The Dark Revolution Collective was the first musical group formed by Kawabata Makoto, who has since earned considerable notoriety in the incredibly prolific Acid Mother's Temple. Recorded back in 1978, Kawabata with Tetsushi Kawagishi and Yasuo Iwaki had no instruments, but managed to borrow a synthesizer and acquired some equipment from their high school science laboratory to use as percussion. The unwavering rhythmic clatter from the multiple percussionists, hammering away at PVC pipes, glass beakers, and metal pots with an assortment of cutlery, sound somewhat like a human powered version of Joe Jones' solar umbrellas and automated percussive devices. The first edition of these recordings was a super limited cassette published by R.E.P. in the '80s and more recently had been issued in the equally limited 10 CD-R box set of Kawabata's early works. The Dark Revolution Collective now gets reissued as a beautiful picture disc courtesy of the Italian label Qbico, which supposedly had been founded specifically to release a handful of early Kawabata recordings.
While these recordings are not as good as the recent flurry of AMT activities, you should realise that the mean age of the Dark Revolution Collective at the time of this recording was 13!!! Some of the Acid Mothers Temple freaks here think it's worth it, yet also some of us think you could save your money and get Andee's upcoming tUMULt label AMT picture disc "41st Century Splendid Man" instead. (Aquarius)