Music from Japan

First Volume of a three CD project. Ground Zero makes a monster structure that starts screaming and gets more and more intense and massive until you don't imagine there is anywhere else to go. Then it gets bigger. A classic.

Otomo Yoshihide and frightening band deconstruct and rebuild the already sampled and reconstructed 'Peking Opera' of Heiner Goebbels and Alfred Harth. In conception, execution and in plain terms of aural excitement and intelligence, this is hard t…

Just when you thought it would be safe... Ground Zero are back with a CD of extraordinary covers, some are massive, others strange, all add something to their originals and were selected because of their importance to founder Otomo Yoshihide's per…

Remblandt Assemblage was recorded and mixed at home in 1980 and originally released on cassette the following year on own label. For the recording of this tape Masami used wide range of instruments: tapes, prepared acoustic guitar, tabla, junk pe…

Bamboo presents the first vinyl release of France Demo Tapes. "This just might be the single greatest side of OTT psych/noise guitar oblivion ever put to disc from the most legendary Japanese underground group of all time, Les Rallizes Denudes: the m…

Constructed over the period of two years via mail collaboration this is a great and forceful collaboration between two artists that each have made a name for themselves with their unique approach to making sound. KKNULL is a master of feedback studie…

LP version. Arashi presents Semikujira. Arashi is: Akira Sakata - alto saxophone, clarinet, voice; Johan Berthling - double bass; Paal Nilssen-Love - drums & percussion. The Wire about Arashi (TROST 130CD/LP), the trio's first release: "there are mom…

Merzbow stands as the most important artist in noise music. The moniker of Japanese Masami Akita was born in Tokyo in 1979. Inspired by Dadaism and Surrealism, Akita took the name for his project from German artist Kurt Schwitters' pre-war architectu…

First ever re-issue Lp re-issue of this classic Merzbow recording originally released on Chaos. Originally issued in 1983 in Lp format by Chaos in Japan. Masami Akita is aided here by Kiyoshi Mizutani. Classic old school junk noise for an intense and…

Akira Sakata, a legendary Japanese jazz musician active since the early '70s (Yosuke Yamashita Trio,Akira Sakata Trio) and a marine biologist, has toured and recorded with The Thing, Jim O'Rourke, Bill Laswell, Merzbow, Chikamorachi, et al. The Tale …

Recorded at NHK-604-Studio on Nov & Dec 1991 Musicians: Akira Sakata,Tamai Toyooka,Asuka Kaneko, Kyoko Kuroda,Hiroshi Yoshino,Yu Fujii  Kiyohiko Semba,Atuy,Fusae Doi, Mishio Ogawa,Shigeri Kitsu,Norihiko Yamanuki.

Repressed. Les Rallizes Dénudés are one of the earliest and most revolutionary Japanese psychedelic rock bands, and existed off and on through four decades. The band formed in November of 1967 at Kyoto University, inspired by Exploding Plastic Inevit…

Yes, you’re reading this correctly. A legit, non-bootleg vinyl reissue of one of the holy grails of fourth-world avant-ambient synthesis, and believe it or not, this was a Record Store Day release in Japan this year.  Originally released a few mo…

Masahiko Satoh’s fourth album is a duet with German pianist and composer Wolfgang Dauner. Dauner is one of very early European avant-garde jazz pianists, and he recorded the first free jazz album in Germany back in 1964. Dauner played with Eberhard W…

2014 repress. The Flower Travellin' Band's first musical outing, Challenge, was released in 1970 and was essentially a series of covers of Cream, Hendrix, Big Brother andJefferson Airplane material. However, Satori appeared a year later and forever c…

Atsusaku is the collaborative output of Gareth Davis (Oiseaux Tempete, Scanner, Elliott Sharp, Machinefabriek etc) and Japanese noise mastermind Masami Akita aka Merzbow. A massive wall of sound over two tracks that moves from the shifting low-end st…

2026 Repress. Guitarist Masayuki "Jojo" Takayanagi (1932-1991) was a towering leader in the Japanese jazz world. His first influence was Lennie Tristano, but through the 1960s and 1970s he explored and pushed the boundaries in free form jazz, leading…

One of the most compelling albums Steve Lacy recorded during the 80s – a spare set of duets with Japanese percussionist Masahiko Togashi, who really helps shape Steve's style on the record! Togashi approaches his instruments with a very introspective…

Jinya Disc presents Three Improvised Variations On a Theme of Qadhafi. A live recording board that includes live performances of improvisation by Action Direct, which was performed on the theme of "personal image" of Muanmar al-Gaddafi rather than id…

Mass Hysterism: In Another Situation, a 1983 record by the late Japanese noise-guitar hellion Masayuki Takayanagi (1932–1991) is one of those albums that always going to be lurking in my attic, so to speak. I can put it away for a while, but it never…