Hose
Hose was formed at the end of last century as an idea of Taku Unami with Toshihiro Koike, Masafumi Ezaki, who had also been working in the field of improvised music, and their friends Reiji Hattori and Tomoya Izumi who had never played music before. In the beginning, the group was influenced by Genesis, Roswell Rudd Trio, Brujeria, Art Bears, Karate Bakabon, Hoburakin, Aburadako etc. though these influences were soon to be forgotten. Hose disbanded in 2003 when their music had developed into 'ea…
Hirocosmos
Top quality eye-popping reissue housed in hard cover mini-LP style gatefold sleeve complete with obi and liners of this rare 3rd album by psychedelic maverick Hiro Yanagida. Another totally vanished and ear bleedingly rare gem out of Japan's psychedelic history, this was Hiro Yanagida's (ex Apryl Fool, Food Brain, Sato Masahiko & Soundbreakers, Floral, etc) second solo album released in 1973. Original copies hardly ever surface anymore so this reissue is more than a welcome feast. The music is a…
Sho o Suteyo, Machi e Deyou
Reissued in 2003 by Show Boat/Sky Station - SWAX-62, the English title for this album is: Throw Away The Books, Let's Go Out on the Street and is subtitled: A High-Teen Symphony. There is a film soundtrack of the same title, but this recording contains entirely different material from the soundtrack. This album is based live recording of Tenjo Sajiki's 7th performance Sho o Suteyo ,Machi e Deyou at Asagaya Kokaido in October 1970. To add some studio workings, the performance was reconstructed an…
Ensemble Cathode
Taku Sugimoto: electric guitar, Tetuzi Akiyama: turntable without records, contact microphones, Yasuhiro Yoshigaki: waterphone, Kumiko Takara: snare drum, Masahiro Uemura: bells, Ami Yoshida: voice, Itoken: crotales, Mari Furuta: snare drum, Yoshimitsu Ichiraku: cymbal with bow, Sachiko M: sine waves, contact microphone, Yoko Nishi: prepared 17-string koto, Andrea Neumann: inside piano, Yoshihide Otomo: turntable. This album was recorded intermittently between May 2001 and March 2002. Most of th…
13 Japanese Birds Vol. 1
Opening up Merzbow's new 13-disc series of monthly releases themed around Japanese birds, Suzume gets underway with even more of a bang than the usual Merzbow fare, combining those familiar, expertly wrought noise emissions with wild, flailing drums. The first track, 'Red Bird Of Summer Part 1' lasts some twenty minutes, dishing out aural punishment at every conceivable frequency. After a while it becomes apparent that for better or worse, the drumming somehow detracts from the intensity of the …
I Know A Chord Buried Into The Ground And A Tongue On A Cloud
Self-released Japan-only album from the higher-mind duo of Shizuo Uchida and Hirotomo Hasegawa aka Hasegawa-Shiuzo. Previous releases on PSF and Tiliqua have orbited the O-mind with alla the force of an octopus in zero gravity, with strings and ethnic drone instruments floating in waves of macro/micro bliss. This latest release ups the ante even more, with a more aggressively nuanced attack on post Taj Mahal Travellers group mind aesthetics and it makes for one of the best contemporary communal …
Early works
Box set from Japanese psychedelic noise legends c.c.c.c. collecting unreleased live material,including very early recordings from some of their first shows in 1990 and their 1992 us tour, along some long unvailible studio classics like the Phantasmagoria tape. Extensive liner notes by original member Fumio Kosakai (now in Incapacitants and many others) about the band beginings and his take on the c.c.c.c. vision. An essential document in the unique c.c.c.c. sound which Kosakai describes best as …
Acqua
Their last LP, issued in 1000 copies and long deleted now; again, an awesome album, Awakening gives us ominous ethnic percussion, growing in intensity, while Photongnoul is slower, more mournful. Taksim II provides energetic, rolling, thundering drumming, and the side ends with Fangs and Claws, returning to a more relaxed sound, running water and undulating synth tones setting the very beautiful mood, breaking into a powerful rhythm at the end, closing the side perfectly. The live side opens wit…
Mkwaju
their 2nd LP, again released in 300 copies only, a beautiful album of ritualistic music, occasionally ambient, frequently pretty energetic, but always based around complex rhythmic percussion. Unlike some, none of the percussion is synthetic, and the natural sound that results is very refreshing. Ambient vocals and nice rhythmically plucked strings introduce the studio side.
Whirling Dervishes
Ultrarare 1st album, issued in 300 copies only - In 1985, after the split up of the political unit 'White Hospital', Tomo Kuwabara started up the unit Vasilisk with Yukio Nagoshi (percussions/guitars) and Chiaki (percussions). They made a first album called 'Whirling Dervishes' in 1987, released through Eskimo, which was the label established by Yun 'Grim' Konagaya. In this album they played several and unusual instruments: African skin-drums, African flute, Tibetan percussions, Ancestor's voice…
LSD
Rare 2nd Nord LP issued in 200 copies only. L.S.D. features rough hewn sheets of ominous yet trippy pulsating textural electronics with an obvious debt to the stark teutonic soundworlds of Kluster and (especially) Seesselberg. Any glimmers of transcendence are immediately offset by a deadzone ambience that reeks of Maurizio Bianchi. Hiroshi Oikawa's solo explorations of the galactic void seem considerably more enticing to these set of ears than the more formalized quotidian post-industrial const…
Nord
First vinyl release by this Japanese power electronic psych duo (Oikawa Hiroshi & Satoshi Katayama) on cult Pinakotheca label (which also released Keiji Haino's first solo recording back in 1981). Very rare, unplayed copy
Solo For Wounded
A founding member of the Fluxus Movement with Takehisa Kosugi, Yoko Ono and George Maciunas, Yasunao Tone has been doing experimental sound pieces since the early 1960s. For the past ten years much of his work has centered on extending the possibilities of CDs as a performance medium. With this new CD, Tone has created a new noise music for the 21st century: a symphony of digital errors that reaches a new extreme in intensity and musical energy
Noise media language
A pioneer since the early 60s in sound art and digital composition, yasunao Tone has composed for Merce Cunningham (alongside John Cage) and been a member of the groups Ongaku, Hi-Red Center, and Fluxus. He is unabashedly avant-garde and continues today to engage questions of noise, language, and systems of representation. This indispensable monograph catalogues the artist's career through documentation of seminal projects. Including a cd of works ranging from early performance experiments to cu…
Japrocksampler
JAPROCKSAMPLER is an exploration of the clash between traditional, conservative Japanese values and the wild rock'n'roll renegades of the 1960s and '70s. It tells the tale of key artists in Japanese post-war culture, from itinerant art-house poets to violent refusenik rock groups with a penchant for plane hijacking, and rounds up the seminal japrock albums. UK-only publication, hardcover, 302 pages, with 16 page inset of color cover reproductions. Impressive work and a nice followup to Cope's de…
Dance Music
Don’t be fooled by the casual title of this release; you will hear a veritable Ghost in the Machine cloaked in pure electronic sounds. Japanese composer Toshimaru Nakamura goes beyond the furthest reaches of sound in his mission to cross the border to the other side. This time it falls to dancing poltergeists and hellish, rattling machines to scourge Nakamura’s soundscapes. Toshimaru Nakamura is known worldwide as the master of the no-input mixing board. From out of nowhere he manages to conjure…
Obscure Tape Music Of Japan Vol.1: Aoi No Ue
Long deleted, last copy of this ultra limited vinyl edition of 150 numbered copies by the famous composer JOJI YUASA's legendary earliest example of musique concrete “AOI-no-UE” (1961) and his final electronic music composition “My Blue Sky No.1” (1975) made at NHK electronic music studio. The sound of “AOI-no-UE” is made from voices of Japanese traditional Noh theater. “My Blue Sky No.1” on the other hand was made from only clicks and pulses as sonic sound sources. Both works are world premiere…
Obscure Tape Music Of Japan Vol.5: Music For Tinguely
Limited edition of 300 copies. Music For Tinguely was composed in 1963, Appearance in 1967, Music For Living Space in 1969. "in 1967, i was staying in new york for about 10 months with my wife and 2 years old son as a composer in residence under the invitation of jdr 3rd fund. my position was quite free so i was enjoying stimulating new york life by meeting friends of various fields, participating concerts of john cage and david tudor and the members of sonic arts union and so on. one day i had…
Catch-Wave
Takehisa Kosugi is without doubt one of the most important and influential figures of the Japanese avant-garde still performing. Over the years he has worked with everyone from John Cage to Sonic Youth as well as being an active member of the Fluxus group and starting his own performance units Group Ongaku and the Taj Mahal Travellers. His album Catch-Wave, originally released in 1975, features on side A 'an excerpt from a meta-media solo improvisation' utilizing heavily-processed violin, voice,…
Asian Flashback: Underground Music From Asia
Asian underground compilation with 13 groups. Featuring Li Jianhong, Narita Munehiro, Hano Shoji, Mustangs, Kiyasu Orchestra, Mafeisan, 10, Xiao He, D!O!D!O!D!, Sato Yukie, Yoshiteru Koga Jizo, Kim Young Jin, Li Daiguo, Amature Amplifier, Soonie. "First PSF compilation to focus on the linkages between the established underground scene in Japan and nascent ones in China and Korea. Politics and history had long prevented exchanges between the three countries, but in recent years increasing trade …