Aburadako LP ” st” Japan Records 1985
First album from this long running japanese band who’s still active with Hirotomo Hasegawa as singer and also half of the Hasegawa-Shizuo band. Music is depply rooted in punk – hardcore with this singular nasal noise. I’d say they have a particular sound and you can hear they are good musicians. It’s a lot of fun with some improbable breaks . Simply nuts, makes me feel younger !
NM /NM
SOLD OUT
Aso Ai LP “Lone” Ideologic organ
guitar, keyboard and her white ghost voice
SOLD
Aso Ai LP ”Lavender edition” 2010 Pedal
NEW / $40
Takumi Akaishi LP “Music for hurdy Gurdy” Ltd to 100 and numbered 2012
Excellent artist release with a new artist / musician to discover. Akaishi has played with Otomo Yoshihide but this album is quite simple : yes it’s hurdy Gurdy, played in a very personnal way, not so experimental, sounds like some modern medieval tracks.., it could have been releases years before., yo ucan hear this guy love tubes, warm sound. packaging is quite stunning with recycled carton board and a lot of inserts, it’s quite coherent with the global yellowed aesthetic. Highly Recommend, a shame theres’ only 100.
NM/NM
SOLD
Tetuzi Akiyama & Che Chen LP Cold Soup – Incunabulum records
“Cold Soup” LP on Jozef Van Wissem’s Incunabulum Records. Handsome silver on black jackets, limited edition of 350 copie
SOLD
Amephone LP “Retrospective” Enban
Comes in a gatefold cover
Originally released as a CD in 1998, Masanori Yanagawa is a sound recordist but his compositions are musical, in a personnal folk & folkloric style with a lot of guests such as Aya Colette, Tetuzi Akiyama, Taku Sugimoto…
DJ’s’ing boogie woogie with north african rythms and drunken japanese, a bit chaotic. sounds sometimes like a soft medieval psychedelism, a bit nuts…hard to categorize and that’s a good thing.
SOLD
Yukiji Asaoka LP “Furimuitemo Kurenai” – 1966 Crown
No need to introduce Asaoka Yukiji, she’s one of the most important singer from the 60’s & 70’s; This rare album that cmomes in a nice textured gatefold cover with a pasted print inside if one of those 2 albums she recorded for the mythic Crown Label. After a long period of hybrid and minyo albums Asaoka went deeper in a enka / kayo with some bossanova and latino influences. Sounds more croony but she’ has a specific vible, between up tempo songs and a few more nostalgic ballads. She’s a star ! rare copy with obi
EX (minor shelfwears) / EX (2 inaudible scuffs on side 1) – plays really nice, almost perfect
SOLD
Aunt Sally LP”Aunt Sally” – Joystick 1984
First released on ALM records in 1979, this reissue is also rare and still remains as a key document if you are in the underground scene. Phew is such an atypical singer born from the avant-punk scene and associated with Bikke . Later she was associated with members of Can in Conny Plank’s studio and her career had a much more audience in the world of “bizarre”. Aunt Sally was more no wave oriented but Phew had always her voice and her very personnal diction, like a desincarnated and arythmic doll’s talk.
EX+/EX toEX+ (super clean, only a few surface noise)
SOLD
Lovely album by a very popular duo during the 70′s. Honestly their music wasn’t mainly very interesting, but this album sounds really nice, a bit like a soft folk type of music with a soft high childish voice. This album has something definitively more adventurous and quite simple on the paper : Songs are very simple but almost all tracks have really Shuji Terayama signature or minds, it sounds more melancolic and fragile. Musically it’s like an avant soft pop mixed with some typical japanese sounds, sometimes not so far from some Tenjo Sajiki moments, Yuigonka or Kyokubakan with a more loneliness taste. I think we can hear the pre – 80′s period, maybe some could find it naïve but in my opinion it was also as one of Terayama’s trademark.
EX+/NM
SOLD
Toru Funamura LP “Enka Junrei” Polydor 1979
Great enka record by one of the most popular composer, he has written more than 5000 songs for singers such as Hibari Misora, Hiromi Sairaiji; Naomi Chiaki, Keiko Fuji..Many great classics that almost every serious singer from the 60 & 70s have interpreted.
Funamura was a great guitar player too and his voice very sweet and expressive. This album has some nice lush orchestration, if you must have one enka album with a male singer, that must be this one. Hard to find,even the CD version has sold out for years
EX- (some stains and obi has small tears) / EX to EX+ , some occasional surface noise
SOLD
Toru Funamura LP “Otoko guitar ” Columbia 1976
Great and pretty rare guitar album, just some enka pearls songs. Never released on CD and unknown…Given price.
EX+ / VG+ (some surface noise but looks clean)
SOLD
GRIM LP “Psycho Sun” ltd to 100 Steinklang Industries 2013
Jun Konagaya is back, the legend of the 80’s..harsh, martial, guitar, percussions with distorted voice…
SOLD
Ogi Hiroko 7inch 33 rpm “Jingi” Columbia 1970
4 excellent songs that came out in this nice collectio with a nice textured gatefold cover with its attached mini pin-up poster, Hiroko Ogi was better known as an actress but her voice has a deep distinctive depth a bit à la Keiko Fuji.
An important singer that needs to be heard by a wider audience, if you are in Junko Fuji, Meiko Kaji and singers from those golden years.
EX+/EX
SOLD
Jutok Kaneko & Kikukawa Takahisa LP “Wedged Night” – Siwa records 2005
comes in a silkscreened cover+ 2 inserts. Siwa is a great label both for the music and the artwork. Kaneko Jutok was Kousokuya’s leader and his guitar playing was very distinctive..sadly he passed away in 2007 and he stayed a little bit in the shadow…
EX / EX + (some marks, unplayed copy but main pressing has some visual defaults)
SOLD
Yoshio Kuge & Ikuro Takahashi LP “2008.1.13” Enban 2013
Recorded in Shibuya, 2 veteran drummers from Pungo, Fushitsusha, Maher Shalal Haz, Ché Shizu, Tenniscoats and a lot more. ..Taiko festival
Ltd hand made release
SOLD
Maher Shalal Hash Baz 3LP Box “Return Visit to rock Mass” – Org Records 1996
Great classic from Tori Kudo’s spirit…
New
SOLD
Kan Mikami LP “Bang !” URC 1980 Promo Copy
Rare second and promo copy of this legendary album originally released in 1973 with Yosuke Yamashita and one of the most Mikami stunning eponymous song “Bang !” with cut up, musical excerpts and rage.
NM/NM
SOLD
Kan Mikami LP “Blue Flame on the Destruction” – Victor
Second rare edition, Mikami Kan doesn’t need anymore any introduction …This album has one foot in soul & funk, imaybe one of the strangest album from Mikami’s early years..
EX / EX+
SOLD
Kan Mikami LP ” Dai kan Gei – solo lIve” Ltd to 279, numbered Loud and Silence records 2013
Japanese exclusive release, already out of print
SOLD
Eddie Marcon LP “Miira To Ka” – Enban / 2013
Ltd release comes in lovely gatefold cover with silkscreened pasted prints. Nice compilation taken from ltd CDRS. Eddie Marcon was mamber of COA , for years she’s has been composing some lovely dreamy songs. Just perfect for this autumn. has sometimes a nocturnal feel, intimist and as always her releases are nicely packaged (see her last CD – stunning packaging !)
SOLD OUT
Makoto Oshiro single sided LP ” variation” Enban 2013
Comes in a slikscreened PVC cover, ltd to 200
Excellent release by a discret artist, between feedback and amplified self made instrument. Very organic, soft, delicate & mysterious
Mint /SOLD
Oyauchi – Deku duo LP “Now’s the time” Armageddon Nova 2013
With extra flyers, ltd to 250 copies
Aishi Oyauchi is a radical alto saxophonist in the tradition of Kaoru Abe and who hails from the same first generation of Japanese free improvisers while Deku is a bassist who comes out of the whole Motoharu Yoshizawa school of radical free improvisation and rigorous sound art and was a student of legendary percussionist Masahiko Togashi. Due to having little interest in documenting their thought the duo have remained unrecorded despite both players being in their 60s and playing out for several decades so this is the first recorded evidence of the kind of ferocious invention these two are capable of and that has attracted regular collaborators to them over the years like PSF recording artist and folk-sprit Kan Mikami and drummer Sabu Toyozumi (who the duo have reconnected with for a special launch show last summer in Japan).
New / SOLD
Quasipecies four LP Ltd to 250 Art Into life
Toshiji Mikawa – Electronics / Hideaki Shimada – Violin, Electronics / Nobuo Yamada – Metal Junk Objects / Katsuyoshi Kou – Guitar, Electronics
A document of a quartet session by Toshiji Mikawa, Hideaki Shimada, Nobuo Yamada, and Katsuyoshi Kou, recorded at Hatchobori Nana Hari on April 28, 2012. At the time Hideaki Shimada (Agencement) had just started drawing again, and it was advertised that the session would be recorded and released as an LP using Shimada’s artwork. Four twenty minute takes were recorded, and the LP includes two of these takes. The project title, Quasispecies Four, was inspired by the image of an indeterminate and neurotic noise performance. Limited edition of 250.
Comes with an obi with attached string that encircles the whole jacket. On the rear is an insert with photographs from the performance. Recorded live at Hatchobori Nana Hari on April 28, 2012
New / $15
Chiyoko Shikamura 10″ LP “Chiyoko no Hanachiru shimoda” – Columbia 1960
Chyoko Shinamura started her career when she was 16 in 1955, she’s a popular enka singer but maybe not as Hibari Misora…This album is one of the oldest and her voice was fragile and expressive like a chil slowlyd sinking in deep sad enka waters. One more album to cherish if early enka years are your thing.
EX-EX+ / VG+ (hes a few visible scuffs and plays with surface noise)
$35
Akio Suzuki LP ltd to 300 “Mu Ro Bi Ko” Senufo / Gan
Full concert recording from Suzuki’s first performance in Milano. Three different sections played on Analapos (his self-made echo instrument), a selection of small stones, and the De Koolmess Glass Harmonica. Recorded in April 2003 at A+MBookstore
New / $15
Taco LP “Taco” – Pinakotheca 1983
One of our long time favorite album, released on the mythic Pinakotheca label.
This album is maybe one of the craziest and hardest to review. Leaded by Harumi Yamazaki and Toshiharu Ohsato, this band has also as memebers Lolita Junko and Shiraishi Tamio who was also one of teh first memeber of Fushitsusha. Music is hard to categorize because each tarck is different but the whole make an irreverential and avant gardist punkist key document. , Ryuichi Sakamato, Tori Kudo, Non, Munehiro Narita, Michiro Endo and some more names are also on this album. Weird in the true ssense with radio transmissions in different languages, jumping from rocky songs to bizarre ballads…, demented ! Hard to find in such condition with its insert
EX / EX
$75
Tenniscoats LP “Tokinouta” – Majikick/ Enban 2013
Wonderful release, comes in an embossed/ debossed silver cover, nice collection of songs with voice, guitar, small casiotone and sometimes a melodica. Pop music at his peak, one band we cherish here .
Saya has a breathy and a soft voice that can move and make cry dead souls and stone hearts. Sounds folky with a rare depth…
Move fast, probably a collector in a matter of weeks. Came to celebrate their 10 years anniversary
New but all copies are warped / Plays without incident on my 2 turntables
$50
Urabe Masayoshi / Fukuoka Rinji Barcelona express LP ltd to 150 copies / Label : 8mm 2013
SOLD
V/A “Giri To Ninjo” 2LP Teichiku
Fantastic release from the 70’s featuring Ken Takakura, Meiko Kaji, Izumi Chidori, Junko Fuji, Bunta Sugawara, Umemiya Tatsuo, Wakayama Tomisburo…
This specific compilation explore sthe cinematographic genre in enka with the yakuza’s related songs, loneliness feeling, self sacrifice, women pain, male pressure. Opens with the legendary “abashiri Bangaishi”.
Comes in a heavy double weighted gatefold
EX+ / EX+
SOLD
Japan'archives mailorder 