P.S.F. Records
QuoteFounded by Hideo Ikeezumi and taking its name from the 1985 album Psychedelic Speed Freaks by High Rise, P.S.F. Records is based in the Tokyo record shop Modern Music and specializes in the Japanese psychedelic underground scene, from improvisational experiments to free jazz and maverick rock.
Got bunch of stuff from this label and latest listening was CD.. I think Keiji Haino "Nijimu".
PSFD-7
http://www.discogs.com/灰野敬二-滲有無Nijiumu/release/719700
Eerie improvisation piece of 50+ minutes, metal percussion, vocals, violin improvisation. Most often reverb of studio studio space is only effect. There is no jazzy no classical, no "free music" touch really. Improvisation mainly happens in non-rhythmical metal percussions and chanting/moaning voices.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eCIKLigI2U I don't know how it's been transferred but sound appears much less of quality than CD...
Suggestions, recommendations of PSF label!?
Quote from: FreakAnimalFinland on June 10, 2012, 05:57:33 PM
Suggestions, recommendations of PSF label!?
I have only few releases, and every of them are very good:
http://www.discogs.com/Lost-Aaraaff-Lost-Aaraaff/release/1036211
Interesting, crazy free improv. One of the best in this style, I guess.
http://www.discogs.com/AMM-From-A-Strange-Place/release/1086182
Classic. Not so good as recordings from 60s, but still worth to listen.
http://www.discogs.com/Keiji-Haino-%E6%85%88-Affection/release/673656
One of the best solo release in his discography.
If we talk about Keiji HAINO too, I must recommend his http://www.discogs.com/%E7%81%B0%E9%87%8E%E6%95%AC%E4%BA%8C-%E5%A4%A9%E4%B9%83%E5%B7%9D-Milky-Way-1973-Live/release/917892
Live recording from 1973, the first, extreme noise industrial material, as we know well as japanoise. Here many years earlier. Full of recommendation.
Toukaseibunshi - Meta-Inorganicmatter Meta-Newlon 1986 - PSF Records - Impressive album of good variation, all maintaining a consistent high quality. "Glace 2" is a full-on power-electronics assault with an 80's cassette feel. "Enthsiate" is a strong industrial, quasi-percussion piece. "Glace" is a long minimalist track of solid caliber with massive metallic noise swells. This album might be too varied for some, but it delivers throughout the listen.
some of the heaviest music ever recorded:
Fushitsusha - 3/4
Fushitsusha - 15/16
*There are quite a few very good albums on PSF from Keiji Haino solo and groups.
Kousokuya is a heavy, powerful group. They don't have too many albums out, and they're all good or great. Harry Bertoia - Unfolding is on PSF.
I'm no big expert of PSF material but:
Masayoshi Urabe - Ware Wa Seidai No Kyōjyō Zo
http://www.discogs.com/%E6%B5%A6%E9%82%8A%E9%9B%85%EF%A8%9A-%E6%88%91%E3%81%AF%E8%81%96%E4%BB%A3%E3%81%AE%E7%8B%82%E7%94%9F%E3%81%9E-Ware-Wa-Seidai-No-Ky%C5%8Djy%C5%8D-Zo/release/983565
Screeching, piercing sax, silence, metal chains being dragged on the floor, lots of silence and room reverb. Great album.
D!O!D!O!D! - Ghost Temple
http://www.discogs.com/DODOD-Ghost-Temple/release/954845
I guess they're the only chinese band on PSF: ultra fast, noisy and aggressive impro trio, almost bordering on noisecore.
First 3 or 4 of the "Tokyo Flashback" comps were pretty damn good. Use to have a lot of PSF releases I'd buy from Forced Exposure. Those couple of totally black, double cd's from Fushitsusha had some really intense moments but they were so damn long. He had a unique guitar tone from what I remember on some of the work. His other stuff, with guitar plinking & odd vocals didn't do much for me. Not sure if that was on the comps or if I had any of his rel's under his name.
QuoteKeiji Haino "Nijiumu"
That's a very strange and great album indeed. My girlfriend (who doesn't like 99% of experimental music) said it sounded like someone was agonizing in a car factory :).
I don't know many PSF releases but here are two I recommend:
Fushitsusha -
Origin's Hesitationhttp://www.discogs.com/不失者-Origins-Hesitation/release/719739
I guess no need to say it's a strange album (as all albums are on which Haino plays). Last time I listened to it I found it too long but it's definitely interesting and has great moments. Interestingly, there are no guitars, just bass, drums and vocals.
Sanhedolinhttp://www.discogs.com/Sanhedolin-満場一致は無効/release/1024137
Only heard it once so far, but I loved it. Great (semi-)improvised rock with Tatsuya Yoshida (
Ruins,
Korekyojinn etc.) on drums.
Quote from: FreakAnimalFinland on June 10, 2012, 05:57:33 PM
Got bunch of stuff from this label and latest listening was CD.. I think Keiji Haino "Nijimu".
PSFD-7
This was the first Haino I heard, ages ago, on the radio at six in the morning! Was too asleep to catch the name of the artist, but luckily caught the broadcast on cassette - which quickly became a favorite, this wonderful recording by a mysterious nameless person(s). PSFD-7 remains among my all-time faves.
Do not confuse this with PSFD-31 and others released by Haino's choral-ambient (?) side project called Nijiumu. Completely different in every way possible. This disc is quite good if you like minimal drifting understated ambience, but imo is nowhere near the heights achieved with PSFD-7.
I love this forum, I always here about stuff I have never heard of even if it's been around for ages. All this stuff sounds as if it would be amazing. I must start a search for some suggested. Zeno is a library of unknown artists to me.
PSFD-68 21st Century Hurdy Gurdy Man
If you like the dronier bits on PSFD-7, this is for you. Very much in the same vein, but on hurdy gurdy! (Starting to sound like an Aube review here, heh.) Sizzling sounds sometimes simmer but often singe the auditory passages, though one passage drifts along more richly subdued ambient undertones. The clincher is the closing track, which clocks in at nearly thurdy minutes and features the famed vocal ejaculations over buzzing gurdy tones that eventually grow to psychedelic proportion - if, unfortunately, rather briefly.
EDIT Fushitsusha never did much for me. Too disco-y, heh. But since our local library so enthusiastically recommends them, I guess l'll have to give it all a shot again at some point.
Quote from: Bloated Slutbag on June 11, 2012, 07:53:25 AMEDIT Fushitsusha never did much for me. Too disco-y, heh. But since our local library so enthusiastically recommends them, I guess l'll have to give it all a shot again at some point.
For more than a decade, I didn't care for anything Haino did, but now, there's almost nothing I don't find something to appreciate. He truly is an amazing artist in the highest sense of the term. There are very few, if any, recordings I don't like. He's varied, but most of it is high quality. I couldn't tap into anything he was doing for the longest time.
Sanhedolin is great. I'd start anywhere with them.
Verzerk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNFzHRp1WQI
Love the solo!
High Rise:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8ZoXvs4TBw&feature=related
High Rise & K.Haino:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h83pilMznZI&feature=relmfu
Any current bands around with a similiar sound? I rather like nasty wah'd-out solos.
"Problem" with PSF is, that even if I have probably dozen or so releases, it's hard to really remember. Japanese names, black print on black cover type of designs etc. I did appreciate some of their free jazz stuff, but not blown away. I did like some solo violin improvisations of someone.. but not perhaps enough to grab 5 or more discs of the stuff. I have several of the compilations. Several of Haino. But still I keep thinking many of these can't be the absolute best of the label.
For example the Alchemy Records + PSF Records collaboration compilation. I thought it could be amazing, but it was just.. well, I guess good? But hardly mindblowingly memorable.
I love, love, love White Heaven so I'd highly recommend Out. More conventional song writing than a lot of PSF stuff. Michio Kurihara absolutely shreds on the guitar. Strange Bedfellow is good but basically impossible to find for under $400, so yeah.
The first two Tokyo Flashbacks are great too.
you can't really go too wrong with Haino on PSF but aside from the double live releases and a few solo guitar works his most crushing material was released on the tokuma label unfortunately. those have always been a bit of a drag to track down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgVGriFcFn0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgVGriFcFn0) quite excited about this. it's an upcoming documentary on his work.
vajra was an excellent collab between kan mikami and haino was well. all of their releases were stellar but i found this one consistently enlightening and it never failed to make me giddy. http://www.discogs.com/Vajra-%E5%A3%B0%E8%81%9E-%C5%9Ar%C4%81vaka/release/1025000 (http://www.discogs.com/Vajra-%E5%A3%B0%E8%81%9E-%C5%9Ar%C4%81vaka/release/1025000)
Just thought I'd resurrect this thread in part to set the record straight, re-
Quote from: Bloated Slutbag on June 11, 2012, 06:54:58 AM
Do not confuse [PSFD-7] with PSFD-31 and others released by Haino's choral-ambient (?) side project called Nijiumu. Completely different in every way possible. This disc is quite good if you like minimal drifting understated ambience, but imo is nowhere near the heights achieved with PSFD-7.
Wrong, wrong!
Nijiumu is, quite possibly, the best Haino project ever. The two notable releases, the only two I've heard: Era Of Sad Wings (PSFD-31), and three untitled tracks from Driftworks (4xcd on Big Cat). Acoustic ambiance. With the occasional choral element. Haunting, drifting, lilting, unsettling.
The Nijiumu project does echo certain parts of Keijo Haino's "Nijiumu" (PSFD-7) in its considered molestations of ghostly, drawn-out, textures. Which is the Haino I'm most inclined to enjoy, whatever the appellation. It's funny, really. Keiji Haino could be one of the most eclectic artists I've encountered. He is literally all over the map. Yet nine times out of ten I gravitate towards a single, particular, tendency: acoustic droning atmospherics, with or without tortured vocalization. Like I'm trapped in this weird, highly stylized, ghetto of Haino appreciation.
edit- to the above tendency I'd add any Haino with vaguely traditional, ritual-like, flavors... which could perhaps apply to any and all Haino, but I'm referring to things that sound like they were recorded in some forgotten temple, as though bells or gongs were about to starting ringing in sympathy- even if, in some cases, they would be ringing in symphathy with some dude howling over distorted guitar noise.
I probably spend about two months of any given year completely immersed in Haino but again for the most part only a very narrow strain of Haino.
So fucking hyped!
http://www.theblackeditions.com/announcement/
...and in celebration and KICKING OUT THE FUCKING JAMS this morning - - -
High Rise - first track from their Psychedelic Speed Freaks LP
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J97U_oR1jlc
High Rise II is one of the greatest and least-known rock records of the twentieth century. I love the whole schtick of 'tribute to friends dead from drugs' mixed with the noise of motorcycle engines. This initially corny sounding slab of cheese and classic 'last track side two' starts to lift off at four minutes and just gets higher and higher - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2B1MAc6SQU
Buncha psfers who could do with more mention-
Toho Sara
If the idea of improvised Tibetan ritual music appeals to you... Legendary psych luminaries like Asahito Nanjo (High Rise, etc etc) and Kawabata Makoto (Acid Mothers Temple etc etc etc etc) collab with other like-minded speedfreaks to deliver this... ponderous... monstrous... thing. Somewhat dark in flavor, slow moving, very dense, almost orchestral, free flowing but never devolving into random noodling or losing focus or intensity, all via apparent wackload of traditional instrumentation, percussion, bells gongs, strings, winds, organ, harmonium, electronics. Everything I've heard is simply divine, screaming, roaring, raging for reissue.
Tomokawa Kazuki
The "screaming philosopher"- and yes, he really is.
Opening track on his 1975 debut
https://youtu.be/s-GhHQzcRQU
More recent 2009 offering
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VouvF0qD9S8
Perhaps musically far removed from this forum, until he gets worked up into a frenzy... which is quite often. It may help if one understands what he's on about, but the unhinged passion undeniably comes through. Anything on PSF would be worth checking out. Haino is a big admirer, which may be obvious as the vocal styles tend to overlap. And Haino plays on a couple tracks from Erise No Me PSFD-8008, one of my faves.
Mikami Kan
Another screamer poet. Has recorded with Haino and is the main vocalist in Vajra. There are things in his discog that actually venture into enka, particularly the older stuff released on labels like Victor and Columbia. (Enka might be described as a "Japanese cruelty" along the lines of German shlager, but Mikami Kan's read on the genre single-handedly got me into it!) Once he gets on to PSF there is a marked departure for a more warped blues shores. Overall, I much prefer his varied vocal stylings to the all-out screaming of the above Tomokawa. But they complement each other well, and there are recordings of the two performing together.
One bit of solo venture I personally quite like: Barking Practice///White Lines PSFD-8026
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPrMTIUHwOQ
Speaking of Mikami Kan, to the person or persons who recommended Vajra, my infinite thanks! This is a project that grabbed me by the throat from note one... and... erk... never... ugh... let... ack... go. Phew. The live recordings can be elevating, but studio recordings like Mandala Cat Last (PSFD-129) have some very interesting textures and turns.
Will need to come back with a few more mentions.
Quote from: HongKongGoolagong on March 11, 2016, 02:55:40 PM
High Rise II is one of the greatest and least-known rock records of the twentieth century. I love the whole schtick of 'tribute to friends dead from drugs' mixed with the noise of motorcycle engines. This initially corny sounding slab of cheese and classic 'last track side two' starts to lift off at four minutes and just gets higher and higher - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2B1MAc6SQU
Yes High Rise is fantastic.
Aside from all the mentioned stuff earlier in this thread, Mainliner is also well worth checking out. Sort of this Les Rallizes Denudes mixed with doom thing, or maybe velvet underground - sister ray is more appropriate
Essential imprint.
Haven't been to the PSF website for a while. Now both the Jap and English sites are down. Anyone knows what is going on - hiatus or what?
SachikoI don't think there are any PSF releases to her name, but she seems to hang around with a lot of the same people or at least among those of a sympathetic disposition. Previously of mentioned psfers Kousokuya, so there's that. But what she does, is straight up goddesshead. Dense psychedelia coming in wave upon wave upon... heavily voice driven, oh so heavy oh so heavenly. This slipped under the radar mid-late 2017, and gets the nod of approval:
https://sachiko.bandcamp.com/album/jangala-flamed-with-deep-red
She also plays with the one and only Tangerine Dream Syndicate, with a line-up that reads like CCCC meets Tony Conrad in a wet, juicy, mandarin cumshot.
https://youtu.be/13MOs6-Oq8g
Ohkami No JikanAshito Nanjo project involving a rotating cast of psf superstars. Slooow reverb-drenched guitar heavenhell, ghostly voices occasionally floating on through as frequently discernible as smothered. One does not feel much attempt at structure as such. Rather, massed squalls immediately erupt and hold steady at levels that might occasionally rival Fushitsusha at their utmost. Perhaps a tad one dimensional for some, but for me that's where the pleasure starts. After Toho Sara, the one for which I most dream of reissue.
Hasegawa-ShizuoGene Packs - PSFD-163
Droning shamanic oddity, bringing a host of non-traditional techniques to traditional instrumentation. Drawn-out free flowing psychedelia whose tone and timbre better resembles that of ye olde industrial. Earlier in this topic someone describs Haino's first Nijiumu disc as some dude agonising in a car factory. Here the agony has dissolved into some placid zen state, but the grey and drear-tinged factory rumbles on regardless.
Here's a more recent live recording that kinda echoes some of this atmosphere
https://vimeo.com/53759106
I've been meaning to follow up with thanks on this-
Quote from: Zeno Marx on June 10, 2012, 07:35:10 PM
some of the heaviest music ever recorded:
Fushitsusha - 3/4
Fushitsusha - 15/16
THANKS! (for the repeated recommending, which actually does have a cumulative effect)
It took me a while to finally follow this up, but I did. And since spent the last some years kicking myself grabbing everything I could. I blame Allegorical Misunderstanding, which was the other release I had apart from the 15/16. Somehow the latter never got the chance it deserved. Psychedelic Swans is what I might call it were I in reductive mode. So, Stupid Is Myself. And so in perpetual awe.
Speaking Haino-
Black Blues (Soft Version)
Black Blues (Violent Version)In a way reminds of some the elements I most like in Fushitsusha. Tender loving hushed reverence against minimal embittered throat ripping rasp. So purely Haino and so manages to floor my arse without resorting to that raging-minstrel-in-forgotten-temple-cave vibe of which I am consummate sucker.
My choice for stunning contrast (but this is pretty arbitrary, it's all stellar)
Black Eyes (Soft)
https://youtu.be/cdjI7vsw-As
See That My Grave Is Kept Clean (Violent)
https://youtu.be/H_J7iRHBS-w
Quote from: online prowler on February 02, 2018, 06:24:04 PM
Essential imprint.
Haven't been to the PSF website for a while. Now both the Jap and English sites are down. Anyone knows what is going on - hiatus or what?
The guy behind the label, Hideo Ikeezumi, died a year ago, so the label stopped.
There's an American label called Black Editions which was founded (prior to Ikeezumi's death) in order to re-release many P.S.F. titles on vinyl. So far they've had three releases, including Keiji Haino's debut.
Quote from: acsenger on February 03, 2018, 02:34:51 PM
Quote from: online prowler on February 02, 2018, 06:24:04 PM
Essential imprint.
Haven't been to the PSF website for a while. Now both the Jap and English sites are down. Anyone knows what is going on - hiatus or what?
The guy behind the label, Hideo Ikeezumi, died a year ago, so the label stopped.
There's an American label called Black Editions which was founded (prior to Ikeezumi's death) in order to re-release many P.S.F. titles on vinyl. So far they've had three releases, including Keiji Haino's debut.
Oh, that was sad to hear. His death went house by me, wasn't aware of that. Do anyone know if somebody have picked up the PSF catalogue for sale?
TsurubamiNot a PSF release to the name but very much in the orbit. Extended freeform guitar-strum-hum-drum-droooOOoone echo chamber with percussion piddling about to lend the amassed mass a sense of sense but no not really not ever the sound simply on-ning on and on till the break of dawn and so on and so forth. Every time I put this on my first instinct is to dismiss out of hand but instead inevitably find the mind simply unwinding and unwinding into the interminaminamable dross.
Quote from: Bloated Slutbag on February 02, 2018, 10:28:58 AM
Mikami Kan
Another screamer poet.
Here's part of an interview with Mikami Kan that made me smile. Remind you of anywhere?
Quote
What sort of audience did you play to?
Members of the extreme far right and hard left would drop by Station 70 — (author Yukio) Mishima's hangers-on and some of the young members of his private army, the Tatenokai, and members of (anarchist terrorist group) the Japanese Red Army. But they didn't come to propagandize. These groups would hang out together in the music room. I went in there myself, but they didn't talk much. Japan's top student leaders would gather there night after night, but the atmosphere was actually pretty somber. People drank; they took sleeping pills — which was the "in" drug at the time. . . . They were an extreme bunch of people. It didn't really matter if they were "left" or "right."
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2008/03/28/music/the-revolutionary-tale-of-mikamis-enka-blues/#.Wo2Pv6iWbcs
Fushitsusha - The Time is Nigh 1997 - so far, that's the only Haino, or Fushitsusha, that rivals 15/16 in sun-like, unfathomable energy - add it to the all-out heaviest releases - prepare for an addition to your favorite noise releases.
*and for anyone who was thinking (hoping) Haino is dense, cauterizing noise and who was then disappointed with what they found. should satisfy the most picky, noise-only listeners in existence. fierce, black hole gravity.
**not on PSF, but I think a subsidiary of Toy Factory, J-Factory, but I am probably wrong in that association.
Quote from: Zeno Marx on February 21, 2018, 08:03:41 PM
Fushitsusha - The Time is Nigh 1997 - so far, that's the only Haino, or Fushitsusha, that rivals 15/16 in sun-like, unfathomable energy - add it to the all-out heaviest releases - prepare for an addition to your favorite noise releases.
*and for anyone who was thinking (hoping) Haino is dense, cauterizing noise and who was then disappointed with what they found. should satisfy the most picky, noise-only listeners in existence. fierce, black hole gravity.
**not on PSF, but I think a subsidiary of Toy Factory, J-Factory, but I am probably wrong in that association.
In 2014 I ordered Fushitsusha's
不失者 [PSFD-3~4] and received
The Time Is Nigh due to a mistake from the seller. It was one of the best mistakes ever made. Cannot agree with Zeno enough. This album will liquify your brain on contact. It's extremely caustic and there's no feeling of "by the numbers noise" at all.
The Time Is Nigh stands alone in an already massive body of work by Fushitsusha and even stands out in the long history of landmark noise releases from Japan.
Just chiming in with some extra love for Fushitsusha Live 2 (PSF 15/16). I find it impossible to talk about it without descending into gushing hyperbole. For me, only Incapacitants Feedback of NMS comes close to it in terms of synapse short circuiting devastation. I haven't heard The Time is Nigh ... will be rectifying that asap.
Another PSF favourite not mentioned so far is Shizuka - Heavenly Persona ... one of the most fragile, emotionally intense albums I've ever heard.
Aside from chiming in on The Time Is Nigh, I'd like to put a good word for a few Fushitsusha of the louder persuasion.
The Caution Appears
Same line-up- Haino, Ozawa, Kosugi- as Time Is Nigh (and PSFD 15/16). While not quite capable of peeling the same degree of paint there are moments. At first seemingly mere moments, almost like a compilation of excerpts from much longer pieces, but then comes redemption in the form of more full realized pieces. getting better and more wall-stripping as the disc winds up.
Gold Blood
Same line-up and good title for the lugubrious heaviness on tap. Very nice live renditions of favorite Fushitsusha, among other material, caught up in vertiginous, swirling, echo chamber. Dense clusters of crimson gilding, greedily sucking up air, consuming space, sound field on more an a few occasions pretty much maxed out.
Withdrawe, This Sable Disclosure Ere Devot'd
Haino, Ozawa and new drummer Takahashi. Even more deeply immersed in the swirling echo chamber, broken up with more Haino-ish dribble n drone. Occasionally feels as thought the band is trying to edge toward proper freak-out song structure, but soon to withdraw for residual fields of pure squall.
PSFD-50
Just cause I'm feeling a bit guilty about leaving out PSF releases proper. Four tracks on this one, with the Haino, Ozawa, Kosugi line-up. Last track is 45 minutes and is all the monster one might hope and expect. At the 30-minute mark all scorching hell breaks loose.
Anyone heard the fairly recent 3xcd set on Utech? The Haino, Ozawa, Kosugi line-up from 1996, so it would have to be good. Peter Brötzmann apparently contributes, which I'm less excited about.
Listening a lot to Shizuka in the last days. But damn, their records are hard to find or really expensive.
https://youtu.be/Z0XDDf1PxwE (https://youtu.be/Z0XDDf1PxwE)
Been bumping lots to P.S.F records during last few weeks... These two have been particulary good:
Toho Sara
Droney & shamanistic ritual temple music featuring interesting artists such as Acid Mothers Temple`s Makoto & La Musica founder Asahito Nanjo.
Che-SHIZU
Folky stuff thats wandering somewhere between improvisation and structured songs. Founded by Chie Mukai in 1981.
Fun Fact: did a cassette to John Duncan`s AQM label in the 80`s.
Was thinking about The Time is Nigh, but went with The Wisdom Prepared 1998 instead. A 75-minute clusterfuck of pure power. A band, sounding like a band, at its most furious. The problem is that it wasn't enough. Get sucked into their hole, and you really don't want to climb out of it. What album next? Try this one. Nah, that won't do. Try that one. Nah, that one won't do. Fuck it. The Time is Nigh.