Mermaidens - (2019) Look Me In The Eye

 

Flying Nun Records – none

This Wellington band's previous album Perfect Body in 2017 was a canny blend of vibrant and melodic indie-rock, shiny but fuzzed-up pop and some dreamy vocals by Gussie Larkin and Lily West over the chiming, ambient guitars.

This, their third album, pushes the envelope just that little bit further on cleverly constructed songs such as She's Running which comes with a layering of synths, shifts shape and dynamics but never loses direction in its economic 3.45 running time.

And the dialed right down and moody Bastards afterwards sung by West – comes with a stalking bass part and at the end a small group of backing vocalists billed as the Girl Gang act like some distant chorus after the claustrophobic guitar and synth passages.

This is all smart and crafted stuff on an album which is delivered in a crisp and yet warm production by James Goldsmith (check the opening of Best to Hate the Man for its clarity, space and moodiness, or Sleeptalker).

There is hypnotic indie-pop here (the opener Crying in the Office is like an ambitious indie-rock Cardigans filtered through the prism of the PopFrenzy label) and the thoughtful Millennia alerts you to the keen intelligence behind these lyrics which sometimes address the roles and expectations of women, the world of oversharing and more.

Factor in serious pop smarts in these tightly framed songs and you've got a strong third album right through to the five minute, prog-folk rocker Priorities at the end which almost sounds like the stepping off point into a different studio direction again.

The Dum Dum Boys - (2019) Let There Be Noise

 

In The Red Records – ITR318 Often obscured by the ascent of Flying Nun's legendary roster is New Zealand's late 1970s / early 1980s punk scene. Based in Auckland, a cadre of acts influenced by The Ramones and Stooges briefly thrived. The Dum Dum Boys -- the first NZ punk band to record and release a full-length in their native country -- were hooked on the Ann Arbor sounds of Iggy Pop. The Dum Dum Boys' Let There Be Noise (1981) is chock-full of James Williamson and Deniz Tek riffage; it also contains elements of Iggy Pop's nihilism. Take the lyrics to 'Something To Say' -- it's refrain repeatedly asking 'What am I living for?'-- and juxtapose them to the band's namesake track from Pop's The Idiot (1977): 'What happened to Zeke? He's dead on jones, man.' 'Stalking The Streets' taps into the meaninglessness of James Taylor and Dennis Wilson's Two-Lane Blacktop journey through the American Southwest. The Dum Dum Boys understood the proto-punk sounds of 1970s Ann Arbor and Cleveland. More importantly, they also got the vibe. Life stinks -- sometimes in the places (Auckland) you'd least expect it. As the title suggests, Let There Be Noise is anything but a record incessantly focused on introspective doom and gloom. 'Don't Be A Bitch' rivals Radio Birdman's 'I-94' for lyrical thick-headedness -- like sticking a hot 454 in a Ford Falcon gasser, the song's simultaneously awesome and dumb. That's a difficult balance to strike. Let There Be Noise (1981) was self-released and copies quickly became damn near unobtanium, even in New Zealand. (I should know: I lived there.) In The Red has performed a major service by reissuing this obscure and outstanding record. Independent New Zealand releases from the early 1980s didn't get their due; distribution out of the country was essentially non-existent. It's nice to see that finally getting corrected

Various Artists - (1989) In Love With These Times: A Flying Nun Compilation

 

Flying Nun Europe – FNE 28

Little Skull - (2020) How We Used To Laugh 7''

 

Horn of Plenty <O – hop2

For a few years I had been listening to Little Skull LP’s unaware that Dean’s own brand of NZ underground music was in fact being recorded a short distance from my London home. Furthermore, Dean’s intricate homemade sleeves were crafted in London, shipped to Italy, then back to London where I was buying them.
This release reduces the air miles while expanding the Little Skull story. Two tracks, two different moods. It’s as if some unknown event takes place as you flip the record.
While the music of Little Skull is rooted in the NZ underground, references also extend far beyond that. Think Bruce Langhorne’s ‘The Hired Hand’, AMMMusic, Egisto Macchi’s ‘Il Deserto’, Anner Bylsma, and Elodie.

Guardian Singles - (2021) Self Titled

 

Trouble In Mind – TIM161

Guardian Singles hail from Auckland, New Zealand, home to (among many things) storied label Flying Nun & just about every great indie band of the last century. After seeing the band’s livestream from Auckland for Gonerfest 17 in fall of 2020, Trouble In Mind is honored to welcome the band to the roster & reissue their excellent 2020 self-titled album outside of New Zealand for the first time.
Formed in 2015, by Thom Burton on guitar (SoccerPractise, Moppy) and Fiona Campbell on drums (Vivian Girls, Coolies), the band hit the ground running, supporting touring bands in New Zealand like METZ, slots on the Chronophonium festival & tours in Australia. The band had recorded what would become their debut album in early 2018, simply as Campbell puts it “We just wanted good versions of the songs in our live set we were playing at the time.” The addition of Yolanda Fagan on bass (Na Noise, Echo Ohs) and Durham Fenwick on lead guitar (Green Grove) solidified the current lineup in late-2018, and Auckland label Moral Support released it in a micro-edition of 150 copies in the spring of 2020.
The debut album packs a wallop; driving guitar lines dance across the rhythm sections propulsive throb hearkening back to greats like Mission of Burma, The Wipers & The Sound. Opener “Tea Lights Exploding” does just that, with an instantly memorable hook & sticky guitar line written as Burton explains as “a sort of "Fuck you" to a certain kind of pervasive rape culture and culturally lobotomized idea of masculinity that I was seeing too much of”, followed by the moody “Being Alone”. “Roll Undead” is next, with its persistent shuffle springing forth over a synth-siren before breaking open into an anthemic howl of a chorus. Side one closes with the crunchy stutter-step of “Never Gonna See The Rain Again”. Side two doesn’t let up, with aptly-titled opener “Can’t Stop Moving”s ragged guitar sting hanging in the air before the band launches in with Campbell’s drums skipping underneath like an arrhythmic heartbeat. Their vital cover of The Sound’s “Heartland” (from 1980’s “Jeopardy”) is next, injecting a nouveau sense of modern urgency into Adrian Borland’s post-punk rager. “Gold Plated Cars”s razor-wire sway comes next, with Burton & Fenwick’s guitar squall waltzing over a robust bassline. Album closer “Midnight Swim” is the album’s moody anthem, ratcheting up tension the old-fashioned way balancing jangle and drone with one guitar’s persistent strum and the other’s strategic punches, all while the rhythm section holds down a steady forward motion. “Guardian Singles” is a vital document of a band breaking out of the chrysalis near-fully formed; melodic, urgent and on the verge of greatness. Look for more from the band soon as they head into the studio in 2021 to record the follow-up.

Various Artists - (1991) Getting Older: Flying Nun 1981-1991

 

Flying Nun Records – FN 209

A household without at least one release from New Zealand's Flying Nun can only be considered woefully inadequate. An exaggeration, perhaps -- but only slightly. The Auckland-based independent pop label has been around for over two decades, and this 20-track retrospective collects singles and album tracks from the first ten years. It includes such highly regarded acts as the Chills, Verlaines, and the Clean, whose 1983 single "Getting Older" provides the title. The best songs, however, are saved for last: Jean-Paul Sartre Experience's shimmering "Elemental" (from 1990's The Size of Food) and Chris Knox's chiming "Not Given Lightly" (from 1989's Seizure). Letting Knox have the last word only seems appropriate as he just happens to be one of the label's -- if not the country's -- foremost musical figures. He is also represented by "Crush" from Tall Dwarfs, his long-running lo-fi partnership with Alec Bathgate (both from legendary punk bands the Enemy and Toy Love), and even recorded several of the tracks on the compilation. 
1. (4:21) The Clean - Getting Older
2. (3:58) Shayne Carter & Peter Jefferies - Randolph's Going Home
3. (2:58) The Stones - Something New
4. (1:51) Headless Chickens - Totalling Dad's Car
5. (5:59) Tall Dwarfs - Crush
6. (2:16) The Gordons - Adults and Children
7. (3:29) The Verlaines - Pyromaniac
8. (3:52) The Chills - Rolling Moon
9. (3:50) Bird Nest Roys - Alien
10. (2:31) The Terminals - Batwing
11. (3:29) Goblin Mix - Travelling Grave
12. (3:52) Able Tasmans - Sour Queen
13. (3:27) The Bats - Candidate
14. (2:51) Look Blue Go Purple - I Don't Want You Anyway
15. (2:38) Stephen - Don't Know Why
16. (3:52) Straitjacket Fits - Dialling a Prayer
17. (3:41) Snapper - Buddy
18. (4:27) Bailter Space - Skin
19. (4:11) The Jean-Paul Sartre Experience - Elemental
20. (5:07) Chris Knox - Not Given Lightly

Various Artists - (2020) Four Stars (****) LP

 

Swineken Recordings – WURST-001

Holy moly, if it isn’t a reissue of the super legendary Four Stars comp! This terrific artifact documenting Wellington New Zealand’s postpunk scene was originally released in 1980 (in an edition of 250) & copies have been as rare as a chook’s tooth ever since. Four ultra obscure bands-Life In The Fridge Exists, Wallsockets, Naked Spots Dance & Beat Rhythm Fashion-comprise these two sides & offer a fantastic snapshot of a radical DIY scene that played out in a vacuum at the bottom of the world. A great bookend to the excellent AK79 comp released at roughly the same time, this is a one-time reissue edition of 250 & a must-own for any fevered collector of New Zealand’s enigmatic, pre Flying Nun underground. Leave no stone unturned!

The Bats - (2020) Foothills

 

Flying Nun Records – FN593

Spanning the last 38 years, The Bats have clocked nine incredible albums; each one seeing the band evolve with new material from the prolific songwriting hand of Robert Scott. Add to that tally the extra singles, b-sides, EPs, compilations and tribute songs they’ve recorded, creating a succinct setlist is a nearly impossible task.
Their 10th full-length, Foothills, was recorded in Spring 2018 at a country retreat pop-up studio. At that time, 15 songs were captured and immortalised in the Canterbury foothills of the Southern Alps, Aotearoa (New Zealand). Only too well, The Bats know the possibilities, potentialities and sonic vistas that arise when one takes the reins for the recording process in a beautiful place that’s on home turf.
Robert Scott, on the making of Foothills has said “Time marches on... finally, we found a gap in our busy lives and chose a week to convene. We found a house that is usually inhabited by ski field workers — Kowai Bush, near Springfield about an hour west of Christchurch and of course nestled in the foothills of the mighty Southern Alps. The songs had been written, demo’d and arranged for some time, but still with a little room for trying things out in the studio. Many carloads arrived at the house, full of amps guitars and recording gear, we set up camp and soon made it feel like home; coloured lights, a log fire, and home cooked meals in the kitchen. We worked fast, and within a few days had all the basic backing tracks done, live together in one room, the way we like to do it - it’s all about ‘the feel’ for songs like ours.”
The Bats must hold a record in New Zealand (perhaps the whole world, once The Rolling Stones throw in the towel) as a band that has survived with the same line-up for 38 years. No split ups, no reforming for nostalgia’s sake.
So far, half the band have spots in The New Zealand Music Hall Of Fame, vocalist/ guitarist Robert Scott (The Clean) and bassist/producer Paul Kean (Toy Love), and it’s only a matter of time before lead guitarist Kaye Woodward and drummer Malcolm Grant find themselves in there too. The four-piece has created twisted wistful folk, psychedelic rock, bouncy twee pop, and everything in between, but whatever the genre, their sound is always distinctively, unmistakably The Bats.

Various Artists - (2007) Flying Nun 25th Anniversary Boxset 4xCD

Flying Nun Records – FNCD500 Limited edition four CD boxset celebrating the 25th Anniversary of New Zealand's finest (and longest running) independent label. Jam packed with long out-of-print rarities this set will have fans of the iconic label salivating. The four discs are sequenced in a roughly chronological order with the tracks hand-picked by Shepherd himself. The first disc covers the label's early years, with flagship band The Clean aptly getting things started with the epic 'Point That Thing Somewhere Else'. Other obvious names like The Chills, The Verlaines and The Gordons are present but this multi-disc format affords them the luxury of including some obscurities and lost gems from the likes of The Rip and Victor Dimisch Band, not to mention the label's first release - 'Ambivalence' by Pin Group. The second disc covers the mid-to-late 80's, the years many consider the label's heyday, where second generation Nun bands like The Bats and Straitjacket Fits took the label to the world. Again more rare treats are to be had with Stephen, The Weeds, Alpaca Brothers and This Kind Of Punishment. Disc three continues from the late 80s to mid 90s where the music really hit it's stride with great bands like Skeptics, JPSE, 3Ds and the mighty Bailter Space and the final disc takes us from the mid 90s to the present day where we witness some of the label's key original players going solo (David Kilgour, Martin Phillips, Graeme Downes) and a new generation of fresh and exciting talent like HDU, The Subliminals and The Mint Chicks. Fittingly ending with the pre-Nun band many consider to be one of the label's catalysts - Toy Love.

Kool Aid - (2019) Family Portrait 7''

Melted Ice Cream – none 

‘Family Portrait’ is the new EP by Kool Aid (featuring members of BnP, Wurld Series, The Dance Asthmatics, Dogfish, etc). Heavy doses of potent zone-out-pop collide with acid washed psychedelia in this freshly cooked batch of songs from Christchurch’s premiere cult pub-rock supergroup.
This EP had a long gestation period and is a truly collaborative effort between some primo members of MIC’s roster. ‘Family Portrait’ veers wildly between mutant post-punk (Snooker with Svetlana), lopsided swamp rock (Family Portrait Revisited) and darkly humorous psych (Dead Me and Tunnel Vision).
RIYL: Black Angels, Snapper, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Th’Dudes, Thee Oh Sees
'Is the Christchurch music scene only about a dozen musicians who are all interchangeably members of a vast multitude of fine fuzz & jangle guitar bands sprouting regularly from the South Island’s largest city? ... On the strength of “Family Portrait Revisited” Kool Aid may well be the best of the bunch.' - Pop Lib NZ
'“Family Portrait Revisited” sways in the breeze, lays in the cool parched meadow and squints at the sun for a spell. The songs got a built in breeziness and a touch of summer sweat on the surface. Hoping this is a lead up to a full album because this one is too good to just leave us all hanging.' - Raven Sings The Blues

Brilliant Swords - (2021) Everything Anywhere Anytime

Self Rleased – none

New Zealand’s Campbell Kneale is, I believe, one of the relatively unheralded musical geniuses of our time. I first became familiar with his work as Birchville Cat Motel in the early 2000s (later Our Love Will Destroy the World), drone work that felt monumental and all-encompassing, capable of blistering noise and crafty subtlety. He’s part of drone-metal trio Black Boned Angel and experimental outfit Ohm, among many other collaborations, and his personal aliases, Brilliant Swords among them, are legion. Most artists who are as prolific as he is suffer for quality; Kneale applies a thoroughness, richness, and precision to everything he does. Brilliant Swords is pure Hüsker Dü worship, executed with that Kneale flair (he plays all the instruments!)—taut, punky indie rock shot through with nervous energy and packed with hooks. Everything Anywhere Anytime is his latest under that project, arriving with zero fanfare this week, and it contains five sublime gruff, blown-out punk-pop tunes cut separately and also mixed the way they would be as a 12-inch. They’re all so good it’s hard to pick favorites, though I’m partial to the title track and “Imaginary.” It’s hard not to listen to this alone and be stunned by how good it is (what one-man band sounds like this?) but viewed as a part of Kneale’s enormous and incredible oeuvre, that argument for how special he is and how worthy of praise only grows.

Cavemen - (2020) Euthanise Me 7''

 

Slovenly Recordings – 702-252

New Zealand’s stank beacons of irresponsibility THE CAVEMEN are back in the Slovenly saddle with four new merciless hits to the chin, as if 2020 hasn’t been painful enough! Like, who doesn’t wanna get euthanized, right? Only time will tell if this year’s NZ ‘End of Life Choice Act’ to legalise euthanasia passes. If not, at least you get three square meals a day in the clink!
Seems like the ‘Men would have already tackled a tune titled “Eat Your Heart Out” on one of their hundred previous releases, but cannibalism is only the tip of the iceberg here - these guys want to “Eat Your Heart and Wear Your Face.”
HOW DISGUSTING(LY ROMANTICAL).
But don’t flatter yourself, baby. They’re fine with going to see a shrink to get “Over You” while you’re twisting with your new squeeze. So enjoy yourselves, because as they say, it’s later than you think.

Surf Friends - (2019) Doing Your Thing

 

Flying Nun Records – none

Tāmaki Makaurau guitar / electronic pop pals Surf Friends have finally lifted the lid on Doing Your Thing, their first long player since 2013's Endorphins. Living up to the promise of singles 'Outdoors' and 'New Wheels', Doing Your Thing layers chiming guitars and pulsing electronics over an insistent rhythm section for a collection of tracks that fizz and bounce like a big ol’ wave. Making a virtue of minimalism, duo Brad Coley (vocals, guitar, drum machine / sampling / programming) and Peter Westmoreland (vocals, bass, and longtime 95bFM Drive surf reporter) are at their best on tracks like 'Let’s Go Out Tonight', telling a whole story with just two chords and the words “Let’s go out tonight, feels like the first time I met you”. Earnest, optimistic, and straight-up, Doing Your Thing (Mixed, Mastered and Produced by Mark Howden) sounds like cracking a few beers with your best mate and is out now on Flying Nun Records

Dick Move - (2020) Chop! LP

 

1:12 Records – LP012

Energized by a strong community fighting for important social change and a need to turn late night political chat into action, Dick Move was formed in the depths of Karangahape Road’s Whammy! Bar and has become an essential party punk voice for women, working people, and for all those that are fired up to make change in the world.

Made up of Aotearoa punk stalwart Justin Rendell (PCP Eagles, Shitripper), prolific harmonizer Hariet Ellis (Na Noise, BOZO) and long-time moshers, first time shredders Lucy Suttor, Luke Boyes and Lulu Macrae, Dick Move spit out short sharp hot takes that call to the increasingly fucked up world around them. Notorious already for their pumping live shows, Dick Move’s catalogue of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it punk anthems are cutting, confronting, empowering and dripping with brash cheekiness and political angst.

Their album ‘Chop!’ was a 5-way collaboration over New Zealand’s 2019/2020 summer. ‘Chop!’ draws on shared experiences to pair weighty and spitting lyrics with bright and relentless hooks. The 13 tracks were lovingly produced, recorded and mixed by Peter Ruddell (Wax Chattels, Sulfate) at his home on Karangahape Road in Tāmaki Makaurau, Auckland.

Bruce Russell & Luke Wood - (2019) Visceral Realists LP

 

VHF Records – VHF 146

Debut LP by the New Zealand duo of Bruce Russell (Dead C, Handful of Dust, etc) and Luke Wood. Visceral Realists is a high-concept commentary on the state of vinyl, analogue recording, music culture, art, etc. A 45-rpm bullet of short bursts of free electric sound, the music here is tactile and rough but not “noise music.” Russell and Wood play over loops of scratchy records, with their guitars and electronics surging to get over the wall. Russell’s guitar sound from his vintage transistor amp and anti-style is instantly recognizable from countless classic Dead C sides, but the tracks are more painterly than recent DC epics – these are celebratory vignettes of thoughts – singles, if you will. “There’s more information encoded in an old record than in a new one. Every crack, every pop, a tree ring of recovered time. A life-time. Time again for life. Like the revenants, come from the grave warm; and once again walking. But still just blood in a bag. The glow of the vacuum at the heart of a market-place – where art goes to fetch bread. That is how we’ve warmed our hands for this work. To know we are alive”

Black Flag - (1981) Damaged

 

SST Records – SST CD 007

226.25MB FLAC files

Black Flag - (1982) Everything Went Black

 

SST Records – SST-CD-015

373.48MB FLAC files

Black Flag - (1983) The First Four Years

 

SST Records – SST CD 021 168.26MB FLAC files

Black Flag - (1984) My War

 

SST Records – SST CD 023 223.54MB FLAC files

Black Flag - (1984) Slip It In

 

SST Records – SST-CD-029 252.86MB FLAC files

Black Flag - (1985) In My Head

 

SST Records – SST CD 045

311.96MB FLAC files

Black Flag - (1985) Loose Nut

 

SST Records – SST CD035 225.22MB FLAC files

Black Flag - (1986) Who's Got The 10½?

 

SST Records – SST CD 060 474.11MB FLAC files

Body Sculptures - (2015) The Base of All Beauty Is the Body

 

Posh Isolation – Posh Isolation 163

164.58MB FLAC files

Body Sculptures - (2016) A Body Turns to Eden

 

Posh Isolation – Posh Isolation 171

184.99MB FLAC files

The Cherry Point - (2004) Bloodstalkers CS

 

Monorail Trespassing – mt19 114.89MB FLAC files

The Cherry Point - (2004) Misery Guts CD

 

Phage Tapes – PT:194

199.51MB FLAC files

The Cherry Point - (2005) Night Of The Bloody Tapes CD

 

Troniks – TRO-207

175.09MB FLAC files

The Cherry Point - (2020) Live Hell CD

 

Troniks – TRO-317

212.73MB FLAC files

The Cherry Point - (2006) Black Witchery CD

 

Troniks – TRO-223

446.01MB FLAC files

The Cherry Point - (2020) Visiting Hours

 

Phage Tapes – PT:324

702.08MB FLAC files

Without Belonging - (2020) Convocation CD

 

Phage Tapes – PT:325 442.08MB FLAC files

:zoviet*france: - (2022) Châsse 3 16xLP

 

Vinyl-on-demand – VOD 172

:Zoviet*France: is an idiosyncratic group of music makers, gatherers of sound, and fabricators of unknown music. For nearly 40 years, they have explored and reported back from the liminal areas of music and composition, walking the margins where little is easily located and consensus reality melds with the hypnagogic and half-heard. Having wilfully obscured themselves in Newcastle upon Tyne since their inception in 1980, :zoviet*france: has developed a radical relationship with cheap technologies, homemade acoustic instruments, primitive looping and sampling techniques, and basic dub trickery from which the group has crafted a distinctly unique vocabulary of sonic hypnosis. Just as the group’s sound has alchemically reconfigured inexpensive technologies, the packaging of their releases has avoided standard formats with aluminium, steel, wood and porcelain among the materials that have been bent and cut to shape instead. Following the first two Châsse box-sets released back in 2019 and 2020, Vinyl-On-Demand now brings us the third chapter.

The box includes:

VOD 172 1/2 in.version (1996) 2LP – first time on vinyl

VOD 172 3/4 Digilogue (1996) 2LP – first time on vinyl for the original expanded CD release

VOD 172 5/6 Feedback (Mort aux vaches) (1998) 2LP – first time on vinyl

VOD 172 7/8 The Decriminalisation of Country Music (2000) 2LP – first time on vinyl, including additional unreleased recordings

VOD 172 9/10 A Long Walk (2011) 2LP – first physical release

VOD 172 11/12 7.10.12 (2012) 2LP

VOD 172 13/14 The Tables Are Turning (2013) 2LP – including additional unreleased recordings

VOD 172 15/16 A Third Collusion (new) 2LP - tracks from compilations, first time on vinyl

Treasury Of Puppies - (2022) Mitt Stora Nu LP

Discreet Music – 07

"This is the neat little dog with the dainty walk that looks like a lamb and can fight like a demon". Mitt Stora Nu is the second album from the Gothenburg-based duo Treasury of Puppies, consisting of Charlott Malmenholt and Joakim Karlsson. Nine tracks of life-affirming downer music that were mainly recorded during 2021 and that shows a more varied and refined side compared to their first recordings, though maintaining the TOP-branded poetic playfulness and peculiar approach to sound art/rock n roll. While pieces like 'Jag såg ditt ljus' and 'Rotten apples of love' both capture the very essence of the bands' sound and arguably wouldn't have been completely out of place on the debut album, there's larger-than-life epics like the title track and 'Skriv när du är hemma' brushing off most signs of the past. The strangely addictive 'Dödens soffa' sounds like a bunch of rats in leather jackets and sunglasses playing rockabilly. Treasury of Puppies are in their lyrics this time paraphrasing and recontextualizing everything from Mare Kandre, Edith Södergran to Edgar Allan Poe and Britney Spears, creating a comforting albeit perplexing own little twisted universe. It sort of makes sense that many parts of this album were recorded with old devices made for recording talk rather than music. Ain't nothing but a hound dog!

Treasury of Puppies - (2020) ST LP

 

Förlag För Fri Musik ‎– 016 

Treasury Of Puppies is a new Gothenburg duo made up of Charlott Malmenholt and Joakim Karlsson. Recorded during the first half of 2020, their 8-track debut album for Förlag För Fri Musik brings together a vast amount of influences into something overpowering and genuinely immersive. Treasury Of Puppies approaches a tradition of text-sound compositions with bruised knees and a slingshot behind the back, merging lush Delia Derbyshire-like radioplay-styled narration, the crudeness of unsung cassette underground heroes like Roberta Eklund and the uncompromising methods of early The Shadow Ring stuff. Under the spoken word and occasional singing lies synths, indolent guitars, tape manipulations and a sparse use of field recordings. Part themes from Eastern Bloc children television atmosphere, part private pressed shimmering new age gold, part lobotomized rock n roll/music of a natural high. A future classic right here. Featuring a guest appearance by Elin Engström and mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi.

Keiji Haino - (2022) My Lord Music, I Most Humbly Beg Your Indulgence In The Hope That You Will Do Me The Honour Of Permitting This Seed Called Keiji Haino To Be Planted Within You 2xLP

 

Purple Trap – PT005

For over 25 years, Keiji Haino has used the hurdy gurdy to channel dark dimensions—creating music that bridges the centuries between distant medieval eras and a future awash in densely layered sounds that grind and float in an otherworldly atmosphere. “My lord Music…” is a suite of nine pieces that reveals the startlingly distinctive and wide range of Haino’s approach to the instrument. The music is at once dissonant and hypnotic, rich with unfurling drones that dynamically ebb and flow—Haino’s musical sensibility and physicality, always present and unmistakable.

Keiji Haino, Jim O'Rourke, Oren Ambarchi - (2013) まだ 暖かい内に この今に 全ての謎を 注ぎ込んでしまおう = Now While It's Still Warm Let Us Pour In All The Mystery CD

 

Black Truffle – BT09 Like the meme says, punctuation saves lives; likewise, crediting order clues you to process. The alphabetical name order on this trio’s first album, Tina Formosa, implied a non-hierarchical collaboration, and the sound-blending they sustained during that record’s instrumental passages bore this out. But let’s face it -- anytime Keiji Haino sings, he’s king, and he’s definitely first among equals throughout Imikuzushi. The trio’s third annual collaboration is, once more, excerpted from a live performance in Japan. But instead of prepared pianos and electronics, they used the primary colors of rock: guitar, bass and drums. And while any combo that lets Haino’s sobbing, roaring, terrifying voice into the mix can never be just a rock band, these guys rock out quite formidably. Whether your favorite power trio is the Minutemen or ZZ Top, part of what makes ’em great is their ability to simultaneously exploit the format’s simplicity and transcend its limitations. These guys do both. Each knows exactly what is required of his instrument. O’Rourke’s bass is often massive and monolithic; he spends most of the first piece – entitled “still unable to throw off that teaching a heart left abandoned unable to get inside that empty space nerves freezing that unconcealed sadness I am still unable to fully embrace” -- pounding out one note with unwavering precision and absolute brutality. But he also delivers gently exquisite counterpoint to Haino’s intricate, almost harpsichord-like guitar on the third piece, “invited in practically drawn in by something facing the exit of this hiding place who is it? that went in coming around again the same as before who is it?” Ambarchi’s drumming veers between precise beats and big clouds of cymbal smashing, but it’s always propulsive, and his shifts of attack exercise the same mastery of long-form dynamics as his recent, rigorously constructed solo album, Audience Of One. O’Rourke and Ambarchi don’t always play it straight, though. Much of the enormous tension on “still unable…” comes from their careful shifts in and out of synch, which they manage and sustain with exacting discipline. And if you’ve been waiting for Haino to get his rock-god ya-yas out, you’re in luck here; there are plenty of stark, single-note solos blowing through this joint like dust devils down a ghost town’s widest thoroughfare. Turn the corner and they blossom into chords that contain orchestras. Whether it’s the djinn unleashed by massive volume or simply judicious marshaling of pedals, Haino usually seems to have several things happening at once inside every down stroke. He commands everything about him like some thunderbolt-wielding god atop a mountain, abetted by pitiless angels who know that their power comes from keeping him at the peak.

Keiji Haino / Jim O'Rourke / Oren Ambarchi - (2015) ここに 与えられた この身体 全部 使い切てやる という者の お茶の 時間 = Tea Time For Those Determined To Completely Exhaust Every Bit Of This Body They've Been Given LP

 

Black Truffle – BT12 "At this point, it can justifiably be said that Keiji Haino, Jim O'Rourke and Oren Ambarchi have become one of the leading groups in experimental music. This, their sixth release, presents the entire second set of the trio's March 2013 concert at SuperDeluxe (the first set is available on Black Truffle as Only Wanting to Melt Beautifully Away Is It a Lack of Contentment That Stirs Affection for Those Things Said to Be as of Yet Unseen). While the first set of the evening saw the trio branching out into new instrumental configurations, here they return to their signature line-up of guitar, bass and drums. The LP begins abruptly, with one of the finest performances by the trio captured on record thus far already in full swing. Throughout the course of this 12-minute piece, O'Rourke and Ambarchi lay down a thudding, meterless pulse, the impossible midway point of Milford Graves and motorik Krautrock, over which Haino unfurls a number of distinct strategies developed in his work since the 1980s: formless blurs of reverb-drenched guitar noise, looped pointillist fragments and wandering, dissonant lines obscured in clouds of distortion. Continuing Haino's habit of naming albums with phrases that seem to obliquely comment on the music they contain, it could definitely be said that this is music made by three people 'determined to completely exhaust every bit of this body they've been given.' Showing the trio at new heights, this track carries on in the spirit of some of Haino's greatest work: music made with the ingredients of rock that somehow manages to sidestep all of its forms and traditions while retaining and amplifying its fundamental power. If this track alone lays to rest concerns about whether the trio has exhausted the guitar/bass/drums format, the remainder of the record serves as a demonstration of the multitude of possibilities still available for their continued exploration. The three are now so in-tune with one another that almost anything can be integrated into their improvisations: in the slow-burning second piece, O'Rourke's heavily effected bass wanders from anti-music thuds to an almost funky passage with Ambarchi sounding not unlike Buddy Miles circa Hendrix's Band of Gypsys -- it bespeaks the hours of listening to fusion and classic rock that continue to form an important part of O'Rourke and Ambarchi's musical personalities. The final piece is a continuous side-long performance that moves through a number of discrete episodes, from vocal and flute solos by Haino delicately accompanied by O'Rourke's sparse bass and Ambarchi's sizzling cymbals, to a final stumbling dirge over which Haino unleashes a stunning torrent of in-the-red guitar skree." --Francis Plagne; Design by Stephen O'Malley with high quality live shots by Ujin Matsuo and stunning artwork by Norwegian noise legend Lasse Marhaug.

Keiji Haino & John Butcher - (2017) Light Never Bright Enough = 光 眩しからずや CD

 

Otoroku – ROKU018

Keiji Haino, one of the foremost exponents of the Japanese avant-garde, always provides a masterclass in constantly shifting improvisation. John Butcher is a saxophonist of rare grace and power, who has expanded the vocabulary of the saxophone far beyond the conventions of jazz and other musics, to encompass a staggering range of multiphonics, overtones, percussive sounds, and electronic feedback.

Haino and Butcher met when Butcher opened for Fushitsusha at the show Cafe OTO arranged at St. John, Hackney - 5 years ago. In 2016 they were invited to play two duo concerts – at The Empty Gallery in Hong Kong and at Cafe OTO in London.

OTOROKU is proud to present the audio documentation of their first UK meeting. Recorded live at Cafe OTO in July 2016 the results are an uncompromising milieu of swirling sound played out as a total union of these two legendary performers. Haino’s blues drenched guitar entices skittering notes from Butcher’s sax playing as numerous sonic clues unravel over the course of of this unique and compelling journey.

Keiji Haino / vocal, guitar, flutes

John Butcher / saxophones and feedback

Recorded live at Cafe OTO on the 9th July 2016 by Luca Consonni. Mixed by John Butcher. Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi. Photography and design by ORGAN.

Keiji Haino + Sumac - (2019) Even For Just The Briefest Moment / Keep Charging This "Expiation" / Plug In To Making It Slightly Better CD

 

Trost Records – TR 183

Post-metal sludge avantgarde powerhouse SUMAC around Aaron Turner (Isis, Old Man Gloom) follow up their collaboration with legendary Japanese guitarist and singer/performer Keiji Haino on Thrill Jockey (American Dollar Bill – Keep Facing Sideways, You are too Hideous to Look at Face on) with another monolith - heavy and experimental at the same time

Keiji Haino – Guitar, Voice, Flute, Taepyeongso

Aaron Turner – Guitar

Nick Yacyshyn – Drums

Brian Cook – Bass

TITLES AND LYRICS BY KEIJI HAINO.

TITLE TRANSLATION BY ALAN CUMMINGS.

RECORDED BY SOH KI MOON AT FEVER, TOKYO, JULY 3 2017.

MIXED BY RANDALL DUNN AT AVAST, SEATTLE, DECEMBER 2018.

MASTERED BY JAMES PLOTKIN, BETHLEHEM, DECEMBER 2018.

EXTERIOR PHOTOGRAPHS BY MIKI MATSUSHIMA.

INTERIOR PHOTOGRAPHS BY KAZUYUKI FUNAKI.

ARTWORK/DESIGN BY A. TURNER.

THANK YOU: SOH KI MOON, RANDALL DUNN, HIROMI KUDO,

TADASHI HAMADA, JAMES PLOTKIN, RYO KURAMOTO,

TAKESHI, KONSTANTIN, TROST.

(C) & (P) KEIJI HAINO + SUMAC 2019

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