Brand new instalment in this legendary compilation series from PSF, now in its seventh volume. For this latest survey of the state of the contemporary Japanese psychedelic underground the label ran a special live night at Koenji Show Boat in May of 2009 and recorded all of the players’ sets. The disc opens with the outer space choral folk of Le Son De L’os, a trio that features Yuko Hasegawa of Onna-Kodomo on guitar and vocal, Masahiro Deguchi of Gendai Sokkyo on flute and guitar and Shizuo Uchida on bass. Bo No Kubo are a drums/acoustic bass/guitar improvisatory unit that translate the Incus aesthetic to Tokyo. Derakushi are a phenomenal free jazz/psych ensemble who use electric rock firepower to propel the furious saxophone of Shun Suzuki; expect a full-length album from these guys on PSF very soon. There’s a great, minimal tracks from shakuhachi player Sabu Orimo, here with his new unit that features drummer/harmonica player Tomohiko Namiki. Touyounomajyo are a classic guitar/bass/drums power trio that would have fit in just as well on some of the earlier volumes and Hasegawa-Shizuo, who have had a bunch of previous releases on labels like PSF and Tiliqua, close the set with an epic drone imagining. Nothing cuts to the heart of the Tokyo underground like PSF’s Flashback series. Recommended.

Ass-blasting Blue Humans/Borbetomagus/Demo Moe-styled free jazz garage rock from a quartet that lit up PSF’s Tokyo Flashback 7. Some of the material best resembles Adam Nodelman-era Borbeto, with a ferocious electric bass backbone, but there’s a little more breathing space than on the early Agaric jams. The electric guitar comes out of the pugilistic post-Sharrock school while the saxophone flits from eerie Pharaoh Sanders’ style mysticism-of-tone to balls-to-the-wall Gayle-isms. Comes packaged in a hard card gatefold sleeve with obi strip.