FATHER MOO & THE BLACK SHEEP s/t (Swordfish) cd 17.98
Acid Mothers Temple. Makoto Kawabata. Bearded gurus shooting energy beams from their eyes. Drifting, droning, eerie psych-scapes. Enough? Naked Japanese hippy women. Can I stop there? I think you've already come in and bought this cd. It's a compact disc reissue of the out of print Father Moo LP from a few years back, perhaps you remember it, or at least the Father Yod-inspired cover pic. I'm sure it goes for $$$$ on eBay now based on the sleeve alone. Anyway, the Acid Mothers Temple fanatics at UK label Swordfish have brought it back, now as a handy cd, for those that missed getting the vinyl when it was available (or who collect all configurations -- actually, this was once a limited edition cd-r, before it was even an LP, so you've gotta look for that too if you don't have it, good luck!). As the many, many Acid Mothers Temple projects and off-shoots go, this one is primo stuff. Lovely female vocal moans (courtesy of Cotton Casino, presumably), electronic drones, keyboard melodies, some sparse, far-off percussion, all very pretty and mysterious, blissful, but kinda dark. No wild Makoto guitar action here, just three tracks (the longest, a half-hour) of otherworldly, almost religious trance-muzz. And that's just fine. We too bow before Father Moo.
RealAudio clip: "track 1"
RealAudio clip: "track 3"

FENNESZ, CHRISTIAN / SACHIKO M / OTOMO YOSHIHIDE / PETER REHBERG (Erstwhile) cd 14.98

FIFTH COLUMN, THE The Early Fifth Column: Indiscreet Music 1976-1980 (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.
Possibly also subtitled "We'll Put It Out If The Boss Insists", which makes sense since the Fifth Column was the pre-Hijokaidan band of Alchemy chief Jojo Hiroshige (he wasn't the main member, just a participant). The Fifth Column (or Dai-Go-Retsu in Japanese) wasn't an all out noise assault like Hijokaidan, but rather an experimental musical collective dabbling in everything from electronics and tape loops to sax skronk to "improvised voice drama" to toy instrument improv...all sorts of dadaistic chaos! (One thing they seem really partial to is the use of chimpmunk/gremlin style pitch-shifted voices.) The results of their weird and wild experiments are documented on this cd anthology, which, unlike many Alchemy releases, boasts English-language liner notes giving detailed yet cryptic information about the band, in the form of an interview reprinted from a French 'zine called "Rock Art", circa 1984. We can only imagine that the Nurse With Wound folks were or would have been big fans of Dai-Go-Retsu. Historically interesting, to be sure, and entertaining too.
RealAudio clip: "By-Onnyk Solo"
RealAudio clip: "Here's A Camel"
RealAudio clip: "A Picnic At The Bottom Of A Frozen River"

FIFTH COLUMN, THE The Middle Fifth Column: Suspect Music 1981 - 1990 (Alchemy) cd 21.00
Hey, found we still have a few copies of this stashed away in the closet - and it's out of print, 'cause Japan's Alchemy label ceased activities a while ago. Here's our review from when we first listed it like six years back:
We know you've been waiting for this: the sequel to the Early Fifth Column cd, which was a collection issued back in 2001 on the Alchemy label (run by former Fifth Columnist Jojo Hiroshige) documenting the career of this extremely underground Japanese avant-garde collective circa 1976 to 1980. Now, The Middle Fifth Column is here to deal with the years 1981-1990, and anyone familiar with the intriguing weirdness found on the previous disc will find this to be just as weird and interesting if not more so! Fifteen tracks of noisy experiments, freaked out jazz improv, synth boppiness, disturbing tape loops, bizarre vocals, drum machines and electronics... it's eclectic strange DIY madness that takes a definite inspiration from Faust (note the "It's A Rainy Day Sunshine Girl" quote in track two) and assuredly also other NWW-list worthy outfits. This comes with extensive, English-language (as well as Japanese) liner notes that give details on each track, from interviews with the band members (there was a core group that formed various "bands" who released tapes - about 50 of them - in the Fifth Column cassette series). About "It's A Rainy Day" they say: "There are times in life that, whatever you play, it turns into that song, and this was one such occasion."
Very cool. Whatever the weirdest stuff you have in your record collection is, this disc will no doubt make friends with it!!
Last copies ever, grab 'em!
MPEG Stream: "Heavy Moon"
MPEG Stream: "Mello-Dyne"

FLIED EGG Dr. Siegel's Fried Egg Shooting Machine (Phoenix) cd 17.98
Another reissue of freaky early '70s psych rock from Japan here folks, one we've had before, but that was a more expensive version, out of print for a while anyway. But now this has been reissued again, not by Bamboo (who recently reissued the same band's 2nd album, Goodbye, a few months back) but by another UK label, Phoenix... though we sorta suspect they're the same label anyway.
In any case, good to have it available again. This one, with a truly hard-to-beat title, was Flied [sic] Egg's debut, released originally in 1972, on Vertigo - with Flied Egg one of the few, if not only, Japanese acts to appear on the roster of that legendary UK-based label known for proto-metal, jazz-prog and other "hairy funk" delights. This album dishes such delights all over the place, ranging from the Blue Cheer meets Uriah Heep heaviness of "Rolling Down The Broadway" to the weird choral interlude of "15 Seconds Of Schizophrenic Sabbath" to the classical prog flourishes of "Oke-Kus" (sounding like a warped version of ELP) to the sheer hippie psych-pop lunacy of the title track. And more! All in all, this is quite as crazy as its Dali-esque cover painting indicates. Definitely an essential for our Japanese '70s psych section, and anyone who loves them some acid rock guitar!
This new reissue comes in a cardboard "wallet" style sleeve, a numbered limited edition of 1000.
MPEG Stream: "Dr. Siegel's Fried Egg Shooting Machine"
MPEG Stream: "Burning Fever"

FLIED EGG Dr. Siegel's Fried Egg Shooting Machine (Phoenix) lp 24.00
And now a vinyl reissue of this, for you folks into freaky early '70s psych rock from Japan here folks. This record, with a truly hard-to-beat title, was Flied [sic] Egg's debut, released originally in 1972, on Vertigo - with Flied Egg one of the few, if not only, Japanese acts to appear on the roster of that legendary UK-based label known for proto-metal, jazz-prog and other "hairy funk" delights. This album dishes such delights all over the place, ranging from the Blue Cheer meets Uriah Heep heaviness of "Rolling Down The Broadway" to the weird choral interlude of "15 Seconds Of Schizophrenic Sabbath" to the classical prog flourishes of "Oke-Kus" (sounding like a warped version of ELP) to the sheer hippie psych-pop lunacy of the title track. And more! All in all, this is quite as crazy as its Dali-esque cover painting indicates. Definitely an essential for our Japanese '70s psych section, and anyone who loves them some acid rock guitar!
Gatefold sleeve, 180 gram pressing.
MPEG Stream: "Dr. Siegel's Fried Egg Shooting Machine"
MPEG Stream: "Burning Fever"

FLIED EGG Good Bye (Universal Japan) cd 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Yes that's right, Flied not Fried Egg. Uh, 'cause they're Japanese. Think about it. Hey, it's their joke. Anyway, this one's for all you '70s heaviness lovin' proto-metal fans, it's something that we got in along with the Flower Travellin' Band reissues we listed last time. Goodbye is Flied Egg's second of two albums (both '72, and both on the famed Vertigo label, best known as the home of Black Sabbath). We also intend to review their first one, with the marvelous title of Dr. Siegel's Fried Egg Shooting Machine, which as you might guess is some pretty wild acid psych. We decided to list Goodbye first, though, just 'cause we can simply say it's a no-brainer for Blue Cheer fans.
Basically, this album is distinctly (even on cd) split between two sides, the first half recorded live, possibly at their farewell concert, we'd guess from the title. This in-concert portion is the heaviest, it's all bad ass fuzzed out blooze rawk swagger that makes us think Blue Cheer, Blue Cheer, Blue Cheer! (Also Grand Funk/Cactus/Mountain.) Hear 'em rile up a cheering crowd with these party-pleasers: "Leave Me Woman", "Rolling Down The Broadway" (a stompin' composition that appears in a studio version on their debut), Josea/King's "Rock Me Baby", and the twelve-minute-plus "Five More Pennies", which includes a drum solo in addition to all the acid guitar excess. Following all that, the studio half of the album gets a bit more proggy and wigged out (ending with a multi-part piece entitled "521 Seconds Schizophrenic Symphony"!) while also containing a couple of mellower melodic numbers, the sad and gentle "Out To Sea" and "Goodbye My Friends".
Members of Flied Egg also did time in some other hard rockin' underground Japanese psych acts whose reissues we've previously reviewed, including Strawberry Path and Brush!?... if you dig those, or the likes of FTB, Blues Creation, Speed Glue & Shinki, or Too Much, then Flied Egg is for you too.
MPEG Stream: "Rolling Down The Broadway (live)"
MPEG Stream: "Five More Pennies (live)"

FLIED EGG Good Bye (Bamboo) cd 17.98
Along with Speed, Glue & Shinki's debut Eve, we've got another Japanese psychrock reish this week, Good Bye by Flied Egg, which we haven't had for a while. And this Bamboo label reissue (in a cardboard wallet sleeve) is a bit cheaper than the out of print Japanese import cd we used to stock.
Yes that's right, Flied not Fried Egg. Uh, 'cause they're Japanese. Think about it. Hey, it's their joke. Anyway, this one's for all you '70s heaviness lovin' proto-metal fans who may have missed it before. Good Bye was Flied Egg's second of two albums (both '72, and both on the famed Vertigo label, best known as the home of Black Sabbath). Hopefully Phoenix will also soon reissue first one, with the marvelous title of Dr. Siegel's Fried Egg Shooting Machine, which as you might guess is some pretty wild acid psych. Good Bye, however, is the heavier of the two, and we can simply say it's a no-brainer for Blue Cheer fans. Basically, this album is distinctly (even on cd) split between two sides, the first half recorded live, possibly at their farewell concert, we'd guess from the title. This in-concert portion is the heaviest, it's all bad ass fuzzed out blooze rawk swagger that makes us think Blue Cheer, Blue Cheer, Blue Cheer! (Also Grand Funk, Cactus, and Mountain.) Hear 'em rile up a cheering crowd with these party-pleasers: "Leave Me Woman", "Rolling Down The Broadway" (a stompin' composition that appears in a studio version on their debut), BB King's "Rock Me Baby", and the twelve-minute-plus "Five More Pennies", which includes a drum solo in addition to all the acid guitar excess. Following all that, the studio half of the album gets a bit more proggy and wigged out (ending with a multi-part piece entitled "521 Seconds Schizophrenic Symphony", wow!) while also containing a couple of mellower melodic numbers, namely the sad and gentle "Out To Sea" and finale "Goodbye My Friends". FYI, not a favorite of Julian "Japrocksampler" Cope, but WE like it. Members of Flied Egg also did time in some other hard rockin' underground Japanese psych acts whose reissues we've previously reviewed, including Strawberry Path, Brush!?, and Food Brain... if you dig those, or the likes of Flower Travellin' Band,
Blues Creation, Speed Glue & Shinki, or Too Much, then Flied Egg is for you too.
MPEG Stream: "Rolling Down The Broadway (live)"
MPEG Stream: "Five More Pennies (live)"

FLIED EGG Good Bye (Bamboo) lp 24.00
This Japanese psychrock reish, now available on vinyl!
Yes that's right, it's Flied not Fried Egg. Uh, 'cause they're Japanese. Think about it. Hey, it's their joke. Anyway, this one's for all you '70s heaviness lovin' proto-metal fans who may have missed it before. Good Bye was Flied Egg's second of two albums (both '72, and both on the famed Vertigo label, best known as the home of Black Sabbath). The first one, with the marvelous title of Dr. Siegel's Fried Egg Shooting Machine, is as you might guess is some pretty wild acid psych. Good Bye, however, is the heavier of the two, and we can simply say it's a no-brainer for Blue Cheer fans. Basically, this album is distinctly split between two sides, the first half recorded live, possibly at their farewell concert, we'd guess from the title. This in-concert portion is the heaviest, it's all bad ass fuzzed out blooze rawk swagger that makes us think Blue Cheer, Blue Cheer, Blue Cheer! (Also Grand Funk, Cactus, and Mountain.) Hear 'em rile up a cheering crowd with these party-pleasers: "Leave Me Woman", "Rolling Down The Broadway" (a stompin' composition that appears in a studio version on their debut), BB King's "Rock Me Baby", and the twelve-minute-plus "Five More Pennies", which includes a drum solo in addition to all the acid guitar excess. Following all that, the studio half of the album gets a bit more proggy and wigged out (ending with a multi-part piece entitled "521 Seconds Schizophrenic Symphony", wow!) while also containing a couple of mellower melodic numbers, namely the sad and gentle "Out To Sea" and finale "Goodbye My Friends". FYI, not a favorite of Julian "Japrocksampler" Cope, but WE like it. Members of Flied Egg also did time in some other hard rockin' underground Japanese psych acts whose reissues we've previously reviewed, including Strawberry Path, Brush!?, and Food Brain... if you dig those, or the likes of Flower Travellin' Band, Blues Creation, Speed Glue & Shinki, or Too Much, then Flied Egg is for you too.
By the way, d'oh, it sez "Flied Rice" on the spine!
MPEG Stream: "Rolling Down The Broadway (live)"
MPEG Stream: "Five More Pennies (live)"

FLOATING FLOWER 1st + 2nd (Feathered Spirit Of Mother) cd 13.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE ALERT!!!! Wait maybe we should rephrase that. Totally blissed out and stoned to beautiful perfection ACID MOTHERS TEMPLE alert!!!
Floating Flower are a trio composed of AMT leader Kawabata Makoto on electric and acoustic guitars, Yuki on violin, electric sitar and textural vocals and Kaneko Tetsuya on tabla and electric guitar. This is spaced out acid folk at its most trance inducing. Yuki and Tetsuya are said to have been living and traveling around India for many years leading up to these recordings which were originally released as two discs on Acid Mothers Temple's label. We love how space soaked and sundrenched these songs sound. Always drifting, droning, and shimmering with feathers of tripped out voyages into endless days. It's so easy to get lost in the drugged out sonic clouds these folks conjure up. Kind of like the best slow hazy moments of Bardo Pond taken to another planet and planted in alien soil, allowing solar winds to carry beautiful flower petals into deep space, where they will drift weightless forever and ever, never coming down. So good.
MPEG Stream: "Shizuku No Youni"
MPEG Stream: "Fuwa Fuwa"
MPEG Stream: "Desert"

FLOWER TRAVELLIN BAND Satori (Phoenix Records) lp 24.00
At long last, here's another reissue of this all-time AQ fave, hot on the heels of the Japrocksampler conveniently enough!
Here's what we said about Satori last time we had a cd edition in stock:
A while back we listed this, just 'cause we happened to order a few in and some of the staff here who were previously unexposed to the wonders of the Flower Travellin Band, notably Byram, became obsessed with it (and them). It was a Japan-only import and we felt that while many might already know this album backwards and forwards, it had most certainly slipped through the cracks for too many others out there. So we listed it and got an overwhelming response. Now it's a constant seller here at AQ. And still to this day, almost any time you come into the store, you might well hear the Flower Travellin' Band blaring.
This is an album (and a band) that are not celebrated nearly enough - possibly out of misguided notions of their being another bad psych knock-off among the many crowding the record racks in the early seventies. But Japan's Flower Travellin' Band were no mere cheesy imitators of occidental rock 'n roll, they were in actual fact a full-fledged, pioneering tour de force of psychedelic progressive hard rock, equalling the krautrock heavies of the era. FTB can be compared favorably to Amon Duul's better efforts with their experimental meandering (think Yeti), and the best trancey spaceouts from Can. Yet there's never a sense that FTB lose track of their compositions no matter how far out they take a track. Perhaps because even more than these experimental Krautrockers, FTB's heavy (fucking ominously heavy) sound points to a major Sabbath, Purple, and Crimson influence. Released in 1971, Satori is the band's second and arguably best album. From the first screech/howl at the beginning of track one - "Satori Part I" (the tracks on the album are all "Satori", parts I-V) - from vocalist Joe, who inhabits a zone somewhere between Can's Damo Suzuki and Deep Purple's Ian Gillan, the album gets straight down to business. Joe's scream is followed by a foreboding bass, guitar and drum dirge that's straight up collision between Cream and Black Sabbath in which no one survives. It's got so much more teeth than either, it's not even funny, predating punk by a good many years. "Satori Part II" however is quintessential FTB Over a pounding tribal drumbeat, alternating between a buzzing sitar-esque guitar drone and a melody line that curls ripples and lilts like a plume of burning incense smoke, guitarist Hideki Ishima lays out one of the creepiest, coolest guitar leads ever. If that ain't enough, vocalist Joe's singing is like that of Axl Rose being channelled by the Sun City Girls! Even if the rest of the album were total shit - which it ain't - the cost of this cd would still be well worth it for this song alone! "Part III" - an instrumental - picks up where II leaves off but slows the tempo down to a deathly pace, which makes it even heavier. This is the Sabbath influence on FTB writ large. Replete with an improv freakout before returning to the original riff and building into a frenzied crescendo. Needless to say, if you weren't bobbing your head at the beginning of the song, you will be by its end. "Part IV" could be considered FTB's "blues" number, with Joe picking up the harmonica instead of singing. But instead of churning out the expected twelve bar formula, FTB truncate the form and construct a minimalist jam around a short riff instead. "Part V" shows yet another facet of FTB's seemingly infinite potential with Hideki (?) playing some kick ass, spooky koto-like guitar overdubbed on top of some heavy psych. Damn! They could have done ten fucking albums around this schtick alone and probably never lost our interest... sigh... Absolutely, fucking recommended!!!!
Phoenix has made this reissue available on both vinyl and cd, the cd packaged in a cardstock gatefold, limited to 1000 numbered copies.
MPEG Stream: "Satori Part II"
MPEG Stream: "Satori Part III"

FLOWER TRAVELLIN' BAND Anywhere (Universal Japan) cd 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
At long last, back in stock! The cd reissue of the 1970 debut album from AQ faves Flower Travellin' Band is still a Japanese import, but on a different label at a cheaper price (yay!), and is now housed in a regular jewelcase this time rather than a mini-lp styled sleeve. Before we launch into what's gonna be relatively long-winded review, let's just state up front that this has the best album cover EVER: the band themselves cruising down a rural highway on choppers wearing nothing but their birthday suits!! But if that's not enough to get you to buy this, read on...
As you may know, we've given a big thumbs up to the album Satori, the masterpiece from Japanese '70s psych rockers the Flower Travellin' Band [Satori is is also back in stock in a Japanese pressing, reviewed this list too].
Anywhere doesn't quite scale the heights of Satori but it'll help you to understand how they got there. Along with a great take on "House Of The Rising Sun" (a nod to Frijid Pink?), this album also explicitly demonstrates, via covers, these Japanese freaks' radical recognition of the genius of two of their Western contemporaries, Black Sabbath and King Crimson. Like many other great artists, with humble beginnings Japan's Flower Travellin' Band cut their teeth on the material of their mentors. Though Anywhere is primarily a covers album, it's also quite a testament to both the band's veracity in their reproductions and their creativity in realigning the building blocks of rock & roll. Their cover of Black Sabbath's self-titled track was actually recorded in the same year as the original and their version of King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man" only a year after its release. And they aren't merely content to play only the "Schizoid Man" opening riff, like so many other bands that have attempted to cover it, but take on the entire piece in all its schizophrenic freaked out glory, getting waaay into the improv element of the mid-section. The same is true for "Black Sabbath" and you have to appreciate singer Joe's take on the unique Ozzy voice. The most interesting track on the record though has to be their attempt at straight-up blues rock -- while their "Louisiana Blues" starts and finishes almost pedestrianly enough on the "Minglewood Blues" riff by Gus Cannon (of Cannon's Jug Stompers) that was popularized in the rock scene by the likes of The Grateful Dead and Captain Beefheart, the interior of the song is a complete departure of sorts. Not only devoid of the original progression, it's not even "bluesy" at all. Here in the extended jam that makes up the meat of this musical sandwich, the Flower Travellin' Band's Eastern roots surface a bit. It's a precursor to the sound of their later albums Satori and Made In Japan.
MPEG Stream: "Louisiana Blues"
MPEG Stream: "Black Sabbath"

FLOWER TRAVELLIN' BAND Anywhere (Phoenix) lp 24.00
NOW REISSUED ON VINYL! Currently, there's no cd reissue we can get, though we suspect one might be forthcoming from the same label. This is the 1970 debut album these aQ faves, and before we launch into our relatively long-winded review of it, let's just state up front that this has the best album cover EVER: the band themselves cruising down a rural highway on choppers wearing nothing but their birthday suits!! But if that's not enough to get you to buy this, read on...
As you may know, we've given a big thumbs up to the album Satori, the masterpiece from Japanese '70s psych rockers the Flower Travellin' Band. While Anywhere doesn't quite scale the heights of Satori, it'll help you to understand how they got there. Along with a great take on "House Of The Rising Sun" (a nod to Frijid Pink?), this album also explicitly demonstrates, via covers, these Japanese freaks' radical recognition of the genius of two of their Western contemporaries, Black Sabbath and King Crimson. Like many other great artists, with humble beginnings Japan's Flower Travellin' Band cut their teeth on the material of their mentors. Though Anywhere is primarily a covers album, it's also quite a testament to both the band's veracity in their reproductions and their creativity in realigning the building blocks of rock & roll. Their cover of Black Sabbath's self-titled track was actually recorded in the same year as the original and their version of King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man" only a year after its release. And they aren't merely content to play only the "Schizoid Man" opening riff, like so many other bands that have attempted to cover it, but take on the entire piece in all its schizophrenic freaked out glory, getting waaay into the improv element of the mid-section. The same is true for "Black Sabbath" and you have to appreciate singer Joe's take on the unique Ozzy voice. The most interesting track on the record though has to be their attempt at straight-up blues rock - while their "Louisiana Blues" starts and finishes almost pedestrianly enough on the "Minglewood Blues" riff by Gus Cannon (of Cannon's Jug Stompers) that was popularized in the rock scene by the likes of The Grateful Dead and Captain Beefheart, the interior of the song is a complete departure of sorts. Not only devoid of the original progression, it's not even "bluesy" at all. Here in the extended jam that makes up the meat of this musical sandwich, the Flower Travellin' Band's Eastern roots surface a bit. It's a precursor to the sound of their later albums Satori and Made In Japan.
MPEG Stream: "Louisiana Blues"
MPEG Stream: "Black Sabbath"

FLOWER TRAVELLIN' BAND Made In Japan ( Phoenix) cd 17.98
Japanese psych fiends rejoice! 'Bout time Flower Travellin' Band's ironically titled Made In Japan (ironic 'cause it was recorded in Canada) was available again, now via the Phoenix label, who have also done FTB's Satori, and more recently, Make Up (chronologically, the original release of this falls in between those two). We used to have an expensive Japanese import, years ago, and this is more or less what we said about it then:
Flower Travellin' Band mania has gripped us here at AQ. After the success of our review of the reissues of their masterpiece Satori and their debut Anywhere, we feel we ought to keep going through the catalog of this stellar '70s Japanese heavy psych rock outfit. Those who couldn't get enough of FTB's Satori will be pleased to know that their follow-up, third release Made In Japan from 1972 is nearly every bit as good. Singer Joe's voice still rings in the creepy falsetto style like Alan Bishop of the Sun City Girls singing balls out heavy metal vocals. As with their previous album, Made In Japan continues to fuse the heavy rock of early (contemporary, to them) Black Sabbath with Eastern melodies. I guess they decided after their perfect rendition of "Black Sabbath" on their first record, that such was their calling. Then again, "Heaven And Hell" (not the Sabbath song, that would have required precognition!) the penultimate track here, is as pure a channeling of Jimi Hendrix as anything. The mellow closing track "That's All", with its koto glissandi, parallels "Part V" on Satori and like that track, it's perhaps the most overtly Eastern in tone. But it's Joe's vocal line that really kicks ass. At the end of the chorus he adds a little cadenza to his howl, extending the vocal line just beyond where one's intuitively expecting a cadence. It works so fucking well, makes us stop whatever we're doing to listen, that we wonder why more song writers don't pull that shit more often.
Oh, and you gotta love the brief intro track on this album, a radio spot for a stadium concert in Toronto circa '72 that featured Flower Travellin' Band appearing alongside the likes of ELP and Bob Seger! Wow.
MPEG Stream: "Kamikaze"
MPEG Stream: "Hiroshima"
MPEG Stream: "That's All"

FLOWER TRAVELLIN' BAND Made In Japan (Phoenix) lp 24.00
NOW ALSO REISSUED ON (180 GRAM) VINYL!! Numbered, limited edition in gatefold sleeve with slipcase, looks lovely!
Here's what we wrote about the recent cd reissue we listed on the same label:
Japanese psych fiends rejoice! 'Bout time Flower Travellin' Band's ironically titled Made In Japan (ironic 'cause it was recorded in Canada) was available again, now via the Phoenix label, who have also done FTB's Satori, and more recently, Make Up (chronologically, the original release of this falls in between those two). We used to have an expensive Japanese import, years ago, and this is more or less what we said about it then:
Flower Travellin' Band mania has gripped us here at AQ. After the success of our review of the reissues of their masterpiece Satori and their debut Anywhere, we feel we ought to keep going through the catalog of this stellar '70s Japanese heavy psych rock outfit. Those who couldn't get enough of FTB's Satori will be pleased to know that their follow-up, third release Made In Japan from 1972 is nearly every bit as good. Singer Joe's voice still rings in the creepy falsetto style like Alan Bishop of the Sun City Girls singing balls out heavy metal vocals. As with their previous album, Made In Japan continues to fuse the heavy rock of early (contemporary, to them) Black Sabbath with Eastern melodies. I guess they decided after their perfect rendition of "Black Sabbath" on their first record, that such was their calling. Then again, "Heaven And Hell" (not the Sabbath song, that would have required precognition!) the penultimate track here, is as pure a channeling of Jimi Hendrix as anything. The mellow closing track "That's All", with its koto glissandi, parallels "Part V" on Satori and like that track, it's perhaps the most overtly Eastern in tone. But it's Joe's vocal line that really kicks ass. At the end of the chorus he adds a little cadenza to his howl, extending the vocal line just beyond where one's intuitively expecting a cadence. It works so fucking well, makes us stop whatever we're doing to listen, that we wonder why more song writers don't pull that shit more often.
Oh, and you gotta love the brief intro track on this album, a radio spot for a stadium concert in Toronto circa '72 that featured Flower Travellin' Band appearing alongside the likes of ELP and Bob Seger! Wow.
MPEG Stream: "Kamikaze"
MPEG Stream: "Hiroshima"
MPEG Stream: "That's All"

FLOWER TRAVELLIN' BAND Make Up (Phoenix) cd 25.00
Released in 1973, Make Up was the final album (not counting their recent, and unfortunately disappointing, reunion disc) from these '70s Japanese heavy psych rock gods, a gatefold double LP packaged extravagantly in a stitched, brown faux-leather case! (This compact disc reissue replicates the look of the original, the cds in a gatefold sleeve inside a slipcover, complete with lyric sheet insert). Despite the fancy packaging, this artifact doesn't make Julian Cope's Japrocksampler Top 50, in fact he rather pans it, calling it "useless" and a "disastrous hotchpotch" (it was assembled from recordings from an ill-fated live concert as well as studio demos). However, it must be said that we don't always agree with Mr. Cope. While it may be that Make Up isn't FTB's most essential album, we think any fan will dig it. If it's perhaps a document of the Flower Travellin' Band succumbing to typical '70s dinosaur rock band excess, a la Led Zeppelin (double album, extended soloing, and a '50s rock n' roll cover), that's not necessarily a bad thing! While you need Satori first, your FTB collection will be lacking without this.
Disc one contains six songs, some studio, some live, including the rockin' title track, all of which provide singer Joe Yamanaka (FTB's not-so-secret weapon) with plenty of opportunity to wow us with his distinctive wail. FTB's more mellow, pop side is definitely on display here, with the gentle epic "Look At My Window", the bluesy, balladic "Shadows Of Lost Days", and the sad "Broken Strings" all probably prompting lighter-raising among concert goers. Heavier fare there is too, the aforementioned "Make Up", plus the ornate chug of "Slowly But Surely", and ominous opener "All The Days". We name checked Led Zep, but it's Deep Purple that FTB more likely resemble on this disc, what with the keyboards of guest Nobuhiko Shinohara.
Disc two is where this set gets really indulgent, starting off as it does with a 25 minute live version of "Hiroshima" (only 5:13 in its original version on their previous album, Made In Japan, padded out here with a lengthy drum solo, of which we heartily approve). Heck, "Hiroshima" could go on for hours and hours as far as we're concerned, since it's chock full of the type of slightly sinister, blown-out riffage that today's stoner rockers try their hardest to recreate. In fact, thinking about it, this sounds a hell of a lot like AQ faves Los Natas! That's followed by another live track, a somewhat incongruous cover of "Blue Suede Shoes", with FTB producer (and former Group Sounds star) Yuya Uchida on vocals. This seems to the sort of thing that turned Cope off from this album, but we've seen footage of early Black Sabbath covering this tune too, so we'll let it slide. And in any event, that roots maneuver is followed by a rendition of FTB's own classic "Satori Pt. 2", ten tribally-rhythmic minutes of sinuous psych with Joe at his piercing best, a hard rock rock n' roll showman as shaman if there ever was one. And the drifting, semi-acoustic, spaced out "After The Concert" that winds things up wordlessly and beautifully can't be the cause of any of Cope's complaints.
In any case, all you proto-metalheads and acid psych loving Japanophiles can decide for yourself, thanks to this new reissue (a limited, numbered edition, by the way).
MPEG Stream: "Slowly But Surely"
MPEG Stream: "Shadows Of Lost Days"
MPEG Stream: "Hiroshima"
MPEG Stream: "After The Concert"

FLOWER TRAVELLIN' BAND Make Up (Phoenix) 2lp 34.00
NOW REISSUED ON VINYL!! Slipcased, gatefold, 180 gram vinyl.
Originally released in 1973, Make Up was the final album (not counting their recent, and unfortunately disappointing, reunion disc) from these '70s Japanese heavy psych rock gods, a gatefold double LP packaged extravagantly in a stitched, brown faux-leather case! (Which this reissue replicates in cardboard slipcase facsimile form!) Despite the fancy packaging, this artifact didn't make Julian Cope's Japrocksampler Top 50, in fact he rather pans it, calling it "useless" and a "disastrous hotchpotch" (it was assembled from recordings from an ill-fated live concert as well as studio demos). However, it must be said that we don't always agree with Mr. Cope. While it may be that Make Up isn't FTB's most essential album, we think any fan will dig it. If it's perhaps a document of the Flower Travellin' Band succumbing to typical '70s dinosaur rock band excess, a la Led Zeppelin (double album, extended soloing, and a '50s rock n' roll cover), that's not necessarily a bad thing! While you need Satori first, your FTB collection will be lacking without this.
Lp one contains six songs, some studio, some live, including the rockin' title track, all of which provide singer Joe Yamanaka (FTB's not-so-secret weapon) with plenty of opportunity to wow us with his distinctive wail. FTB's more mellow, pop side is definitely on display here, with the gentle epic "Look At My Window", the bluesy, balladic "Shadows Of Lost Days", and the sad "Broken Strings" all probably prompting lighter-raising among concert goers. Heavier fare there is too, the aforementioned "Make Up", plus the ornate chug of "Slowly But Surely", and ominous opener "All The Days". We name checked Led Zep, but it's Deep Purple that FTB more likely resemble on this disc, what with the keyboards of guest Nobuhiko Shinohara.
Lo two is where this set gets really indulgent, starting off as it does with a 25 minute live version of "Hiroshima" (only 5:13 in its original version on their previous album, Made In Japan, padded out here to fill the entire album side, with a lengthy drum solo, of which we heartily approve). Heck, "Hiroshima" could go on for hours and hours as far as we're concerned, since it's chock full of the type of slightly sinister, blown-out riffage that today's stoner rockers try their hardest to recreate. In fact, thinking about it, this sounds a hell of a lot like AQ faves Los Natas! That's followed on the flip by another live track, a somewhat incongruous cover of "Blue Suede Shoes", with FTB producer (and former Group Sounds star) Yuya Uchida on vocals. This seems to the sort of thing that turned Cope off from this album, but we've seen footage of early Black Sabbath covering this tune too, so we'll let it slide. And in any event, that roots maneuver is followed by a rendition of FTB's own classic "Satori Pt. 2", ten tribally-rhythmic minutes of sinuous psych with Joe at his piercing best, a hard rock rock n' roll showman as shaman if there ever was one. And the drifting, semi-acoustic, spaced out "After The Concert" that winds things up wordlessly and beautifully can't be the cause of any of Cope's complaints.
In any case, all you proto-metalheads and acid psych loving Japanophiles can decide for yourself, thanks to this new reissue.
MPEG Stream: "Slowly But Surely"
MPEG Stream: "Shadows Of Lost Days"
MPEG Stream: "Hiroshima"
MPEG Stream: "After The Concert"

FLOWER TRAVELLIN' BAND Satori (Radioactive) cd 17.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
A while back we listed this, just 'cause we happened to order a few in and some of the staff here who were previously unexposed to the wonders of the Flower Travellin Band, notably Byram, became obsessed with it (and them). It was a Japan-only import and we felt that while many might already know this album backwards and forwards, it had most certainly slipped through the cracks for too many others out there. So we listed it and got an overwhelming response. Now it's a constant seller here at AQ. And still to this day, almost any time you come into the store, you might well hear the Flower Travellin' Band blaring. Now we're listing it again, on account of how it's just been reissued *again* at a much lower import price, this time by the British label Radioactive. They've included some art from the original LP that didn't appear on the previous Japanese cd edition, but there's no bonus tracks or anything else additional. If you don't already have it, here's our old review of it, so read on, and you might discover a new favorite:
This is an album (and a band) that are not celebrated nearly enough -- possibly out of misguided notions of their being another bad psych knock-off among the many crowding the record racks in the early seventies. But Japan's Flower Travellin' Band were no mere cheesy imitators of occidental rock 'n roll, they were in actual fact a full-fledged, pioneering tour de force of psychedelic progressive hard rock, equalling the krautrock heavies of the era. FTB can be compared favorably to Amon Duul's better efforts with their experimental meandering (think Yeti), and the best trancey spaceouts from Can. Yet there's never a sense that FTB lose track of their compositions no matter how far out they take a track. Perhaps because even more than these experimental Krautrockers, FTB's heavy (fucking ominously heavy) sound points to a major Sabbath, Purple, and Crimson influence. Released in 1971, Satori is the band's second and arguably best album. From the first screech/howl at the beginning of track one -- "Satori Part I" (the tracks on the album are all "Satori", parts I-V) -- from vocalist Joe, who inhabits a zone somewhere between Can's Damo Suzuki and Deep Purple's Ian Gillan, the album gets straight down to business. Joe's scream is followed by a foreboding bass, guitar and drum dirge that's straight up collision between Cream and Black Sabbath in which no one survives. It's got so much more teeth than either, it's not even funny, predating punk by a good many years. "Satori Part II" however is quintessential FTB Over a pounding tribal drumbeat, alternating between a buzzing sitar-esque guitar drone and a melody line that curls ripples and lilts like a plume of burning incense smoke, guitarist Hideki Ishima lays out one of the creepiest, coolest guitar leads ever. If that ain't enough, vocalist Joe's singing is like that of Axl Rose being channelled by the Sun City Girls! Even if the rest of the album were total shit -- which it ain't -- the cost of this cd would still be well worth it for this song alone! "Part III" -- an instrumental -- picks up where II leaves off but slows the tempo down to a deathly pace, which makes it even heavier. This is the Sabbath influence on FTB writ large. Replete with an improv freakout before returning to the original riff and building into a frenzied crescendo. Needless to say, if you weren't bobbing your head at the beginning of the song, you will be by its end. "Part IV" could be considered FTB's "blues" number, with Joe picking up the harmonica instead of singing. But instead of churning out the expected twelve bar formula, FTB truncate the form and construct a minimalist jam around a short riff instead. "Part V" shows yet another facet of FTB's seemingly infinite potential with Hideki (?) playing some kick ass, spooky koto-like guitar overdubbed on top of some heavy psych. Damn! They could have done ten fucking albums around this schtick alone and probably never lost our interest... sigh... Absolutely, fucking recommended!!!!
MPEG Stream: "Satori Part II"
MPEG Stream: "Satori Part III"

FLOWER TRAVELLIN' BAND Satori (WEA Japan) cd 26.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
ALL RIGHT! BACK IN STOCK!! An all-time AQ fave here, that we've been unable to get for much too long. At last, we've got a Japanese import which, while more expensive than the version on defunct UK label Radioactive, is much nicer lookin' and undoubtedly more legit. So if you missed it before, we absolutely recommend that you pick it up now! Here's our original enthused review of this classic:
This is an album (and a band) that are not celebrated nearly enough -- possibly out of misguided notions of their being another bad psych knock-off among the many crowding the record racks in the early seventies. But Japan's Flower Travellin' Band were no mere cheesy imitators of occidental rock 'n roll, they were in actual fact a full-fledged, pioneering tour de force of psychedelic progressive hard rock, equaling the krautrock heavies of the era. FTB can be compared favorably to Amon Duul's better efforts with their experimental meandering (think Yeti), and the best trancey spaceouts from Can. Yet there's never a sense that FTB lose track of their compositions no matter how far out they take a track. Perhaps because even more than these experimental Krautrockers, FTB's heavy (fucking ominously heavy) sound points to a major Sabbath, Purple, and Crimson influence. Released in 1971, Satori is the band's second and arguably best album. From the first screech/howl at the beginning of track one -- "Satori Part I" (the tracks on the album are all "Satori", parts I-V) -- from vocalist Joe, who inhabits a zone somewhere between Can's Damo Suzuki and Deep Purple's Ian Gillan, the album gets straight down to business. Joe's scream is followed by a foreboding bass, guitar and drum dirge that's straight up collision between Cream and Black Sabbath in which no one survives. It's got so much more teeth than either, it's not even funny, predating punk by a good many years. "Satori Part II" however is quintessential FTB Over a pounding tribal drumbeat, alternating between a buzzing sitar-esque guitar drone and a melody line that curls ripples and lilts like a plume of burning incense smoke, guitarist Hideki Ishima lays out one of the creepiest, coolest guitar leads ever. If that ain't enough, vocalist Joe's singing is like that of Axl Rose being channelled by the Sun City Girls! Even if the rest of the album were total shit -- which it ain't -- the cost of this cd would still be well worth it for this song alone! "Part III" -- an instrumental -- picks up where II leaves off but slows the tempo down to a deathly pace, which makes it even heavier. This is the Sabbath influence on FTB writ large. Replete with an improv freakout before returning to the original riff and building into a frenzied crescendo. Needless to say, if you weren't bobbing your head at the beginning of the song, you will be by its end. "Part IV" could be considered FTB's "blues" number, with Joe picking up the harmonica instead of singing. But instead of churning out the expected twelve bar formula, FTB truncate the form and construct a minimalist jam around a short riff instead. "Part V" shows yet another facet of FTB's seemingly infinite potential with Hideki (?) playing some kick ass, spooky koto-like guitar overdubbed on top of some heavy psych. Damn! They could have done ten fucking albums around this schtick alone and probably never lost our interest... sigh... Absolutely, fucking recommended!!!!
That's what we said then, and we still mean it now -- to this day, almost any time you come into the store, you might well hear the Flower Travellin' Band blaring. Well, especially now that it's back in stock. YEAH!!!
MPEG Stream: "Satori Part II"
MPEG Stream: "Satori Part III"

FLOWER TRAVELLIN' BAND Satori (Phoenix Records) cd 16.98
At long last, here's another reissue of this all-time AQ fave, hot on the heels of the Japrocksampler conveniently enough!
Here's what we said about Satori last time we had a cd edition in stock:
A while back we listed this, just 'cause we happened to order a few in and some of the staff here who were previously unexposed to the wonders of the Flower Travellin Band, notably Byram, became obsessed with it (and them). It was a Japan-only import and we felt that while many might already know this album backwards and forwards, it had most certainly slipped through the cracks for too many others out there. So we listed it and got an overwhelming response. Now it's a constant seller here at AQ. And still to this day, almost any time you come into the store, you might well hear the Flower Travellin' Band blaring.
This is an album (and a band) that are not celebrated nearly enough - possibly out of misguided notions of their being another bad psych knock-off among the many crowding the record racks in the early seventies. But Japan's Flower Travellin' Band were no mere cheesy imitators of occidental rock 'n roll, they were in actual fact a full-fledged, pioneering tour de force of psychedelic progressive hard rock, equalling the krautrock heavies of the era. FTB can be compared favorably to Amon Duul's better efforts with their experimental meandering (think Yeti), and the best trancey spaceouts from Can. Yet there's never a sense that FTB lose track of their compositions no matter how far out they take a track. Perhaps because even more than these experimental Krautrockers, FTB's heavy (fucking ominously heavy) sound points to a major Sabbath, Purple, and Crimson influence. Released in 1971, Satori is the band's second and arguably best album. From the first screech/howl at the beginning of track one - "Satori Part I" (the tracks on the album are all "Satori", parts I-V) - from vocalist Joe, who inhabits a zone somewhere between Can's Damo Suzuki and Deep Purple's Ian Gillan, the album gets straight down to business. Joe's scream is followed by a foreboding bass, guitar and drum dirge that's straight up collision between Cream and Black Sabbath in which no one survives. It's got so much more teeth than either, it's not even funny, predating punk by a good many years. "Satori Part II" however is quintessential FTB Over a pounding tribal drumbeat, alternating between a buzzing sitar-esque guitar drone and a melody line that curls ripples and lilts like a plume of burning incense smoke, guitarist Hideki Ishima lays out one of the creepiest, coolest guitar leads ever. If that ain't enough, vocalist Joe's singing is like that of Axl Rose being channelled by the Sun City Girls! Even if the rest of the album were total shit - which it ain't - the cost of this cd would still be well worth it for this song alone! "Part III" - an instrumental - picks up where II leaves off but slows the tempo down to a deathly pace, which makes it even heavier. This is the Sabbath influence on FTB writ large. Replete with an improv freakout before returning to the original riff and building into a frenzied crescendo. Needless to say, if you weren't bobbing your head at the beginning of the song, you will be by its end. "Part IV" could be considered FTB's "blues" number, with Joe picking up the harmonica instead of singing. But instead of churning out the expected twelve bar formula, FTB truncate the form and construct a minimalist jam around a short riff instead. "Part V" shows yet another facet of FTB's seemingly infinite potential with Hideki (?) playing some kick ass, spooky koto-like guitar overdubbed on top of some heavy psych. Damn! They could have done ten fucking albums around this schtick alone and probably never lost our interest... sigh... Absolutely, fucking recommended!!!!
Phoenix has made this reissue available on both vinyl and cd, the cd packaged in a cardstock gatefold, limited to 1000 numbered copies.
MPEG Stream: "Satori Part II"
MPEG Stream: "Satori Part III"

FLOWER TRAVELLIN' BAND Satori (Radioactive ) lp 27.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
An all time aQ fave finally available on vinyl!!!
This is an album (and a band) that are not celebrated nearly enough -- possibly out of misguided notions of their being another bad psych knock-off among the many crowding the record racks in the early seventies. But Japan's Flower Travellin' Band were no mere cheesy imitators of occidental rock 'n roll, they were in actual fact a full-fledged, pioneering tour de force of psychedelic progressive hard rock, equalling the krautrock heavies of the era. FTB can be compared favorably to Amon Duul's better efforts with their experimental meandering (think Yeti), and the best trancey spaceouts from Can. Yet there's never a sense that FTB lose track of their compositions no matter how far out they take a track. Perhaps because even more than these experimental Krautrockers, FTB's heavy (fucking ominously heavy) sound points to a major Sabbath, Purple, and Crimson influence. Released in 1971, Satori is the band's second and arguably best album. From the first screech/howl at the beginning of track one -- "Satori Part I" (the tracks on the album are all "Satori", parts I-V) -- from vocalist Joe, who inhabits a zone somewhere between Can's Damo Suzuki and Deep Purple's Ian Gillan, the album gets straight down to business. Joe's scream is followed by a foreboding bass, guitar and drum dirge that's straight up collision between Cream and Black Sabbath in which no one survives. It's got so much more teeth than either, it's not even funny, predating punk by a good many years. "Satori Part II" however is quintessential FTB Over a pounding tribal drumbeat, alternating between a buzzing sitar-esque guitar drone and a melody line that curls ripples and lilts like a plume of burning incense smoke, guitarist Hideki Ishima lays out one of the creepiest, coolest guitar leads ever. If that ain't enough, vocalist Joe's singing is like that of Axl Rose being channelled by the Sun City Girls! Even if the rest of the album were total shit -- which it ain't -- the cost of this cd would still be well worth it for this song alone! "Part III" -- an instrumental -- picks up where II leaves off but slows the tempo down to a deathly pace, which makes it even heavier. This is the Sabbath influence on FTB writ large. Replete with an improv freakout before returning to the original riff and building into a frenzied crescendo. Needless to say, if you weren't bobbing your head at the beginning of the song, you will be by its end. "Part IV" could be considered FTB's "blues" number, with Joe picking up the harmonica instead of singing. But instead of churning out the expected twelve bar formula, FTB truncate the form and construct a minimalist jam around a short riff instead. "Part V" shows yet another facet of FTB's seemingly infinite potential with Hideki (?) playing some kick ass, spooky koto-like guitar overdubbed on top of some heavy psych. Damn! They could have done ten fucking albums around this schtick alone and probably never lost our interest... sigh... Absolutely, fucking recommended!!!!
MPEG Stream: "Satori Part II"
MPEG Stream: "Satori Part III"

FURUSAWA, RYOJIRO & KAN MIKAMI Tin (PSF) cd 22.00

FUSHITSUSHA 1978: Eien no ho ga saki ni te o dashita no sa (PSF) cd 22.00
This new disc on PSF from Tokyo's legendary Fushitsusha isn't new at all -- it's a live recording from *twenty five years ago* that goes some way to explaining that legendary status of Keiji Haino's band. So what was Keiji Haino up to in 1978? Not disco! Current fans will have no trouble recognizing his distinctive guitar and vocal stylings. Indeed, the fact that this sounds so much like something Haino & co. could do now -- aside from a certain, slight crustiness to the recording, which adds to the ambiance rather than detracts -- makes us all the more eager for a new Fushitsusha recording that will push beyond, much in the way their last one "Origin's Hesitation" (which took the bold step of removing Haino's guitar from the mix) did. Back in '78 though, Haino's guitar was in full force, his sidemen being, well, sidemen. The two tracks on here (one 14, the other 35 minutes in length) don't stint on the feedback guitar skronk, nor on Haino's lonely, anguished vocal cries. The quieter parts are full of crinkly, piercing tones and drones -- which could be some laptop computer noise but ain't of course. It's his trusty guitar and amp in unholy communion. The rest of the band (a different line-up than more recent incarnations) backs him up ably, the bass plodding heavily or throwing in some jazzy figures, the drums quiet then crashing, the trio together all eventually building (of course) into storming dense chaotic catharsis. Wow. Not too many acts circa '78 could have been bringing the noise like this. So, as the earliest ever released Fushitsusha recording, this cd is gonna be essential for fans who want to check 'em out back at the beginning -- Haino formed the band that very year. And as we said, his trademark style is already quite present, though some stuff he plays on here does sound a bit different from what you'd expect from him these days -- there's some 'no-wave' ish surprise bits that maybe sound more like Rudoph Grey, for instance. One for connoisseurs to debate!
MPEG Stream: "track 1"

FUSHITSUSHA 1991.9.26 (PSF) dvd 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This here dvd is pretty much a must for all fans of what might be the world's most intense, original free-rock band. The dark lord of Tokyo psych Keiji Haino and his power trio Fushitsusha were captured on film performing live in Tokyo at the La Mama Club way back on September 26th, 1991. Yes, the same year Fushitsusha released their first cd document, the untitled monumental masterpiece known to fans as Live II or Double Live (PSF 15/16), a true classic of avant-heaviness. They've made a great many great records since then, but it's hard to argue that they ever really topped the output of this era...
So of course it's great that this concert was preserved for posterity (they were opening for John Zorn's Painkiller, who were recording the live album Rituals, on which Haino guests) and is finally now being issued on dvd (it was previously available from PSF as a VHS video cassette, and is Fushitsusha's only official video release). Not much point in further description, really -- we figure this one's for Fushitsusha fans and if you're one, you want this. 53 minutes, all regions.

FUSHITSUSHA A Death Never To Be Complete (Tokuma) cd 26.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Two new studio albums from black-clad guitar maestro Keiji Haino and band. Both are excellent, edge-of-the-void psych-noise documents in keeping with the Fushitsha legend, recorded in England.

FUSHITSUSHA A Little Longer Thus (Tokuma) cd 26.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

FUSHITSUSHA Allegorical Misunderstanding (Avant) cd 32.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Ok, just like the gone-in-a-flash handful of Keiji Haino's So, Black Is Myself's we listed a few weeks ago, here's another out of print Haino related cd that we have but THREE copies of, that we found hidden in a dusty corner of the same local distributor's warehouse. So, we're not gonna go all out reviewing it, probably either you know you need a copy of this, or you don't, and if you do, act fast! For the record, though, it's the very first (and still one of the only) *studio* recordings by the Japanese guitarist's (former) band Fushitsusha, who were a darkly psychedelic, improvising "free-rock" trio unlike any other. This album, released in 1993, is a particularly unique item in their discography for sure, perhaps due to being a studio recording, this is a bit different from some other Fushitsusha efforts, relying less on amplified distortion and feedback. Instead, it's remarkably clean, quiet and controlled (relatively speaking, this is still seasick miasmic murk, really!), the 10 tracks here, each titled "Magic", I through X, being precisely structured, if counterintuitive, compositions, working their trance-inducing magic via tense, tightly wound repetition, at the edges of which you may hear Haino's familiar angst-filled vocalizations.
'Twas one of the earliest releases on John Zorn's Japan-based label Avant (forerunner to Tzadik), hence the import pricing. While old, these are still "new" copies, complete with obi strip.
MPEG Stream: "Magic II"
MPEG Stream: "Magic IX"

FUSHITSUSHA Gold Blood (Charnel Music) cd 12.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Keiji Haino's legendary black-clad psychrock trio, live in San Francisco. Seeing 'em live was quite a rush and this is the next best thing if you turn it up loud and stick your head as close to the inside of your stereo speakers as you can.

FUSHITSUSHA Hikari To Nazukeyo (Heartfast) cd 29.00
Hail, the return of Japanese psych shaman Keiji Haino's legendary psychedelic free rock unit, Fushitsusha!
We'll dispense with doing a lengthy background essay, as pretty much anyone who would purchase a $29 import cd by Fushitsusha already knows all about the band; in fact we probably know exactly who you are. Not that we don't want to spread the gospel of Fushitsusha far and wide, it's just that there's some more affordable introductions that could be made. But, even our fellow fanclub members probably want to know if this gets the thumbs up from us. Well, of course it does! But some further attempt at description might help.
For a couple reasons, we were quite surprised (and pleased!) when this appeared. We had thought that Haino was done forever with Fushitsusha, actually. There hadn't been a new Fushitsusha release for over ten years (and on the last one, he didn't even play guitar), and it seemed that his 'blues band' Seijaku, and also his trio recordings with Jim O'Rourke and Oren Ambarchi, were what was gonna have to fill the void. Those were great, but nothing knows the 'void' like the true Fushitsusha... Also never thought we'd see a Fushitsusha release with a cover that wasn't mostly black, or at least, purple - but this handsome digipack is a rather lovely blueish green, with metallic silver details, and silver inside and on the obi. Does this shocking new color scheme herald other big changes in the Fushitsusha 'formula' too? Well, let's see...
First off, we noted that this cd consists of seven tracks, in just 35 minutes. Good grief, on a lot of other Fushitsusha albums, a single song could last 35 minutes or more, and maybe even continue over onto a second disc! But here, the longest track is a relatively brief 7:04, with most of 'em clocking in at closer to 3 or 4 minutes. But, radio-friendly singles they ain't! Instead, they're intense, concentrated doses of Haino & Co.'s unique reinventions of rock n' roll's most primal urges, rock that's been deconstructed/destructed...
The first track, features very prominent bass, played by Mitsuru Nasuno (also of Seijaku, Korekyojinn, Altered States, Ground Zero, Sanhedolin/Sanhedrin, etc.). This repeating, slightly mutating bass riff loops as endlessly as possible for the song's 3:35 duration, accompanied by the stumbling, staggering drummage of longtime Fushitsusha percussionist Ikuro Takahashi (also of LSD March, Kousokuya, and many other projects). Haino isn't playing guitar at all, just singing, in his trademark throat-torn shriek. What? No guitar? Again? But don't worry, it's just a fakeout, he doesn't keep us waiting long, starting with track two, his sweet stabbing sheets of sound come crashing down, Haino's guitar & amp in full effect. Nasuno's bass burble continues, very upfront, but Haino's gorgeously noisy guitar wrangling takes crucial center stage. And the Fushitsusha (blackest of black) magic happens. About halfway into this track, this listener's pulse rate went way up... And so it goes, some songs taking sharp turns you'll need your sealegs for, the disc's relatively short running time crammed with stormy spazzed out improvs, bloodshivering blowouts, and some almost no wavey numbers, again not destined for the hit parade, except on another plane where the likes of the Dead C and Starfuckers and Last Exit are regular Grammy winners.
'Nuff said? No doubt.
MPEG Stream: "track 1"
MPEG Stream: "track 5"
MPEG Stream: "track 7"

FUSHITSUSHA I Saw It! That Which Before I Could Only Sense... (Paratactile) 2cd 27.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"The evasive sense of being momentarily glimpsed in 'I Saw It!..." is musically reconfigured as a blasted Romantic landscape, where drummer Ikuro Takahashi's painstakingly amassed beat towers endlessly tumble into ruin and longstanding bassist Yasushi Ozawa's rollered slabs of impacted noise dissolve in the blackness raining down from Keiji Haino's nightsky guitar, which paradoxically seals the piece at the moment of (un)becoming eternity" - Biba Kopf, one of the many origins of Fushitsusha / Keiji Haino poetic hyperbole.

FUSHITSUSHA Live I (PSF) 2cd 32.00
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At last, the long out-of-print-on-vinyl debut double live set by Keiji Haino's Fushitsusha is now available on cd! If you've already got the essential Live II, you'll no doubt be drooling for this, & you'll know what to expect: beautiful black-on-black paper packaging; wild, dark music that takes improv psych guitar to the outer limits...

FUSHITSUSHA Live II (PSF) 2cd 32.00
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This, the first compact disc documentation of Japanese dark psych guitarist Keiji Haino's incredible out-rock combo Fushitsusha, is nothing short of essential. Highest recommendation.

FUSHITSUSHA Mabushii Itazura Na Inori (Heartfast) cd 29.00
Happy days for fans of Fushitsusha! Japanese guitarist and vocalist Keiji Haino's legendary "out-rock" unit is back in action, after a long hiatus. First, a few months back, in the spring, there was the unexpected appearance of a new Fushitsusha cd, Hikari To Nazukeyo, with Mitsuru Nasuno on bass and Ikuro Takahashi on drums. And now, already, before the fall, a follow up, from the same lineup, on the same label! (And that's not to mention the several other excellent Fushitsusha-like improv trio releases that Haino's done recently with drummer Oren Ambarchi and either Jim O'Rourke or Stephen O'Malley on bass.) Yep, happy days indeed. This new disc from Fushitsusha, Mabushii Itazura Na Inori, pretty much takes up where the previous one left off. It even looks quite similar, the digipack cover's color scheme a darker, bluer blue mottled with metallic silver. Beautiful. And again, it consists of several relatively short tracks, by Fushitsusha standards, six of them in 55 minutes.
The five minute plus opening cut is a moody, bass-heavy intro to the darkness of this disc, featuring haunting vocals from Haino that are far more gentle than his usual yelps can beÉ it reminds us a bit of the final track on the Nazoranai disc he did with Ambarchi and O'Malley. This one gets into a fantastic, deep, droning, monk-like moan-zone (with perhaps overdubs involved??) that makes what comes next seem even more striking and extreme - the second track on the disc being an eleven minute session of stark skronk. The rhythm section traffics in tumbling, disjointed skitter, underpinned by thumping thudding bass. Haino hovers close to the mic, unburdening his soul in sudden brief outbursts, accompanied by his scrabbling, stab-in-the-heart electric guitar-shardsÉ it builds and builds with subtlety; initially the jarring blurts and blasts of distortion slice into and out of near silence, but eventually the elements come closer and closer together in a dense web of claustrophobic, controlled chaos. 'Tis tangled, tweaked, terror-inducing. Whew! And that's just track two, there's plenty more in store on the rest of the disc, following the same sort of hallucinatory, counter-intuitive "free rock" (that's more free, than rock) style, one that's seemingly all about attack and decay. Some of this is Fushitsusha at their most Starfuckers-ish, so abstract and intense and precise, all encompassing, indescribable, and a little bit insane. And it's emotionally effecting via the sheer sonics alone, without any Japanese-to-English translation of Haino's whisper-to-a-scream lyrics.
Once again, we won't overdo it with the exposition, 'cause you probably know if you want this (like, if you already own Hikari To Nazkeyo). The uninitiated, we won't expect to get into the unique avantgarde wonders of Haino & Fushitsusha via a $29 import disc - not when there's some other, more affordable entry points, just ask us. But fans, we've got what you want...
MPEG Stream: "track 1"
MPEG Stream: "track 2"
MPEG Stream: "track 4"

FUSHITSUSHA Origin's Hesitation (PSF) cd 17.98
Keiji Haino and his psychedelic power trio Fushitsusha have long made some of Japan's heaviest, darkest, most fucked up sounds. They're a legendary "free rock" outfit, up there with the Dead C, Skullflower and few others. They're a unique band that with this new disc could be said to have gotten even "uniquer" (if only that wasn't such bad English).
At their last San Francisco show a few years back, Haino and Fushitsusha's drummer had an "epsiode" that resulted in, upon his return to Japan, the drummer's retirement from music! Rather than drafting in a new drummer, Haino and bassist Ozawa decided to remain a duo, with Haino taking over the drumming duties. This is the first recording by this new, unusual, reduced Fushitsusha line-up. Unusual because Haino's monstrous wall-of-feedback guitar was probably the reason most people listen to the band in the first place. Well too bad, meet the new, stripped-down, guitarless Fushitsusha!
Origin's Hesitation starts off with Haino in a maniacal percussion frenzy, as if he'd always wanted to be the drummer in Fushitsusha and is now just so excited to be behind the kit he can't help but try to play all the drums at once. But after the first track, he calms down a bit with the drumming, putting more of his energy into what must rank as some of his most dramatic, tortured vocals ever. And that's saying a lot. These cries and utterances are accompanied by sparse but deliberate drum and bass hits, using space and silence. Both Haino and Ozawa use live electronics to loop their instruments, but this is a lot more primitive sounding than most "sampler" utilizing music!
You might have to already be a fan of Haino/Fushitsusha to get into this -- at least, it's probably not the place for novices to start. Very anguished, very abstract. The heavy guitar sounds that linked Fushitsusha's past work to the rock music of Blue Cheer or Crazy Horse are of course gone, but this is still "heavy" in an emotional sense. And certainly "fucked up."
So, after reading all the above, you probably still want to know "is it any good?" Well, Andee of course hates it, as he does pretty much any release where Haino opens his mouth. Allan on the other hand thinks this is pretty cool, even though he does prefer Fushitsusha with guitar. But he likes contrary, counter-intuitive rock bands like US Maple and Starfuckers, which in some ways this echoes.
Handsomely packaged, as always with PSF Fushitsusha releases, with cd and booklet in a black paper mini-gatefold sleeve. Smells good!
RealAudio clip: "track 1"
RealAudio clip: "track 4"

FUSHITSUSHA Pathetique (PSF) cd 16.98
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Second studio recording from the Tokyo trio, led by the self-proclaimed king of darkness, Keiji Haino. Monstrous, in-the-red guitar destruction only Haino can deliver. Recommended as a starter for those interested in the mysterious world of Fushitsusha.

FUSHITSUSHA The Caution Appears (Les Disques du Soleil et de l'Acier) cd 16.98
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Housed in a handsome (black!) foldout "digipak" (oh this ugly new jargon), this is heavy duty gtr noise sans vocals from Keji Haino and Co.

FUSHITSUSHA The Time Is Nigh (Tokuma) cd 26.00
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FUSHITSUSHA The Wisdom Prepared (Tokuma) cd 26.00
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GALAX Never Ending Space Trackin' (aRCHIVE) cd 13.98
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It's rare that we're ever able to get stuff on aRCHIVE back in. That stuff flies out of here and then seems to go straight out of print. So we leapt at the chance to get a little handful of these back in. Already out of print, last copies ever...
A glorious spaced out druggy FX drenched sonic trip to the outer reaches of the galaxy from the aRCHIVE label (Nadja, Goslings, Astral Traveling Unity, Alasehir, Jack Rose, Khanate, Keiji Haino, LSD-March, Growing, Bardo Pond). The perpetrator of said sonic space trip is Hiroshi Hasagawa, who spends most of his time doing similarly druggy business in C.C.C.C. and Astral Traveling Unity, on synth and ring modulator, and Keichi Miyashita (from Mandog) on guitar and tape echo. Needless to say, everyone who bought that ATU on aRCHIVE is definitely gonna want this....
Three extended improvised freaked out ultra mega blown out drifting space jams. Swirling clouds of whoosh and bleep and bloop and shimmer and schhhhhhhhwwwwwwwwooooooooooooooooossssssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhh. Peppered with glistening sonic sparkles, a sky full of blinking twinkling melodic shards. Very laid back and meditative at times, a pulsing throbbing hypnotic krautrock like Tangerine Dream or Popol Vuh, but occasionally exploding into full on blistering acid fried psychedelic chaos. If you loved that Astral Traveling Unity, or Space Machine, or the above mentioned krautrockers or Acid Mothers Temple at their most unhinged and free (one track even features AMT's Hiroshi Higashi on extra synth) then this will surely hit the spot.
Like all aRCHIVE releases, beautifully packaged, this time a glossy psychedelic 6 panel fold out sleeve with the cd affixed to the inside.
LIMITED TO 600 COPIES.
MPEG Stream: "Acid Forest in the Space Mountain"
MPEG Stream: "Mysterious Smile of a Buddhist Image"

GALLHAMMER Ill Innocence (Peaceville) 2lp 28.00
NOW ON VINYL! We like this band so much, Allan ordered a Gallhammer poster all the way from England for Andee's Christmas present... They're totally deserving of the deluxe double gatefold import vinyl treatment. This is their most recent album, here's the review of the cd version when we first listed it last year:
Ok, hopefully all of you into dooooooooooooooooom have heeded our recommendations in the past ("best band EVER" we may have said, in a moment of infatuation) and are already well acquainted with this cult Japanese band who exude a magnificently miserable mixture of slow, atmospheric doominess and crusty black metal thrashing, inspired by the likes of Celtic Frost/Hellhammer (natch), Amebix, and Corrupted. This is their 2nd full-length studio album, following 2004's Gloomy Lights debut and last year's The Dawn Of Gallhammer demos n' live cd+dvd collection. That's the one where we busted out the Simpsons Comic Book Guy impersonation in our review, but it's this album that really seals the deal, when it comes to Gallhammer's position in the pantheon of most depressive doom bands ever, anyway. They're up there, no doubt about it, as is proved by this collection of ten tracks, each one of 'em often (but not always) a slow-motion trudge through the depths of emotional bleakness in the form of monotonously massive low-end guitar riffage, wretched cookie monster screams, and simple, gloomy melodies. Several of the song titles are quite indicative of their sound: "Long Scary Dream", "SLOG", "Ripper In The Gloom"... Many of these varied tracks feature a dynamic combination of knock-you-over-with-a-feather soft n' sad prettiness setting you up for some smash-you-with-a-hammer heaviness, or even manage both at the same time. It's the former element, this band's almost post-rock instrumental mesmeric moodiness, for which we think Gallhammer should be best noted. Not that it has any of post-rock's usual complexity, this is raw and primal and ritualistic, perfectly encapsulated by the way the stark, repetitive slowcore acoustic guitar part at the start of "Ripper In The Gloom" suddenly, shockingly gives way to a full-on punk rock assault.
It also seems possible that Gallhammer, along with their interest in underground '80s doom-crust, also shares some of the Velvet Underground fixation displayed by their contemporaries from the Japanese psych-rock scene, like LSD-march and Doodles. Heck, track one, the nearly eight minute "At The Onset Of The Age Of Despair" seems to have echoes of VU's "Venus In Furs"... If one of Gallhammer's songs wound up on a PSF Tokyo Flashback comp someday we'd be surprised, yes, but only a little. Though it sure wouldn't be a track like "Killed By The Queen" or "Blind My Eyes", two of the punked out, filthy metal blitzes on here, the latter of which throws in some uncharacteristic Melt-Banana style yelping, dogwhistle vocals along with the usual guttural grunting and growling.
Hey, we made it all the way to the end of this review without mentioning Gallhammer's major non-musical selling point... we said they're a "cult" band above, but were tempted to say "cute", as this trio just happen to all be attractive young Japanese ladies, their looks further enhanced by the tasteful application of gothy corpsepaint makeup. No this fact doesn't make Gallhammer's music sound any better (or worse) but it's, um, interesting. Happily, though, Peaceville isn't using Gallhammer's sex appeal to sell this album, there's not even any pictures of the band at all included in this classy-lookin' white-and-silver package. Recommended nonetheless!
MPEG Stream: "SLOG"
MPEG Stream: "Killed By The Queen"
MPEG Stream: "Ripper In The Gloom"

GALLHAMMER The End (Peaceville) cd 17.98
This ultra kvlt (and, we must admit, quite kvte!) all-girl Japanese band who play the blackened "metal of death" in a most dirgey and crusty stylee, inspired by (no duh) '80s death/doom pioneers Hellhammer, have returned after 4 years with a new album - titled with some finality The End, though let's hope it ain't. If you're an AQ customer with a pulse, at all into the doomy and dank, you're probably already a Gallhammer fan and are 'adding to cart' as we speak. If at all hesitant, the abysmal buzz and clank of going nowhere not so fast opener "The End" ought to convince you! With that title track out of the way, the Gallhammer gals (now the duo of bassist/vocalist Vivian Slaughter & drummer Risa Reaper, former guitarist Mika Penetrator having left after 2007's Ill Innocence) pick up the pace a bit on the next even more brutal number "Rubbish CG202" (one of several weird, partly numeric song titles on the album, btw), and vary between a flashing stroboscopic throb and molasses creepy crawl throughout this disc, the rhythms more a function of fluctuation in the overlaying distortion field than anything else. The vokills vary too, from rasping guttural anguish to some disturbing yelps (on "Aberration") and even almost actual singing (on "Sober").
The truth is, Gallhammer aren't really so much a metal band, as they are purveyors of nihilistic noise rock, having as much or more in common with the likes of Kevin Drumm, Wolf Eyes, Prurient, Sister Iodine, Aufgehoben No Process, Brainbombs, etc. as they do with the aforementioned Hellhammer, and other old school metal/punk artists whose T-shirts they're often seen wearing, like Amebix. The final cut, the ten+ minute "108=7/T-NA" is perhaps the weirdest, most WTF?, featuring some frightening saxophone textures, played by Ms. Slaughter... but don't worry, this is neither smooth nor jazz!! Just more grinding terror, the end of The End going to the utter extreme of experimental yet primitive doomdrone metal. Damn. We're falling in love with Gallhammer all over again.
MPEG Stream: "The End"
MPEG Stream: "Rubbish CG 202"
MPEG Stream: "Aberration"

GARADAMA II (Fiend's Shrine) cd 21.00
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A couple years ago, all the Boris / Corrupted / Eyehategod / Zeni Geva fans here at AQ were pleased to discover the debut cd from this band Garadama, released on the Osaka based, eclectic noise/psych label Alchemy. Super heavy riffage, distorted fuzzed out walls of DOOOOM guitar, crashing into your brain with the force of a frantic fiend (as per their song "A Fiend Is Living In My Brain"). Great stuff for everyone into the HEAVY (and no surprise, seeing as how the band featured the former singer/guitarist from the very Sabbatherian outfit Subvert Blaze). So, we've been waiting, and had begun to wonder what had happened to them. Well, suddenly and thankfully, we've got import copies of their brand new second album, as you can tell by the title. Again it's an onslaught of monster dirge crunch distorto sludge, swinging from Sabbathy groove to spooky, droning ambience... plus a dose of that special Japanese weirdness we love. Tracks like "Dogma" parts 1 and 2 are ultra-spooky and almost black metal, while the band display their rockin' side on the likes of the riffy "Who Does Try To Kill A Man?".
The album is not over-long, but their doom is deep, and we're sure Garadama would hold their own in any contest with countryfolk Green Machine and Boris... We should mention also that the nasally strangled doom vocals and the twistedness of their heaviness here reminds Andee of old faves Alice Donut! Recommended, doom fanatics.
MPEG Stream: "Dragon's Shrine"
MPEG Stream: "Soliloquy"

GASENETA Sooner Or Later (PSF) cd 17.98
Not remotely new (the catalog number for this is PSF-17, it was released some years ago) but something that we thought we'd get a few of and list 'cause we were doing an order with the PSF label in Tokyo and hadn't ever reviewed this cult classic before. Anyone into the speedfreak psychedelic acid punk of flagship PSF band High Rise (or Mainliner, or Musica Transonic, etc.) ought to check out Gaseneta, a Japanese combo from the late '70s who helped pioneer that sound (and were later covered by High Rise). This disc contains archival recordings mostly from 1978, all of 'em ultra distorted, in-the-red recordings of a band simply destroying, sonically wrecking the place. We mean, if you thought Boris kicked out the noisy jams on Pink... well this is a whole 'nother kettle of raw fish of course, way punker than Pink, but of potential interest to Boris fans wanting to check out their antecedents. There's eleven energetic tracks on Sooner Or Later, bursting with skronky guitar solos (Black Flag style) and the spittle of guttural vox, backed by urgent bashing rhythms. Four of 'em are live recordings, which are especially lo-fi but since you should be playing this LOUD anyway that just adds to the effect. Way cool.
MPEG Stream: "track 1"
MPEG Stream: "track 3"

GAUZE Fuckheads / Equalizing Distort lp 17.98
Some of us at aQ have been going through a little bit of a Japanese crust phase, listening to lots of Lip Cream, Gloom, Confuse, GISM and of course Gauze, when what should show up but this lp reissue of both of Gauze's first two records, their 1984 debut 12" ep Fuckheads, and the 1986 follow up Equalizing Distort. Both brimming with furious chaotic metallic crust punk fury, grinding buzzing guitars, strange flanged riffage, all sorts of sound effects, seriously fucked up almost experimental production, wild tribal drumming, yelped vox, thick super distorted bass, weird squiggly atonal leads, all wound into churning, pounding blasts of frantic hardcore mayhem, with shouted almost sing along choruses ("THRASH THRASH THRASH") and some downright poppiness popping up here and there. But for the most part, this is some fierce as fuck frenzied Japanese hardcore crust punk genius, that sounds just as good now as it did nearly three decades ago!!
Includes a two sided 12" x 12" insert, photos on one side, a lyric sheer, in both English and Japanese on the other.
MPEG Stream: "Love Song"
MPEG Stream: "Power"
MPEG Stream: "Fuckhead"
MPEG Stream: "Pressing On"
MPEG Stream: "Crash The Pose"

GEDO s/t (Erebus) cd 21.00
Another one of the Japrocksampler's Top 50 makes it to cd, this reissue via the same label who brought us Melting Glass Box a little while back. Unlike the more gentle folk-psych of MGB, power trio Gedo were counter-cultural hard rockers, beloved of bikers. As aficionados of both '70s heaviness and Japanese psych, we've been curious to hear 'em for a long time, never finding a complete album reissued until now. This, their 1973 debut, is a live record that finds 'em kicking out the jams in front of an appreciative festival audience, with all their clapping, cheering and laughter kept intact, none of it edited out. In fact, tracks 4 and 11 are ALL applause. How'd they get the crowd so excited? Well, Gedo mainly deal in an energetic brand of hectic hard rock action, with a few surprising mellow, melodic, melancholic detours (such as track 12, "Tender Betrayal"). They're sort of a Japanese mixture, maybe, of Steppenwolf and the Pink Fairies, some Eddie Cochran too, Gedo keeping it simple stupid, with a clear '50s rock n' roll lineage (which you can hear most overtly on the excellently-titled track "Rock 'n' Roll Stupid"). With big distorted riffs, raucous vocals, and even the sound of revving motorcycle engines (comprising the album's final track, as Gedo perhaps leaving the stage to go and recreate the cover of the first Flower Travellin Band album), this is proto-metal and/or proto-punk (we could imagine kids pogoing to a lot of this). Definitely "proto", as in raw.
Not understanding the Japanese language, let alone being a participant in the counterculture scene within which Gedo flourished, means you're not gonna "get" some of this. On the other hand, "getting" Gedo on such frantic tracks as "Scent" is not an issue!
This limited edition digipack reish comes with helpful liner notes in English, revealing that Gedo once upon a time not only jammed with members of Mountain and the New York Dolls, but also even played a concert with the cast of (the stage production of?) the Rocky Horror Picture Show!
MPEG Stream: "Scent"
MPEG Stream: "Don't Run Away"

GENDAI SOKKYO s/t (PSF) cd 22.00

GENTLE, JENNIFER AND KAWABATA MAKOTO The Wrong Cage (SillyBoy) cd 12.98
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With the sheer number of releases coming from the Kawabata Makoto / Acid Mothers Temple camp, we tend to get a little jaded. But the fact remains that if any of these discs was presented to us as being by a new band, we'd be pretty excited. Such is the case with this one, which IS a new band that we're not familiar with -- an Italian psych/pop outfit with the odd name of Jennifer Gentle -- simply teaming up with hairy Japanese acid guitar guru Kawabata for a fine display of out-there instrumental interaction. Recorded live this past year, this disc includes Kawabata-added versions of two JG songs, both sprawling 12 and 14 minute long psych epics w/ guitars, keys, electronic effects, drums, and bass all over the place. Between these two tracks you get six or so minutes of Kawabata scraping and droning away solo at his Indian sarongi, a nice if eerie respite from the energetic electric Pipes of Pan rituals he enacts with the Jennifer Gentle people. A collaboration not to be overlooked by AMT fans, or anyone into heavy, claustrophobic freakout jams of almost occult power. Now we're really curious to hear JG's prior recordings, if any!
RealAudio clip: "Couple In Bed By A Green Flashing Light"

GEROGERIGEGEGE None Friendly (Mink) cd 17.98
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Album number 132 (or something close to that) from Japanese noise musician / sound artist Juntaro Yamanouchi. Gerogerigegege (loosely translated as simultaneous vomit-diarhhea, then the supposed sound of such a catastrophic gastrointestinal event) has gone through all sorts of sonic incarnations, noisy splatter punk, bombastic japanoise, experimental musique concrete, with some of those incarnations featuring the added bonus of mic-ed masturbating, courtesy of a geriatric 'public' masturbator befriended by Juntaro. On 'None Friendly' (actually recorded in 1987), he tackles THE DRONE and it's quite a listen. Deep and sonorous, lush and mesmerising. I was convinced it was a synthesizer until I noticed on the sleeve, that it specifically points out that there was 'No synthesizer used.' So what the sound source actually is remains a mystery although a source close to the man thinks it just may be a guitar tuner (?). But maybe it -is- processed masturbating. I mean, I hope it is. But either way, this is a fantastic record. One extended buzzing and humming, slowly developing hypnotic drone. Really great.

GEROGERIGEGEGE, THE Hell Driver (Dirter Promotions) cd 16.98
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Of all the (in)famous Japanese noise bands, The Gerogerigegege might be the most extreme and unusual. Always super difficult, whether indulging in hardcore spazzrock or destroying piles of 45s in a concept-art conflagration, The Gerogerigegege are also notable for the often audible presence of a middle-aged masturbating man! The recordings on this new cd date from 1992 to 1996, and the material here ranges from what sounds like field recordings in a karaoke bar to near-ambient piano improv to live electronic drones n' tones. Strangely mellow and subdued but nonetheless intriguing.

GHOST Guru in the Echo (Now Sound) 7" 3.50
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Japan's premier psych-folk outfit produces another amazing domestic 7". One song is from 1989; the other is from 1994, another version of a piece from the first record; said new recording sounds utterly fresh and rich and features a blazing, screeching guitar solo from White Heaven's Michio Kurihara.