GZ are fronted by fabled Japanese sampler/guitar terrorist Otomo Yoshihide. This is one of the best by them I've heard. It starts with sampled (?) futozao shamisen that slowly builds up constantly, in added instrumentation & i...

“On Nova Naturo, Japan's Haco expands her already divergent song craft into a zone that meshes field recording, electronics and layers of floating voice into an imagined sound environment that encourages a sense of a deepened interior terrain.
Haco's work in groups including the now legendary After Dinner and Hoahio have earned her a unique and respected position in the Japanese music communities, but it is with her solo work that she has unlocked an utterly unique and deeply personal approach to...

"This album is gorgeous. I picked it up expecting some crazy experimental thing because it's a Haco project, but what I ended up hearing was an achingly beautiful collaboration of slow, climaxing songs, inventive string technique, and head-bobbing goodness. This is a really, really good disc."-Eon Fontes May

"Charismatic singer, lyricist and performer Haco came to the fore in the early 80s with the group After Dinner, a sublime incarnation of surreal, direct, and offbeat Japanese/European pop...

FULL TITLE: Each side has a depth of 5 seconds A polka dot pattern in horizontal array A flickering that moves vertically; wouldn’t want you to feel left out.

“The trio of Keiji Haino, Jim O'Rourke, and Oren Ambarchi return to Black Truffle with their tenth release, recorded live in Tokyo in February, 2017. While many of the trio's recent works have seen them focusing primarily on their core guitar/bass/drums power trio format, on Each side has a depth of 5 seconds A polka dot pattern in...

“Full title: A Loss Permitted To Open Its Eyes For But Three Hours And There Glimpsed, Finally In Focus A Mystery That Begs Earnestly, "Ask Me Nothing" Now, Once More The Problem Is Yours Alone.

Experimental music pioneer Keiji Haino, one of the most mysterious and influential figures to emerge from the Japanese psychedelic underground, teams up with Charles Hayward, British drummer and founding member of This Heat and Camberwell Now, on a new live album.
A Loss Permitted... comprises a...

“Full title: In the past only geniuses were capable of staging the perfect crime (also known as a revolution) Today anybody can accomplish their aims with the push of the button.
For its 50th release, Black Truffle presents the ninth album from one of the label's core ensembles, the power trio of Keiji Haino, Jim O'Rourke, and Oren Ambarchi.
Drawn from a November 2015 performance at Tokyo's now-defunct SuperDeluxe, the record's opening piece drops us immediately into the maelstrom, abruptly...

"Japan’s fearless multi-instrumentalist and cultural provocateur Keiji Haino has made a career out of his free-form musical improvisations and diverse collaborations. Whether deconstructing American blues to a few rogue notes hanging across chasms of empty space in his solo endeavors, sparring with the nebulous fringes of psychedelia in Fushitsusha, or teaming up with musicians like Faust, Boris, Jim O’Rourke, Stephen O’Malley, John Zorn, and Peter Brötzmann for fleeting aural experiments. Haino’s work....

"The controversial work which stepped into the forbidden territory of editing the performance of Haino Keiji. Yoshida breaks up their studio session boldly and restructures it from the unacceptable tune reproduced by extreme editing to the pop song...

“The official reissue of Motohiko Hamase's extremely rare live album Anecdote, recorded in 1987. Anecdote was recorded live June 12th, 1987 at Spiral Garden (Wacoal Art Center) in Aoyama (Tokyo) as part of the Eat Newsic Concert No.3. Motohiko Hamase on electric fretless bass, synthesizers, and computer programming, is accompanied by frequent collaborators Toshio Kaji on acoustic piano and synthesizers, and Yasunori Yamaguchi (of #Notes of Forestry fame) on acoustic percussions.
The three-man band....

Happy Family are a Japanese instrumental quartet (keyboards, guitar, bass, drums) who are influenced by groups such as Magma, Univers Zero, Weidorje, King Crimson & Area. If you can imagine a full CD's worth of the kind of inspired playing & intensity ...

This title has been out of print for ages, but in anticipation of their new, third album, we made one last printing. Here it is, with the previously Japanese-only bonus track "Dear My Daughter", while they last!

Happy Family are a Japanese...

"A reissue of High Rise's II, originally released in 1986. High Rise exploded onto Tokyo's underground music scene with the roar and reckless abandon of a motorcycle accelerating headlong into a dead man's curve. Born from the explosive chemistry of bassist/vocalist Asahito Nanjo and frenetic guitarist Munehiro Narita, the band blazed a wild new stream of psychedelic guitar music. Their second album is a defining document of the band and unquestionably one of the greatest albums to emerge from 20th...

''A founding member of the legendary band After Dinner, Haco is one of the most versatile vocalists in the Japanese indies scene. Her newest project, Hoahio, finds her collaborating with two of the most exciting young musicians in Tokyo: koto virtuoso ...

"Indifferent is only the second studio release from Japanese symph-rockers Interpose+, but quite a bit of history lies behind this group: formed in the mid-1980s by guitarist Kenji Tanaka and drummer Katsu Sato, Interpose performed in a variety of...

"The second in a series of releases by the legendary downtown pioneer Teiji Ito presents his postmodern masterpiece Tenno, blending Japanese, African, Carribean and Western musical instruments with sound effects, voice and electronics to create...

Makoto Kawabata - electric guitar
RG Rough – electronics

“A collaboration between Makoto Kawabata (leader of the legendary Japanese psychedelic band, Acid Mothers Temple) and the French/British multi-instrumentalist RG Rough. The pair create an unsettling sonic jungle in which Makoto's guitar drones multiply, intertwine, and collide with a wide variety of electronic and concrete sounds and percussion. On two occasions a soft, sleepy sounding voice comes out of nowhere and whispers a strange...

Hot instrumental Japanese fusion trio on guitars/synths, bass and drums. While everybody plays well, the emphasis is on the soaring guitar work. Maybe a bit comparable to mid 90's style Kenso with much less emphasis on keyboards, and with a bit of Bran...

Haino Keiji is a mysterious psychedelic minstrel who has been performing his peculiar blend of rock, medieval music and improvisation since the early 1970s. Incredibly prolific, he has headed dozens of bands and released hundreds of CDs on a variety of...

To anyone who has heard the music of Kikagaku Moyo, it should come as no surprise that the band's origins lie in hours upon hours of late-night jamming, illuminated by nothing more than the geometric patterns playing behind the band's eyelids, resulting in a natural, free-floating sound, as of-the-earth as it is intergalactic. It may be surprising that the band sharpened their improvisational skills by busking on the streets of their native Tokyo. It may be surprising that the band's overall sound may...

Their last release!

"In many ways Kumoyo Island represents the culmination of a journey for Kikagaku Moyo. While their decade-long career can be summarized as a series of kaleidoscopic explorations through lands and dimensions far and near, there's a strong intention in each of their works to take the listener to a particular place, however real or abstract they may be. In that sense, the title and cover art for the band's fifth and final album draws you into a magical mass of land surrounded by...

"This is the third album by Osamu Kitajima, one of Japan's most prolific artists from the ethno rock, world music, and progressive department. You certainly cannot divide all the mentioned stylistic aspects from each other for they were all incorporated in these complex arrangements and homogeneous sound. It is the same with his other albums like 1976's Benzaiten and or his fourth album, 1980's Masterless Samurai; traditional Japanese music meets Western jazz-rock and progressive sounds to form a new...

Yoshida Tatsuya: drums, vocals
Sakamoto Kengo: bass & voice
Kanazawa Miyako: keyboards & voice
Yamamoto Kyoko: vocals
Komori Keiko: reeds & voice

“This new edition of Koenjihyakkei's landmark fourth album, (which includes 3 live bonus tracks) follows the release of 2018's critically acclaimed "Dhorimviskha". Japan's Koenjihyakkei blend progressive rock, jazz fusion, symphonic rock and neoclassicism with the energy of hardcore punk, the volume of metal and the attitude of...

This is a re-working of the unavailable 3rd release by this Ruins offshoot project, led by Tatsuya Yoshida-drums, vocals, with Jin Harada-guitar, Sakamoto Kengo- bass, Oguchi Kenichi-keyboards (of Kenso) & Sagara Nami (soprano voice).
While not quite a Magma-derived as their first, this is still a wild race into Zeuhl territory, with all the throbbing bass, wild, Vander-inspired drumming, & Kobaian-via-Japan singing you could hope for. Really nice & powerful! For better or worse, it has been....

A second CD of astounding vocal acrobatics by one of the most original singers in the world. A master of every conceivable vocal technique both imaginable and unimaginable, Makigami fuses the avant garde with Tuuvan throat singing, cartoon music, Japan...

"Composer/producer/actor/director/vocalist extraordinaire Makigami Koichi is one of Japan’s most charismatic performers. His solo vocal pyrotechnics and dynamic band Hikashu have thrilled audiences the world over. Combining extended vocal techniques...