Bleak Bliss: May 2021

Merzbow - Tapestry Of Noise

The Japanese label Slow Down Records / スローダウンRecords came as a surprise to me. Until a couple of years ago, I didn't know anything about them ... and then a steady stream of remasters from the Masami Akita archives started to turn up. Initially, they were an avalanche of single CD realeases and a bit later those same releases were gathered together into six CD boxsets. Same thing sold twice but if you missed them the first time they are invaluable. This is a collection of works from around 1990 / 1991. The first disc is Cloud Cock OO Grand which had it's own ZSF release and then was versioned as part of the immortal Merzbox. This is a different work again. The other five discs I don't remember hearing before. It's the wonderful work of a true legend.

A six CD set on スローダウンRecords from 2019.

he's come to take me back

mega option

Ché-SHIZU - 約束はできない (I Can't Promise)

Debut LP by Chie Mukai's astounding acid/psych/folk/post-punk, first released on LP in 1984 and reissued on CD by Alchemy in 2001, though it might have fit right into what Rough Trade were doing as the same time. Mukai's kokyu rules this album, a sound not typically (ever?) heard in music like this. She's joined by the legendary Tori Kudo (Noise, Maher Shalal Hash Baz) on guitar and piano and Takuya Nishimura (Miminokoto) plays bass.

I Can't Promise

John R. Spykes - Boxed Inn Volume One

A C10 and a C60 and a CDr from the indefatigable John Olson.

Self-released in 2020 in an edition of twelve.

Boxed Inn

mega option

The Comes - Live 1982-1984

Right in the early days ...

Double CD released on SS Recordings in 2008.

Live 1982-1984

mega option

John R. Spykes - Boxed Inn Volume Two

So, John Olson folded American Tapes and left a vast trail of heart-broken sobbing subterraneans in it's wake ... and basically just carried on doing his thing ...

A C34 and a CDr that was self-released on 2020 in an edition of 23.

Boxed Inn

mega option

The Comes - Live 1985-1986

Resurrected live recordings from this legendary hardcore punk outfit ...

Double CD released on SS Recordings in 2010.

Live 1985-1986

mega option

The Spykes - Winter Wonder 1

Never let it be said that we don't have an unquenchable adoration for all things John Olson. The Winter Wonder tapes all shared the same catalogue number and mark the penultimate releases on American Tapes before he wound the label up ... inzanely, that was seven years ago?

C60 released on American Tapes in 2014.

It's AM998 btw

mega option

The Spykes - Winter Wonder 2

C50 released on American Tapes in 2014.

It's AM998 btw

mega option

The Spykes - Winter Wonder 3

C90 released on American Tapes in 2014.

It's AM998 btw

mega option

The Spykes - Winter Wonder 4

C60 released on American Tapes in 2014.

It's AM998 btw

mega option

The Spykes - Winter Wonder 5

C60 released on American Tapes in 2014.

It's AM998 btw

mega option

The Spykes - Winter Wonder 6

C54 released on American Tapes in 2014.

It's AM998 btw

mega option

The Spykes - Winter Wonder 7

C82 released on American Tapes in 2014.

It's AM998 btw

mega option

The Spykes - Winter Wonder 8

C60 released on American Tapes in 2014.

It's AM998 btw

mega option

The Spykes - Winter Wonder 9

C50 released on American Tapes in 2014.

It's AM998 btw

mega option

The Spykes - Winter Wonder 10

C46 released on American Tapes in 2014.

It's AM998 btw.

mega option

Sekiri - Sekiri Box

A retrospective of the brilliant all female post-punk-punk Sekiri.

A 9 CD and 1 DVD unofficial boxset released on Youth, Inc. in 2013.

赤痢匣

mega option

GX Jupitter-Larsen with The New Blockaders - Live At The Schimpfluch Carnival

Self-explanatory release apart from the fact that Ace Farren Ford (who was in Smegma) joins in the procedings on the B Side.

LP released on Tourette Records in 2015.

Live At The Schimpfluch Carnival

The Nihilist Spasm Band - Last Concert In Japan

A live recording equally split from gigs on March 19th and March 20th, 2016 at the legendary Shinjuku Pit Inn. This time around, Aya Ohnishi is in full charge of the drum kit.

CD released on Alchemy Records in 2016.

Last Concert In Japan

The Nihilist Spasm Band - Live In Japan

If you don't know these people them where have you been? This was recorded in various locations in Japan in 1996. As another bonus, on the nearly 14 minute version of Here-Not Here, Jojo Hiroshige is on guitar and then on Hesitation, Aya Ohnishi (previously of Sekiri) joins John Clement on drums.

CD released on Alchemy Records in 1997.

Live In Japan

Boredoms - Super 77 / Super Sky

The first side is manipulated baby noise. Literally. It's genius. Slip this into a normal's dinner party and step back. The second side is pure mid-period Boredoms godhead.

Lossless what's the point? Well, if you own this vinyl or have a digital conversion and your one sounds better than this then create a good backstory and teach us alchemy. I have some decent kit but this sounds better than my own vinyl. I played my vinyl today as a comparison so I have an opinion.

LP at 24/96.

If that's a problem for you then don't tell anybody. To quote Dan in the most incisive comment that has ever been made here: "What are you using to download? A fucking potato?"

beams are gonna blind me

Boredoms - Michidai / Fuanteidai

Apparently part of a UFO Or Die recording that was deemed unfit for release and became a Boredoms single. Imagine a young Captain Beefheart Butthole Surfing.

A 24/96 rip of the 7" released on Public Bath in 1990.

Michidai / Fuanteidai

Sakevi + Jojo - Mammalia

There's a temporary issue with Mrs Inside's links. As a diversion ... how about this rare and gorgeous thing?

LP released on Rest Records in 1987 and ripped to 24/96.

Mammalia

Various - 錬金術 - Alchemy Noise Omnibus

So. If you are one of the poeple / the only person that complains about format and file size you can still fuck off. If you are one of those misguided individuals that thinks that there is no point in lossless then quite probably you can fuck off as well. However. This is the opportunity to (if necessary) redeem yourselves.

This is top and tailed by Sakevi (aka Shigehisa Yokoyama who was in G.I.S.M. and S.K.V.) and in between you get (Kazuyuki Kishino) Null, The Hanatarashi, High-Rise and Hijokaidan with John Duncan. The High-Rise seems to be from an inferior source compared with the rest but that makes minimal difference ... this is a 24/96 rip of the vinyl so it's a big file.

A rare as dodo shit LP released on Alchemy Records in 1985.

Renkinjutsu

Zettai Reido - III 1981-1982

So ... logically?

Another double CD released on Super Fuji Discs in 2013.

Zettai Reido

Zettai Reido - II 1980-1981

Information deficit alert: but ... you release a self-titled 7" in 1980 and then it takes 33 years for them to appear again? So is Zettai Reido II the second release because I can't find a Zettai Reido I if you see what I mean. It sounds like a mix of unreleased studio and live archive and praise be the archivists!

Double CD released on Super Fuji Discs (who else) in 2013.

absolute zero plus one

Zettai Reido - Zettai Reido

There's an admirable Killing Joke / Magazine vibe with occasional Laurie Anderson synths going on here. This is quite possibly the only thing they released in their lifetime but it's impossible to know why because it's brilliant. The main person behind the band is Wataru Ōkuma, who was in Ché-SHIZU and A-Musik amongst many others. An appetiser for what will follow.

A 7" released on Junk Connection in 1980. The scans of the flipbook are included btw.

絶対零度

Various - Digital Catastroph 1997

This is a double CD that could easily be sunggled onto one. In this case, physically seperating them works. The second disc is the original recordings with the first the remixes. So ... Violent Onsen Geisha + D.M.B.Q. remixed by Alec Empire will drag you in to explore the rest. Or not. No one cares either way.

Courtesy of ZK Records in 1997.

Digital Catastroph

Les Rallizes Dénudés - Double Heads

A snapshot of the psychedlic scuzz masters with three gigs within seven months between 1980 and 1981.

A six CD set released on the grey area Univive in 2007.

heads you win. tails you whine

Various - Anthology 1: Come Organisation Archives 1979-1981

The cover suggests the presence of Bradford Red Light District. However, that is the name of the LP by The New Order who are two former members of Come and Whitehouse and have nothing at all to do with the incredibly irrelevant disco / caberet act with a similar name.

A double CD released on Sue Lawley in 1998. It's definitely MP3 ... promise!

Come Not Coum

Akira Toyonaga & Charles Hayward - Punk

Scratchy, odd duo album by Charles Hayward (of This Heat & Camberwell Now) and guitarist Akira Toyonaga (of Romp). Released on CD in 2016 by Jigen Productions.

Akira Toyonaga & Charles Hayward - Punk

Various - Anthology 2: Come Organisation Archives 1981-1982

Forty year old recordings showing what the world could have been like if the culture hadn't been shaped by the fucking beatles.

CD released on Sue Lawley in 2001. It's not MP3.

Come not Coum 2

Various - エレキの節穴～Electricholeye

There's a book/cd thing called Japanese Independent Music that I bought a long time ago. It describes OZ Music as an "absurdity of the punk / junk nihilist mill". Sounds great to me but unfortunately I haven't got to heard much of that output yet. OZ Music also had two sublabels: Daily Buy Or Die that released a tape on every day of 1995 (possibly all C10s). So yes, 365 tapes in one year (thanks for keeping up) and then nothing after that; and, E.H.E whose catalogue doesn't really appear to have been catalogued very much.

So. This is a double CD released on E.H.E in 1995. You get things like Sunshine Super Scum, Violent Onsen Geisha, Asshole Blues Players, Koji Asano and loads more. It's not MP3 btw.

i spy with my electric eye something beginning with wtf

Various - Bikkuri Suizokukan

I'm not going to describe this much because I can't.

Originally an LP on Japan Records in 1985. This is the CD reissue on Wax Records in 1990. It's not MP3 but it is inexplicably brilliant.

ビックリ水族館

va - Inflation (*0 0.000 Remix)

Two CDs of remixes from the album "0.000" by *0 (aka Nosei Sakata), which was largely inaudible high tones and silence. This 2002 release came out at the end of the "lowercase" fashion, a sort of post-Bernhard Gunter love of extreme sparseness and low volume. Includes tracks by Merzbow, Taylor Deupree, Bernhard Gunter, Immedia, Richard Chartier, Steve Roden, Duul_Drv, Koji Asano, Dale Lloyd, Immedia (whose album for Line is an overlooked gem), John Hudak, Stephan Matthieu, Marc Behrens, Kim Cascone, Akira Rabelais, Zbigniew Karkowski, Aube, Hsi-Chuang-Cheng, Kozo Inada and two tracks by *0 himself.

va - Inflation (*0 0.000 Remix)

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