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.

Great duo CD (reissue of a privately distributed CD-R) featuring a live show from Tokyo University Of Fine Arts on 11 November 2001from avant guitarist and improviser Kazuo Imai (whose How Will We Change CD has long been one of the hidden jewels in the PSF back catalogue) and pianist Shuichi Chino. Chino has done a lot of theatre and soundtrack work, and has recently collaborated with Butch Morris. He is the most consistently audible player here but the force of Imai’s acoustic guitar conceptions is utterly magnetic, as he teases fluttering, inchoate tone-forms from his guitar in a way that beautifully shadows Chino’s spare note-clusters.

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.

Brand new live recording from ecstatic Japanese folk killer Kazuki Tomokawa, his first Kansai gig in years, accompanied by drummer Toshi Ishizuka (Vajra et al) and pianist Masato Nagahata. It was Tomokawa himself who convinced PSF to release this wild recording, dubbing it “the best gig this trio has ever played.” The energy levels are unbelievable, with the group attacking Tomokawa’s back catalogue with their teeth. Anyone who has been following the gob-smacking arc of Tomokawa’s career over the past few decades will be pretty familiar with the set-list but the odds are that you’ve never heard them taken from these kind of deliriously whacked angles. At points they sound like Keiji Haino’s early free jazz orchestra, Lost Aaraf, tearing lumps of form from the very gob of acid/folk structure. Some kind of performance apex for Tomokawa and, alongside the new 1972 Mikami reissue on PSF, this is the one to play yr average Haino/Acid Mothers/High Rise fan looking for a way ‘in’ to PSF’s more esoteric back roads. And what a fucking trip. Highly recommended.

Third CD from this reclusive Japanese underground figure who in the past has worked with White Heaven. One of the most affectingly odd releases from PSF to date, Corridor Of Daylights works from the same instrumental base as Hirano's second CD, Reflection Of Dreams (PSFD-71) using piano, wind chimes, glockenspiel, accordion, voice, thumb piano etc but this time the tracks feel a little more constructed than before, giving the whole disc the kind of eerily emotive feel of soft 60s psychedelic pop groups like The Millennium, Smile-era Beach Boys, Sagittarius, Association etc crossed with some frail, outward bound improvisations. Comes in a gorgeous white/silver card gatefold sleeve.

Maybe Keiji Haino's greatest solo side to date, this one features vocals and guitar and moves from some beautifully wired folk-song through to moments of explosive solo fuzz and the kind of soul-peeling vocal form that'll have you re-thinking your entire way of life. Can't recommend this one enough - an ideal place to start for the uninitiated too.

Boat-floating live collection of luminous originals and profoundly re-tongued traditionals like “The Young Girl Cut Down In Her Prime” from this stellar Japanese underground acid folk group led by Chie Mukai and featuring Ikuro Takahashi (Fushitsusha/Kousokuya et al). Highly recommended.

A compilation that culls tracks from a series of ‘lecture concerts' that took place between September 2003 and February 2004 at Mesar Haus, Tokyo. Kicks off with a fantastically dense hurdy-gurdy drone from Keiji Haino and also features tracks from guitarist Kazuo Imai, pianist Junichiro Okuchi, shamisen master Michihiro Sato, turntablist Otomo Yoshihide and saxophonist Masayoshi Urabe.

Live kokyu (single string traditional instrument with a grainy, vocal sound) improvisations from the leader of Tokyo acid-folk orchestra Ché-SHIZU and regular Masayoshi Urabe duo partner. Also features plenty of hypnotically treated metal percussion, scalp-shearing cymbal work, rough tape composition and Mukai's beautifully idiosyncratic throat work. A lonesome voyage through whole new vectors of late-night trance. Recorded in 1984 and one of the major unsung monsters in the PSF back catalogue.

Another special/limited Kan Mikami edition from PSF, this one was originally scheduled as the follow-up to Mikami's fan club-only album, 19 Years, 2 Months, 16th Night, re-released by PSF last year. This one reads like Mikami's very own Genuine Bootleg Series, a collection of live, studio and demo material recorded off the cuff and on the lam. Moves from the oddest country swing moves ever fried in acid through moments of beautifully misconstrued Diddley-beat and blats of pure soul poetry so savage that the very arc of his syllables is enough to make your chest crease. This is the perfect opener for the Mikami neophyte. Housed once again in a special hard white card gatefold jacket, this comes in a limited edition of 1000 copies and is already all-but sold out at source. Highly recommended.

Part of PSF's new Kazuki Tomokawa art edition series bundling classic Tomokawa back catalogue in beautiful gatefold card jackets with all new art from Tomokawa himself. All releases limited to 500 copies. Ferocious live selection from this vital Japanese folk spirit with Tomokawa at some kind of apex of personal revelation. Highly recommended.

Part of PSF's new Kazuki Tomokawa art edition series bundling classic Tomokawa back catalogue in beautiful gatefold card jackets with all new art from Tomokawa himself. All releases limited to 500 copies. Dream team hook-up from the two reigning kings of the Japanese folk-brut underground, with help from a cast of PSF heavies including the late free bassist Motoharu Yoshizawa. Highly recommended.

Part of PSF's new Kazuki Tomokawa art edition series bundling classic Tomokawa back catalogue in beautiful gatefold card jackets with all new art from Tomokawa himself. All releases limited to 500 copies. Another incredibly anguished live recording from one of the most singular avant/folk performers to come up through the Japanese underground. Solo and duos with longtime collaborator Masato Nagahata. Highly recommended.

Part of PSF's new Kazuki Tomokawa art edition series bundling classic Tomokawa back catalogue in beautiful gatefold card jackets with all new art from Tomokawa himself. All releases limited to 500 copies. This one was previously only available as part of PSF's now out-of-print Tomokawa box set and features a series of almost apocalyptic settings of the verse of the tragic symbolist poet Chuya Nakahara (1907-1937). Highly recommended.

Archival release of euphoric psychedelic pop-rock from this early Japanese underground group led by Shinji Shibayama of Nagisa Ni Te and Org Records. "It floats on layers of melody rather than rhythm, and in places it has an incomparable start of autumn melancholic atmosphere." - PSF.

Exias-J, The Experimental Improviser's Association Of Japan, are a group of young second generation experimental musicians who take up where sound thinkers like Masayuki Takayanagi, Kaoru Abe and Group Ongaku left off, focussing and redirecting their prodigious energies with the use of sonic binds, game plans, directed improvisations and sound-gorged group exchanges. The collective are centred around guitarist Hideaki Kondo, a ferocious player who deals in the same kind of feedback-delivered satori as Takayanagi, and drummer Naoto Nishizawa, whose liberated approach to time sacrifices none of the punctuating fury of rock drumming. This new region-specific DVD bundles three professionally filmed performances that extend particularly focussed vibrations into long, sustained investigations of various modes of freedom. Includes live at Classics, Tokyo July 21st 2004, live at Tonic, New York October 30th 2003 and live Grapefruit Moon, Tokyo April 17th 2005. 142 minutes.

Debut PSF solo album from Hideaki Kondo of Japanese improvisers Exias-J. Here Kondo plays 'gut guitar' and '10-string gut guitar' both solo and accompanied by Michio Karimata on flute, Jun Kawasaki on bass and Osamu Nomura on percussion. There are moments here that match the rolling majesty of Robbie Basho's thought circa The Falconer's Arms while others - specifically the bloodied interpretation of Masayuki Takayanagi's "Herdsman's Pipe Of Spain" - match avant fury with tactile string theory and moments of haunted, baroque space. One of the best sides to come out of this collective to date.

Heavyweight improvised session from three masters of modern tongue: guitarist/vocalist Keiji Haino, bassist Barre Phillips and drummer Sabu Toyozumi.

Heavyweight violin/piano/bass improvised trance from some of the hardest-thinking subterranean Japanese avantists. The way that Yoshizawa's unwieldy bass constructs are cocooned in scores of light by Takehisa Kosugi's (ex-Taj Mahal Travellers) violin and then exploded by Miyake's piano is fairly dazzling.

Second all-solo outing for liberated Japanese guitarist Kazuo Imai, the long-awaited follow-up to his thumping How Will We Change? Here the action is all derived from a fantastically manipulated nylon string guitar, using techniques that are way outside the usual post-Derek Bailey vectors. A stunning, singular document from this key thinker.

Debut release for this new Japanese underground ensemble that combine austere avant classical arcs of viola, piano, flute, guitar and percussion with sudden darts of improvised chamber jazz, Maher Shalal Hash Baz-esque idiot avant and deep psychedelic string work. “Another piece of ineffable mystery from the deepest bowels of the Tokyo underground. Led by flautist and guitarist Masahiro Deguchi, Gendai Sokkyo (the name means Contemporary Improvisation) are a group with no discernable history, who seem to have sprung from nothing to fully formed life. As the name suggests, the group showcase an improvisatory fusion of methodology and sound palette, drawing upon free jazz/free improvisation, avant rock moves and the textures of contemporary classical. An explosion of weird dynamics, suggestive in its inclusiveness and entirely psychedelic in its approach.” – PSF.

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.

New live duo CD that pairs saxophonist Tamio Shiraishi, one-time member of Fushitsusha, with the mysterious saxophonist/pianist/vocalist Mico from The No-Neck Blues Band. Shiraishi has a phenomenal facility with phantom upper-register squeals, developing a whole vocabulary from lonesome feedback highs ala Kaoru Abe or Masayoshi Urabe and Mico brings a wild ritual edge to the deal, exploding into jabbers of unknown tongue and ripping darts of breath from her saxophone. The disc compiles live performances from across the world recorded between 2001 and 2007. Comes in a glossy hard card gatefold sleeve.

New album from this Japanese saxophone outlaw, recorded live in August of 2007 in a converted saki brewery on the shores of Lake Biwa, with an orchestra of insects in attendance. This one has a massive depth of field to it, with blurry semi-audible environmental sounds positioned in various perspectives which Urabe by turns illuminates and obliterates. Some beautifully on-point playing here, running from tiny illuminated bubbles of breath through to gorgeous sunrise tones, with Urabe playing in a gentler and more straightforwardly gorgeous style than on previous releases. The second track features a guest appearance from Kiyoharu Kuwiyama of Kuwiyama-Kijima on metal-janks and cello, with Urabe switching to accordion, toy flute and harmonica. Recommended.

Follow-up to this Japanese psychedelic power trio's gob-smacking self-released debut. Their first full-length for PSF, this one almost outdoes Mainliner in terms of totally over-the-top fuzz-damaged production, with a bottom end that's as crunchy as Blue Cheer and as wiped-out as Nanjo Asahito's Christmas card list. The vocals are wild; aggressive, barked, monosyllabic and the lead guitar seems to coalesce out of distortion, tape warp and densely compacted highs and lows to birth serpentine forms that meld the time-warping potential of early Makoto Kawabata at his most formally extended with a more damaged punk rock/No Wave style that could almost be Les Rallizes Denudes-play-Germs-play-Motorhead with the addition of Billy TK for exaggerated axe ecstasy. Can't recall anything quite as adrenaline-charged and obliviously wasted as this since maybe one of the more brutal Univive sides. The guitarist/vocalist is called Mondo, they look like the Scientists circa Atom Bomb Baby, there are four massive tracks on the disc that never let up with the fuzz=satori stance and it all comes packaged in a hard card shrunken LP style sleeve with Obi. It's at times like this when you remember all over again why PSF is the greatest label in the world. Highly recommended.

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.

New much-anticipated instalment in Keiji Haino's on-going investigation into electrified hurdy-gurdy as mind-flailing sonic reducer. This one feels like more of a rapprochement with the traditional sound of the instrument itself, with a richer, more traditionally articulated sound across five tracks. There are a bunch of different strategies at work, with swarms of dense drone giving way to spidery, micro-orchestral passages that cross silence with tiny webs of lucid harmonic detail, epic, jarring string work that sounds like a fucked and free take on the viol music of William Lawes and cranky, tactile folk-melodies slowly torn apart by roughhouse string sonorities and wheezing overtones. Outside of his guitar wielding persona and the zoned medieval drones of Nijiumu, Haino's hurdy-gurdy material makes for some of his most immersive and psychedelic work and this is easily his most mesmerising future-primitive marriage of hurdy-gurdy and electricity to date. Comes with excellent English liner notes by Biba Kopf. Highly recommended.

New archival DVD that bundles two complete shows - the last two Tokyo performances of the legendary Japanese underground trio Kousokuya. Both gigs take place at Shinjuku JAM, one on May 1st and the other on October 18th. The October 18th performance was previously available as a CD on the band's own Ray Night Music imprint. Both sets feature the classic line-up of the late Jutok Kaneko on guitar and vocals, Mick on bass and vocals and Ikuro Takahashi (Fushitsusha et al) on drums. The first set sees the group in stripped down psychedelic/doom mode with three pulverising re-thinks of central tracks, "Removal", "Breaking Suffering Song" and "The Dark Spot". The second set is remarkable for a whole bunch of reasons. It's the longest live set from Kousokuya yet, with seven tracks that span all of their best material - "The Miracle", "Ray", "On Waking" - and it features the group on their most extended form. Kaneko teases out every single track with endlessly poignant feedback ribbons and the kind of grinding metal guitar riffs that would combine monolithic power with fluxing space/time moves. Takahashi plays some of his most rocking drum breaks and Mick nails the whole thing to the floor with a full-on black hole bass style. But what's most affecting is the comparative lightness of touch that Kaneko has on the guitar, teasing delicate, unpredictable chord patterns from a mess of fuzz and embroidering even the most forbidding power-blues dirges with lucid, ornate chord shapes. "Breaking Suffering Song" never sounded so... baroque. One of the most amazing things about Kousokuya was their command of odd, staggered time signatures and it’s illuminating to see the physical genesis of their original rhythm-clashing style. The whole deal is professionally filmed in colour and comes with a menu and individually edited tracks in a DVD case with a booklet featuring English lyric translations by Alan Cumings and a region-free DVD. It's an extremely poignant and very powerful farewell to one of the all-time great rock bands of the modern age. Highly recommended.

International big-band summit from a group led by Japanese folk spirit Kan Mikami and featuring female Korean percussionist Heyon Shin, Tsugaru Shamisen virtuoso Michihiro Sato (who has played with Keiji Haino and John Zorn), drummer Toshi Ishizuka (Vajra et al) and Toshiki Sawada.

Nanjo Asahito’s High Rise were the original Psychedelic Speed Freaks that gave the PSF label their name and their aesthetic, with Ikeezumi founding the imprint with the specific intent of documenting their insane take on extended psychedelic punk. Their glory years were the mid-80s, specifically 1986 where they recorded their classic album, High Rise 2. This fantastic archival (region free) DVD catches the band at the peak of their hyper-exaggerated powers, with the line-up that cut the second album powering their way through a 1986 set that combines outrageous explosions of wah-wah guitar with everything-in-the-red aesthetics and a look that combines freak-out Detrotisms with Velvets cool. Still one of the all-time great psychedelic punk groups, this DVD is a timely reminder of why they blew so many minds when they first turned up via bootleg LPs in the west. Recommended.

Gorgeous live performance from two of the most important musical thinkers to come out of the Tokyo underground, Tori and Reiko Kudo of Noise, Maher Shalal Has Baz et al. This is a live performance, recorded at the same show as the simultaneously-issued Ai Aso album and it features Tori on piano and Reiko on vocals. Tori’s piano style is a as radical and potentially revolutionary as Cecil Taylor’s, breaking time in the middle of phrases, combining solemn, hymn-like chord structures with sudden blasts of cluster-fuck power chords and developing melancholic arcs of song from simple three note patterns. Reiko’s vocal are highly charged, flower-frail but full of pathos and gentle poignancy and she combines material from her solo albums with earlier work and new compositions. One of the most stripped-down and ‘purest’ of Reiko and Tori’s recordings: if you like your Maher intimate and beautifully sad then this is the ticket. Recommended.

Two totally *wailing* 30 minute plus tracks of narcotic guitar evisceration from this prodigious Chinese psychedelic/noise guitarist. Described as an “avant garde mandala” this is closest to Munehiro Narita’s splurging freeform wah-wah attack style, with Jianhong tearing screaming melodic guitar patterns from a vortex of fuzz suspended over a doomy single note drone. The second track has a more screaming E-bow drone style that is nicely brain rearranging. Easily the most full-on psych out/PSF style release from Jianhong this far.

Woah – some kinda upheaval in the ranks of Miminokoto results in the replacement of Masami Kawaguchi with Suzuki Junzo (Astral Travelling Unit/Overhang Party) on guitar and vocals and then they only go and cut an unbelievable album for PSF with no less than two (!) cover versions of Kousokuya tracks penned by the late Jutok Kaneko. To say that this is precisely my kinda deal is state the bleeding obvious. One of the things that always made Miminokoto stand out was the languorous, sun-swallowing vocal style of Kawaguchi and Junzo does a great job of approximating his post-Jim Morrison style. Of course no one can play Kaneko material with quite the brokedown gravity of Kaneko himself but these fantastic re-thinks (of “Hour Of Death” and “Farside Of The Dream” specifically) demonstrate what a fantastic and talented composer he was. Still miss him. Miminokoto’s own tracks are totally classic and they have the feel of an earlier generation of PSF artists, with doomy death-decadent ballads soaked in reverb while single chords hang in the air and Junzo’s vocals waft around them like smoke. The lead guitar work is totally thrilling and the rhythm section of bassist Takuya Nishimura and drummer Koji Shimura have that classic minimal/explosive style down to a teardrop. A classic PSF side, an amazing reinvention, this is the sound of the psychedelic Japanese underground. Highly recommended.

First completely solo album from Japanese folk spirit, gambler, actor, pin-up, painter and decadent poet Kazuki Tomokawa in 16 years. Consisting of just vocals and acoustic guitar, A Bumpkin’s Empty Bravado was recorded after an illness where Tomokawa was advised to temporarily give up drinking and smoking in order to save his life. Tomokawa is one of the great contemporary vocal stylists and the force and conviction of his delivery is so powerful that it effortlessly transcends the language barrier. His song-writing here is inspired, with melodies that sound a little like classic Dylan made a bit more elastic and given tougher phrasing. The bulk of the material feels like timeless folk-simple melodies re-birthed as vehicles for dark, surrealist violence and to counter the force of his striking vocal delivery he delivers some particularly tender guitar picking alongside this classic driving ballad style. Comes with a fold-out poster sleeve featuring art from Tomokawa and sleevenotes and lyrics in both English and Japanese. Highly recommended.

Solo piano album from Tori Kudo of Worst Noise/Guys N Dolls/Maher Shalal Hash Baz et al. Tori’s style relates to both free jazz and classical composition, albeit elevating ‘errors’ to the status of creative prima materia. Some of his playing here sounds a little bit like Muhal Richard Abrams’ early AACM recordings, that same slightly off sense of melancholy, a quality which the boxy nature of the recording gives further emphasis to, giving the performance a nice alone-in-a-room ambience. Kudo plays fairly gently, chasing fortuitous ghostly ideas up and down the keyboard, now stuck on a simple repeating melody, now spreading out into elegiac waves of stumbling exegesis. The title comes from a piano performance piece (not sure if it’s the one on the CD) where Kudo played the piano while a dancer danced in and out of a cut-out frame.

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.

Debut PSF album from this improvising trio based in Tokyo. Bon no Kubo appeared on the Tokyo Flashback 7 compilation and released their first album, 1^st, in 2008. A trio of guitar, contrabass and percussion, the group take inspiration from the Incus label and Company Week ethos while extending it into specifically Japanese modes that “aim at the sublime”. Some of the playing is fairly aggressively nuanced and the interaction is unequivocal but there’s also a sense of space, of distance, that gives the music a baroque grace, even as Naoto Yamagishi disembowels the cello and Masahiko Ota darts across the guitar. Shrunken LP style sleeves with obi and insert.

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.

New studio album from Korean folk spirit Kim Doo Soo. Soo’s previous LP/CD on PSF broke a lot of hearts and his subsequent inclusion on Damon & Naomi’s International Sad Hits helped to raise his profile while contextualising him alongside PSF stalwarts like Kazuki Tomokawa and Kan Mikami. Soo’s guitar playing has something of Nick Drake’s easy flowing style and his vocals are extremely fragile, a wraithlike voice somewhere between Tim Hardin, Pip Proud and Ed Askew. He channels timeless melodies – echoes of traditional folk and loner psych styles, Leonard Cohen-esque downer ballads – into ornate arrangements that bolster the acoustic guitar and vocals with Dylan-esque harmonica, cello, keyboards, bass and horn. Beautifully packaged in hard card gatefold sleeves.