PSF records suggestions and talk

[D. Davis]

So fucking hyped!
http://www.theblackeditions.com/announcement/

[D. Davis]

...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

[HongKongGoolagong]

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

[Bloated Slutbag]

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.

[totalblack]

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

[online prowler]

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?

[Bloated Slutbag]

Sachiko
I 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 Jikan
Ashito 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-Shizuo
Gene 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-

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

[acsenger]

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.

[online prowler]

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?

[Bloated Slutbag]

Tsurubami
Not 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.

Mikami Kan
Another screamer poet.

Here's part of an interview with Mikami Kan that made me smile. Remind you of anywhere?

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

[Zeno Marx]

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.

[ConcreteMascara]

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.

[ddmurph]

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.

[Bloated Slutbag]

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.

[cr]

Listening a lot to Shizuka in the last days. But damn, their records are hard to find or really expensive.

https://youtu.be/Z0XDDf1PxwE