Shizuka - Heaven's Persona (1994)
http://lix.in/-567596
Shizuka - Live: Traditional Aesthetics (2008)
http://lix.in/-4d4df8
"Of all the Tokyo underground psych bands of the 90s, Shizuka is simultaneously one of the most connected and, paradoxically, overlooked. Shizuka herself is a Tokyo based doll maker, and here she's backed by Fushitsusha's Jun Kosugi, Miura Maki of Fushitsusha and Les Rallizes Dénudés, and a mysterious bloke who goes by the name of Seven (who may or may not be the former Dr. Acid Seven of the late 60s/early 70s Tokyo underground...research has been inconclusive on that front, although the company Shizuka keeps makes it a definite possibility.)
Looking at that personnel, and the fact that she's on legendary label PSF, her music doesn't come as a surprise in and of itself: deep, dark, Velvets-inspired psychedelia with liberal helpings of echo and feedback. What makes Shizuka stand out from this distinguished company, however, is her allegiance to traditional song forms. While similar acts have certainly had their share of verse-chorus-verse, they've typically shrouded them in feedback (Les Rallizes Dénudés,) or upstaged them with jagged, raw emotion (Fushitsusha.) Not so Shizuka, who uses her scene's trademark sonics to give her gentle, simple songs a narcotic haze that invokes ghosts and much as angels."
July 9, 2009
Shizuka
June 8, 2009
June 3, 2009
Magick Lantern Cycle - Chimæra - 1993
First and only full-length Album by this Band, I guess they split up some time ago. There's not much known, some of the guys played on Current 93's "Horsey" Album and singer Konori appeared on Nurse With Wound's "Live At Bar Maldoror" and "Thunder Perfect Mind" and did some horrible solo performances after that...
http://lix.in/-4a987f
May 27, 2009
Kan Mikami & Ryojiro Furusawa - Dereki (2007)
"Japanese folk spirit Kan Mikami has a guitar style that’s as personal and radical as anything from the hand’s of Derek Bailey and this new Japan-only duo album with jazz drummer Ryojiro Furusawa (who he previously cut a vinyl-only album with in the 1980s) works as a beautiful showcase for his idiosyncratic guitar/vocal stylings as well as being one of the punk-toughest of his recent outings. Furusawa wields a whole bunch of penetrating percussive strategies, whether setting silvery bombs of cymbal tone beneath Mikami’s stumpy barre chords or hunching caveman style over flashes of single notes that Mikami flicks from the bridge like he’s striking a match. The duo are completely absorbed in each other for the running time of this excellent disc, another reminder of the scale of Mikami’s personal acid/folk vision."
http://lix.in/-4cc327
April 30, 2009
LSD Pond - s/t (2008)
"All tracks represent improvisations, with no overdubs, from the combined musical talents of Bardo Pond, LSD March, and Masami Kawaguchi's New Rock Syndicate. Produced and recorded over the span of two epic sessions in mid October 2006 at Lemur House in Philadelphia.
The opening track of the first disc, "We are LSD Pond," fades in like the jamming has been going on for some time before we have been allowed to listen in. Based around a solid groove, the piece is like one long solo where everyone solos. It sounds self- indulgent (and sitting in a studio jamming all day is a fine way to indulge yourself) but it is fantastic nonetheless. There is only one way to describe the music and that is that it is white hot.
Amazingly, from such a high octane start the jams get wilder and better as the album progresses. Most of the pieces work so well thanks to the fantastic drumming on every track. Despite there being three people credited with drums and percussion, it never sounds over the top. On "Utuwa No Naka No Mizu," a Kraut inspired drum pattern allows for the rest of the band to go hog wild with some very exciting guitar with wah pedal solos going on.
On the second disc, the line up has been augmented slightly as it is from a second day of recording. The songs with this line up are substantially longer and unlike the instrumental first act, Isobel Sollenberger contributes vocals to the mix. It begins with a radically different "We are LSD Pond." Sollenberger's voice gets masked by the music, it sounds like she has a PA set up at monumental volumes in another building and it is bleeding through the walls over the maelstrom of LSD Pond's freakout. It works well with this and the subsequent tracks but it would have been nice to have some cleaner vocals too.
I cannot finish this review without mentioning the gorgeous presentation of this album. Archive always have attractive packaging for their releases and this is no exception. Designed by Keith Utech, this release has a textured outer sleeve with a design like old fashioned wallpaper contains a small booklet of photos from the sessions and the CDs (encased in simple black sleeves bound with more of the wallpaper-style card). The physical package matches the sounds heard on the disc perfectly.
Overall this is a phenomenal album, both bands have come together to form a glorious whole and a glorious din. This is a stand out album no matter which band's back catalogue you consider. It is one of the first new releases of 2008 and I would be very surprised if I was not still spinning it in December."
CD1: http://lix.in/-420504
CD2: http://lix.in/-438ba5
