Japan Top Albums
Debon
Phoenix Records reissues on LP Brast Burn's Debon -- a classic of Japanese Kraut obscurity originally released in 1975 on Voice Records. Brast Burn are often linked with Karuna Khayal, with many aficionados concluding that they were actually the same band. Whether this is true or not remains an unsolved mystery, but one thing is for sure: Brast Burn's one and only recorded outing left an indelible stamp on those who were to follow. Nurse With Wound's Steve Stapleton thought highly of Debon a…
Improvisation sept 75
Originally released on the Iskra label in 1975, Improvisation Sep. 1975 is a mind-bending slice of drone improv from two of Japan's post-war heavyweights; former John Cage student, Juilliard graduate, and Yoko Ono's former husband, Toshi Ichiyanagi, Takehisa Kosugi, considered by many to be the father of what some called "Japanese Krautrock," and Stockhausen percussionist Michael Ranta. Heavy layers of reverbed ring modulators, threaded vocals, melodicas, pianos, violins, gongs and Japanese biwa…
Alomoni 1985
Karuna Khyal's album Alomoni 1985, originally released on Voice Records around 1976, is widely acknowledged as years ahead of its time, preceding other Japanese underground experimental outfits such as Fushitsusha and White Heaven by almost 20 years. The band's musical influences are, if anything, more Germanic than Japanese, with long, hypnotic free-form rock passages, a heavy use of tape loops, electronics, environmental sounds, distortion and backwards tapes underpinning some manic harmo…
Den'en Ni Shisu
Deluxe first reissue of this 1974 J.A. Ceasar-performed theatrical underground classic. A nice example of the recent flood of late 1960's-early 1970's psych reissues from Japan that are in the more fluxus/theatrical vein. The period saw political upheaval and protesting amidst much of the country's students and youth; and while the underground movements weren't as widespread as say those in the USA, the pockets of artistic institutions that responded to political causes (like the decimation of n…