Psych /
The OZ Tapes
** Black Vinyl edition. Comes in a craft board jacket, including a 12-page liner notes book with archival photos ** Operating out of a small upstairs space just around the corner from the train station in the Kichijoji neighborhood of Tokyo, OZ was a scruffy, DIY affair that lasted not much more than a year. Between June 1972 to September 1973, the café and performance space became the nerve center for the city’s burgeoning underground and counterculture set. Hadaka No Rallizes, aka Les Ralli…
An Old Castle of Transylvania
Originally formed in 1968 under the name The Silencer, Nagoya, Japan progressive rock band Cosmos Factory didn't change their name until their 1983 debut on Nippon Columbia with "An Old Castle Of Transylvania". Loaded with heavy psychedelia and prog rock guitar moments, experimentally blended with the use of Hammond and Mellotron, the band lead by keyboardist / vocalist Tsutomu Izumi takes you on an adventure throughout the dark forests of Transylvania. Throughout the years, the album has become…
The Reflection
**In process of stocking** The Japanese female singer Cotton Casino used to be the singer of Acid Mothers Temple, the ultimate Japanese psychedelic band, several members of which provide backing on this album. Cotton's voice is fragile and emotional. The overall mood tends towards sadness and melancholy while the music hovers between acid folk and post rock. Most of the songs are sensuous and ethereal, like soundtracks to imaginary movies. Other songs may come as a surprise...
Shin Chugoku
A duo by Osamu Kitajima and Fumio Miyashita, formed at the end of 1971 when Osamu Kitajima returned from his trip to United Kingdom where he got influenced by exploding psychedelic rock scene that was happening at the time. After recording his debut under moniker of “Justin Heathcliff”, he got together with Fumio Miyashita of Far East Family Band and Far Out. Together they worked on an amazing psychedelic / progressive rock album, with a foly, yet pastoral, mellow approach.
Osamu
This is the third album by Osamu Kitajima, one of Japan’s most prolific artists from the ethno rock, world music and progressive department. You can certainly not divide all the mentioned stylistic aspects from each other for they were all incorporated in a homogenious sound and complex arrangements. It is the same with his other albums like "Benzaiten“ and or his fourth "Masterless Samurai“; traditional Japanese music meets Western jazzrock and progressive sounds to form a new style unheard by …
Dragon King
Osamu Kitajima continuously experimented with various music genres that include Japanese traditional music, Ethno Jazz and Progressive Rock elements. “Dragon King” is a very well recorded album that contains Funky tunes and mellow Soul songs, as well as Jazzy elements. It’s his last album that would end a certain chapter in Mr. Kitajima’s career. After “Dragon King” he stopped working in Progressive / Funk / Soul / Jazz / Fusion and started his second career with Electronic / Ethno / New Age mus…