SUISHOU NO FUNE The Shining Star - Live (Important) cd 14.98
Another excursion into the bleak, be-shadowed world of Tokyo psych-folk trio Suishou No Fune. Four long, shoegazing songs recorded live at several shows/venues. All share certain elements...
Aching, drifting guitar lines quietly howl of beauty and despair, melodies gracefully soaring and then expiring tenderly alongside the echoes of weary vocals and lethargic percussive clatter. This disc is definitely a slow-burn, late-night affair, all-embracing in its epic downer aesthetic.
While Suishou No Fune never sound like they're going to break a sweat (nodding off is more like it), they do channel an additional level of emotional energy into the pentultimate track 3, "A Rain", wherein the drum crashes and vocal cries and guitar wailings all crank it up a notch, more volume and chaos and sheer beauty. But that's the mere precursor to the wall-of-noise presence of the last and longest (21:50) track here, "The Storm Of Light / The Cherry", a grand fuzz finale of amped-up distorto drone... still gorgeously bleak and blissful!
MPEG Stream: "You Look At The Night Sea"
MPEG Stream: "The Storm Of Light / The Cherry"

SUISHOU NO FUNE Where The Spirits Are (Holy Mountain) cd 13.98
A while back we had this band's self-titled debut (remember the nice pink cover?). Unfortunately we can't seem to get that one anymore, but we do now have this, Suishou No Fune's latest, Where The Spirits Are, released on the Holy Mountain label (home to Six Organs Of Admittance, Davis Redford Triad, Om, Mammatus, etc.). If you've heard that previous album of theirs you'll have an idea what this is about... Or also if you just peep the cover photo: two Japanese guys and one girl, all in shades and Keiji Haino haircuts. Yes you're guessed it, Tokyo Flashback style downer drone psych. Quietly drifting, distorted, dark sheets of guitar accompanied by abyssal cries, not altogether unmelodic however. They can rev it up cacophonously when they want, but for the most part they hold back the heaviness in order to generate a more gentle sort of atmospheric gloom, on such appropriately named tracks as "Apparition On A Moonless Night" and "Black Phantom". Again, murky majesty for fans of Up-Tight, LSD-march, Shizuka, and the like.
MPEG Stream: "Vale Of Spirits"
MPEG Stream: "A Rose Bloomed"

SUISHOU NO FUNE Writhing Underground Flowers (Lotus) cd 16.98
3rd album of super bleak, slo-mo deep drone psych from these Tokyo Flashback vets, the follow up to their 2006 Holy Mountain release Where The Spirits Are. There's three loooong tracks here in the gently morose mode you'd expect, with distorted whale-call guitars and hollow, lonely vocals... what you might not expect is the distressed psychedelic harmonica soloing that now features prominently (on track two)! Who knew the wheeze of the harmonica could be so fitting with such mysterious and murky surroundings? The gasping, dying breaths of monomaniacal melody it brings to the proceedings are usually appropriate however.
And we've gotta say, that's a great title ain't it? Writhing Underground Flowers. Like you've wandered into some gloomy cave full of bleached-white fungal growth, trembling in a subterranean breeze, a living mockery of true sunlit floral splendor... beautiful yet terrible too.
MPEG Stream: "track 2"
MPEG Stream: "track 3"

SUMMONS OF SHINING RUINS Bud Variations (Dead Pilot) cassette 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Summons Of Shining Ruins is the nom de plume of Japanese post-shoegazing guitarist Shinobu Nemoto, who had released a rather exceptional piece of cinematic ambience for Experimedia in 2009 that came and went rather quickly. This is another one that will disappear in the blink of an eye as well, given the tiny edition of this pressing. There's only 53 copies around, probably due to the inclusion in the packaging of an antique chemists label culled from chain of British drug stores that at one time sold such things as 'liquid extract cascara sagrada' and 'camphorated oil.' A nifty piece of esoterica to go along with this tape of woozy, muffled drones from Nemoto. The tracks are much less dramatic than the album he did for Experimedia, instead these sullen ambient movements slowly waver along grey streamlined tones with upwelling melodies moving to the foreground from time to time. Certainly on par with the murky cassette work that Maeror Tri and Troum produced way back when, or maybe even some of the Lovesliescrushing driftworks but given a tape hiss makeover. Nice.

SUN KICH Lucky Mountain Hey!!!!!!!!!! (Japan Overseas) cd 13.98
Craziness courtesy Mssrs. Yoshida (Ruins) and Yamamoto (Boredoms, Omoide Hatoba). 29 tracks with titles like "Rush In Outer Space" and "Dream, Scum, True!!".

SUPERNATURAL HOT RUG AND NOT USED s/t (EM Records) cd 16.98
Hey folks, here's one of the few releases on Japan's rather eccentric (and excellent) EM Records label that's NOT a reissue or archival collection, but new music by a new band! Weird. (Of course.) The oddly-named Supernatural Hot Rug And Not Used is one for those into free-rock improv noisiness, being a duo on electric guitar and "sort-of" electric bass. No effects. No "songs". Lots of quiet noisiness (but it's not "noise"). This Osaka-based outfit consists of Bunsho Nisikawa (guitar) and expatriate Canadian Tim Olive (bass), whom some might remember from a band called Nimrod, also Twerdocleb and Soap-Jo Henshi. Somehow, in a Osaka studio, they're able to conjure up stuff that sounds more like a creaky, glitchy field recording than two guys playing instruments. Together they weave a weird n' wild collision/collusion of sounds, some subtle, some not so... The more dronily mysterious, stretchy-scratchy, almost-rhythmic moments bring to mind the prepared turntable works of Pierre Bastien and Strotter Inst, or a more relaxed Voice Crack. Or even Coelacanth. This also sounds like something you might expect to hear on the Erstwhile label, from the likes of Keith Rowe or Toshimaru Nakamura. A pretty cool find for those who consider themselves connoisseurs of such interesting, abstract sounds! By the way, the band name is an example of the absurd "Japanglish" prevalent on T-shirts in Japan...
MPEG Stream: "Tsutenkaku"
MPEG Stream: "The Neon Cross"

SUZUKI JUNZO Ode To A Blue Ghost (Utech) cd 14.98
Two new Utech's this list, and that's something to be stoked about, 'cause the label rarely disappoints, if ever. This one's from Japanese guitarist Suzuki Junzo, who's played in Tokyo flashbacking psych rock bands like Overhang Party, Miminokoto, and Astral Travelling Unity, though here he's solo, just him and his guitar and the black void. Yes, it can be bleak and ominous... but pretty, calm, mesmeric, too. There's four long tracks, beginning with the 20-minute title track, inspired by bluesman Lonnie Johnson's "Blue Ghost Blues"... though again, this isn't blues. Something far darker. For the first half, it could be a folky James Blackshaw on luudes kind of thing... then it enters eerie ambient suspense soundtrack territory... before around the 12 minute mark when Junzo puts the pedal to the metal and his amp begins to howl and fry Keiji Haino style. For reals, for Rallizes. Track two, "Beyond The Yellow Clouds", is 11 minutes of dark shimmering drone bliss, segueing smoothly into the disc's shortest (8:33) but most badass track, its title a tribute to the Pink Fairies, "Shivering Larry's Last Freakout", totally monomaniacal, distortodelic, repetitive riffarma that comes across like one of Tetuzi Akiyama's brilliant/dumb "Don't Forget To Boogie" cuts mixed maybe with some NWOFHM (Circle) stuff, frantic primitive minimalist ZZ Haino in a wind tunnel action - damn! Then as a comedown, chillout, final piece, there's 13 more minutes of ghostly guitar grind, a la Ulaan Khol or Li Jianhong, "Studies For Three Broken Canes Of Dr. Dream", that lives up to its fantastic title, whatever that means. We like, but we'll be queuing up ol' Shivering Larry again in a second, that's the jam!
Utech wins again with this one - grab a copy and put on your shades and enjoy. Limited to 300 copies only. And as usual with Utech stuff, packaged in a nice oversized sleeve. The artwork's mostly black, the only image, a half-seen Junzo holding his ghostly guitar. He's NOT wearing shades, which seems strange.
MPEG Stream: "Ode To A Blue Ghost"
MPEG Stream: "Shivering Larry's Last Freakout"
MPEG Stream: "Studies For Three Broken Canes Of Dr. Dream"

SUZUKI JUNZO Pieces For Hidden Circles (Utech) cd 14.98

SUZUKI, AKIO & DAVID TOOP Breath Taking (Confront) cd 15.98
For whatever reason, the recordings of Akio Suzuki are not easy to come by. Most of the output from this visionary Japanese instrument builder and improviser have quietly emerged and quickly disappeared. So this very subtle and very delicate 2003 improvisation with David Toop from the good folks at Sound 323 in London certainly caught our attention. One of Suzuki's most well known instruments is his collection of stone flutes, and the sounds from these instruments feature prominently in this set with David Toop. These curious objects product an eerie and ancient sound whose rasping whistles and watery trills embody an earthiness that predates the nomenclature from the history of music. Suzuki matches these sounds with delicate scrapes and textures from a couple of cymbals and a handful of small rocks. Toop does his best to articulate similar gestures within the purely acoustic improv strategies of the New London Silence school which developed in parallel Bernhard Gunter / Lowercase aesthetic of very quite electro-acoustic music and out of the late period works from AMM. For better or for worse, some of Toop's elements speak of a particular time and of a particular place (e.g. London, 2003) whereas Suzuki's offerings are beautifully non-specific in their cultural references. At other times, the two spiral metallic textures and softened drones of feedback with whirring flute glissandos, which all quietly float out of periodic silences. We've been told that during one of the quieter moments in the session, a woman next door can be heard singing in the bath. But like Suzuki's previous Kogezan Koukiji of temple improvisations recorded against a backdrop of a dramatic rainstorm, we've been thwarted in hearing these sounds by the patter of a springtime rainstorm and the constant blur of traffic sounds on Valencia Street. We're pretty sure Suzuki would be okay with those interruptions.
MPEG Stream: "Breath Taking (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Breath Taking (excerpt 2)"

SWEET & HONEY Live at Your Cosmic Hand (The Now Sound) lp 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Psychedelic pre-Ghost Japanese trio with Masaki Batoh.

SWEET & HONEY Live At Your Cosmic Mind (Drag City) cd 14.98
"Mind Blowin' Hippie Music" they do say so themselves. Ah, I remember we used to stock this album back when it was a vinyl-only offering (to/from the gods of Psych) around ten years or so ago. Ten years...wow. Now the good folks (and Ghost fanatics) at Drag City have at last made it available on cd, along with the reissue of Ghost leader Masaki Batoh's Collected Works cd. Batoh was also the guitarist in this band, a Tokyo psych quartet that flourished circa 1989-1993. Their lone album Live At Your Cosmic Mind is a fine slab of whooshing, driving, badass, acid space rock freak out stuff, by and for the stoned. What at the time was Hawkwind and Les Rallizes Denudes worship, contemporary with the likes of Fushitsusha, High Rise and White Heaven, now fits in perfectly with the current crop of psych-overload-overlords like Comets On Fire, Pharaoh Overlord and LSD-March. And Acid Mothers Temple too, of course -- in fact it's surprising not to see Kawabata's name on the sleeve! A sleeve decorated with (as I think someone else has pointed out before) some really rad Pedro Bell (Funkadelic cover artist!) styled color felt-tip pen psychedelic artwork. From the side-long opener "Badstone" to what was formerly side two, "White Lightnin' Boogie" and "Last Cosmic People Still Dreaming", this half-hour three-tracker is altogether heavy and blissful. Or, as Sweet & Honey put it, "Far Trippin' Out, So Cosmic--So Deep". So, thanks Drag City for doing this reish (and the Batoh one too, especially!) but we have one small complaint: Drag City, c'mon, we know you could spring for more than a single square of paper as the cd "booklet"...if you're gonna do that, at least use heavy cardstock or something! Well that's our cd packaging pet peeve Number 493...
MPEG Stream: "White Lightnin' Boogie"

SWR Acid Mothers Temple SWR (Very Friendly) cd 14.98
Or, title SWR, band name Acid Mothers Temple SWR? It could be the other way around, hard to tell, does it matter? Either way, this is the debut disc of jamming from a rather warped power trio formed by members of Japan's Acid Mothers Temple -- specifically guitarist Kawabata Makoto (him again!), bassist/vocalist Atsushi Tsuyama, and sometime AMT drummer Tatsuya Yoshida, whom you should also know from Ruins! SWR stands for Stone Woman Record, three things these guys like a lot. Yoshida is especially well-known for his interest in stones, Kawabata's album covers tend to emphasize his appreciation of feminine beauty, and records, well, AMT wouldn't exist if vinyl hadn't been invented eh? So, song titles include "Do You Know Where The Second Hand Record Shop Is?" and "More Stones, More Women, and More Records" -- along with other, more puzzling titles like "There Is Nothing To Make You Happy In This Box!", "Eat A Pebble" (an ELP reference?), and "Gustavo Hendi".
The records that SWR specifically might be spinning in their practice pad could include krautrockers Guru Guru (is the cover alluding to this?) and the free form freakouts of Hawkwind... There's lotsa weird vocals and effects. The sleeve just lists the instrumentation as bass/guitar/drums with only Tsuyama getting vocal credit, but we're pretty sure we can hear Yoshida's warble as well, along with some violin and perhaps flute. Very trippy and silly and psychedelic. It's more of the '70s psych fantasy that these guys have made themselves masters.
Fans of the incestuous Japanese psych/prog scene to which AMT and Ruins belong may be able to get a sense of SWR if we tell you to imagine a cross between Nishinihon and Musica Transonic. That is almost what this is, in terms of who is in the band. Yoshida and Kawabata are both in Muscia Transonic, Kawabata and Tsuyama both in Nishinihon. And for that matter, Tsuyama and Yoshida are both in Akaten, and we could go on and on naming other bands with some shared membership: Zoffy, Mainliner, Seikazoku... oh, actually SWR has *exactly* the same lineup as Seikazoku. But this, while equally as weird as that band, is more aligned with the surreal heavy rock spoofing of Nishinihon... Don't expect anything too easily-digestible here, this ain't gonna convince your pal for whom Queens of the Stone Age is as weird-as-it-gets. SWR's equal parts riff rock and indulgent insanity, with the chaos/groove balance teetering wildly, will make him/her run for cover.
Lastly, we've said it before and we'll say it again. How do they find the time?? I mean, sleeping and eating and other necessary bodily functions somehow must all take place when these guys aren't playing (and likely, recording) music. When the heck that is, we don't know. But we hope they never stop.
MPEG Stream: "Do You Know Where The Secondhand Record Shop Is?"
MPEG Stream: "Bad Buddha"
MPEG Stream: "Stone Woman & Record"

TABATA Brainsville (Elsie & Jack Recordings) cd 13.98
At long last, the debut solo full-length from Mitsuru Tabata (ex-Boredoms, ex-Leningrad Blues Machine, and of course still K.K. Null's longtime guitar partner in heavyweights Zeni Geva)! Self-described as "monumental abstract rural eastern psych" and that sounds about right. Avant-guitar-drone-ophiles line up here. Beautiful!

TABATA, MITSURU Lumrapideco ( Utech) cd 14.98
Yay, here's another new solo album by Acid Mothers Temple member Tabata Mitsuru (who also has Zeni Geva and the Boredoms on his heavyweight Japanese underground musician resume). We mentioned this one in our review of his other recent solo disc We All Gonna Face The Rising Sun not long ago, and it's pretty similar, again getting the thumbs up from us, for it's gorgeous, droning blend of guitar, loops, backwards tapes, and noisy (but not too noisy) glitch. The tracks Mahhagogo parts 1 and 2 (with their cute little vocal intros) bookend this disc, being the hissingest, harshest dronewerks here. In between them you'll find four other pieces that are mostly much mellower, prettier and placid... mostly. All instrumentals, made from bits of simple guitar melody and swooshing pulses of gentle psychedelic electronics. The likes of "Hydrozoa" are a lazy drift of ambient abstraction, for a sundappled afternoon nap... So nice! Feedback and distortion transformed into utter, sweet blissfulness.
So, it's been two Tabata Mitsuru albums in a fairly short span of time, but we've been fans of him for forever and by Acid Mothers Temple standards, he's not really that prolific. So, if he keeps doing what he's been doing on these, we'd be happy with a few more this year please!!
MPEG Stream: "Mahhagogo Part 1."
MPEG Stream: "Dust To Dust "

TABATA, MITSURU We All Gonna Face The Rising Sun (Ruby Red Editora) cd 16.98
Japanese guitarist Mitsuru Tabata's name should be better known than perhaps it is... he was an early member of the Boredoms, is a current member of Acid Mothers Temple & The Cosmic Inferno, and has served as KK Null's axe associate in Zeni Geva for many many years, among other activities. He's also made some brilliant solo albums, of which this is one (his third -- a fourth, on Utech, also just came out)!
Rather than making much use of the heavier guitar blurt that so many of his other projects feature, on this solo disc Tabata works with layers of lovely loops, quietly cycling 'round a spacey cosmos of his own invention... well for the most part, though the track "Annihilation" does sound appropriately amped up and ferocious. But most of these pieces are built from backwards tapes, shortwave drones, guitars and synths spinning out gentle folky melodies amidst soothingly tripped-out electronic effects. Abstract psychedelic lullabies, calm and spacious and really nice! Highly recommended, all Acid Mothers Temple fans should check this out -- and not just them!
MPEG Stream: "Slave March"
MPEG Stream: "Seagulls"

TAIRIKUOTOKO VS SANMYAKUONNA Viva Young Florida (Magaibutsu) cd 14.98
The wonderful, surprise second album from this all-star Japanese outfit (with members of Ruins, Omoide Hatoba, Bondage Fruit, etc.) whose main songwriter is Tatsuya Yoshida of Ruins. Musically this combines the manic, complex prog of his main band with elements of jazz, pop, cartoon music, and unclassifiable weirdness with instrumentation that includes guitars, keyboards, bass, drums, sampler, trumpet, violin, clarinet, sax, and of course lots of bizarre vocals. This is some of the most intensely strange, happy, lovely, beautiful, well-played "rock" music of 1998.

TAJ MAHAL TRAVELERS Live (BB) lp 30.00

TAJ MAHAL TRAVELLERS August 1974 (Columbia Japan) 2cd 41.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
FINALLY BACK IN STOCK. THE ULTIMATE DRONE RECORD.
We love this record so much. The Taj Majal Travellers are so utterly mind blowing. This is a double cd reissue of this legendary Japanese psych ensemble's second lp which has been unavailable for several years now, but when we did have it in stock, if anyone asked about drones, this is the record we would always suggest. One of the most hallowed artifacts of the psych-rock collector scum scene (originals on vinyl could set you back more than $1000!), this album is an epic higher key improvised drone extravaganza, all performed live on beaches and deserted hills in Sweden, India, Iran and England. Slow, complex, irregular throbbing waves of sound, broadcast through distant loudspeakers and recaptured and reincorporated. Feedback, time-space lag, horns, echo machines, and primitive handmade electronic devices all contribute to the ever shifting clouds of sound. So unbearably awesome. And this is not electronic music, or studio based carefully constructed drone music, this is massive and organic, dreamy and natural, waves of sound drifting through sun and sky, rain and fog, trees and electrical wires, the shape of the earth, the temperature, the wind, all affecting the sound, changing the timbre ever so slightly, band members spaced out over hundreds of yards, improvising on an impossible grand scale, the earth as their stage, nature as their recording studio, a deliriously abstract sound world of subtle drones and drifting ambience. Imagine some long hairded seventies Japanese psych rock combo, but filtered through the Jewelled Antler Collective, jamming with Chris Watson, set up on sandy dunes, grassy knolls, forest glades, each not necessarily -playing- their instruments, but instead coaxing sounds from within the instruments, setting those sounds free and sending them skyward, watching it drift downwind, where a bandmate snatches the sounds and coaxes complimentary sounds from his instrument, sending a sonic respone, until these messages, these sounds weave into and around each other, the sky full of warm warbly mysterious sound. Psychedelic for sure, but more a sort of eyes closed, mind open dream drift drone psychedelia. ONE OF OUR ALL TIME FAVORITE RECORDS!!
MPEG Stream: "1"
MPEG Stream: "2"

TAJ MAHAL TRAVELLERS August 1974 (P-Vine / Columbia Japan) 2cd 41.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Once again, repressed and back in stock, but who knows for how long?! THE ULTIMATE DRONE RECORD!! We love this record so much. The Taj Majal Travellers are so utterly mind blowing. This is a double cd reissue of this legendary Japanese psych ensemble's second lp, the reissue has gone in and out of print, and has been unavailable for several years now, but when we did have it in stock, if anyone asked about drones, this is the record we would always suggest. One of the most hallowed artifacts of the psych-rock collector scum scene (originals on vinyl could set you back more than $1000!), this album is an epic higher key improvised drone extravaganza, all performed live on beaches and deserted hills in Sweden, India, Iran and England. Slow, complex, irregular throbbing waves of sound, broadcast through distant loudspeakers and recaptured and reincorporated. Feedback, time-space lag, horns, echo machines, and primitive handmade electronic devices all contribute to the ever shifting clouds of sound. So unbearably awesome. And this is not electronic music, or studio based carefully constructed drone music, this is massive and organic, dreamy and natural, waves of sound drifting through sun and sky, rain and fog, trees and electrical wires, the shape of the earth, the temperature, the wind, all affecting the sound, changing the timbre ever so slightly, band members spaced out over hundreds of yards, improvising on an impossible grand scale, the earth as their stage, nature as their recording studio, a deliriously abstract sound world of subtle drones and drifting ambience. Imagine some long hairded seventies Japanese psych rock combo, but filtered through the Jewelled Antler Collective, jamming with Chris Watson, set up on sandy dunes, grassy knolls, forest glades, each not necessarily -playing- their instruments, but instead coaxing sounds from within the instruments, setting those sounds free and sending them skyward, watching it drift downwind, where a bandmate snatches the sounds and coaxes complimentary sounds from his instrument, sending a sonic response, until these messages, these sounds weave into and around each other, the sky full of warm warbly mysterious sound. Psychedelic for sure, but more a sort of eyes closed, mind open dream drift drone psychedelia. ONE OF OUR ALL TIME FAVORITE RECORDS!!
MPEG Stream: "1"
MPEG Stream: "2"

TAJ MAHAL TRAVELLERS August 1974 (Phoenix) 2cd 25.00
Not sure how we never made this our Record Of The Week before, considering most aQuarians would probably rank this as one of their all time favorite drone records. Or all time favorite Japanese psychedelic records, heck, it's pretty much just one of our all time favorite records ever PERIOD. We've listed it in the past as a pricey import double cd, and an even pricier double lp, and maybe we thought it a bit too expensive before, but now with this new, more reasonably priced reissue, it seems like a no brainer to finally bestow the Record Of The Week honors on an album that has deserved it ever since we first heard it years and years ago. For those who have yet to discover the mysterious psychedelic beauty of Taj Mahal Travellers, you are in for a treat, and most likely a new musical obsession...
We love this record so much. The Taj Majal Travellers are so utterly mind blowing. This is a double cd reissue of this legendary Japanese psych ensemble's second lp which has been sporadically available over the years, and when we did have it in stock, if anyone asked about drones, this is the record we would always suggest. One of the most hallowed artifacts of the psych-rock collector scum scene (originals on vinyl could set you back more than $1000!), this album is an epic higher key improvised drone extravaganza, all performed live on beaches and deserted hills in Sweden, India, Iran and England. Slow, complex, irregular throbbing waves of sound, broadcast through distant loudspeakers and recaptured and reincorporated. Feedback, time-space lag, horns, echo machines, and primitive handmade electronic devices all contribute to the ever shifting clouds of sound. So unbearably awesome. And this is not electronic music, or studio based carefully constructed drone music, this is massive and organic, dreamy and natural, waves of sound drifting through sun and sky, rain and fog, trees and electrical wires, the shape of the earth, the temperature, the wind, all affecting the sound, changing the timbre ever so slightly, band members spaced out over hundreds of yards, improvising on an impossibly grand scale, the earth as their stage, nature as their recording studio, a deliriously abstract sound world of subtle drones and drifting ambience. Imagine some long haired seventies Japanese psych rock combo, but filtered through the Jewelled Antler Collective, jamming with Chris Watson, set up on sandy dunes, grassy knolls, forest glades, each not necessarily -playing- their instruments, but instead coaxing sounds from within the instruments, setting those sounds free and sending them skyward, watching them drift downwind, where a bandmate snatches the sounds and coaxes complimentary sounds from his own instrument, sending a sonic response, these messages, these billows of abstract shimmer and steaks of lush reverberation weaving into and around each other, the sky full of warm warbly mysterious sound. Psychedelic for sure, but more a sort of eyes closed, mind open dream drift drone psychedelia. One of the most hauntingly mysterious and utterly beautiful drone records we've heard, and one of our all time favorite records!
MPEG Stream: "1"
MPEG Stream: "2"

TAJ MAHAL TRAVELLERS August 1974 (Phoenix) 2lp 34.00
Made the latest cd reissue of this a Record Of The Week last time, now the same label has also done a fancy double vinyl version!!!
Not sure how we never made this our Record Of The Week before, considering most aQuarians would probably rank this as one of their all time favorite drone records. Or all time favorite Japanese psychedelic records, heck, it's pretty much just one of our all time favorite records ever PERIOD. We've listed it in the past as a pricey import double cd, and an even pricier double lp, and maybe we thought it a bit too expensive before, but now with this new, more reasonably priced reissue, it seems like a no brainer to finally bestow the Record Of The Week honors on an album that has deserved it ever since we first heard it years and years ago. For those who have yet to discover the mysterious psychedelic beauty of Taj Mahal Travellers, you are in for a treat, and most likely a new musical obsession...
We love this record so much. The Taj Majal Travellers are so utterly mind blowing. This is a double cd reissue of this legendary Japanese psych ensemble's second album which has been sporadically available over the years, and when we did have it in stock, if anyone asked about drones, this is the record we would always suggest. One of the most hallowed artifacts of the psych-rock collector scum scene (originals on vinyl could set you back more than $1000!), this album is an epic higher key improvised drone extravaganza, all performed live on beaches and deserted hills in Sweden, India, Iran and England. Slow, complex, irregular throbbing waves of sound, broadcast through distant loudspeakers and recaptured and reincorporated. Feedback, time-space lag, horns, echo machines, and primitive handmade electronic devices all contribute to the ever shifting clouds of sound. So unbearably awesome. And this is not electronic music, or studio based carefully constructed drone music, this is massive and organic, dreamy and natural, waves of sound drifting through sun and sky, rain and fog, trees and electrical wires, the shape of the earth, the temperature, the wind, all affecting the sound, changing the timbre ever so slightly, band members spaced out over hundreds of yards, improvising on an impossibly grand scale, the earth as their stage, nature as their recording studio, a deliriously abstract sound world of subtle drones and drifting ambience. Imagine some long haired seventies Japanese psych rock combo, but filtered through the Jewelled Antler Collective, jamming with Chris Watson, set up on sandy dunes, grassy knolls, forest glades, each not necessarily -playing- their instruments, but instead coaxing sounds from within the instruments, setting those sounds free and sending them skyward, watching them drift downwind, where a bandmate snatches the sounds and coaxes complimentary sounds from his own instrument, sending a sonic response, these messages, these billows of abstract shimmer and steaks of lush reverberation weaving into and around each other, the sky full of warm warbly mysterious sound. Psychedelic for sure, but more a sort of eyes closed, mind open dream drift drone psychedelia. One of the most hauntingly mysterious and utterly beautiful drone records we've heard, and one of our all time favorite records!, Gatefold packaging, 180 gram vinyl.
MPEG Stream: "1"
MPEG Stream: "2"

TAJ MAHAL TRAVELLERS July 15, 1972 (Showboat / Sky Station) cd 30.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The Taj-Mahal Travellers double cd 'August 1974' has to be one of the most essential drone music documents of the 20th century. Our description of that record describes the Taj Mahal Travellers sound perfectly: "epic higher key improvised drone extravaganzas performed on beaches, deserted hills in Sweden, India, Iran and England. Slow, complex, irregular throbbing waves of sound, broadcast through distant loudspeakers and recaptured and reincorporated into the sound. Feedback, time-space lag, echo machines, and primitive handmade electronic devices all contribute to the ever shifting clouds of sound." 'July 15th, 1972' is the precursor to that seminal record and is equally as vital and musically breathtaking.
Three extended tracks of sublime and transcendental musique concrete/drone. Sparse and spacious. With vocals and electronic trumpets augmenting the violin, contrabass, harmonica, sheet iron, castanet, vibraphone, guitar, percussion and radio oscillators. Dreamy and otherworldly, three epic tracks of hum and rumble, squeak and skree, clatter and tinkle envelop you in a completely new world of sound. So essential.
RealAudio clip: "Between 6:20-6:46P.M."

TAJ MAHAL TRAVELLERS July 15, 1972 (Klimt) lp 24.00
Finally available on reissued vinyl!
The Taj Mahal Travellers double album August 1974 has to be one of the most essential drone music documents of the 20th century. Our description of that record describes the Taj Mahal Travellers sound perfectly: "epic higher key improvised drone extravaganzas performed on beaches, deserted hills in Sweden, India, Iran and England. Slow, complex, irregular throbbing waves of sound, broadcast through distant loudspeakers and recaptured and reincorporated into the sound. Feedback, time-space lag, echo machines, and primitive handmade electronic devices all contribute to the ever shifting clouds of sound." July 15th, 1972 is, as the title chronologically suggests, the precursor to that seminal record and is equally as vital and musically breathtaking.
Three extended tracks of sublime and transcendental musique concrete/drone. Sparse and spacious. With vocals and electronic trumpets augmenting the violin, contrabass, harmonica, sheet iron, castanet, vibraphone, guitar, percussion and radio oscillators. Dreamy and otherworldly, three epic tracks of hum and rumble, squeak and skree, clatter and tinkle envelop you in a completely new world of sound. So essential.

TAJ MAHAL TRAVELLERS Live at Sohgetsu Hall in Tokyo, 15th July 1972 (BB) lp 30.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

TAJ MAHAL TRAVELLERS Live in Tokyo, 19th August 1974 (Part One & Two) (BB) lp 30.00
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TAJ MAHAL TRAVELLERS Live in Tokyo, 19th August 1974 (Part Three & Four) (BB) lp 30.00
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TAJ MAHAL TRAVELLERS Live Stockholm July, 1971 (Walhalla) 2cd 33.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
In the AQ canon of all time essential artists, of groups who have shaped all the music that followed in their wake, somewhere very near the top spot would be Japan's Taj Mahal Travellers. This sprawling seventies psych drone unit led by Fluxus legend Takehisa Kosugi, were crafting gorgeous abstract drone drenched ambience long before most of the current crop of dronesters were even born.
The Taj Mahal Travellers were masters of the organic, of vibration, texture, timbre, utilizing bowed cymbals, violins, loudspeakers, tape loops and all sorts of unique source material, this collective created some of the most enduring and unique psychedelic music ever recorded. Their music and performances were the physical embodiment of a philosophy, a way of life more than just simple 'playing music.'
It's hard to imagine the Skaters or Birchville Cat Motel or the Yellow Swans or even Wolf Eyes without the Taj Mahal Travellers. Often referred to by the press as "La Monte Young on acid", in a review of another, unfortunately out of print TMT album, we described their sound as "epic higher key improvised drone extravaganzas performed on beaches, deserted hills in Sweden, India, Iran and England. Slow, complex, irregular throbbing waves of sound, broadcast through distant loudspeakers and recaptured and reincorporated into the sound. Feedback, time-space lag, echo machines, and primitive handmade electronic devices all contribute to the ever shifting clouds of sound."
The music of the Taj Mahal Travellers thought is stubbornly indescribable. No words can possibly do justice to the spirits they were able to invoke, the atmosphere they were able to create, dark and dense and mysterious and ominous, but at the same time beautiful and brilliant and epic and spacious.
This double cd features nearly 100 minutes of improvised droning captured live in Stockholm, Sweden in 1971, the group run stand-up bass, tuba, trumpet. select percussion, violin, flutes, mandolin, harmonica and synthesizer through primitive tape loops and delay effects for an awesome ritualistic performance, predating the likes of Zoviet France and about a million others by decades!
The live sound is just as amazing as their records, which makes sense since their albums were essentially documents of live aktions.
The first disc is a single nearly hour long low end ritual, strings buzz and reverberate, as do voices, and bits of bowed metals, all beating against each other and creating all manner of cosmic vibrations, all accompanied by simple bells, or a single plucked note repeated over and over. Near the end, the vocals are soaring, and the tones have become long buzzing streaks, with plenty of spacey echo and strange damaged FX, it's hard to hear this and not wonder where in the hell Sunburned Hand and No Neck get off, these guys were creating the same sort of primitive primeval sounds, nearly 4 decades earlier, and with so much more depth and emotion. The fact that a music so minimal and abstract can be so utterly moving is testament to the Travellers' unparalleled skill.
Disc two is much less low end rumble, and more a dizzying swirl of strange sonic events, here the horns are in full affect, sounding like a herd of alien elephants, moaning and bleating, the tones stretched out and draped across all manner of lower register rumbles and whirs. Percussion surfacing now and again like an angry rattlesnake roused from a midday nap, or a swirling cloud of tiny buzzing insects. Vocals drift in and out, shamanistic and chant like, moaning out strange melodies, mostly low and throaty but sometimes like curious feline mewling, all intertwined with the various other drawn out sounds. An incredibly intense organic ritual, purified by it's intransitive nature, the improvisation guaranteeing that each performance belonged to the time and the place as much as the players. Absolutely and utterly breathtaking.
A really nice reissue of this long out of print two disc set, with liner notes, a history of the band, the story of this recording as well as amazing photos. Not sure how long we'll be able to keep these in stock, so please be patient if we run out, and it takes us a while to track down more.
Absolutely essential, and probably more recommended than nearly any record we've ever reviewed!
MPEG Stream: "Improvisation, Part 1 (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Improvisation, Part 1 (excerpt 2)"
MPEG Stream: "Improvisation, Part 2 (excerpt 1)"
MPEG Stream: "Improvisation, Part 2 (excerpt 2)"

TAKAHASHI, IKURO Domori To Sanshu (Siwa) cd 14.98
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The packaging here is real nice and maybe should be mentioned even before the music: the cd is nestled between two white cards screenprinted in silver-and-black with someone's intricate, abstract artwork (a fine-lined tangle of grass? or bones?). These cards and cd come in a plastic sleeve, inserted into a slot in a slender wooden box. The box is itself painted/printed in dark grey and white with identical artwork. Yup, very nice! This is a limited edition, of course.
What manner of music is deserving of such special packaging? Well, Japan's Ikuro Takahashi is a percussionist who has played in or with all sorts of amazing bands from the Tokyo psych-rock underground, including Fushitsusha, High Rise, Kosukuya, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Nagisa Ni Te, Overhang Party and LSD-march. As a solo music-maker, though, he also experiments with electronics. So this release is quite different from most of those bands, though sharing a "darkness" that several of them possess! Domori To Sanshu consists of two long tracks (27 and 31 minutes apiece), one of 'em live, the other rendered on a computer. The live track comes first, immersing you in what (you might imagine) could be the night sounds from outside a rural temple...a high-pitched insectoid flutter and hum, in fact produced by the keening of Ikuro's oscillators and electronic effects. Subtle and strange. Eventually the echoing rattle and clatter of percussion enters the sound-field, but emptiness and hum are still the main attraction. This track builds in drone-ful intensity, with long notes drawn out into abstract mystery. Abstraction that continues with additional density on the second, computer-composed track, which is basically one seemly unchanging but in truth slowly undulating drone... both cuts provide some serious meditative 'music' for drone-heads to get lost in.
MPEG Stream: "Domori To Sanshu (live)"

TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI Action Direct (Tiliqua) cd 33.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Tabletop guitar noise from the legendary late Japanese jazz guitar god, recorded 1985.

TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI Archive 1 (Jinya) 5cd 95.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We have precisely ONE of these (although, we may be able to order more, eventually). So no big review, you (YOU?) either want this or you don't, several hours of archival live performances full of squealing, squeaking, squalling skronk by this Japanese improv jazz guitar legend and his New Direction Unit from the late '70s. Five separate shows, on five cds in individual slimline jewel cases packaged in a plastic sleeve/box with booklet (in Japanese): Regular Concert no.35 1977.6.2, Regular Concert no.36 1977.8.4, Another Situation First Concert 1977.9.4, Regular Concert no.39 1978.2.10, and Regular Concert no.43 1978.10.6, to use the formulations they do. Not sure what's so "Regular" about these concerts, exactly... Most of the discs/concerts consist of 2-5 lengthy pieces, the NDU improvising in various instrumental combinations, Takayanagi playing electric guitar or "gut guitar" (acoustic), others in the outfit variously on flute, clarinet, saxophone, bass, percussion. Sometimes it's the full ensemble, sometimes trios, duos, few solo tracks too. Obviously if you're a Takayanagi fan, and only if you're a Takayanagi fan, you just might be interested in this, to get some more "Mass Projection" into your life. "Gradually Projection" too! Good stuff as you'd expect, from quiet textural moodiness to utter gurgling frenzy.
Limited edition of 500 copies. And, the one we have happens to come shrinkwrapped with a free bonus dvd disc, footage of Takayanagi performing in Tokyo, 1990. (Any further copies we might order, if we even can, won't have that.)
MPEG Stream: "Improvisation 4, Another Situation First Concert 1977.9.4"
MPEG Stream: "Improvisation 1, Regular Concert no.43 1978.10.6"

TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI Dislocation (Jinya) cd 19.98

TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI Inanimate (Jinya) cd 19.98

TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI Mass Hysterism (Jinya) cd 19.98

TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI Qadhafi (Jinya) cd 19.98

TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI Shibito (Jinya) cd 19.98

TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI "JOJO" Cool Jojo (Three Blind Mice) cd 30.00
From 1979, Japanese improv legend Takayanagi's "Second Concept" quartet plays some perhaps uncharacteristically straight ahead, "cool" jazz...there's none of his famed guitar freakouts here, but it's still a nice jazz date, demonstrating that his facility with "outside" avant-garde free jazz playing was rooted in an appreciation of "inside" stuff as well. Japanese import in handsome hardback digibook packaging.

TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI & KAORU ABE Gradually Projection (DIW) cd 21.00
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The sequel to the "Mass Projection" disc (reviewed last list), here's more live guitar/sax improv action drawn from the same 1970 performance by these cult Japanese free jazz masters. This release explores an equally "out" but just not as quite as noisy side to Abe and Takayanagi's music. Abe's sax wanders lethargically on a latenight bender, offering melody and misery in equal measure. Takayanagi's guitar provides near-percussive backing to the doomy drone of Abe's blowing. Lonely beauty and anguish abound. It's one long, intense 49 minute track.

TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI & KAORU ABE Mass Projection (DIW) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
From the black-on-black packaging worthy of a Keiji Haino release, complete with badass photos of these two '70s Japanese free jazz legends (the soon-to-die-young saxophonist Kaoru Abe clutching his horn in a suitably doomed pose, and jazz-meets-noise guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi looking commanding in shades), you know that this disc is going to be a serious listen. And intense it is, drawn from the harsher portions of a 1970 live performance (the somewhat mellower remainder of the set is also soon to be released, as "Gradually Projection"). Unlike several recent Takayanagi archival releases, this doesn't have anything to do with his more straight ahead jazzy "Cool Jojo" style. No, this is all loud, scary skree looking to fuck with your head. Abe takes the lead, actually, his saxophone sounding utterly desperate and apocalyptic, but Takayanagi doesn't flinch from the fray either. Not for the faint of heart!

TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI & NEW DIRECTION Call In Question (PSF) cd 17.98
Some of the heaviest "jazz" ever, recorded in 1970 amazingly enough. The drummer should be in a hardcore band, the guitar player (the legendary Masayuki Takayangi) makes Sonny Sharrock sound like a wimp, and the bass and sax are equally intense. Our fave Takayangi release. Noise guitar way ahead of its time. Beautiful, beautiful noise.
RealAudio clip: "Extraction"

TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI & NEW DIRECTION Live Independence (PSF) cd 22.00
More 1970 out-jazz from a trio version of pioneering noise guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi's New Direction unit. Two long tracks, "Herdman's Pipe of Spain" and "Mass Projection" that are a little more mellow and melodic than the stuff on the "Call In Question" cd, but not much more.

TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI & NEW DIRECTIONS Independence - Tread On Sure Ground (Tiliqua) cd 25.00
Oh man. Over the past year or so we've been lucky enough to get a hold of reissues of a bunch of rare albums by Japanese jazz legend Masayuki "Jojo" Takayanagi performing with his New Direction(s) unit: Axis Another Revolvable Thing Parts 1 and 2, Eclipse, La Grima. Lucky 'cause we LOVE way-out-there improv electric guitar, which Takayanagi provides in spades, 'specially when he and his group are off on one of his "mass projection" freakouts. Well this here cd reissue (a deluxe gatefold mini-LP sleeve styled import on the always interesting and well-packaged Tiliqua label) is another must have for any Takayanagi fan, documenting his first recording session in 1969 as leader of the initial incarnation of his New Directions group, a trio consisting of drummer Sabu Toyozumi and bassist Motoharu Yoshizawa along with Takayanagi. That's right, no saxophone for you sax haters out there! Just amped-up, feedback-filled guitar skree, brutally bowed bass and crashing drums on such lengthy mass projections as "The Galactic System" and "Piranha". There's also quieter, "gradually projection" pieces here too, some really beautiful, abstractly atmospheric ones including "Herdsman's Pipe Of Spain" (with Yoshizawa on folk-pipe) and the interludes "Deepnight...Swamp" and "Sick...Sick...Sickness...My Aunt". Wow what great titles!!
This Tiliqua reissue of this classic adds a bonus track, from the 1970 compilation LP Guitar Workshop, that in fact is maybe the most intense thing on here. There are also liner notes from the perceptive and well-informed Alan Cummings, who proceeds to really set the scene for this music with his evocative description of the seedy Tokyo jazz quarter of Shinjuku in the sixties and early seventies, a place where Takayanagi's revolutionary jazz explorations fit right in with experimental artists and acid rock radicals.
MPEG Stream: "The Galactic System"
MPEG Stream: "Herdsman's Pipe Of Spain"

TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI NEW DIRECTION UNIT April Is The Cruellest Month (Jinya) cd 24.00

TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI NEW DIRECTION UNIT Axis Another Revolvable Thing Part 1 (Doubtmusic) cd 24.00
The late electric guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi is a legend in Japanese free jazz circles, a bold creator and explorer, who from the late '60s through the '90s broke down or went around the inside/outside jazz dichotomy, putting his axe to work in settings ranging from cool post-bop standards to textural tabletop noise experiments. Definitely an original, it's only for our convenience that he could be described as kind of like a Sonny Sharrock, Fred Frith, and Derek Bailey, all rolled into one. Even, say, Wolf Eyes teaming up with Anthony Braxton couldn't outgun Takayangi at his fiercest (by the way, that believe-it-or-not collaboration actually exists and is pretty cool, see elsewhere on this list for a review!). And here is a two volume set documenting the power and beauty of Takayangi's heavy duty, feedback-shaping skree circa 1975, in the context of his New Direction Unit, a quartet also featuring Nobuyoshi Ino on bass and cello, Hiroshi Yamazaki on percussion, and Kenji Mori on reeds.
Originally released on vinyl by a Japanese label called Offbeat, these two LPs have been coveted rarities pretty much ever since. A bit of a Holy Grail to some. So, we were excited (and expect some of you to be too) that these records have now officially reissued on compact disc, in nice miniature LP jacket styled cardboard sleeves, reproducing even the misspelling "Revolable" on their covers. They're Japanese imports on a great avant-garde music label called Doubtmusic (we'll have some other titles from them listed soon, including Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Orchestra doing a cover of Eric Dolphy's classic Out To Lunch album reviewed elsewhere this list) but we were able to get them for a decent price, $17, not bad at all considering we just saw that someone sold one of these very cds on eBay as a buy-it-now item for $40! Then again, who can put a price on wild and wooly, freeform "jazz" improv action like this?
Actually, both albums have their more quiet and gentle passages, of delicate string-scrabble, spacious drum-clank, and abstract, pretty reed blowing like birds a-twitter (in Takayangi's theoretical terminology, these pieces are called "gradually projection") that build up into denser, stormier freakouts wherein his guitar is fully unleashed and the rest of the group strains mightily to match (what Takayangi terms "mass projection"). On volume two, you get one gradually and two mass projections, while volume one features one gradually, one mass, and also a 13-minute percussion solo!
These reissues include the original liner notes by Teruto Soejima (translated into English, yay!). One paragraph stands out as being particularly descriptive: "Drifting through all of New Direction Unit's music is the scent of blood. Not old, clotted blood, but fresh blood. This isn't mere semblance of music; it's sound through which the blood of human beings has passed. Which is why, in the group's performances, blood seethes, flows against the current, burns, oozes, rises, congeals, is spewed out, gushes forth. Vivid red blood. Takayanagi's ultimate artistic aim may well be the the color of this blood." You might say ew, but listen and see if that doesn't seem true.
Additionally, for techies who need more than blood, we're provided with an obsessively detailed list of the specific microphones used for these recordings, along with the type of mixing console and tape recorder and even the precise brand of tape! It's a bit like the Fucking Champs do on their albums...
MPEG Stream: "Fragment VI"
MPEG Stream: "Fragment II"

TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI NEW DIRECTION UNIT Axis Another Revolvable Thing Part 2 (Doubtmusic) cd 24.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The late electric guitarist Masayuki Takayanagi is a legend in Japanese free jazz circles, a bold creator and explorer, who from the late '60s through the '90s broke down or went around the inside/outside jazz dichotomy, putting his axe to work in settings ranging from cool post-bop standards to textural tabletop noise experiments. Definitely an original, it's only for our convenience that he could be described as kind of like a Sonny Sharrock, Fred Frith, and Derek Bailey, all rolled into one. Even, say, Wolf Eyes teaming up with Anthony Braxton couldn't outgun Takayangi at his fiercest (by the way, that believe-it-or-not collaboration actually exists and is pretty cool, see elsewhere on this list for a review!). And here is a two volume set documenting the power and beauty of Takayangi's heavy duty, feedback-shaping skree circa 1975, in the context of his New Direction Unit, a quartet also featuring Nobuyoshi Ino on bass and cello, Hiroshi Yamazaki on percussion, and Kenji Mori on reeds.
Originally released on vinyl by a Japanese label called Offbeat, these two LPs have been coveted rarities pretty much ever since. A bit of a Holy Grail to some. So, we were excited (and expect some of you to be too) that these records have now officially reissued on compact disc, in nice miniature LP jacket styled cardboard sleeves, reproducing even the misspelling "Revolable" on their covers. They're Japanese imports on a great avant-garde music label called Doubtmusic (we'll have some other titles from them listed soon, including Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Orchestra doing a cover of Eric Dolphy's classic Out To Lunch album reviewed elsewhere this list) but we were able to get them for a decent price, $17, not bad at all considering we just saw that someone sold one of these very cds on eBay as a buy-it-now item for $40! Then again, who can put a price on wild and wooly, freeform "jazz" improv action like this?
Actually, both albums have their more quiet and gentle passages, of delicate string-scrabble, spacious drum-clank, and abstract, pretty reed blowing like birds a-twitter (in Takayangi's theoretical terminology, these pieces are called "gradually projection") that build up into denser, stormier freakouts wherein his guitar is fully unleashed and the rest of the group strains mightily to match (what Takayangi terms "mass projection"). On volume two, you get one gradually and two mass projections, while volume one features one gradually, one mass, and also a 13-minute percussion solo!
These reissues include the original liner notes by Teruto Soejima (translated into English, yay!). One paragraph stands out as being particularly descriptive: "Drifting through all of New Direction Unit's music is the scent of blood. Not old, clotted blood, but fresh blood. This isn't mere semblance of music; it's sound through which the blood of human beings has passed. Which is why, in the group's performances, blood seethes, flows against the current, burns, oozes, rises, congeals, is spewed out, gushes forth. Vivid red blood. Takayanagi's ultimate artistic aim may well be the the color of this blood." You might say ew, but listen and see if that doesn't seem true.
Additionally, for techies who need more than blood, we're provided with an obsessively detailed list of the specific microphones used for these recordings, along with the type of mixing console and tape recorder and even the precise brand of tape! It's a bit like the Fucking Champs do on their albums...
MPEG Stream: "Fragment IV"
MPEG Stream: "Fragment V"

TAKAYANAGI, MASAYUKI, & KAORU ABE Kaitai Teki Kohkan (Disk Union) cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Limited edition re-issue of an ultra rare 1970 recording by Japanese free improv legends Masayuki Takayanagi on guitar and Kaoru Abe on alto sax, bass clarinet and harmonica. Very noisy, "out" stuff for fans of Derek Bailey and Evan Parker.

TAMARU Figure (Trumn) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Tamaru is a Japanese minimalist, who's not terribly well known outside of Japan, as this is only his second cd in well over a decade of making music. Both on this record and in performance, he uses little more than his bass guitar, a volume pedal, and a delay pedal; and with this process, he restricts himself to an open tuning, using only those four notes as the basis for his harmonic and subharmonic overtones. His thrumbing drones are the results from a decade of refining his craft, discovering which tones he can master, and seamlessly layering sound on top of itself. The eight tracks on Figure are all essentially variations on this same theme for lugubrious undulations of sound that organically ripple, echo, and hypnotize as if they were the cyclical patterns from waves moving across a relatively calm body of water. The first couple of tracks are pretty heavy constructs of tonal interplay within thundering drones stretched upon elongated bowings from his bass guitar, somewhat not all that dissimilar to the longform works by Jonathan Coleclough or Yoshi Wada. On "Stream," Tamaru allows for more of a traditional means of playing the bass, as rounded clouds of tone billow forth like some of the amorphous material from Rothko. "Juju" is a wavering mirage for overlapping drones and slippery swells of bass timbre; and "Room" is downright playful exercise in delay driven phase patterns. Any number of these pieces could be rendered successfully as sustained duration compositions, but Tamaru's economy of scale renders everything as a precious, tightly encapsulated gem of low end frequencies. Nicely done!
MPEG Stream: "Torso"
MPEG Stream: "Stream"
MPEG Stream: "Juju"

TAMARYN Figure (Trumn) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Tamaru is a Japanese minimalist, who's not terribly well known outside of Japan, as this is only his second cd in well over a decade of making music. Both on this record and in performance, he uses little more than his bass guitar, a volume pedal, and a delay pedal; and with this process, he restricts himself to an open tuning, using only those four notes as the basis for his harmonic and subharmonic overtones. His thrumbing drones are the results from a decade of refining his craft, discovering which tones he can master, and seamlessly layering sound on top of itself. The eight tracks on Figure are all essentially variations on this same theme for lugubrious undulations of sound that organically ripple, echo, and hypnotize as if they were the cyclical patterns from waves moving across a relatively calm body of water. The first couple of tracks are pretty heavy constructs of tonal interplay within thundering drones stretched upon elongated bowings from his bass guitar, somewhat not all that dissimilar to the longform works by Jonathan Coleclough or Yoshi Wada. On "Stream," Tamaru allows for more of a traditional means of playing the bass, as rounded clouds of tone billow forth like some of the amorphous material from Rothko. "Juju" is a wavering mirage for overlapping drones and slippery swells of bass timbre; and "Room" is downright playful exercise in delay driven phase patterns. Any number of these pieces could be rendered successfully as sustained duration compositions, but Tamaru's economy of scale renders everything as a precious, tightly encapsulated gem of low end frequencies. Nicely done!
MPEG Stream: "Torso"
MPEG Stream: "Stream"
MPEG Stream: "Juju"

TANGERINE DREAM SYNDICATE III Violins for III Stooges (Alchemy) cd 21.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another in Alchemy's new Inner Mind Music series of spacey delights -- "Live at Alpha Centauri" it says on the inside. The Tangerine Dream Syndicate wears its influences proudly -- the band is made up of Tommy Conrad (cello, violin), Johnny Conrad (electronics, violin, voice), and DeeDee Conrad (bass, violin, voice). Yes, their names (and the album's title and the band name too) are a bit overt and silly but this is actually some really fine drone improv! Even though they'd like you to imagine that they're Tony Conrad's lost brothers, we suspect that beneath these assumed names you'd find some well-known Japanese underground noisicans. But they are indeed spiritual, musical brothers with the American violinist and his '60s Dream Syndicate colleagues, along with '70s German spacemeisters Tangerine Dream. It's a successful homage that makes for some mighty fine, late night drifting listening. It's just one track, nearly a full hour of high-end string drone, subsonic bass throb, and electronic swoosh. File in the "quite omnious yet strangely comforting" section of your cd collection.

TENNISCOATS Live Wanderus (Chapter Music) cd 17.98
We remember first getting a glimpse of the sweet charm of Japan's Tenniscoats a year or so ago when we heard their track on the children's comp Songs For Nao. We had only been able to get a copy or two of Live Wanderus, never enough to list until now. Before we had even heard the record, the dreamy cover art had us super curious as to what we might find inside.
We ended up loving Tenniscoats' take on naive pop. A LOT. A little more dreamy and meandering than some of their sonic brethren like Maher Shal Hash Baz and Nagisa Ni Ti, Saya's sweet hushed vocals and tasteful trumpets and sax, guitar, drums and piano help to create a nice dreamlike atmosphere, a perfect serving of daydream twee. These are live recordings from shows throughout Japan over the last few years, and the recordings sound great, nice and warm, like you were right there in the room while they were playing, sitting on a blanket in the dark with your head on the shoulder of a good friend. So nice!
MPEG Stream: "Red Haired Eric"
MPEG Stream: "Everyone"

TETRAGRAMMATON Point of Convergence (Utech) cd 14.98
The latest batch from Utech is all excellent stuff (as usual), we're reviewing three this list, including the Locrian double disc (one of our Records Of The Week), the new Gog, and this, from Japan's Tetragrammaton.
The first thing one of the AQ Overlords here said when he heard this one is, if not entirely accurate, a good starting point for a description: "Sounds like a black metal Taj Mahal Travellers!" While it's NOT black metal, there's a menacing, mesmeric vibe here that some black metallers might appreciate. Possibly also some Buddhist monks, too. Part freeform psychedelic rock exploration, part dronological soundscapery, Tetragrammaton's Points Of Convergence is a beautiful and frightening trip into the void-dark expanses... that this trio is Tokyo-based is no surprise, seems like if Utech hadn't put this out, PSF should have. Band members TOMO, Cal Lyall, and Nobunaga Ken utilize a wide array of instruments to conjure up intense music that's both detailed and active, and droningly atmospheric: hurdy-gurdy, guitar, saxophone, crystal bowls, percussion, voices, Rhodes piano, hydrophone, gongs, drums, bells, bowls, taisho-koto...
Track one, "Disjecta Membra", begins as if recorded inside of a giant cauldron; echoing, haunting, with mysterious scrapings and billowing distortion, it builds up and up, over the course of 14+ minutes, spiralling into dense hypnotic drones, before a climax that takes the form of a free improv freakout, an electric tangle of guitar, sax, percussion... As quick as that erupts, it subsides, and track two, "Portrait Of Turab (Part I)" starts in with sustained bell tones, shimmering in the cauldron-blackness. Later still, the textural drones of "Sol de Paula" evoke all the awe of the 2001: A Space Odyssey monolith! And elsewhere watery textures and strange pipe-fighting percussion take center stage.
This unit's previous release, a double disc, was one of Julian Cope's Records Of The Month some time ago (btw, whatever happened to his Record Of The Month? the Head Heritage site hasn't been updated with one since the summer). If there's enough interest in this (which there should be!), perhaps we can import some of those, too.
The usual Utech packaging, nicely designed, slim sleeve, oversized. Lots of black.
MPEG Stream: "Disjecta Membra"
MPEG Stream: "Portrait Of Turab (Part I)"
MPEG Stream: "Sol de Paula"