First in a series of DVD documents of the complete works of Japanese ‘noise’ guitarist Masayuki ‘Jojo’ Takayanagi. This one presents an up-close full colour film of two Action Direct solo performances, one from August 4^th 1990 and the other from December 17^th 1990. The first one is a two part take on “Inanimate Nature” with Takayanagi using violently bowed guitars, metal poles, various string modifications and an array of tapes containing music and environmental sound to create an overwhelming sonic environment. Fascinating to see the specifics of Takayanagi’s process up close like this. The second performance is a two-part improvisation for pre-recorded tapes, mixing board and tannoy system, a psychedelic construction built from ghostly currents of vocals, environmental noise and archaic broadcasting technology. Region free DVD. Highly recommended.

Major reissue (from newly unearthed master tapes) of this crucial side from Japan's premier free noise guitarist, the late Masayuki Takayanagi. Recorded in May 1975, in the wake of the sessions for the legendary April Is The Cruellest Month (originally scheduled to come out on ESP-Disks right before the label folded), Eclipse was originally issued in a totally non-locatable run of 100 copies on the tiny Iskra label and has enjoyed a fairly legendary reputation among hardcore collectors for some time now. This restored version is a massive public service, bringing to light one of Takayanagi's hands-down greatest sides, up there with Call In Question in the way that it demolishes common jazz/rock/improvised tongues in favour of a vicious, form-gobbling simultaneity that welds heavy, eternally-extended drones with blurts of immolating guitar noise and raging free jazz. Same line-up as April... and both Axis volumes and a necessary side for a full understanding of the evolution of liberated musical thought in Japan. Comes in a deluxe hard card sleeve that's an exact replica of the original. Highest recommendation.

Anyone looking for a way into the blasted, form-gobbling sound world of Japan's late noise-guitar god, Masayuki Takayanagi can back the fuck up. Yr here, bub. This 11/12 March 1970 recording remains one of his most flattening sides, three tracks - “Extraction”, “Intermittent” and “Excavation” - of screamingly beautiful feedback-caked rock/jazz blurt. Takayanagi wild, exacting use of feedback is staggering and Sabu Toyozumi's drums get all the way in there, batting shards of shattered noise codes straight back at him. Bassist Motoharu Yoshizawa drills the whole thing through the floor while saxophonist Mototeru Takagi strangles the hell out of his instrument. Just breathtaking, one of the all-time great free noise summits and every bit the equal of high energy blow-outs like Monkey-Pockie-Boo, Machine Gun, Mars Live, Clear To Higher Time etc…