UPCOMING Releases

NEW Releases

	PSFDV-1002 High Rise / Live 1986 DVD Released: February 20, 2009 First High Rise DVD! Featuring the classic line-up of Munehiro Narita (gtr), Asahito Nanjo (bs), and Yuro Ujiie (ds).	$20
	PSFD-186 Satoshi Sonoda / Early Works of Satoshi Sonoda 1977-1978 [Memories of Yasushi Ozawa] Released: February 20, 2009 Memorial album for the late Fushitsusha bassist, Yasushi Ozawa, who passed away last year. The album collects recordings from the late seventies made by Ozawa's friend and musical collaborator Satoshi Sonoda. A vital document of the late seventies scene, featuring performances by members of Gaseneta, ANALkISS, GAP, etc.	$18
	PSFD-185 Ai Aso / Aida Released: February 20, 2009 Recorded live, with a special appearance by Go Hirano. Unforced naturalism, untrammelled freshness of sensibility, and that unique wavering vocal fluctuation.	$18
	PSFD-184 Reiko Kudo & Tori Kudo / Kore kara Released: February 20, 2009 Recorded live in Tokyo in November last year, a set of crushing beautiful real songs, utterly devoid of commercialism but replete with the beauty and sadness of daily life.	$18
	PSFD-183 Schistosoma Japonica / Kankei UFO from Zanryu-shinen Released: January 5, 2009 Performer Ichiro Kawamoto Performer Wataru Kasahara Performer Toshiya Ishida Volume 3 in the ongoing Japanese Avant-Garde Cassette Reissue Series. The 80s and early 90s saw a great deal of fascinating and exiting material released on cassette in the Tokyo underground. While some of the more noise-orientated stuff enjoyed a modicum of international distribution, the avant-garde material generally did not. This series, whose first release was Iro / Tamafuri (PSFD-180), aims to rescue the best of this material from historical oblivion. Schitosoma Japonica (AKA Nihon Juketsu Kyuchu) were a cracked avant-garde, recording-only offshoot of the freeform rock band Amanita. Formed around 1990, the group lived a communal existence in Saitama, on the northern borders of Tokyo, experimenting with music, magic and psychological experiments. "Our basic performance style was completely freeform, utilizing prepared instruments and rejecting regular rhythms and melodic development. Our abiding themes were communication with the afterlife/cosmos and the manifestation of paranormal accidents. We would jam endlessly until our performance space was filled with the 'signs of blood and feverish becomings'. For us, performance was a kind of ritual." The group released a clutch of barely distributed cassettes in tiny editions. This CD compiles the best of them, sifting through the detritus of a technological society to float between noise, drone and ritualized avant-garde gestures. Eight tracks, fifty-four minutes. Liner notes in English and Japanese.	$18
	PSFD-182 Toukasei-Bunshi / Meta-Inorganicmatter Meta-Newlon Released: January 15, 2009 Performer: Hironari Iwata Volume 2 in the ongoing Japanese Avant-Garde Cassette Reissue Series. The 80s and early 90s saw a great deal of fascinating material released on cassette in the Tokyo underground. While some of the more noise-orientated stuff enjoyed a modicum of international distribution, the avant-garde material generally did not. This series, whose first release was Iro / Tamafuri (PSFD-180), aims to rescue the best of this music from historical oblivion. Toukaseibunshi (Permeable Molecule) was an ultra-mysterious solo unit created by Hironari Iwata. Iwata was a footnote figure in the world of Japanese avant-garde/noise from the mid to late eighties. As well as Toukaseibunshi, he also recorded under the name Haiginsha, ran the Angakok cassette label and wrote for various magazines. There's an unshowy stoicism to Iwata's investigation of drone, clank and crackling sustain, a deep seriousness of purpose that beguiles as much as it confounds. Six tracks, fifty-eight minutes. Gatefold papersleeve.	$18
	PSFDV-1001 Kosokuya / Live at Shinjuku JAM, 2006 (DVD) Released: November 21, 2008	$20
	PSFD-8029 Keiji Haino / Koitsukara usetaitameno hakarigoto Released: October 15, 2008 New solo hurdy-gurdy disk -- the first solo Haino release in over two years! Third album of devastating solo electric hurdy-gurdy for Haino, following on from The 21st Century Hard-Y-Guide-Y Man (PSFD-68, 1996) on PSF, and Even Now, Still I Think (Tokuma, 1998). The hand-cranked medieval instrument provides the perfect tool for Haino to display his genre-collapsing originality, allowing multiple dimensions of rhythm, noise, drone, harmony and melody to co-exist, majicked from the invisible interstices of the ancient past and modernity, the individual and the volk mindc Fully immersive, properly psychedelic, truly original. Five tracks, 66 minutes. Includes English liner notes by Biba Kopf.	$18
	PSFDV-4 Maher Shalal Hash Baz with Masami Shinoda / Koshi kudake no inu (DVD) Released: September 21, 2008 Guitar, vocals, organ, drums, trumpet-Tori Kudo Alto sax, flute-Masami Shinoda Euphonium, ocarina-Hiro Nakazaki Bass-Hirofumi Mitani Drums-Kanji Nakao Guitar, bass-Takuya Nishimura Enticing archival document of an early (1987) show by wide-eyed mystics Maher Shalal Hash Baz at Kid Ailack Art Hall, Tokyo. The visuals provide a rare and valuable opportunity to pick apart the working methods of one of the Japanese undergroundfs most truly original and agile thinkers, Tori Kudo. In Maher Shalal Hash Baz he took the heterophonic voicings, the deliberately fluctuating rhythmic mis-steps and the non-unison unison so characteristic of Japanese traditional music and re-applied them to idiot savant mini-hymns arranged for electric guitar, euphonium, ocarina and organ. Itfs a music that exists in a unique world of its own, alternately donning and shedding the armour of rock and jazz. Another major draw is the presence of the late Masami Shinoda on alto sax. Shinoda was an important, though largely unsung, figure in the history of the Tokyo underground during the eighties and nineties, showing up in all manner of groups from punk iconoclasts Jagatara and Pungo, to his own experiments with chindon marching advertising bands. He spent a few years in Maher in the eighties and this DVD captures the innocent joy and rapturous invention he brought to their music. 24 tracks, 75 minutes.	$25
	PSFD-181 Ryojiro Furusawa & Kan Mikami / Buriki/Tin Released: September 21, 2008 Guitar, vocals-Kan Mikami Drums-Ryojiro Furusawa A sparse and stripped-back yet fully impassioned meditation on time, history and freedom. Surreal folk meets free jazz. Two tracks, including a 24 minute, one-take masterpiece. Ryojiro Furusawa is one of Japanfs most respected jazz drummers, having played from the late 60s with everyone from Yosuke Yamashita and Sadao Watanabe to Yuji Imamura, Maki Asakawa and Shang Shang Typhoon. Hefs also been a long time collaborator with Kan Mikami, appearing on Kanfs Bang! album in 1974. Kan Mikami is Japanfs wisest and wildest folk-poet, a surreal master of the non-sequieter blues, a worldclass howler of truth and passion. This is the duofs third album, following Shokugyo (1987) and Dereki (2007). Gatefold high-gloss papersleeve, including lyrics in Japanese and English.	$18
	PSFD-180 Iro / Tamafuri Released: May 21, 2008 Guitar, vocals - Shizuko Orimo Drums - Toshio Orimo An ultra mysterious blast from the deepest underground! Iro were (and still are) a little known shamanic improvisation unit, consisting of Kawasaki-based husband and wife Shizuko and Toshio Orimo. Formed in 1981, they released a number of cassette-only albums during the eighties. Deeply suspicious of the merest whiff of commercialism, they never took the opportunities for greater fame - in spite of some substantial media coverage in Japan at the time. The duo still perform today, in a more ethnic, esoteric ritual mode. Tamafuri was originally released on cassette on their own Shaman Label in 1985. It's a fantastically charged blend of ultra-propulsive ethnic drone, free jazz drumming with harsh noise textures and intense, almost possessed vocal incantations from Shizuko. As Takeo Udagawa puts it, "their high-energy improvisations feel intensely dangerous, like a nuclear reactor-core going into meltdown, throwing out waves of radiation and intense heat". A must for any true believer in the power of wailing blurt ? from Keiji Haino, to LAFMS, to Takayanagi. Comes with great contextual liner notes (in Japanese and English) by fringe music researcher Takeo Udagawa. And, yes, Shizuko and Toshio are indeed the parents of young shakuhachi sensation Sabu Orimo.	$18
	PSFD-179 Aural Fit / II Guitar, vocals- Mondo Bohachi Bass- Kenichi Endo Tanabe Drums - Teruhisa Nanbu The reincarnation of the in-the-red psych aesthetics of early High Rise. One of the biggest underground psych/noise rock discoveries of the last five years were Tokyo-based Aural Fit. A heavy, bludgeoning cudgel of a band, all distorted grime and redlined aggression, their 2004 self-released first album burst over the scene like a big bag of heavy spanners. They followed up with a track on Tokyo Flashback 5, but then line-up changes seemed to sideline their juddering, thundering rock juggernaut. Leader Mondo Bohachi has then went about reassembling the group from the ground up, and these are the first recorded results. If anything, it's even scarier, noisier and more rock than last time. 'Loud' and 'psychedelic' are still the watchwords, needles in the red all the way, and all the Stooges, Blue Cheer, TG etc references you might require are present and correct. Loud, vicious and dumb - it doesn't really get much murkier or animal-mind-melding than this. Turn it up.	$18
	PSFD-8028 Kazuki Tomokawa / Blue water, red water Vocals, Guitar-Kazuki Tomokawa Drums, Percussion-Toshiaki Ishizuka Piano, mandolin, accordion-Masato Nagahata Guitar-Taro Kanai Violin-Ayumi Matsui Tuba, Recorder-Takero Sekijima Cello-Hiromichi Sakamoto Latest album of devastating emotional transcendence from the Japanese underground's most lyrical singer-songwriter. Full of classic, richly textured songs of love, loss and stunned acquiescence to the wonders of the world. Alongside Tomokawa's regular collaborators Toshiaki Ishizuka and Masato Nagahata, the expanded group also includes Compostela-veteran Takero Sekijima on tuba and recorder, and improv-legend Hiromichi Sakamoto on cello. Includes Tomokawa's ending theme song for director Rokuro Mochizuki’s "Johnen EJo no Ai" Ea retelling of the Abe Sada story. Booklet includes lyrics in Japanese and English.	$18
	PSFD-178 Shizuka / Live/Traditional Aesthetics Vocals, Guitar - Shizuka Guitar - Miura Maki Bass - Seven Drums - Kosugi Jun Shizuka were THE great lost-in-action group of the Tokyo underground psych scene during the early to mid nineties. Led by doll-maker Shizuka, and with ex-Fushitsusha alumni Maki Miura and Jun Kosugi on hand, they created some of the most fragile and intense acid-rock of their time, but remained largely undocumented and under appreciated. This gig documented on this CD, recorded at Bears in Osaka in 1995, was long whispered of amongst the cognoscenti. It catches them at a near-divinely inspired peak of fucked-up narcotic bliss. Shizuka's uncanny vocals and tremulous sense of timing washing like brown sugar over fluid nebulae of guitar and drum nirvana, peaking and churning in perfect, weightless filigrees of light, cosmic cold and invisible motion. Miura's guitar playing is just jaw-dropping. Booklet includes lyrics in Japanese and English.	$18
	PSFD-177 Tamio Shiraishi / Live Duo & MICO Alto saxophone-Tamio Shiraishi Alto saxophone, piano molanica, etc-MICO A rare live album from one of the major names in the Japanese free noise underground ETamio Shiraishi. Shiraishi was one of the major movers in the free noise/underground rock/DIY improv Minor scene of the late 70s and early 80s that gave birth to so many of the major names in the Japanese underground. He was a pivotal member of a large number of groups associated with the scene, including Keiji Haino's Fushitsusha. But Shiraishi has rarely recorded and thus enjoys far less name recognition outside of Japan. He has lived in New York City for the past decade or so, collaborating with the likes of Sean Meehan and the No-Neck Blues Band. This compilation of live recordings captures Shiraishi live in Europe, the US and Japan between 2001 and 2007, together with NNCK member MICO. Forceful, intense, chaotic improvisations for saxophone, vocals, percussion, piano etc. Shiraishi's trademark ultra high-pitched dog-whistle sax and guttural vocals are showcased to full and outstanding effect.	$18
	PSFD-176 Vajra / Live 2007 Release Date: 03/20/2008 Guitar, Vocals: Keiji Haino Guitar, Vocals: Kan Mikami Percussion: Toshiaki Ishizuka First live album by the Japanese rock power trio to end all power trios EKan Mikami, Keiji Haino and Toshiaki Ishizuka!! This presents the group at a thrilling peak of their rock deconstruction-reconstruction praxis, one of those all too rare manifestations of the musical sublime. Mikami is in top blues testifying form, his voice a thing of cracked beauty and weathered power. Haino and Ishizuka infuse the songs with telepathic engagement Econstant layered motion, percussive blast-bombs and eruptions of black lava. Simply a ferocious record. Limited edition of 1000 in mini-LP style paper-sleeve.	$18
	PSFD-174 Masayoshi Urabe / Flag of Midsummer Alto saxophone, harmonica, chains, metal, accordion, bells, toy flute EMasayoshi Urabe Metal junk, cello, etc - Kiyoharu Kuwayama (track 2 only) A new solo album by Masayoshi Urabe is always a cause for rejoicing. This is his first since the frankly frightening Ware Wai Seidei No Kyojyo Zo on PSF in 2003. Urabe rarely plays live now, but this live album catches him in action last summer in a converted sakEbrewery on the shores of Lake Biwa, near Kyoto. The damp heat of midsummer in this part of Japan seems to have worked its magic on Urabe, and this is an altogether gentler performance than normal. Over one long solo track, he bends his breath and body to the air in his saxophone, his tones blending with the sound of the insects outside the venue. A shorter second track captures him in a rare outing on accordion, toy flute and harmonica together with Kiyoharu Kuwayama. Another radical, effortlessly convincing album from the master of contemporary rock n roll breathing.	$18
	PSFD-8027 Kan Mikami / Juw Release Date: 03/20/2008 Latest in PSF's popular long-running series of solo releases by Kan Mikami. It's another coruscating slab of truly individualist dada-folk-blues, obliquely twisted songcraft that refuses to pander to the banal realities of contemporary society. For those that choose to partake in its bounty, there's richness aplenty here - the utter devastation and the unbearable ecstasy of the quotidian, transmitted just through six strings and the sandpaper rasp of Kan's vocal chords.	$18
	PSFD-172 Ahousen / Ahousen Release Date: 12/25/2007 Katsu: guitar Suu: saxophone, voice Akira: bass Tail: drums Lunatic avant-free-rock, honed in guerrilla street performance. Debut album from one of the most exciting discoveries from the recent Tokyo Flashback 6 compilation. There's an entrancing sense of moon-kissed lunatic wildness about Ahousen (the group's name means Ship of Fools). Their avant-rock meets free jazz meets enka melancholic sound is entirely their own, a crazed communion with dead voices, honed to blistering perfection in guerrilla performance on the night-time streets of Shinjuku. For those of a genealogical bent, the group has some history. Guitarist Katsu played with original Tokyo Rockers legends Lizard in the seventies. Drummer Tail has played with Suishou no Fune.	$18
	PSFD-170 V.A. / Asian Flashback Featured groups/artists: Lia Jianhong, Munehiro Narita, Shoji Hano; Mustangs; Kiyasu Orchestra; Mafeisan; 10; Xiao Be; D!O!D!O!D!; Yukie Sato; Yoshiteru Koga Jizo; Kim Young Jin; Li Daiguo; Amature Amplifier; Soonie. First PSF compilation to focus on the linkages between the established underground scene in Japan and nascent ones in China and Korea. Politics and history had long prevented exchanges between the three countries, but in recent years increasing trade and cultural linkages have revealed exciting new synergies. Covers the breadth of new East Asian underground forms Ewhite-out noise, face-peeling free improvisation, lysergic rock, limpid acid folk, electronic tone float, coruscating punk, free jazz and avant-art moves. Features relatively established names like China's king of noise guitar Li-Jianhong andmotor-psych free-rock emperor Munehiro Narita, alongside a ton of utter unknown names.	$18
	PSFD-175 Kim Doo Soo / Ten Days Butterfly Release Date: 12/3/2007 Kim Doo Soo - guitar, vocals Kim Doo Soo is the deepest and most introspective of Korea's acid folk singers. Many are the legends that cling to his songs Epolitical oppression, alcoholism, suicide, a ten-year period of mountain seclusionEDespite having been active since the mid eighties and having released four acclaimed albums in Korea, most Western listeners only became aware of him through his tracks on the recent Damon & Naomi compilation, International Sad Hits. On Ten Days Butterfly, his fifth album, he mines productive veins of profound melancholy, animistic nature, and unfathomable, hermetic affection. The whole is couched in a veil of the most gorgeous still melodicism, Kim's vocals and guitar shaded with subtle accordion, violin, piano, organ and harmonica. A reflective and unearthly beautiful masterpiece. Also available on 180g double-vinyl.	$18
	PSFK-001-2 Kim Doo Soo / Ten Days Butterfly (2LP) Release Date: 12/10/2007 Available again! Kim Doo Soo - guitar, vocals Kim Doo Soo is the deepest and most introspective of Korea’s acid folk singers. Many are the legends that cling to his songs Epolitical oppression, alcoholism, suicide, a ten-year period of mountain seclusionEDespite having been active since the mid eighties and having released four acclaimed albums in Korea, most Western listeners only became aware of him through his tracks on the recent Damon & Naomi compilation, International Sad Hits. On Ten Days Butterfly, his fifth album, he mines productive veins of profound melancholy, animistic nature, and unfathomable, hermetic affection. The whole is couched in a veil of the most gorgeous still melodicism, Kim’s vocals and guitar shaded with subtle accordion, violin,	$60
	PSFD-173 Onna / Katawa Release Date: 12/3/2007 Keizo Miyanishi - guitar, vocals Kotei Penguin - electric guitar, violin Roiki - acoustic guitar, etc The musical alter ego of obsessive pointillist underground cartoonist and illustrator Keizo Miyanishi, Onna have been in varying liminal stages of musical existence/non-existence since the early eighties. Their bleak and nihilistic no-wave downer sound riveted the Tokyo scene of the time –an early line-up featured a pre-White Heaven Michio Kurihara. But after a couple of years and just one single, the group faded back into silence, becoming the stuff of rumour and faded memories. It was kind of shocking then to have a reformed Onna suddenly doing the rounds of Tokyo clubs a year or so back. After a couple of CDrs and an acclaimed appearance on Tokyo Flashback 6, Kataha is their first album in well over a decade. Detuned and fractured psychedelic blues filled with a bucketful of abject fear and personal loathing Etopped off with some of the most strikingly original vocal mannerisms in the Japanese underground. A fantastic return.	$18
	PSFD-171 Gendai Sokkyo / same Release Date: 12/3/2007 Masahiro Deguchi - flute, guitar, effects, kalimba Masaaki Motoyama - viola Hirokuni Ueno - piano Hiroyuki Usui - drums, percussion Takanari Sato - drums 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.	$18