Alongside Keiji Haino’s Fushitsusha, Jutok Kaneko’s death-decadent Kousokuya ruled the Tokyo underground of the 80s and 90s with a lead fist. Kaneko can mangle six strings better than anyone this side of Neil Young and Tony Iommi. 1st is a long-overdue reissue of Kousokuya’s ultra-rare debut LP, originally self-released in 1991 in an edition of only 200 copies. It features the classic original line-up of guitarist Kaneko, female bassist/vocalist ‘Mick’ and drummer Ikuro Takahashi (of Fushitsusha et al). Hands down one of the most formally flattening records to come out of whole Japanese scene. Highest recommendation.

Kousokuya, led by renowned guitar monster Jutok Kaneko, were a massive presence on the Tokyo underground throughout the 80s and 90s. Their debut LP, originally self-released in a tiny run in 1991and since reissued on CD by PSF, plotted galaxies of heavy gravity like nothing this side of Neil Young’s Weld and Black Sabbath’s Masters Of Reality. Kaneko’s guitar playing is brutally blunt, working staggered rhythms into huge, tottering constructions that crash to earth with all the ferocious inevitability of dead stars. Vocalist Mick’s high despairing vocals and ten-nods-behind-the-beat bass style reinforce the profoundly desperate, nihilistic air while drummer Ikuro Takahashi (Fushitsusha et al) sets single megaton blasts in the background. Live Gyakuryu Kokuu is a killer retrospective of this mammoth outfit, two long tracks recorded the same year as their debut album that work forms from ominous black gulfs like nothing else this side of Fushitsusha. Highest recommendation.

Major new work from one of the central stars in the firmament of the contemporary Japanese psychedelic underground, Sachiko, ex of legendary gods of thunder Kousokuya and Overhang Party. A radical departure from her previous walls of celestial electronics, Anro – which translates as “dark path” - almost feels like an extended meditation on The Velvet Underground’s “Black Angel’s Death Song” that reconnects The Falling Spikes with The Dream Syndicate via a web of tactile, sawing viola drone and forests of percussion, recorder and witchy vocals. John Cale’s viola work has had a massive impact on the Japanese underground, from the first Velvets album to his duo settings with Brian Eno on the Nico recordings but this just might be the fullest investigation into its potential for total sensory dislocation, with a massive single track that feels more like a magical working ala Keiji Haino’s solo work than a mere instrumental jam. Sachiko’s vocals are truly striking, with less of the epic use of reverb and a more macabre aura-less approach that is part early Meredith Monk and part hysterical Manson Family Jams. The recorder work has some of the bonged-out hippy vibe of Charlie Nothing or Masaki Batoh but it’s the endless buzzing fleets of viola that open up into the kind of occult string-drones that Bill Breeze brought to Coil’s Solstice sessions or even Lou Reed’s Street Hassle that effectively seal the deal. An uncanny side of string freak, sabbat-styled vocal evocations and freeform improvisation all mastered and produced by Rinji Fukuoka of Overhang Party/Majutsu No Niwa and with translated liners by Alan Cummings. Highly recommended!