SANJAH

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 record their first album and the results are now available for the listening pleasure of all of you who couldn't make the gig. There's a purity of improvised one-mind destruction on display here that is humbling to witness. All three are recently playing at unprecedented heights - Mikami's vocals and Urabe's alto carve great mercury swathes through the moist air, while Ishizuka deep-shifts tectonic plates beneath their feet. Veteran Mikami watchers are in for a treat of their own, as the master revisits "Karasu" from his debut album for the first time in 35 years.