Fushitsusha and youtube and junk

'Sup.
I've decided I'm done exclusively using the single album review format I had curbed all of my posts on in previous blogs, and because of that, I'm now slightly intimidated as to how I might begin. Regardless, I'm going to try to set the standards a little lower for myself, and try to promise at least 2 entries every week. Time and laziness permitting, possibly even 3. Oh, and of course, just because I won't be posting links anymore doesn't mean you can't acquire tunes from this blog. I'm going to put my email on the left hand bar, and if you're in need of a particular album, I'd be happy to send you a copy. After all, most of what I'll cover here will probably be obscure as fuck, and procurable solely through house-cleaning collector dorks on discogs.
Oh hey, but before we begin, how about a long-winded personal account aimed squarely at no one?
Or actually, check out this youtube uploader here. I admittedly haven't had the time to browse the entire library, but there's some prime cuts of quality obscurities, here, such as the fucking awesome proto-metal of High Tide, the hard rock informed psych of Schizo, the Shimmy Disc nonsense of B.A.L.L, "progg" unit Baby Grandmothers, completely "underrated" A.R. & Machines (whose Echo album is an incredible, spacey krautrock epic), and the dark, free form, P.S.F-stable psych-rock of Okhami No Jikan.

Speaking of P.S.F, to the left's an album I've been torturing myself with quite thoroughly over the past few weeks. If you've ever dabbled in Japan's avant-garde or psychedelic scene (or read The Wire somewhat regularly), you're probably familiar with the name Fushitsusha, the wide-ranging improv/psych/drone 3-piece helmed by infamous guitar strangler/banshee Keiji Haino. From '78 to their indefinite hiatus in '01, the band have gone through a number of lineup changes (Haino being the only constant), but have consistently laid down some of the most abrasive, difficult (sometimes even "impossible"), and darkly psychedelic "rock" you're likely to encounter. To give you an idea of how heavy this shit is to ingest, I've spent the past 4 years listening to these dudes, and have only now gathered the patience/threshold to give their 4th LP a go. You might be wondering whether I'm just kidding myself at this point. To be honest, I have no fucking clue where I initially garnered the patience to get into this band, but my persistence might have something to do with the blooming of my huge-ass fandom for their second album, known as 15/16, or Live 2. Live 2 is a monstrous, 2-something hour event, and I've yet to find another album that rivals its suffocating density, creaky ambience, and bizarre, contemplative-yet-noisy "songwriting" style. This album on the left (known as Hisou and occasionally Pathetique) while about as exhaustive and taxing on listener as Live 2, is a pretty different affair, and essentially isolates the noise pinnacles of the aforementioned disc and multiplies the intensity by (arbitrarily assigned number).
The first two tracks are almost hilariously loose and rickety, as if the band are desperately trying to scotch-tape a somewhat simplistic rock song back together with in-the-red amps and horrific ADD. The result, of course, is a gloriously noise-laden carwreck that sort of establishes itself towards the middle of the second track, but ultimately skids off into oblivion again. The 3rd track might be one of my favorite Fushitsusha tracks to date, and sort of reminds me of prime early Skullflower, as Haino hammers one fucking awesome, obtuse riff into the ground for 3 cycles and 15 minutes, consistently heaping on noise and ugliness until it devolves into a shrieking, tuneless, decidedly un-rock solo. The 4th track is definitely one you have to, uh, be in the mood for, as with any "song" consisting of 44 minutes of excruciating feedback torture. But hey, sometimes it's just about mindset. Case in point, when I'm down to ebb on the tinnitus, this sounds like staring into a void of incomprehensible depths, petrified by the sheer immensity, when suddenly, everything is enveloped in blinding light around the 29 minute mark. The other half of the time, the experience is more like sitting in the front row of a Fushitsusha concert when Haino suddenly props up his guitar against the amps, and wanders off with the bassist to take a 30 minute shit while drummer Kosugi bops around aimlessly until they get back. Fortunately, I'm more swayed to the latter, but there's your warning.
I don't know if I'd put this up there with the first two live discs the band put out, but on days when I'm down for nearly a solid hour of eyecrossing free-form noise, this disc's a pretty fucking awesome thing to behold.

If you're interested in getting your hands on a download for this, email me, and I'll hook you.

contraceptron@gmail.com