★PSF Records
Drum drama
New solo work from the Japanese underground’s drummer of choice. Six years on from 1999`s masterful Red Night (PSFD-107), Toshiaki “Toshi” Ishizuka is back with a new set of deep, shimmering nightscapes for percussion. Toshi has been a pivotal figure in the Japanese underground since the late sixties, when he founded Japan’s first radical, politically-engaged punk group Zuno Keisatsu. Since then he has been the sticksman of choice for howling folk-poets Kazuki Tomokawa, Yasuki Fukushima and Kan …
Toho Sara
A mystery group a la Third Ear Band. Mystic music with ancient instruments.
Mei jou tan sho
The second album from one of Nanjo's most mysterious units, who attempt an unearthly fusion of ethnic droning and rock methodology, electric and acoustic vibrations.
Fish
This is Bailey's first record with Japanese powerhouse drummer Shoji Hano, recorded at Moat Studios in London in June 2000. Hano is best known outside of Japan for his brief tenure as drummer in speedfreak rock band High Rise.
Musen / is
Ultra-heavy first album by new PSF super group, SANJA, consisting of gravel 'n' glass voiced crooner Kan Mikami, the scene's heaviest tub thumper Toshi Ishizuka, and alto terrorist and veritable rock'n' roll breather Masayoshi Urabe. The three first played together at a concert to mark the 25th anniversary of the founding of PSF Records last year, and the intensity of the heat they generated has already become the stuff of Tokyo underground legend. The trio were quickly hustled into a studio to …
s/t
Sanhedolin are a ludicrously amped-up and heavy new power trio, featuring Keiji Haino, Tatsuya Yoshida (Ruins) and Mitsuru Nasuno (Ruins). Haino brings aggressive anguish and all-consuming black fire, Yoshida and Nasuno supply a sack-full of convulsive time-shifting and complex kinetic acceleration. Haino and Yoshida have been working together on and off for the past three or four years in a number of duo and trio contexts, including a tour of China and Taiwan. They have built up the kind of ins…
Era of sad wings
Nijiumu is Haino's other group. Collaboration of various acoustic ancient instruments and electric effects. Present-day medieval music!
Duo/Deep sea
Precious document of early Japanese improvised music scene. Tensional performance of heavy sounds from reeds and bass.
Gobbledygook
Free form Bass Improvisations with Butch Morris, E.Sharp,Ikue Mori(ex.DNA). Recorded in N.Y.
Live independence
Another previously unreleased archive release from Takayanagi, the premier Japanese free-guitar stylist. Recorded live in 1970, waves of trademark feedback abound, but also some more serene segments with flute, freedom atmospherics, etc. Not as overwhelmingly brain-bombing as his previous release on the label (PSF 41), but definitely another important piece in the crucial documentation of Takayanagi's career.
Call in the question
Takayanagi is the premier free-guitarist legend in the Japanese underground story. This CD features unreleased material by the master, from 1970. The sound is heavy improv, with Takayangi's explosive feedback wail in prominent display. As fine an introduction to his music as you could hope for (most of his albums from the '60s & '70s are impossible to track down)
Eclipse
Originally released in 1975 as an LP on Iskra Records (ISKRA-001). 'First session 1: Gradually Projection'. 'First session 2: Gradually Projection'. 'Second session: Mass Projection'. New Direction Unit are Masayuki Takayanagi: electric guitar. Kenji Mori: alto saxophone, flute, recorder. Nobuyoshi Ino: bass. Hiroshi Yamazaki: drums, percussion. Recorded by Mikio Aoki in Tokyo, March 14, 1975. Includes liner notes in English by Alan Cummings.
The dark spot
Kosokuya are one of Japan's more mysterious psychedelic inner-space rock groups with an obscure history dating back to the late seventies. Great sensitive + heavy playing, lovely vocal action from Kaneko, and Urabe's unique atmospherics.
Solo
Urabe is the ONLY Japanese player with the ability to soar beyond where Kaoru Abe left off, and for anyone with even the slightest interest in the possibilities of human breath and forged brass this is an essential and tremendously exciting document.
Lost Aaraaf
Haino's first group, live recorded in '71! Bizarre voice + piano + drums. Incredible & historical recordings.
1979 First live
Jutok Kaneko (guitar), Mick (vocals), Hiroshi Yokoyama (synth) and Toshiko Watanabe (drums). 'Miraculously unearthed live tape from one of the earliest incarnations of Tokyo heavy psychedelic legends Kousokuya. For a group with a 25-year history on the Tokyo underground scene, Kousokuya have left very little imprint of their activities. Once heard, though, their sound is unmistakeable Ð a grinding, soaring sonic-blackhole that charts the empty gulfs of tension-space like no one else this side of…
Tayutayuto
Sato’s first studio meeting with Keiji Haino sees a rare melding of open minds and taut strings. Common languages are invented, experimented with and discarded at will. Haino revisits the evocative nylon-strung guitar style he first explored on Hikair yami uchitokeaish kono hibiki (PSFD-8017), laying down fields and forests of string texture, while Sato burns blazing trails of narrow-beam intensity straight through the middle of your skull.
Two strings will do it
This is the first contact of B.Phillips, maestro of improvised bass, and K.Haino! New dimentions of the shape of improvisation to come!
Global ancient atmosphere
Rhythm, duration and silence lie at the foundation of all of Haino's music. After a clutch of documents of his hair-raising solo performances for both acoustic and electric percussion, this latest album presents Haino's first recorded outing behind a regular drumkit. Haino has long desired to release a solo drum album, and he has been playing a regular kit occasionally live for several decades now. Global Ancient Atmosphere contains nine tracks that showcase an austere yet thrilling investigatio…
Uchu ni karami tsuiteiru waga itami
Digital theremin, air synth, air FX, etc. Another step into previously unexplored territory for Haino--his first ever all-electronic album. Uchu ni karami tsuiteiru waga itami (the title means roughly 'Tangled up in the universe, my pain') sees Haino using a bewildering range of electronic instruments.