Beautifully lop-sided big-band set from Tori Kudo's idiot-avant orchestra, swollen to include wildman bass clarinetist Arrington de Dionyso (of Owl Sounds et al), guitarist Chris Cohen, synths from Greg Saunier and drums from Andrew Maxwell alongside Tori, Saya, Ueno, Nakazaki, Endo, Akiko, Otani and McCloud Zicmuse. Aspects of everything from The Sun Ra Arkestra, Little Howlin' Wolf and Syd Barrett through Monk, Manson and the Mothers Of Invention. Kudo's arrangements sound like Charles Ives's parallel brass band voicings re-scored for troops of tiny, squawnking toys set to repeat-play sections of The Portsmouth Sinfonia record on low, low batteries while Tori bends six strings into warps of punk zag. Also features an England's Glory (!) cover.

Much-in-demand release of some eye-opening early live footage from the ‘classic’ and most punk-primitive incarnation of Tori Kudo’s idiot-avant orchestra and Japanese underground legends Maher Shalal Hash Baz circa 1987. Trading on mis-interpretations and amplifications of the more feral aspects of musical outsiders like Mayo Thompson, Syd Barrett, The Raincoats and Albert Ayler, Maher Shalal Has Baz created some of the warmest and most melancholic post-punk avant garde music ever articulated by non-musicians. This 75 minute film documents the group when they featured the late Masami Shinoda on alto sax, a central player in the whole Maher mythos who Kudo still describes as one of only two full-time members of the group. Also features another key member, Hiro Nakazaki, on euphonium, Hirofumi Mitani on bass, Kanji Nakao on drums and Takuya Nishimura on guitar and bass. Maher’s music is fragile but very physical and getting to grips with the dynamic up-close and in the flesh adds a whole new dimension to your appreciation of the depth and rigour of Kudo’s beautiful, a-musical vision. And Shinoda’s playing is a real joy. Highly recommended.

Another necessary volume in this on-going series documenting current activity on Tokyo’s psychedelic underground and a long-time personal favourite, the line-up and track choice here is unbeatable, with exclusives from Overhang Party, White Heaven, Fushitsusha (a fabulously unrelenting noise guitar blow-out), Cobalt, Kumo To Hae, Sweet & Honey, Ghost, Daiichi-Kakkensha, Uchu Engine, Maher Shalal Hash Baz and Shizuka, the latter of whom raise the roof with guitarist Maki Miura roaring his way through heavens of feedback and blues. Love that fake ringwear on the cover too, a real touch of class. Highest recommendation.

The first record (1989) from Keiji Haino’s Fushitsusha, now available for digital consumption. This is also the only officially-released evidence of the group’s brief incarnation as a quartet, with Haino joined by second guitarist Maki Miura of Shizuka. The way the twin guitars coil like smoke around the skulls of the dynamite rhythm section is one of this set’s many joys, as is Haino’s harmonica playing on the first track (sounds like Dylan’s “Highway 61” slowed to a narcoleptic swamp pace) and his beautiful vocals throughout, moving from forlorn castrato peaks through lung-puncturing screams and growls. In many ways, this is Fushitsusha at their most straight forwardly rocking, a fact that should endear it to any lost Rallizes fans looking for a way ‘in’. Highest recommendation, naturally.

Wild, bombastic high energy rock ‘n’ roll from Keiji Haino’s punishing power trio. The first track on this ludicrously heavy 1994 set sounds like the end credits to your life and is one of Haino’s most epic guitar conceptions. Highest recommendation for any humans still in touch with their brain.

Arguably the most-flattening volume in this legendary series to date, Tokyo Flashback 2 features exclusive tracks from White Heaven (“Silver Current”), High Rise with Keiji Haino, Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Marble Sheep, Overhang Party, Yura Yura Kingdom, Yuragi, Kousokuya, Ghost (“Sun Is Tangging”), Ohkami No Jikan (featuring Maki Miura ex-Fushitsusha/Shiuzka) and Fushitsusha, who cover The Jacks' legendary “Marianne”. Yow.

Simply put, the greatest rock record of the modern era. It's almost impossible to fully do justice to the breadth and scope of this epochal 1991 recording from Keiji Haino's outrageously beautiful/powerful trio, suffice to say if you buy only one album in this lifetime…

Possibly the most anticipated release of 2012, the return of the greatest rock band on the planet, Keiji Haino’s Fushitsusha: Hikari to Nazukeyo sees Haino on guitar and vocals joined by original Fushitsusha/Kousokuya drummer Ikuro Takahashi and bassist Mitsuru Nasuno (who he also plays with in Seijaku).
The rhythm section of Takahashi and Nasuno is as formally boggling as you might have hoped, with the pair playing in the kind of staggered signatures and over-lapping time/space visions of the Seijaku discs, but whereas the focus of those recordings was on birthing a form of future blues that took off from Steppenwolf, Albert King and The Doors here it feels very much as if the trio are attempting to reformulate original rock & roll moves, with a feel that’s somewhere between Scotty Moore, Eddie Cochran and John Lee Hooker, albeit wrestling with the kind of rhythmic equations that are most assuredly post-improvisation and deeply Japanese. Indeed, the album has two distinct sides, there are the ultra-thrifty insistent monochord carve-ups of classic trio rock/roll moves and there are the heady F/X saturated blow-outs, with Haino’s guitar exploding the kind of post-Hendrix vectors of Double Live while he sings in an otherworldly castrato, birthing a form of violent sacred music. At this point in time I think it’s safe to say that no one else has so successfully and rigorously disinterred and interrogated the basic tenets of rock music as Fushitsusha and to think that at 60 years old Haino is still making the most radical and searching rock music of anyone’s career is a tribute to his commitment to the specifics of vision and his belief in the potential of the form. From where I’m sitting it feels like the whole history of rock music has led up to this. Highest possible recommendation! 

Quite simply one of the greatest psych/bliss guitar records of all time. Shizuka’s vocals are pitched just this side of Venus while guitarist Maki Miura (ex-Fushitsusha) lays down some of the most mind-blowing melodic/noise guitar solos this side of you-fucking-name-it. Also features Jun Kosugi (ex-Fushitsusha) on drums. Highest recommendation. One of the key Japanese underground albums.

Shizuka's sole studio album, Heavenly Persona, has long been one of the real jewels hidden in the PSF back catalogue. Indeed, Alan Cummings calls them "THE great lost-in-action group of the Tokyo underground psych scene". The group came together from the fallout of a bunch of early Fushitsusha line-ups, with original second guitarist Maki Miura (who played on Fushitsusha's debut Untitled/1st CD on PSF) joined by Fushitsusha drummer Jun Kosugi, Miura's partner Shizuka on guitar and vocals and Seven on bass. But outside of their one official studio album and a few patchy live recordings evidence of their majestic take on extended psychedelic rock has been pretty thin on the ground. So this album may well be one of the most anticipated PSF releases in an age, the official follow-up to Heavenly Persona, consisting of a beautifully recorded live set from 1995 long whispered about in underground circles, with the band at the peak of their powers. The form here is more extended than on their studio album, with songs that explode into disruptively melodic lead guitar bombs, combining the white-heat of Keiji Haino with the emotionally fraught aspect of classic Neil Young. Shizuka's vocals float on a bed of ethereal reverb and the group interaction is just gorgeous, piloting hushed F/X through damaged blues and classic Japanese psych moves. But it's the guitar playing you'll keep coming back to, with some of the most amazing six-string destructo moves ever torn from a stack of amps. Seriously. An incredible record from one of the all-time great Japanese underground groups. Highest possible recommendation.

Another necessary volume in this on-going series documenting current activity on Tokyo's psychedelic underground, this one features exclusive tracks by Keiji Haino, Broom Dusters (featuring members of Miminokoto/LSD-March), Musica Transonic, Puka-Puka Brians (members of Maher Shalal Hash Baz/Aihiyo), On-Na Kodomo, Shizuka, Akiyama-Sugimoto, High Rise, Kakashi, Construction, Psychedelic Crazy Horse and Hikyo String Quintet.

When Shizuka Miura took her own life earlier this year the Tokyo underground lost one of its most magical psychedelic voices. Although her group only recorded one studio album during their time together, it still stands as one of the key PSF releases, the perfect blend of floating female vocals and massive post-Haino guitar oblivions courtesy of her husband ex-Fushitsusha guitarist Maki Miura. Truly, Shizuka were a live band, with the looser, more improvisatory set-up of the shows allowing Miura to really stretch out, extending Shizuka’s zoned acid folk songs into new realms of euphoric six string excess. This nicely presented DVD functions as a memorial to Shizuka, a professionally filmed document of their last ever performance at Tokyo’s legendary Showboat venue on 30^th December 2008. Right from the first chiming guitar chords this is an instant trip, with the visuals – running from close-up shots to full band views  – taking you right there. Shizuka always had one of the most drug-damaged sounds of any of the PSF groups and she seems particularly blasted here, lost in her hypnotic vocals and with a primitive/naive aspect that is extremely affecting. But when Maki steps on his fuzz pedal he effectively steals the show, combining screaming arcs of post-Neil Young heavy metal with wild avant garde form. There’s a wide variety of approaches here, with the group occasionally stripping it down to just Shizuka and Miura before bringing the bass and drums back in for full-band assaults. Outside of Keiji Haino Maki Miura remains the Japanese guitar god of choice and it’s heartbreaking that this amazing group will never play together again. Elegaically wasted female fronted psychedelic guitar excess doesn’t come any better than this. 74 minutes, all region DVD. Limited edition of 500 copies. Highly recommended.