebuilt device resembling a florescent tube light fixture. In fact, it IS a florescent light fixture, with some modifications.
Kazuo's "controllable instrument" the guitar handles the orthodox musical content here, playing some lovely, recognizable melodies and jazzy chords, though he switches to sudden atonal outbursts of frantic skronk sometimes too. But it's the other two members of the trio who really bring the noise and nothing but, the "uncontrollable" electronics and optron outputting a varied, often quite cacophonous improvised barrage of buzzings and cracklings and feedback, all fritzed and glitched like malfunctioning mad scientist laboratory equipment! It can be calm, as with their version of avant composer/vocalist Annette Peacock's "Nothing Ever Was, Anyway" that features Imai picking out slow, sparse notes on his guitar amidst near-ambient hum and static from Ito's optron and what sounds a lot like video-arcade machine sounds emulated by Suzuki's electronics.
But at (many) points, this gets pretty intensely dense with distortion and noisiness. Definitely a crossover from straight jazz into full-on, Hijokaidan or Merzbow style Japanese noise territory, as on the totally freaked out title track, another composition by Annette Peacock. These guys are REALLY into Peacock, there's in fact four of her pieces on the cd, alongside tunes originally by Cole Porter, Thelonious Monk, Lee Konitz, Georges Brassens, and even J.S. Bach! The inclusion of several well-known standards serves to make this seem even noisier, yet also more accessible at the same time. For instance, Cole Porter's "So In Love" sounds like you're hearing it via a shortwave radio transmission, with heavy hissing atmospheric interference.
Not surprisingly, it turns out that the 54 year old Imai had been a student of the late great guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi, who pioneered some of the noisiest jazz ever but also performed traditional stuff too. (In the '70s, Imai briefly played with Takayanagi's New Directions Unit - and also the Taj Mahal Travellers and East Bionic Symphonia too!). So if Imai were to "play pretty" it makes sense he would do so in a context such as this.
And, packaged along with the cd in the thick, gatefold miniature LP style sleeve, there's also a 40-minute dvd disc included here too, wherein you can see the optron in action, intermittently blinking brightly in Ito's lap as it makes its strange sounds. In close up shots, it's as if the trio is performing amidst flashes of lightning. The dvd features alternate takes of a couple of the tracks from the cd, as well as three Imai originals and yet another composition by Annette Peacock. As with the cd, this material was recorded live in the GOK Sound studio... some of the tracks in front of a studio audience, all of whom are politely acknowledged by name on the sleeve.
MPEG Stream: "Sarabande"
MPEG Stream: "Blood"
MPEG Stream: "Well You Needn't"

IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN 2002-2003 (Improvised Music From Japan) magazine + cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The entity that released the phenomenal and weighty 10-cd wooden box set known as "Improvised Music From Japan" (box, label, website) is now also a magazine. Printed in both English and Japanese, this squarebound, digest-sized debut issue runs to about 132 pages (with the Japanese text occupying the second half, or first if you read it back-to-front Japanese style). And, it comes with a cd compilation bound inside the front (or back) cover. Reviews, interviews and essays by and about the likes of Otomo Yoshihide, Seiichi Yamamoto, Ami Yoshida, Uchihashi Kzuhisa, Phew, Aki Onda, Taku Sugimoto, Sachiko M, Toshimaru Nakamura, Utah Kawasaki, and many others make for fasinating reading if you're the sort of avant-garde music fan at all curious about the underground Japanese improvising scene. There's a review of, and translated excerpts from, a book called "The History Of Japanese Free Jazz" which us English-only types will find to be extremely tantalizing. Perhaps a full English translation of the book could be future project for the industrious Improvised Music From Japan folks? Info about such artists as Masayuki Takanyangi, the Taj Mahal Travellers, and Kaoru Abe is certainly hard to come by in the West, so it would be nice...
Meanwhile, on the compact disc, there's works by Toshimaru Nakamura, Haco, Yoshio Machida, Masahiko Okura and others. Creaking door ambience, silence, acoustic guitars, shortwave static crackle, field recordings, laptop computers, trombone drone... it's a really nice disc, proof of why this scene deserves such a journal.
RealAudio clip: HACO / VIEW MASTERS "Start Up + No Wave"
RealAudio clip: YOSHIO MACHIDA "MALHAR"

IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN 2004 (Improvised Music From Japan) magazine + 2cd 32.00
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Oh Lordy, it's here. Weren't you just asking us about when the next issue of Improvised Music From Japan was going to arrive? All 200 pages (half in English, half in Japanese) of it, plus two compliation cds. Do any of these names interest or excite you: Kazue Sawai, Aki Onda, Kazuo Imai, Tetuzi Akiyama, Uchihashi Kazuhisa, Sachiko M, Taku Sugimoto, Haco? Then this is for you, and you probably *were* asking us about it... All those folks and more appear in these pages, along with a bunch of tantalizing reviews. And there's a special section from Otomo Yoshihide all about making connections with the Korean free jazz scene, in which he interviews saxophonist Kang Tae Hwan. So, if Japanese free jazz / 'onkyo' / improv electronics etc. is your thing, here you go, plenty of good readin'. Not to mention listenin', as the two discs are crammed with all sorts of interesting and diverse performances from many of the artists mentioned above. We were particularily chuffed to check out the "improvised extreme optical core unit" Optrum who provide five noisy tracks on disc two.
MPEG Stream: OPTRUM "New Motorhead Banging & DC/DC"
MPEG Stream: MI YEON "untitled"

IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN 2005 (Improvised Music From Japan) book+ 2cd 30.00
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The wait is over -- now that it's 2006, the 2005 edition of Improvised Music From Japan is here! It's an indispensable journal to those of you, like us, who are confirmed musical Japanophiles and/or into the extremes of improvised sound activity. This time around, IMJ consists of a beautifully designed 128 page digest-sized book accompanied by two cds tucked under its front and back covers. The print portion of this is devoted entirely to write-ups about new albums from 2004 and 2005, over 350 of them (of which 21 are Merzbow releases!). Some are full articles all about a particular artist, others are briefer descriptions or impressions of the music, sometimes written by the artist in question (so we won't call these "reviews" in the consumer-guide sense, though this could be used that way). As always, the text is presented in both Japanese and English, along with thumbnail album cover pics. Besides all the Merzbow, there's plenty of names you might know here, and plenty more you probably don't. And you also find some non-Japanese artists in here as well (David Grubbs, Bastard Noise, Carl Stone, etc.) included because they've been released on a Japanese label or have collaborated with Japanese musicians.
Perusing this, you're gonna start making a list of releases you hadn't heard of before to try and hunt down -- we certainly did. One revelation was that Omoide Hatoba released a new album in 2004, we hadn't known that!! Gosh. Gotta get a hold of that somehow.
Meanwhile, the cds, like the magazine, feature both relatively well-known improvisers and (to us) newcomers. Among the 21 tracks spread across these two cds, you'll find pieces by familiar names like Toshiya Tsunoda, Merzbow and Kiyoshi Mizutani. But also you'll be introduced to the likes of VOIMA, sim and Tetsuya Umeda (whose track "Error Piano", featuring Yasuhisa Mizutani improvising on the piano whilst Umeda "loiters" nearby, with a portable radio, is indicative in its peculiarity and spontaneity of the variety of music to be heard on these discs and read about in the pages of the magazine). Out-jazz, mimimal electronics, brutal noise, all of the above and everything in between, that's the IMJ aestheticÉa good match for many curious AQ customers wethinks.

IMPROVISED MUSIC FROM JAPAN EXTRA 2003 (Improvised Music From Japan) mag + 2cd 23.00
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Second issue (sort of, they call it "Extra") of this print and audio journal devoted to the underground Japanese electro-acoustic improvisation scene. Definitely THE place to go to get enlightened about what's happening on that front. In both English and Japanese, this thick 128 page magazine features interviews with Ami Yoshida, Shoji Hano, and numerous others we're less familiar with, quite a few of 'em from a young generation of musicians here dubbed "Improv's New Waves". There's also a ton of reviews of intriguing cd releases that you'll probably only find out about here (and never see in a shop outside of Japan), and of course there's the magazine's audio portion: this time around, two discs full of cuts by artists from that "New Waves" scene, everything from jazz trumpet to turntables to death metal drums n' laptop. There's couple bonus cuts as well, including one from, um, old wave improvisor Shoji Hano.

INABA, SHUJI The Rapture Of Being Destroyed Is The Flipside Of The Misery Of Destruction (Last Visible Dog) cd 12.98
With a previous cdr on Last Visible Dog (and a cd on PSF some years before that), Shuji Inaba is a Japanese avant-folk singer and guitarist who hasn't reached the same level of documentation as peers like Kan Mikami and Kazuki Tomokawa. No 13 cd box set for Shuji yet! And some might find the prospect of such a box set quite frightening -- a single disc of his raw acoustic guitar playing and whisper-scream vocalizations will be more than enough for a lot of folks. Others will find Inaba's Rapture Of Being Destroyed to be a harrowing yet compelling listen. With some tracks filled with stark outbursts from silence and others more 'song' like, this is a great record recommended for those who already dig the likes of Dead Raven Choir and the aforementioned Kan Mikami. This Last Visible Dog cd release comes with Inaba's poetic lyrics translated into English by Alan Cummings, always a nice touch although the emotion of the man's singing and playing requires no translation. And to quibble: we suggest that perhaps the word 'flipside' in the title might have been better rendered as 'inverse'... 'flipside' just seems too slangy for stuff this deep and intense.
MPEG Stream: "Modern Terrorism"
MPEG Stream: "Uranium235"

INABA, SHUJI Yoenzanga (Last Visible Dog) cd 9.98
Live acoustic recording of intense, dismal outsider folk from rural Western Japanese singer/songwriter Shuji Inaba. Yoenzanga was previously one of LVD's cd-r releases, back when they were a cd-r label only, and is now blessed with an actual cd edition. You also may recognize Inaba's name as he has had a disc released by Japan's PSF label a few years back. And indeed his raw, emotive balladry is comparable to the politically driven psych folk of fellow PSFers Kan Mikami and Kazuki Tomokawa, whom we love.
Alan Cummings provides English translations of Inaba's lyrics in the liner notes, which is a plus, though really (as with Mikami and Tomokawa too) there's plenty just to FEEL in Inaba's harrowing voice and the haunting, sometimes violent, way he plays his guitar that goes beyond language.
MPEG Stream: "Fate And Fortune"
MPEG Stream: "My Apple"

INCAPACITANTS 73 (Alchemy) cd 21.00
BACK IN STOCK!
They are the best noise band. 'Cuz they're the noisiest. Simple as that. At least that's what Allan thinks, and he's got almost all their umpteen cds. Though we haven't really done a scientific test of noisiness, Merzbow vs. Hijokaidan vs. Masonna vs. Incapacitants, we all agree they sure would hold their own in any imaginable noise contest. Japanese extreme noise duo (and bankers by profession) Toshiji Mikawa and Fumio Kosakai aka Incapacitants have been blowing minds and eardrums for years now. This new disc on Alchemy consists of four brutal wall-of-sound tracks, exploding electronics almost psychedelically dense. One of these tracks was recorded live in Canada at the No Music Festival in 2003, another one captured at club called Lush in Tokyo last year, while the other two are studio recordings (not that it matters much).
Their banking experience is perhaps reflected in the song titles "What A Stupid Bureaucrat!!!" and "Fund Trap", while the title of the 22 minute track "Please Don't Try This At Home" almost goes without saying!
MPEG Stream: "What A Stupid Bureaucrat!!!"
MPEG Stream: "Please Don't Try This At Home"

INCAPACITANTS Box Is Stupid (Pica Disk) 10cd box 117.00
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Man, sometimes this business of actually "reviewing" things just seems superfluous...or ridiculous... or even supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. All those terms apply in the case of this, a TEN cd box set by Japanese noise band Incapacitants, that says "Incapacitants Box Is Stupid" right on the front of it fergoshsakes. That's the title, in silvery metallic print on the lid of the black cardboard box that contains these ten compact discs full of sheer, unrelenting, exploding, horrible grinding noise by one of the most extreme Japanese noise bands in the biz. What more need we say? Other than to explain that Box Is Stupid, released on Lasse Marhaug's Pica Disk label, heroically collects the contents of the duo's cassette-only releases from the nineties, stuff released in limited editions that we'd never seen or heard before. And they're all "remastered from the original master tapes" (which you might find to be a pretty funny statement after hearing this). Each cd comes in a cardboard sleeve, bearing graphics from the original cassette releases, or sometime a color photo of the actual cassette(s). The discs are: Stupid Is Stupid [Studio Materials], Stupid Is Stupid [Live Materials], Extreme Gospel Nights, Ad Nauseam [Edition Mikawa], Ad Nauseam [Edition Kosakai], Ad Nauseam [Edition Live], D.D.D.D., The Tongue, Cosmic Incapacitants, and I, Residuum. That's about ten hours of dense, dynamic, uber-distorted NOISE. Also packed in the box is a thick, 40 page booklet, with full color photos from various spasming live Incapacitants actions, and liner notes printed in both English and Japanese from fans/fellow musicians Otomo Yoshihide (Ground Zero, ONJO, etc.) and Jim Sauter (Borbetomagus), as well as personal band histories from both members of Incapacitants, founder Toshiji Mikawa and loyal sidekick Fumio Kosakai.
Otomo's essay is entitled "I Love The Incapacitants More Than Anything"!! He doesn't think Box Is Stupid. To him, Incapacitants are the ultimate questing expression of what got him into improvised music and noise to begin with, the legacy of Japanese free jazz masters Masayuki Takayanagi and Kaoru Abe. Elsewhere in these essays, we learn that Eye from the Boredoms was once Mikawa's collaborator in Incapacitants, early on before Kosakai joined. We also find out from Mikawa why they're called Incapacitants (it's worth quoting: "The term is a military one used to designate the various kinds of chemical substances which can be used in times of war or terrorism, not to injure or kill enemy combatants, but rather to render them incapable of resistance. My intention was consciously extreme - to attack the audience's auditory canals with my noise and thus render them incapable of fighting back."). It's clear from their writings that Mikawa and Kosakai both bring a lot of serious thought and artistic passion to the noise they make. And clear from the noise they make that they are INSANE. Just kidding. While listening to Box Is Stupid might drive some folks mad, others of us will find it almost psychedelically trance-inducing.
Incapacitants is not only beloved by Otomo Yoshihide, but they're also Allan here at AQ's all time favorite Japanese noise group. Why? Maybe he was smitten by the sharp graphics of their Alchemy label cd releases. Maybe he likes the idea of two middle-aged, mild mannered, slightly chubby Japanese professionals indulging in freaked out electronic mayhem. Maybe they ARE the noisiest. And maybe it just makes sense to pick a favorite Japanese noise artist, 'cause it would be tough to keep up with 'em all. Heck you could go broke trying to buy every Merzbow release, for example. (Though, Allan does own the 50-cd Merzbox, as do several others of us here at AQ.) While Box Is Stupid isn't a fetish object quite on the scale of the Merzbox, it still pushes many of the same absurd noise-lovin' buttons. Gotta have it, if you're a real Incapacitants fan. In fact, that's the definition of anyone who would buy this!
MPEG Stream: "Stupid Is Stupid"
MPEG Stream: "Bitter Insect"

INCAPACITANTS Default Standard (Alchemy) cd 21.00
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The latest from this semi-legendary Japanese noise duo. A really painful noise storm as only these mild mannered bankers can create, with their usual delightful finance-related song titles (like "Securitization of Eel"). For some reason, this is Allan's favorite Japanese noise band.

INCAPACITANTS Feedback of NMS (Alchemy) cd 21.00
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INCAPACITANTS Live Incapacitants (Alchemy) cd 21.00
Allan's favorite Japanese noise band ('cause they're chubby bankers by day, chubby noise-freaks at night?) return with a disc of live material. Wait, I thought all their recordings were (more or less) live? Anway, this documents a November 5th, 1999 show in Austria and a December 25th, 1999 show in Tokyo (aptly titled "The Strongest Christmas Ever"). For the latter performance, this electronics duo is joined by drummer Tatsuya Yoshida of the Ruins, who does his best to add to the din and contribute to the holiday spirit. As always, NOISY!

INCAPACITANTS Lon Guy (Harbinger) cd 14.98
Hella noisy. No suprise there!

INCAPACITANTS New Movements in CMPD (Alchemy) cd 21.00
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INCAPACITANTS Quietus (Alchemy) cd 21.00
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INCAPACITANTS Repo (Alchemy) cd 21.00
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Alchemy Records digs into their vaults yet again to re-issue on cd a 1989 Alchemy LP by the notorious Japanese noise act Incapacitants. This makes for Incapacitants' eighth cd release on Alchemy! Wow, what a legacy of high-end skree, low-end rumble, and everything in between. As well as the "Repo" LP, this disc includes a bonus track taken from a 1985 cassette, the "Triangle8000" split release with Hijokaidan, which main Incapcitant T. Mikawa recently remixed. If you like NOISE you're already an Incapacitants fan, but if you don't -- stay away!

INCAPACITANTS / (ISOFC) Vitamin Buckfact (Starlight Furniture Co.) lp 13.98
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Japanese noise otaku, here's a limited-to-300 vinyl-only artifact you might be interested in... Collaborating with mysterious British noisican Abdul Squeerter's (In Spite Of Flaming Creatures) project, Allan's favorite ear-flaying Japanese noise duo the Incapacitants are in fine form here. Six tracks of dense, dynamic, electronic noise fuckery. If you need to figure out if you're part of "Vitamin Buckfact"'s target audience, look around your room. Is that a stack of vintage Bananafish magazines in the corner? Some precious Chocolate Monk cassettes in that box over there? Alchemy cds on top of the stereo? Well then this is for you if you act quick! It's basically a Bananfish 'zine love-in (indeed, until now, the only wide-spread documentation of Mr. Squeerter's creativity, or mere existence, was some writing he did for Bananafish).

ISHIHARA, YOU Passivite (Creativeman) cd 17.98
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White Heaven singer's solo album.

ISHIKAWA, AKIRA & COUNT BUFFALO Uganda (Tiliqua) cd 34.00
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This incredible far out and fantastic Record Of The Week has been out of stock for a while, seemingly out of print, but recently the label discovered a stash, so we grabbed as many as we could, and you now have one more chance (most likely your last) to grab one of these before they're gone for good. You won't regret it, everyone we know who bought a copy freaked out and declared it one of their new all time favorites, and for good reason as it's an amazing, mind blowing, tripped out chunk of pure sonic inspiration. It's strange and beautiful and weirdly heavy, and proggy and tribal and it's funky as all get out... Here's our original review from when we first made it our Record Of The Week:
It's no longer out of the ordinary for a rock band to look beyond rock for inspiration. Or a jazz band, looking to expand their sound. It definitely makes sense as musicians are generally constantly striving to explore, to open their minds, their music, searching for unique instruments, new ideas, new sounds, even looking for something much more ineffable, something more spiritual. Psychedelic rock bands have typically looked East, The Beatles are probably the prime example of a rock band looking to India for musical AND spiritual inspiration. But on a much smaller scale, modern music develops and expands by incorporating new influences, the more 'exotic' the better. So for years, we could watch bands do just that, incorporate new instruments, sitars, tablas, whatever, alternate tunings, Eastern scales. Jazz musicians on the other hand, tended to look to Africa for inspiration, the tribal drumming, the vocal chants, all found their way onto tons of amazing records, amazing in part because of what they borrowed from the African music that was their genesis, as with many many discs by the Art Ensemble, Coltrane, Don Cherry, etc., etc.É
So if all this borrowing and influence is so commonplace, what's the big deal with this disc, a deluxe reissue of a rare 1972 LP entitled Uganda, by Japan's strangely named Akira Ishikawa & Count Buffalo? Well to begin with, imagine a Japanese jazz drummer in the early seventies, so obsessed with African music, that not only are his records already rife with African influences, but he eventually travels there, and proceeds to play with local musicians, collects indigenous instruments, and returns, driven to realize the record he knows he must make, Uganda, a record that manages to sound like African music, jazz and psychedelic rock, while sounding like nothing else. Ishikawa teamed up with fellow percussionist Larry Sunaga, a bassist and guitarist, and a saxophonist, who instead of playing sax, composed all four lengthy pieces here, the results are amazing. Dense, dizzying, abstract and tribal, fuzzy and tripped out, long stretches of solo hand drum percussion, furious acid fuzz freakouts (courtesy of guitarist Kimio Mizutani, from Love Live Life+1, People, and other freaky Japanese '70s psych units), chanting and handclaps, all woven into an expansive, sprawling divine chunk of out there Afro-fuzz-psych-jazz-rock divinity.
Take the first track "Animals and Dawn", nearly 12 minutes long, and over those 12 minutes, the song veers and drifts through about ten distinctly different sounds and styles, all held together by the relentless African drum jam that runs through all four tracks. Beginning with what sounds like some strange low end synth buzz, those drums kick in, intense and hyper rhythmic, amazingly recorded, so on headphones it sounds like drums are all around you. That buzz, pulses and undulates beneath the frenzied drumming, and this goes on for almost 3 minutes, which is when some wild super distorted acid psych guitar swoops in, jagged and freaked out, spitting out soaring wah wah drenched buzz, before the bass joins in and the drums coalesce into a more recognizable groove, and the band nails it, heavy, slithery proto-metal, churning and pounding, eventually locking into a super technical prog workout, and then dropping out completely, again leaving just the drums, which are soon joined by hand clapping, and chanted African style vocals. Finally, for the last four minutes or so, the band unwinds a groovy jazzy prog workout, still underpinned by those same rhythms, but now the bass carries the groove, letting the guitar go wild, wild psychedelic leads all tangled up in great strange shapes over the groovy rhythm below. Eventually, the song is swallowed up by effects, reverb, delay, echo, as if the band were playing on some huge elevator, as we sit on the surface, listening as the band slips further and further into darkness. Holy shit. If this were a $30 single, that track alone would make this essential for folks into psychrock, proto-metal, free jazz, avant African music or really anyone into strange and fantastical sounds.
The second track, "Asking For Love", once again begins with African drums, the two percussionists, offering up wild tangled beats for nearly two minutes, until in swoops a weird synthy buzz, which quickly transforms into a seriously Led Zep worthy riff, the drums a strange counterpoint to the distinctly rock and roll riffage, and the vocals soaring and shouting, but this kick ass riff fades out only after a minute, and we're back to more dense drumming, Mesmerizing and hypnotic, locking into incredible grooves, veering off into off kilter time signatures here and there, but always returning to that groove. This continues until about one minute from the end, when the bass and guitars explode in a buzzing psychedelic freakout, the drums mirroring the intensity of the axes, locked into an ever expanding supernova of blown out sound, until the furious explosive finish. Whew.
Track three (on the original, the start of side 2) "Battle", begins with some straight up jazz prog, angular and complex, the drums and guitars locked tight, the whole thing convoluted and intricate, stopping suddenly after 30 seconds, at which point an African thumb piano plucks out a delicate music box melody, while in the background, other strange instruments scrape and thump and honk, eventually blossoming into a full on Afro-jam, the drums pounding away, male and female vocals, call and response over the mesmeric beats below, but again, this only lasts a few minutes before switching gears and launching right back into the angular prog that opened the track. This happens a couple more times. Long stretches of abstract percussion, plenty of buzz, and rattle, melodies played out on mysterious African instruments, separated by brief blasts of that buzzing tangled prog, which is exactly how the track finishes off.
The closer, "Pygmy" begins with a groovy walking bass line, a cowbell heavy almost-funk rhythm, eventually some acidic wah wah guitar, and suddenly we're in some serious seventies, Blaxploitation soundtrack style jazz funk, the bass a constant presence, that groove irresistible, the vocals soulful, the percussion still busy and intense, beneath the more static rhythm driving the songs. The guitar and vocals get all tangled up, the vocals more sort of scatting, the guitar offering up jagged shards of high end, or unfurling soaring psychrock leads, the bass and guitar locking into step right at the end, for one final super tight psychprog finish.
It almost seems ridiculous to describe each song in detail, as that's only part of the story. All four tracks work together, leading into one another, offering up bits from pervious songs, giving up little sonic hints as to what might come later, and it's not just the arrangements, it's the feel, the mood, the vibe, and while mere description might make some of the songs sound schizophrenic, flipping back and forth from part to part, some parts lasting only a few seconds, nothing could be further from the truth. The composition here is as deft as the performance, the arrangement is simultaneously free and abstract, yet, tight and composed. The songs breathe and open up, drift and wander, but never seem to lose their direction, and the grooves ever present, even if on the surface the band seem to be drifting though inner space.
Uganda is truly unique, freaky and far out for sure, but most definitely an essential chunk of jazzy, proggy African Japanese psych rock bliss, organic, expansive, epic, rhythmic, space-y, proggy, heavy and funky!! If you've got Julian Cope's Japrocksampler book, you'll find it in his Top 50 list of Japanese psych essentials, right above the debut from Flower Travellin' Band.
As with all Tiliqua releases, gorgeously packaged. This one is housed in a full color miniature box, printed front and back, with a Japanese style obi of course, and inside extensive liner notes in both Japanese and English, with tons of photos. And it is limited of course, not sure how limited, but judging from how quick past Tiliqua releases fly out of here, better to be safe than sorry. And this is actually the first in a new Tiliqua series called Distorted Oriental Sensory Perceptions 1969-1978 focusing on "Obscure Japanese Psychedelic rock artifacts." We can hardly wait to see what they dig up next... there's a lot of others on that Japrocksampler list we'd love to hear...
MPEG Stream: "Wanyamana Mapambazuko"
MPEG Stream: "Na Tu Penda Sana"
MPEG Stream: "Vita"

ISHIZUKA, TOSHIAKI In The Night (PSF) cd 17.98
We dug the latest record from legendary Japanese drummer Toshiaki Ishizuka so much (we made it a record of the week in fact!), that we decided to track down more of his music, and managed to get a bunch of copies of this, 1999's In The Night.
Ishizuka is a legend in the Japanese underground music scene, having founded Japan's first radical political punk combo Zuno Keisatsu, as well as having played and recorded with Kan Mikami, Keiji Haino, Masayoshi Urabe and loads more.
But when he is behind the kit, armed with an arsenal of percussion and noisemakers, he is less of a drummer and more of a sonic alchemist, a soundscaper even, using the drum kit in very un-drummer-like ways. Most of In The Night is ambient, percussive, dreamy and abstract, but not necessarily rhythmic in the strictest sense of the term. Although at the same time this record is nothing BUT rhythm. Dense swirls of cymbal sizzle, brief squalls of tom toms swell and then fade, little bursts of tribal freakouts are underpinned by dizzyingly minute splatters of hand drums and cymbal crash, drums are rubbed and scraped, strange textures become near drones, hyena like chatter is somehow coaxed from drum heads, thick washes of metallic sound spreads out from vigorously beaten gongs, tiny melodies are plucked out on tinkling chimes, random bits of percussion lope and stutter, subtly intertwined with cymbal swish and strange resonant rumbles, even some occasional chanting vocals. One track does in fact feature Ishizuka seriously rocking the kit in full on freaked out free jazz mode, but even going for it with sticks, he still has a strange and subtle mastery of the kit. So cool. Essential for drummers, and the drum obsessed, but haunting and mysterious enough for anyone into dark droning rhythmic abstraction...
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"
MPEG Stream: "Three"

ISO s/t (Alcohol) cd 17.98
Turtable/sampler artist Otomo Yoshihide and sampler/sine wave technician Sachiko M. (both from Ground Zero, and who are also recording as Filament) are joined by percussionist/electronics guy Ichiaku Yoshimitsu in this new, very original trio. I know we talk a lot about something we perhaps inaccurately refer to as "minimalism" around here, but this recording is HYPER minimal, alternating between near-inaudible rumble and glass-shattering sine wave squeal, interrupted only by the very, very occasional digital crapout. This, their second album, was mixed by the guy from The Homosexuals!

ITO, TEIJI Tenno (Tzadik) cd 16.98

JACKS Vacant World (Sweet Dandelion) lp 32.00
Domo arigato! Now here's a nice import vinyl reissue of this essential late '60s Japanese psychedelic rock record, the genius debut by 'Group Sounds-gone-gloomy' band the Jacks. Along with underground cult heroes Les Rallizes Denudes, The Jacks were another early, influential home-grown Japanese psych band, just ask Keiji Haino, whose outfit Fushitsusha covered the Jacks' classic "Marianne" on the second Tokyo Flashback volume.
With stinging Quicksilver psych guitar leads and melancholy vocals, the Jacks' legendary Vacant World, from 1968, is a truly gorgeous album of delicacy, darkness, and murk, that words like 'timeless' and 'dramatic' well describe. Its sparse, sad beauty makes it one of AQ overlord Allan's favorite '60s psych artifacts ever (although fellow AQ overlord Andee isn't as into it, but then, he doesn't really like Can or the Velvet Underground, either). Unlike other noted Japanese 'GS' bands like The Mops or The Challengers, these guys were not mainly, merely doing covers of the rock hits of the day from San Francisco and London, no. While Western garage and blues and psychedelic rock certainly shaped their sound, the Jacks seem uniquely Japanese, uniquely Jacks as well.
Though there's fuzz guitar on here, it's much more about atmosphere, moodiness, melody. The lyrics too, were apparently somewhat subversive, not that we'd know for sure. Totally recommended, especially to those of you into the more gentle and balladic side of more current Japanese psych acts like Ghost, LSD-march, Up-Tight, Nagisa Ni Te, etc.
Pressed on red vinyl, identical to its original issue, we're told.
MPEG Stream: "Marianne"
MPEG Stream: "Vacant World"

JACKS, THE Vacant World / Super Session (Shagadelic Records) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Fans of current underground Japanese psych stuff (Acid Mothers Temple, Keiji Haino, Ghost, Nagisa Ni Te, etc.) who'd like to delve into the early psychedelic era precursors of those acts have been lucky lately, what with that Les Rallizes Denudes double cd finally having some availability, and the Flower Travellin' Band disc we recently recommended too. As we mentioned in our Rallizes review, The Jacks were the other crucial home-grown Japanese psych band, an admitted influence on Fushitsusha certainly, who once covered The Jacks' classic "Marianne". And we just managed to get a few imported copies of this 2-on-1 disc by 'em, released last year on the Japanese Shagadelic label. Not only does it have the ten tracks of their legendary "Vacant World" but also another 11 constituting their follow-up album "Super Session" (both 1968), plus three rare bonus tracks (two from singles, one live). The booklet provides discographical information and album/single art.
With stinging Quicksilver psych guitar leads and melancholy vocals, "Vacant World" is a truly gorgeous album of darkness and murk that words like delicate, dramatic, and timeless well describe. Its sparse, sad beauty makes it one of Allan's favorite '60s psych artifacts ever, though not everyone else here is so moved. Unlike other noted Japanese 'GS' bands like The Mops or The Challengers, these guys were not mainly, merely doing covers of the current rock hits of the day from San Francisco and London. While Western garage and blues and psychedelic rock certainly shaped their sound, The Jacks seem uniquely Japanese, uniquely Jacks as well.
Now for two warnings: The second album on here, Super Session, unfortunately does seem to delve into a more commerical, less special sound. It's as if some producer or record exec told 'em they had to be more like the competition. As a result, this does venture into a bar rock zone that's not at all on par with "Vacant World". And if you like saxophone, they get into that here too. A very different mood from the debut indeed. Oh well. But it's still cool to have, kitschy fun.
Ok, here's the second catch: we ONLY have 6 of these in stock right now, so if you need this, act fast...dunno when/if we can get more, unfortunately.
MPEG Stream: "Marianne"
MPEG Stream: "Vacant World"

JACKS, THE Vacant World / Super Session (Shagadelic Records) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Fans of current underground Japanese psych stuff (Acid Mothers Temple, Keiji Haino, Ghost, Nagisa Ni Te, etc.) who'd like to delve into the early psychedelic era precursors of those acts have been lucky lately, what with that Les Rallizes Denudes double cd finally having some availability, and the Flower Travellin' Band disc we recently recommended too. As we mentioned in our Rallizes review, The Jacks were the other crucial home-grown Japanese psych band, an admitted influence on Fushitsusha certainly, who once covered The Jacks' classic "Marianne". And we just managed to get a few imported copies of this 2-on-1 disc by 'em, released last year on the Japanese Shagadelic label. Not only does it have the ten tracks of their legendary "Vacant World" but also another 11 constituting their follow-up album "Super Session" (both 1968), plus three rare bonus tracks (two from singles, one live). The booklet provides discographical information and album/single art.
With stinging Quicksilver psych guitar leads and melancholy vocals, "Vacant World" is a truly gorgeous album of darkness and murk that words like delicate, dramatic, and timeless well describe. Its sparse, sad beauty makes it one of Allan's favorite '60s psych artifacts ever, though not everyone else here is so moved. Unlike other noted Japanese 'GS' bands like The Mops or The Challengers, these guys were not mainly, merely doing covers of the current rock hits of the day from San Francisco and London. While Western garage and blues and psychedelic rock certainly shaped their sound, The Jacks seem uniquely Japanese, uniquely Jacks as well.
Now for two warnings: The second album on here, Super Session, unfortunately does seem to delve into a more commerical, less special sound. It's as if some producer or record exec told 'em they had to be more like the competition. As a result, this does venture into a bar rock zone that's not at all on par with "Vacant World". And if you like saxophone, they get into that here too. A very different mood from the debut indeed. Oh well. But it's still cool to have, kitschy fun.
Ok, here's the second catch: we ONLY have 6 of these in stock right now, so if you need this, act fast...dunno when/if we can get more, unfortunately.
MPEG Stream: "Marianne"
MPEG Stream: "Vacant World"

JAPANESE INDEPENDENT MUSIC (Sonore) book+cd 28.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Originally published in France (and in French) in 1998, this exhaustive, indispensable encyclopedia of Japanese independent music is, well, once again published in France, but now in English! Totally revised and expanded threefold, this is currently the most comprehensive overview to what's been happening in Japan's underground for the past 25 years or so. With contributions from many experts from various continents, including Tokyo resident Alan Cummings and Ongaku Otaku editor/AQ pal Mason Jones, as well as many artists themselves, we finally have a Trouser Press for a musical culture which tends to be frustratingly mysterious to Westerners. In addition to the hundreds of artists biographies and discographies (which are expanded beyond the small "selected" discographies of the first edition), there are essays and Q&A's that give insight into why and how so much unusual and amazing music is being produced. In addition there's a huge list of label contacts, websites for artists, online resources and maps with brief descriptions of major cities. Finally, an eighteen track cd is included with exclusive tracks from: Ruins, eX-Girl, KK Null, Hair Stylistics (Violent Onsen Geisha), Sachiko M. with Toshimaru Nakamura, Harpy, Gaji, Yuko Nexus6, Wono Satoru, Kangaroo Pow, Jyoji Sawada, The*Saboten as well as tracks previously available (but only with the first edition of Japanese Independent Music) by: Acid Mothers Temple, Keiji Haino, Hoppy Kamiyama, Tetsuo Furudate, Haco and Bondage Fruit. By no means is this book complete, nor does it profess to be the be-all-end-all of the Japanese underground. Indeed, a quick glance by AQ's resident Japanophiles revealed a few errors and omissions (don't trust the discographies -- they'll say CD when they mean LP or 7"!), but overall it's an impressive work and a useful resource.

JUPPALA KAAPIO Animalia Corolla (Omnimemento) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Faux-Finnish, droning freak-folk from a Japanese sound artist and a Swiss chanteuse!
Juppala Kaapio is comprised of Hitoshi & Carole Kojo, whose lysergically bright-eyed concoctions draw from plenty of arcane and archaic folkloric traditions, and emerge as a beguiling, playful form of abstracted psychedelia. We've mentioned before that the name of the project is in fact Finnish, translating as Juppala Dwarf. What, who, or where Juppala is, we don't really know; but the aesthetic which the couple evoke is definitely akin to those adventurous Finns responsible for Kemialliset Ystavat, Avarus, Islaja, and Kuupuu. Bells, flutes, hand percussion, cheap synths, violins, melodicas, vocal chants, and whatnot all go into the buzzing, wheezing thickets of sound that make up Juppala Kaapio's Animalia Corolla. With all of these instruments, the two create dense layerings of glistening textures and radiant drones that slip and slide around quite a bit, but always seem grounded in a fundamental harmonic tone that the two have plucked from the celestial spheres above. It's easy to situate these not only near those Finns, but also Taj Mahal Travellers at their most celebratory, LaMonte Young at his trippiest, and Fursaxa at her most narcotized. Really beautiful transcendent, modern-day ritualism!
We have here the art edition of Animalia Corolla, packaged in a neatly stitched felt sleeve and a screen-printed o-card to house the cd itself. This version is in an edition of ONLY 88 copies. We'll probably not be able to restock this, but we should have the regular version shortly.
MPEG Stream: "Moosfluh"
MPEG Stream: "Saturatus"

JUPPALA KAAPIO Animalia Corolla (Omnimemento) cd 17.98
BACK IN STOCK! At a lower price (in slightly less extravagant packaging, but only just slightly!)
Faux-Finnish, droning freak-folk from a Japanese sound artist and a Swiss chanteuse!
Juppala Kaapio is comprised of Hitoshi & Carole Kojo, whose lysergically bright-eyed concoctions draw from plenty of arcane and archaic folkloric traditions, and emerge as a beguiling, playful form of abstracted psychedelia. We've mentioned before that the name of the project is in fact Finnish, translating as Juppala Dwarf. What, who, or where Juppala is, we don't really know; but the aesthetic which the couple evoke is definitely akin to those adventurous Finns responsible for Kemialliset Ystavat, Avarus, Islaja, and Kuupuu. Bells, flutes, hand percussion, cheap synths, violins, melodicas, vocal chants, and whatnot all go into the buzzing, wheezing thickets of sound that make up Juppala Kaapio's Animalia Corolla. With all of these instruments, the two create dense layerings of glistening textures and radiant drones that slip and slide around quite a bit, but always seem grounded in a fundamental harmonic tone that the two have plucked from the celestial spheres above. It's easy to situate these not only near those Finns, but also Taj Mahal Travellers at their most celebratory, LaMonte Young at his trippiest, and Fursaxa at her most narcotized. Really beautiful transcendent, modern-day ritualism!
This new version replicates the packaging of the out of print deluxe art edition, and comes housed in a diecut full color inner sleeve, which in turn is in a thick green-grass textured outer jacket, the whole thing wrapped in a screen-printed o-card that matches the inner sleeve. Super swank!
MPEG Stream: "Moosfluh"
MPEG Stream: "Saturatus"

JUPPALA KAAPIO Rewound Groves (Omnimemento) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yes, that is faux-fur sprouting from this cd by Juppala Kaapio! As we mentioned before, this duo has a Finnish name and shares a Finnish freak-folk ritualism, but neither participant is Finnish. They are in fact the husband / wife pairing of Carole and Hitoshi Kojo, who bring extended technique vocals, bleary instrumentation from smoke & mirror, and lots of liquid nirvana electronic processing to the source material. Where their earlier works had 'jammed nature' along the Jewelled Antler / RV Paintings / Kemiallyset Ystavat axis with a wistful crunchiness, Rewound Groves marries the golden-summer glow of high-latitude pagan liturgy and the rapturous blur of Andrew Chalk's contributions to Organum or even some of the Taj Mahal Travellers broadcasts to nowhere. The vocals from both Hitoshi and Carole wax and wane on the opening number "Sewing Through Twigs" amongst a richly patterned undulation of glistening drones from what might be bells, might be flutes, might be guitars, might be the sparkle of twilight stars. Watery textures and backmasked tape bridges these sounds with the :zoviet*france: like haze of "Mycophiles And Pebbles" with spectral loops and holy mesmerism sprawled throughout the soft-focus layering of sound. Probably the best thing that Juppala Kaapio has released to date; and given the artwork this is justifiably limited to 123 copies. Brilliant.
MPEG Stream: "Sewing Through Twigs"
MPEG Stream: "Mycophiles And Pebbles"
MPEG Stream: "A Germ From The Sun"

JUPPALA KAAPIO Sporing Promenade (Omnimemento) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Juppala Kaapio is a project with a Finnish name and Finnish credentials, but not a Finn amongst the lot. The parties responsible are the husband and wife duo of Carole and Hitoshi Kojo (the former Swiss and the latter Japanese by birth), but Hitoshi in particular has spent a fair amount of time in the Finnish hinterlands, and had made an appearance on the recent Kemialliset Ystavat album Ullakopalo. That said, Hitoshi has a small but impressive catalog of material recorded over the past decade under the moniker Spiracle. There, thick masses of texture piled on top of each other, creating thick drones with ghostly melodies flickering about, much like the archaic sounding recordings of Organum and the more compacted albums of Andrew Chalk. All of this culminated in the 2cd Ananta opus released back in 2009, and Hitoshi shifting his focus to the collaborative project Juppala Kaapio, whose name translates vaguely as the Juppala Dwarf. The two hint at the thickening drones of Spiracle, focusing more on a clattering, psychedelic ritualism that is more in keeping with all things Fonal - spluttering acoustic guitars, toy synths, Tony Conrad inspired viola drone, hand percussive tappings, prolonged flute tones, lots of bells, found forest objects, and vocalized mantras as if the personal soundtrack to a private ritual for wandering spirits who found themselves in a moss-covered cabin somewhere in the northern reaches of Finland basking in the midnight sun of an endless Arctic summer. Playful, fantastical, haunting, and thoroughly tripped out, Juppala Kaapio is highly recommended to any one keen on Jewelled Antler, Fursaxa, Taj-Mahal Travellers, Parson Sound, the freakiest end of the freak-folk spectrum, and of course the aforementioned Kemialliset Ystavat.
MPEG Stream: "Meganze Zaru"
MPEG Stream: "Souffle"
MPEG Stream: "Lamellations"
MPEG Stream: "Lunastus"

JUTOK, KANEKO Endless Ruins (PSF) cd 22.00
Dark, distorted solo guitar and voice from Tokyo psychedelic-scene veteran Kaneko Jutok (of Kousokuya), with bass and drums help on two tracks. It's blackness, sheer blackness. One for fans of Keiji Haino, no doubt (and his vocals are much easier to take than Haino's). Kaneko's ragged, emotional compositions/improvisations are heavy, beautiful, downer psych outpourings essential for fans of Fushitsusha, White Heaven, High Rise, etc. One local Japanese psych expert considers this nothing less than "a freaking atonal masterpiece" and we'd agree. Turn it up loud!
RealAudio clip: "The Everlasting Labyrinth"
RealAudio clip: "Longing For The Ray"

JUTOK, KANEKO AND TAKAHISA KIKUKAWA Wedged Night (Siwa) lp 18.98