Kasumi Trio (カスミトリオ) - Tsunashi 十

Kasumi Trio (Although there are actually 4 members on this outing.) are a local supergroup of sorts made up of Michishita Shinsuke (LSD March) on electric guitar, Ueno Takashi (Tenniscoats) on acoustic guitar, Takahashi Ikuro (Nagisa Ni Te) on drums and artist and frequent Tenniscoats collaborator Umeda Tetsuya playing around with a variety of noisy homemade contraptions and instruments.

The music actually ends up being a fairly balanced mix of all the members own musical projects. The breezy acoustic stylings of Nagisa Ni Te, combined with the experimental wanderings of the Tenniscoats and topped off with a touch of LSD March's brand of sombre psychedelia. The tracks combine delicatley composed repeating acoustic passages with subtle use of noise and atmospherics courtesy of Michishita and Umeda. The band are best experienced live if only to catch a glimpse of Umeda Tetsuya's bizarre and wonderful noise contraption that includes vibrating ping pong ball platforms, magnetised oscillating tube amps and electrified spark fans. (Checkout the youtube clip.) The whole album has a nice laidback breezy feel to it but spices it with some experimentation to create an interesting counterpoint. The album also comes in a rather cool foldout cardboard package that resembles the cutout paper snowflakes children make.

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Hamah Moh - Ghost Slider

Hamah Moh is a Kyoto based singer/songwriter who writes some impressively dank and dingy ballads using his disctinctively raspy resonator guitar and slide setup. Backed by harmonium and the occasional bit of didgeridoo and percussion Hamah's lengthy. sparse, bluesy dirges have an almost Eastern flavour to them managing to fuse blue grass, folk and eastern influences with elements of traditional Japanese folk music. To be honest I find his vocals to be a little grating after a while (He has a slight "tang" in his voice that sounds a little forced, but perhaps it's not so noticeble if you don't know Japanese.) but he does a great job of creating music that manages to be dark but also surprisingly uplifting and upbeat. Hamah even manages a worthy cover of Japan's multi-talented comedian turned actor turned songwriter turned painter turned author turned movie director turned university professor Kitano Takeshi's "Asakusa Kid".

Dim the lights and break out the cigars and whisky for maximised listening pleasure.

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Mmm - Five Till (ミーマイモー - Five Till)

Mmm (Pronounced as Me My Mo) is a Yokohama born singer/songwriter and is also an active member in the Ono Yuuki band has collaborated with the Tenniscoats and is also involved in a number of other side projects. "Five Till" is Mmm's first recorded release put out in 2009 by CDR folk label Chou Jyuu Chuu Gyo (鳥獣虫魚). Mmm's downbeat acoustic folk is sang in both English and Japanese and is fairly reminiscent of American singer/songwriters like Aimee Mann and Nina Nastasia or her Japanese contemporaries Eddie Marcon. "Troubled Mind" is without the highlight of this 6 track mini-album and is a track she more recently returned to in her Maria Hato project with exquisite results. Sadly that CD was released only a month or 2 ago so I won't be uploading it yet but is well worth checking out.

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Asakawa Maki - Askawa Maki II (浅川マキ - 浅川マキ II)

Haven't posted any old stuff in quite a while and I heard this playing in a bar recently which reminded me of how much I love this album. Asakawa Maki started off her musical career singing blues and jazz covers at the U.S. army bases situated on Japan's most southern island of Okinawa. She produced a number of excellent albums in the late 60's and early 70's which earned her a fair amount of mainstream success before she vanished back into relative obscurity of Japan's 70's underground avant garde scene. Asakawa's music fuses laid back blues and jazz with elements of Japanese folk music and acid folk to create hauntingly beautiful, dark smokey ballads. Asakawa continued to perform regularly untill her death early last year. Asakawa Maki II released in 1971 is in my opinion her best work and without doubt a standout even in Japan's most golden era of music. Since her death there have been a number of compilations released of previously unreleased material and live recordings which are also worth investigating.

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Kudou Reiko - Kusa (工藤礼子 - 草)

I thought I would continue the Kudou family tangent by posting a few more albums from the Kudou household. Kudou Reiko is probably best know as the wife of Kudou Tori the man behind Maher Shalal Hash Baz but is also a very respected musician in her own right. She first began making waves on Tokyo's avant-garde underground back in the late 70's but her output has despite her longevity been pretty sparse. After meeting her husband Tori at a Hadaka No Rallizes concert concert in Kyoto the 2 teamed up to create the legendary "Tenno" album under the name Noise. Reiko then began writing and performing with Tori's Maher Shalal Hash Baz. Kusa is her 4th solo album released back in 2006 and also features Tori and Namio on a number of tracks.  It's easy to see the influence Reiko's own music has had on her son Namio. Rather than the cheery, upbeat ensemble pop tunes of her husband, Reiko's compositions are much more stripped back and fragile sounding but still harness some of the same clumsiness that is so intrinsic to Hash Baz's sound. Sadly it seems Reiko is just as elusive as her husband as I haven't been able to find any official website or myspace site and clips of her on youtube

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Wasurerugusa - Baby Works (わすれる草 - Baby Works)

Wasurerugusa is another sideproject of the prolific Himeji acid-folk duo Eddie Marcon. This time Eddie Marcon are teaming up with TEASI's Matsui Ippei and Namae Ga Nai's Aki Tsuyoku for some beautifully down-tempo and ethereal, slow-fi acid folk. Released on Eddie Marcons own consistantly excellent Pong Kong records folk CDR label "Baby Works" consists of 6 excellent sounding live recordings recorded at Osaka's Japonica and Tokyo's Enban. Fans of Maruo Maruko will definatley dig this and be sure to check out the members other respective bands for more great music.

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Inuhiko - Obachan Kara Moratta Coat O Sutemashita (犬彦- おばちゃんからもらったコートを捨てました)

What do you get when you combine twisted Japanese nursery rhymes with brutal hardcore drumming? One of the most ingeniously discordant sonic mismatches to grace my battered eardrums in recent months. Inuhiko is Tokyo singer/songwriter Inu Jon (Dog Jon) and Hiko, drummer from renowned Japanese hardcore band Gauze. Inu plays baltic tinged folk songs on the organ while wearing a giant dog costume that resembles the creepy reanimated corpse of Fantastic Mr Fox which makes the band as bizarre and otherworldy looking as they sound. It's an aquired tastes but this is an absolute must listen.

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LSD March - Live 2010

I'm sure LSD March needs little introduction but for the uninitiated LSD March is a band which revolves around core member Michishita Shunsuke. Michishita's music varies between stripped down acid-folk funeral dirges and face melting psychedelic freakouts. The line up of the band is constantly changing and quite often features guest musicians. But while LSD March has a bit of a cult following outside Japan his CDs are notoriously hard to get hold of. Fortunatley Michishita was giving out CDRs of live recordings at his most recent gig. Unfortunatley however there's no track listing and no info on exactly when or where the recording was made. What I can tell you though is that it features the wonderful Maruo Maruko on guest vocals and guitar and that most of the tracks are taken from his most recent album Under Milk Wood . This is also actually one of my favourite LSD recordings. The sound quality isn't great (You can hear the audience cracking open cans of beer.) but it's a good mix of LSD's more introverted folk leanings and his more extroverted guitar strangling. Not to mention Maruo's vocals add a certain warm sanctuary to Michishita's gloomy ballads. So enjoy this rare gem and may ye wallow in it's ice cold misery. T'is the season!

Music Trivia: Michishita Shunsuke is also Oshiri Pen Penz sound engineer.

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