Great news, yet again, has been provided to us by our dear friends at Wewantsounds! From their Bandcamp site: “Wewantsounds is delighted to announce the first international reissue of Ayako Shinozaki’s hard to find LP “Music Now For Harp” released in 1974 by Nippon Columbia. The LP was released on Continue Reading
Japan
Akiko Yano – Iroha Ni Konpeitou – LP Deluxe Edition with 4p insert and OBI strip
The ever-fantastic Wewantsounds is giving the gold-star treatment to Akiko Yano, wife of the recently departed Ryuichi Sakamoto and fine musician in her own right, collaborating with Haruomi Hosono, Yukihiro Takahashi, David Sylvian, Mick Karn, Charlie Haden, Bill Frisell, Thomas Dolby, and a host of others. From the label’s Bandcamp Continue Reading
Rural District – Mint Blind Violet
Rural Track are a band out of Japan who do heavy shoegaze rock, so those of you who miss My Bloody Valentine’s peak moments would do well to check this track out.
PoiL Ueda – PoiL Ueda
This is a heavy, near-monstrous release involving Japanese singer and bassis Junko Ueda and the French avant-prog group PoiL. From their Bandcamp site: “PoiL Ueda is the result of a collaboration between Junko Ueda, a vocalist and satsuma-biwa player from Japan, and PoiL, a French rock/contemporary music band. The creation Continue Reading
Yukihiro Takahashi – Drip Dry Eyes (R.I.P.)
The eyes in this house aren’t very dry at the moment. We lost yet another legend today. This time, it was the shocking, though not unexpected, passing of drummer and composer Yuki Takahashi, who made his fame as drummer and singer of the Yellow Magic Orchestra. He first gained fame Continue Reading
Peter Brötzmann / Keiji Haino Duo – The Intellect Given Birth To Here (Eternity) Is Too Young
Two of the greatest legends in free jazz and psychedelic rock, Keiji Haino and Peter Brötzmann, join forces after a long while in this four-album noise-fest. My understanding that the vinyl pressing on Black Editions, which includes a 3-inch CD, is long sold out, which is unfortunate, but a standard Continue Reading
Susumu Yokota – Baroque
Modern Obscure Music out of Barcelona, Spain, is making Baroque available for the first time ever on vinyl. This disc was one of them many treasures the late Japanese composer Susumu Yokota released before his passing in 2015 at the age of 54. The album presents some of the most Continue Reading
Otomo Yoshihide (大友良英) – We Insist?
I had the pleasure of watching Otomo Yoshihide perform live about 30 years ago in Los Angeles, and his turntable wizardry made me a lifelong fan. It pleases me to see that labels are still carefully releasing his body of work, and this album is among my favorites. The album Continue Reading
Kawabata Makoto (河端一) – Sunday Morning
Kawabata Makoto is the leader of Acid Mother’s Temple, Japan’s greatest modern psychedelic rock group. He’s also a wildly experimental composer, with this album being influenced by musique concrète and drone as well as the usual psych one expects from him.
Ajate – Abrada
Ajate are a Japanese band who have the Afrobeat sound down. They’re one of the best bands working in this style while seamlessly blending Japanese percussion, funk and soul into their milieu.