Japan and SE ASIA

	AFTER DINNER: Paradise of Replica Code:ReRAD2 Price: £12.50 Quantity in Basket: none
Long out of print, the second and last After Dinner LP with 4 additional recent radical remixes. This is a classic.
	ALTERED STATES: Altered States 4 Code:ZEN003 Price: £15.28 Quantity in Basket: none
The classic Japanese music and noise improvisation trio (all were also members of the last Ground Zero). Highly musical and inventive work that shows what can still be done with bass, drums and guitar (plus a few pedals !) and a lot of sensibility. Such a group only comes along once in a rare while. Japanese pressing. Few copies only.
	ALTERED STATES: Altered States 6 Code:ZEN005 Price: £15.28 Quantity in Basket: none
See above
	ALTERED STATES: Bluffs ii Code:ASBluffsii Price: £14.50 Quantity in Basket: none
Trio formed by the exceptional guitarist Uchihashi Kasuhisa with the amazing Yoshigaki Yasuhiro, drums (you will remember him from Ground Zero) and impeccable bassist Nasuno Mitsuru here improvise perfect pieces that are imaginative, sure-footed, subtle, powerful, fearless, and cross-genres as to the manor born. A rare treat.
	ALTERED STATES: Plays Standards Code:SKCA1003 Price: £15.57 Quantity in Basket: none
What it says, although the standards are not played in a very standard way. Best known as Japanese noise improvisers, Altered States here re and deconstruct 16 jazz repertory songs (Misty, Mood Indigo, All the Things you are, Someone to watch over me and so on). I think only Japanese musicians could have conceived or executed such a project without parody (this follows Ground Zero's equally remarkable "standards" CD). Great work.
	BI KYO RAN: Parallax Code:BELLE95186 Price: £18.80 Quantity in Basket: none
Classy 'progressive' rock.
	BIDZILIBA: RocQ Code:FMC022 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
See below - they just get better.
	BIDZILIBA: Uchu Code:FMC017 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
Songs, pop songs, simple - fairly -, transparent, perfectly arranged and extremely engaging. Singer Fuchigami Junko has a very personal style and great pitching. .Bass and tuned percussion are exquisitely placed. Not an earthquake but a small gem. Japanese import.
	CASSIBER/GROUND ZERO: Live in Tokyo/Ground Zero remix (dbl) Code:ReRCGZ2 Price: £20.00 Quantity in Basket: none
This is a collection of pieces developed from and using the live recordings of Cassiber's Tokyo performance by Otomo Yoshihide and Ground Zero. This is also in part a tribute, and it is the last recording of Ground Zero, marking the end of Otomo's main project of the last 7 years. Taken together, these have much to say about the connections, innovations and changes at the musical boundaries between the mid 80's and late 90's. Listen to a sample of this release
	CHAN WEI FAT: Hardly Breathing Code:FS001 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
Hong Kong electrified guitarist with pieces for Hawaiian steel, prepared guitar, damaged Cello, detuned guitar, tape, toys and octavilia. Generally quiet and present realtime pieces...improvisation but not quite as we know it- an interesting addition to the lexicon. And some gems. Limited.
	CICALA MVTA Ohkuma Wataru unit): Deko-Boko Code:nectar68.822 Price: £17.63 Quantity in Basket: none
Japanese 7 piece with wild street band material, much of it folk influenced (Japanese, East European and other) with additive rhythms and an approach that moves from the legendary Compostella to the big unison melody statements of Ground Zero. Great There's a fine Albert Ayler medley and a piece based on Bartok's microcosmos too. The energy peaks at Ornette Coleman levels and the performances and arrangements are sure, clear and impressive. Straight ahead musical.
	CICALA-MVTA: Ghost Circus Code:TLCA1011 Price: £15.28 Quantity in Basket: none
Wild and raucous, but completely under control, big-band style, street orchestra style, mixed up kids: clarinet family, saxes, violin, cello, lap steel guitar, autoharp, bass, drums, musical saw, tuba, electronics... Fine arrangements, often at breakneck speed, exquisitely recorded (as ever at Grok sound) with a Sogenanntes Linksradikal Blaseorchestra political edge (Un Pueblo Unido & Jara's Right to Live in Peace). You know after 2 bars it's Japanese - that hyper-real energy, technical skill, overall perfection and plain human force just shine through.
	DEATH AMBIENT: Drunken Forest Code:TZ7264 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
Third, and most ambitious so far by the DA trio: Fred Frith, Kato Hideki and Ikue Mori - joined on some pieces here by precision percussionist Jim Pugliese. DA open up their language on this release; lots of overdubs and building ambiances. Kato in particular plays not only bass (acoustic and electric) but also, banjo, acoustic guitar, violin, synthesiser, mandolin, accordion, ukulele, recorders, steel guitar, glasses, ice water and occasionally sings. Jim Pugliese is a bonus, always focused with a sympathetic ear for sound.
	FESTIVAL BEYOND INNOCENCE: 2 1997-8 Code:Vol2FestivalInnocence Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
Report from Uchihashi Kasuhisa's great International Festival. Includes:Hans Reichel, Yamamoto Seiichi, Chiku Toshiaki, Haco, Makigami Koichi, Wono Satoru, Samm Bennett, Yuko Nexus 6, Pon, Tanaka Yumiko, Happiness Proof, Harpy, Matsuzaki Junichi, Harada Takashi.
	FESTIVAL BEYOND INNOCENCE: 3 1998-8 Code:Vol3FestivalInnocence Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
Report from Uchihashi Kasuhisa's great International Festival. Includes:Atlered States, Steve Beresford, Yagi Michiyo, Haino Keiji, Tsuyama Atsushi, Chini Shuichi, Inada Makoto, Imai Kazuo, Yuko Nexus 6, kKK Null, Haco, Ne Zhdali, Yanagawa Yoshinori, Phantasmagoria, Pa Pa, Unami Taku.
	FESTIVAL BEYOND INNOCENCE: 4 1999-2000 Code:Vol4FestivalInnocence Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
Report from Uchihashi Kasuhisa's great International Festival. Includes:Kakitsubata, Eugene Chadbourne, Samm Bennett, Joelle Leandre, Era Mari, Formant Brothers, Skist, Yagi Michiyo, Shelley Hirsch, Hose, Chou, Hannoda Taku, Han Bennink, Uchihashi Kasuhisa, Chino Shuichi, Purist, Ezaki Masafumi, Kang tae Hwan, Iwata Ko, Unami Taku..
	FOMOFLO: Slug and Firearms Code:MOMUS005 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
A remarkable meeting of Amy Denio and the legendary Hoppy Kamiyama with Dennis Gunn, Tada Makio, Honda Tatsuya and on two tracks The Billy Tipton Memorial Sax Quartet. Enormous sound and a lot of wild music here, mostly songs and mostly big rock, but excellently done. A pretty remarkable piece of work.
	FURUTA MARI: Crossing There Code:CORart001 Price: £15.57 Quantity in Basket: none
Four excellent pieces from a Japanese composer and performer who moves happily from one world to another; she is a member of the fine Bidziliba and of Otomo Yoshihide's Cathode but here she presents more formal compositions - for environmental sound and percussion ensemble; for flute, oboe and marimba (slightly reminiscent of Ravel); for three guitars (a beautiful piece employing sparse playing, dissonant tuning, interference patterns, as she says 'like ripples...confirming the reality of their existence'; and for bass marimba and vibraphone (faster, denser but also forming a slow spreading pattern). A fine CD showing again that
	GOLDEN AVANT GARDE: Golden Avant Garde Code:BA9463 Price: £18.80 Quantity in Basket: none
1988-91, from Lachrymosa leader Chihiro S.
	GROUND ZERO: Consume Red Code:ReRGZ2 Price: £12.50 Quantity in Basket: none
First Volume of a three CD project. Ground Zero makes a monster structure that starts screaming and gets more and more intense and massive until you don't imagine there is anywhere else to go. Then it gets bigger. A classic. Listen to a sample of this release
	GROUND ZERO: Revolutionary Peking Opera Code:ReRGZ1 Price: £12.50 Quantity in Basket: none
Otomo Yoshihide and frightening band deconstruct and rebuild the already sampled and reconstructed 'Peking Opera' of Heiner Goebbels and Alfred Harth. In conception, execution and in plain terms of aural excitement and intelligence, this is hard to beat. Stunning recording - with a drum sound to gasp at... Listen to a sample of this release
	GROUND ZERO: Gig. Last Concert Code:AMOVA02 Price: £14.10 Quantity in Basket: none
As it says, this is a recording of the last GZ concert (in Tokyo). The sound of the second half has a strange quality, but for GZ fans, this is the last; this is your final souvenir.
	HACO & TERRE THAEMLITZ: Yesterday's Heroes Code:LOUCH001 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
The inimitable Haco sings and plays in a rich, stripped back, quietly industrial, full frequency, cinematic- sound environment where electronically enhanced and mechanical sounds either float or make cold fake landscapes. To these Haco either succumbs or resists. There is a strange atmosphere of emptiness and fragility that undermines the perfection and brutality of the mechanical half of the production. Music for schizophrenic cyborgs maybe. Sorry I can't be more helpful. If you like Haco you'll like this. Her smart charm always trumps on her battles with technology
	HACO: Ash in the Rainbow Code:ReRHACO3 Price: £12.50 Quantity in Basket: none
Out of print immediately after release, now re-issued. A test-bed of experimental arrangement and production ideas set in the context of songs that only just hold together - exquisitely realised. Extraordinary sounds, treatments and arrangements - in part because the whole project was made, so to say, in reverse - starting life in a body of existing material by Avant Garde Cellist Hiromichi Sakomoto, then reworked, with texts, vocals and other materials added (reversed vibraphone, and all manner of percussion, for instance)..by the incomparable Haco. One of a kind. Listen to a sample of this release
	HACO: Haco Code:ReRHACO1 Price: £12.50 Quantity in Basket: none
From legendary After Dinner's HACO, with guests Tom Cora, Sam Bennett and Peter Hollinger, Tsuneo Imahori, Hiroshi Nakagawa, and Nobuhisa Shimoda. Great work. Listen to a sample of this release
	HACO: Happiness Proof Code:ReRHACO2 Price: £12.50 Quantity in Basket: none
Haco and many guests (including Otomo Yoshihide, Peter Hollinger, Uchihashi Kasuhisa, Pierre Bastien amd Ichiraku Yoshimitsu with a new collection of songs, in inimitable Haco style. Nothing to explain. Listen to a sample of this release
	HIDEKI, KATO : Turbulent Zone Code:ME89801 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
A CD of Electric Bass solos? Yes. A multiplicity of techniques imaginatively deployed to produce a sequence of fragile sound events. Delicate noise.
	HOSOKAWA, MASAHIKO: Like a Shimmering of Hot Air Code:BELLE96306 Price: £16.00 Quantity in Basket: none
	HOSOKAWA, MASAHIKO: Midas II Code:BELLE96284 Price: £18.80 Quantity in Basket: none
	I.S.O.: I.S.O. Code:AMOISO01 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
New formation with Ground Zero alumni Otomo Yoshihide and Sachiko Matsubara and interesting newcomer Ichiraku Yoshimitsu (drums, electronics). Slow, abstract, rich with extremes, ambient.
	ICHIYANAGI, TOSHI/MAKI ISHII: Music for a Living Process (vinyl) Code:EDRZ1008 Price: £10.34 Quantity in Basket: none
	IL BERLIONE: Il Berlione Code:BA9229 Price: £18.80 Quantity in Basket: none
50% fast and furious, clean and punchy, complex and super competent rock-kind-of-jazz-kind-of; convincing - 50% more jazz-rock as known.
	ISHIJIMA: title Code:PD13 Price: £10.34 Quantity in Basket: none
Exquisite concrete piece, sounds like manipulated bells
	JON and UTSUNOMIYA: S/T Code:MIMI004 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
Utsunomiya some will recall was the genius behind the sound of After Dinner. Here, working with singer and accordionist JON, he has produced a CD that is more or less indescribable. It is a work of pure sound (and comes with a long and thoughtful essay about sound, place and performance. Do not expect 'weird' sounds and conventional complexity, nor electronics.. this is superficially baffling but essentially and existentially a genuine innovation. You can't listen to it for 'the music', it is a complete event, and there are listening recommendations which it pays to follow. Japanese release. limited quantity.
	KAMIYAMA, HOPPY: Juice and Tremolo Code:Son02 Price: £13.51 Quantity in Basket: none
'Works of Chamber Music'. The remarkable Hoppy Kamiyama extends his composing side with a fine selection of pieces for String Quartet, String Quartet with Harp, Drums and Metal, Bass, Keyboards, Guitar and Drums, Solo Piano, for 4 TV commercials with a lot of instrumentation and some Space Insects. This is an excellent collection, full of ideas and good playing that stretches from almost traditional string writing to full ahead power noise, with interesting mixtures along the way.
	KAZUHISA, UCHIHASHI and HANS REICHEL: King Pawns Code:Zen006 Price: £15.28 Quantity in Basket: none
Japanese pressing. Few copies only
	KAZUHISA, UCHIHASHI: Guitar Solo Code:Zen002 Price: £15.28 Quantity in Basket: none
Extraordinary guitarist of 'Altered States', 'Ground Zero' etc. puts the guitar through it's paces. Japanese pressing. Few copies only
	KAZUHISA, UCHIHASHI: Phosphorescence Code:Zen004 Price: £15.28 Quantity in Basket: none
See Above
	KEIJI HEINO: Fushitsusha Code:VICTOCD060 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
With Yasushi Ozawa (bass) and Ikuro Takahashi (drums).
	KENSO: Sora Ni Hikaru Code:BA9465 Price: £18.80 Quantity in Basket: none
1981,2 - 'one of the most important technical sympho bands'
	LACRYMOSA: Joy of the Wrecked Ship Code:SSE4033 Price: £16.00 Quantity in Basket: none
	MAGICAL POWER MACO: No Goverment After Revolution Code:BELLE97390 Price: £18.80 Quantity in Basket: none
	MANDRAKE: Unreleased Materials Code:BELLE9743 Price: £18.80 Quantity in Basket: none
	MASQUE: Third Ear - Third Eye Code:BELLE97384 Price: £16.00 Quantity in Basket: none
	MEKONG ZOO: Minimal Dance Code:WMCD012 Price: £13.51 Quantity in Basket: none
World music meets Carl Orff's childrens songs with an echo of Jean Luc Ponty, featuring the vocals of Japanese singer Mieko Shimiza, and the exquisite electronic violin of Aska Kaneko. Not in the usual ReR style, but.... .
	MIDAS: Midas 2 Code:BELLE96299 Price: £18.80 Quantity in Basket: none
	MIEKO SHIOMI: Fluxus Suite Code:recordsfluxus Price: £14.10 Quantity in Basket: none
Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of fluxus, Mikeo Shiomi generated 40 pieces derived from the names of 40 people around fluxus. A surprisingly varied and interesting bundle of fragments results.
	MULLER, GUNTHER / OTOMO YOSHIHIDE: Time Travel Code:erstwhile029 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
Live concert recordings - extended ambiances, quiet and minimal. A careful listening aesthetic that probably works best in performance, but there are excellent passages that aspire to not happening.
	ONJO: Live Vol. 1 series circuit Code:dmf115/116 Price: £18.51 Quantity in Basket: none
Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Orchestra Live in Berlin Tokyo and Nagara. These concerts feature expanded, and very expanded (30+musicians) versions of the project and cover a great deal of musical ground. Vol.1 features the slower, more atmospheric, textural and more obviously jazz-aligned sides of the group, although there is plenty of intensity from an ensemble filled with great performers and operating under a highly sensitive and imaginative director. Strings and voices are used to fine effect and genres are constantly subtly shifting. Excellent sleeve-notes by Otomo.
	ONJO: Live Vol. 2 parallel circuit (dbl) Code:dmf117/118 Price: £18.51 Quantity in Basket: none
Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Orchestra in Berlin Tokyo and Nagara. These concerts feature expanded, and very expanded (30+ musicians) versions of the project and cover a great deal of musical ground. This second volume features the broader, wilder, louder, more Ground Zeroish side of the group, as well as exploring more open, contemporary structures. The pieces all start from compositions by Eric Dolphy, Charlie Hayden, Yamashita Takeo and Otomo himself, but they travel a great distance from there. Ideas, timbres and very intense performances are the sinews that articulate this impressive musical beast. With humane, thoughtful and intelligent sleeve-notes by Otomo. Nicely packed.
	OPTICAL 8: Bug Code:DSA54048 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
Screaming. The legendary Hoppy Kamiyama and band rip up heavy strips of solid power and rodeo with them. The energy you find only in Japan, coupled with an eclectic and surefooted technique.
	OSTERTAG, BOB/OTOMO YOSHIHIDE: Twins Code:CMDD0-00030 Price: £15.28 Quantity in Basket: none
Concept- 3 invitees prepare 3 original pieces of about 4 minutes. Bob and Otomo generate pieces from deconstructing, sampling, reconstructing, and sometimes supplementing them; each 'parent' thus leading to a set of 'twins'. The original pieces - by Chris Cutler, Yagi Michiyo and Herb Robertson - appear too, so here's a window on samplers, musical thinking and plunderphonia - as well as a very listenable CD. Japanese Pressing
	OTOMO YOSHIHIDE / VOICE CRACK: Bitsbotsandsigns Code:erstwhile011 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
5 pieces, mostly smaller, abstract sounds.
	OTOMO YOSHIHIDE, MARTIN TETREAULT: Studio Ð Analogique Ð Numerique Code:AM1113CD Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
(3x 3cm CD box) CD 1 is duo pieces, CD2 MartinÕs analogue mixes, CD3 OtomoÕs digital mixÉ.Click, scratch, glitch, minimal school mostly, though Otomo steps out a little. In a small box and nicely presented. ThatÕs important, the same data would fit on a normal CD, but it would mean something different. An art object maybe more than a musical object.
	OTOMO YOSHIHIDE: Vinyl Tranquilizer Code:NAIM01CD Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
Otomo's MEMORY DISORDER, Solo works, Vol 2. Featuring 60 1 minute tracks each working on a single vinyl record..; a compendium of techniques and fun to 'spot the source'.
	OTOMO,YOSHIHIDE/SACHIKO MATSUBARA: Music for DanceArt , Hong Kong's Memory Disorder Code:NAIAM04CD Price: £15.28 Quantity in Basket: none
New style Otomo, with Sachiko M. Sine tones, almost inaudible frequencies, disturbance, controlled noise. Hard to find Chinese release. Artprint inside card folder. Very limited supply.
	PHANTASMAGORIA: Phantasmagoria Code:ICR007 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
Uchihashi Kasuhisa again with a big band (actually Contrabass, Drums, Guitar, Sampler, Trombone, Trumpet and Alto Sax, but it sounds bigger - blame the sampler player). Big Jazz, Rock, Noise, some classical and other genres (blame the sampler player) and - I don't know. This is what is great about some recent Japanese groups. Totally fearless. Not afraid to be straight. Or eccentric. Very good indeed. On his own label. Scarce.
	PHEW: View Code:DSA54021 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
See above
	PIDGIN COMBO: The Long Vacation Code:FMC018 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
From concerts in Japan in 1988 and 1989 organised by Keyboardist Okhuma Wataru and featuring Tom Cora and Shinoda Masami, plus Rorie (voice, bass marimba) and Kimura Shinya (drums and saxes), both from LunaPark Ensemble, and bassist Nishimura Takuya (from che-SIZU).These are very good recordings of a notable 'lost' band embodying some excellent extended compositions, including a previously unpublished piece by Tom Cora and Lars Hollmer, and fine performances all round. A very welcome and carefully prepared release. Japanese import.
	PNEUMA: Psychabuse Code:BELL9588 Price: £18.80 Quantity in Basket: none
	ROWE, KEITH , TOSHIMARU NAKAMURA: Weather Sky Code:erstwhile018 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
Icon of early 60's and Icon of late '90's abstract, minimal, radical, theoretical sound performances collaborate on a musical object that is enigmatic, vanishing, insistent, full of threshold sound and controlled dynamics. No toe-tapper.
	RUINS: 1986-1992 Code:MGC21 Price: £15.00 Quantity in Basket: none
See Vrresto for general coverage of the band. This follows drum demon Yoshida Tatsuya's extraordinary project from the first EP (1986) on through another 19 tracks selected from subsequent releases, passing through 3 bass-players on the way (all hi-power virtuosi) and from 4 track cassette recording (a sound Metallica would pay half a million bucks to get) to multi-track tape. While the essential hell-for-leather, impossible speed-and-complexity menu doesn't change, the sound and mood change interestingly with the bassists (the second, Kimoto Kasuyoshi also plays violin). And the style of the music also evolves interestingly over time from simple complexity to more complex complexity - one might say - and from punk-metallic power and distortion to a cleaner more precise music of parallel but interlocked parts. The tracks with bassist Masuda Ryuichi are especially impressive and substantial. To make no mistake, there's a lot of music here. If you like the other Ruins CDs, this is a gem. Japanese Import.
	RUINS: Pallaschtom Code:SON09 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
If you never encountered Ruins, they are a duo: Drums/Vocals and Bass/Vocals, who refer, especially melodically and in their musical material to Magma. Essentially this is unremitting, fast and furious, mostly unison, decidedly virtuosic material. Phenomenal in its way, but an acquired taste.
	RUINS: Tzomvorgha Code:MGC22 Price: £15.00 Quantity in Basket: none
See Vrresto for general coverage of the band. The pieces here tend to be more evolved and are stylistically much more various, though the main characteristics remain firmly in place. Absolutely remarkable. The two minute Mahavishnu medley at the end says it all. Japanese Import.
	RUINS: Vrresto Code:MGC14SON-01 Price: £15.00 Quantity in Basket: none
The rhythm section takes over the world. This unique and extraordinary duo rip through 13 very convincing and virtuosic exercises in scalpel-accurate musical assault. Extremely complex, through-composed and full of additive rhythms, unison flurries and staccati - mostly all at terrifying speed - with skid stops, unison accellerandi and decellerandi, abrupt shifts of mood and dynamic - and occasional islands of quasi normality - these pieces manage variety and, with only two voices (mostly instrumentally used), bass, drums and some MIDI controlled extras, sound massive and orchestrated. The influence of Magma and maybe a little This Heat is evident, but not prominent. May need to be taken occasionally or in small doses - in lieu of a caffeine overdose, for instance. Or 500 volts of AC. Made in 1998, with Yoshida Tatsuya and Sasaki Hisashi. Sound is excellent. Japanese Import.
	SACHIKO M, OTOMO YOSHIHIDE, YASUHIRO OTANI, MARTIN TETREAULT: Four Focusses Code:AMOSAT02 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
More Ultra radical tracking of pure 'non-musical' and 'unwanted' sounds, clicks, distortion, pure tones. Very stripped.
	SACHIKO M: Sine wave Solo Code:AMOSAT01 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
As it suggests, extremes of duration high and low frequencies, silences, disruption made only of sine tones.
	SALLE GAVEAU: Alloy Code:MABO-023 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
Scary Japanese quintet that plays close to 'New Tango' (after Piazolla) but also intersects with Rio-esque, jazz inflected and European-Romany musical roots. Accordion, Bass, Electric Guitar, Drums and Violin; it may sound pedestrian, but here it's fast and furious, various, beautifully played, imaginative and full of exquisite musical detail. This is a prodigious piece of work, not groundbreaking but extremely musical. Headphone listening recommended.
	SHIMIZU, MIEKO: Totem Code:WMCD011 Price: £13.51 Quantity in Basket: none
To coincide with the release of MEKONG ZOO, this reissue of Mieko's first solo CD, nicely repackaged.
	SHINOHARA, MAKOTO: Electronic Music Domain Vol. 2 Code:30CM-455 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
A fine collection of early Japanese electronic and concrete works made between 1965-1979, mostly at the Utrecht Institute of Sonology and the legendary Princeton Music Centre. The (excellent) earliest piece, like Stockhausen's first studies, is made entirely from sine waves, while the rest feature the increasing inclusion of environmental recordings. The last composition, City Visit, made in 1979 - which occupies 40 minutes of the whole CD - consists entirely of New York urban soundscape recordings without additional treatments or processing - a fascinating portrait of the city, and an important contribution to the history of soundscape phonography. A valuable release.
	TAKAMI: Teneshi-Kou Code:BELL9598 Price: £18.80 Quantity in Basket: none
	TAKAMI: Yume No Kirigishi Code:BELL9599 Price: £16.00 Quantity in Basket: none
	THE AMPLIFY BOX: 7 CD set Code:AmplifyBox Price: £135.13 Quantity in Basket: none
Very Last copies of limited edition of 800.A document of a week of music in Tokyo in late October 2002. Over 7 hours of music featuring Keith Rowe, Tetuzi Akiyama, Oren Ambarchi, Toshimaru Nakamura, Otomo Yoshihide, Burkhard Stangl, Taku Sugimoto (also performing together as a guitar septet) GŸnter MŸller, Thomas Lehn, Sachiko M, Christof Kurzmann, Marcus Schmickler - in various combinations. Plus a 109 minute DVD film of the event and a 52 page, full-colour booklet with twenty essays by many of the people involved. The DVD also contains commentaries from the musicians (including Keith Rowe discussing with the other guitarists how he believes a musician should approach performing the graphic score of Cardew's Treatise), plus behind -the-scenes footage, images and sounds from Tokyo and 5.1 surround sound recordings of some of the shows. It's expensive and only for those of you who know what to expect from this line up. Beautifully presented; a rare and valuable document.
	THE HANIWA ALLSTARS Code:MHBL1039 Price: £23.50 Quantity in Basket: none
Just stunning. I have followed Kiohiko Semba since I first encountered Wha Ha Ha, in Tokyo, in the early '80s: master drummer, eccentric genius and all round prankster, he then produced one of the truly great records of the decade: Kanishabali. Now, this DVD documents another of his '80s projects: The Haniwa Allstars - in this version, a massive 54 piece costumed ensemble, featuring both western and traditional, electric and acoustic instruments, accompanied by a succession of singers who collectively rip through a programme of original and covered materials. There is an open-ness to every level of serious and frivolous music here, and a kind of joy in mixing it all up that I have only ever seen work convincingly in Japan (Zappa covered much of the ground, but always came to it through the dark glass of irony, Sun Ra was closer, but eschewed normality and made high cultural claims. Haniwa does neither of these things, resting its case instead on intelligent fun). The DVD is beautifully and professionally made, and a joy to watch and listen to: the musicianship is breathtaking, the arrangements fantastic, and there is minute attention to detail with no apparent effort as well as humour with no implicit criticism. Add discipline, a kind of enigmatic modesty, and a refreshing respect for the essence of things (their version of YMCA is an education) and you get pure 90 minutes of pure pleasure.. That they managed to do it at all, and then that it was so well documented - well what are the odds of that? A phenomenon. Japanese import in limited supply.
	TOKYO SYMPHONIC ROCK SYNDROME: same Code:BA9464 Price: £18.80 Quantity in Basket: none
Collected unpublished tapes of a selection of '80's Tokyo symphonic rock groups.
	TREMBLING STRAIN: Anthem Code:BA95116 Price: £18.80 Quantity in Basket: none
	TREMBLING STRAIN: Bottom of Empty Code:BA Price: £18.80 Quantity in Basket: none
	TREMBLING STRAIN: Four Pictures Code:BA95171 Price: £18.80 Quantity in Basket: none
	VARIOUS ARTISTS: Japanese Avant Garde Code:SR202 Price: £12.50 Quantity in Basket: none
Merzbow, Ground Zero, Haco, Otomo Yoshihide, Viewmasters, Koji Asano, Aki Onda, Yoshio Mashida, Bisk, Sachiko M, So Takahashi and the Multiphonic Ensemble. A fair collection that takes a slice of time and fixes it. This is a quick tour of the Avant Japanese community.
	VARIOUS ARTISTS: Neu Konservativ Code:DSA54046 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
A God Mountain sampler produced by the legendary Hoppy Kamiyama. A good introduction to a strong Japanese new music stream, featuring terrifying technique, hypnosis, screaming power and plenty of post rock imagination. Includes Altered States, Pon, Bass Army, Tipographica, Optical 8, Ground Zero and the God Mountain Orchestra.
	WILKINSON BROTHERS: People from the Continent Code:FMC020 Price: £15.57 Quantity in Basket: none
The W Bros are Shintani Kiyoshi (pno, accordion), Funato Hiroshi (Contrabass) and Furutaroh (guitar); the music is co mposed, simple in deceptive way, with a touch of ZNR, a touch of Lars Hollmer, some French Film music, fearless references to the classics, circus music, Nina Rota and a lot of imagination, changing sound and excellent playing. A small gem Japanese import.
	YOSHIDA TATSUYA: Magaibutsu Code:rere163 Price: £14.30 Quantity in Basket: none
Reissue at last of the 1991 no man's land release, completely remixed by the artist (best known as the Ruins) and with 6 extra tracks. Deeply influenced by Magma, but rather more idiosyncratic and minus the gravity and the compositional staying power, these pieces feature hell-for-leather percussion, tuned percussion, piano, bass, organ, voices and other less identifiable instruments. Tempi tend to be fast and furious, even neurotic. Nevertheless, it's technically impressive and profoundly odd by turns and certainly in a class of its own. There are vocal moments here, and percussion moments that are definitely out there. Strange and personal. Not restful.