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Gran Guignol CD “Gran Guignol” + CD ” Live 1981″ + 18 x 18 cm booklet 34 pages

Grand Guignol performed avant-garde performances in a white-faced style reminiscent of dark dance. Based in Fussa, they performed at many live houses, including the legendary live house “Kichijoji Minor,” and were supported by music fans at the time as an artistic band that not only included their music but also their equipment, lighting, flyers, and fashion. However, despite their growing fame, they disbanded in 1981, much to the regret of many.
Grand Guignol’s only LP was recorded in 1981, towards the end of their career, and released by the legendary Pinakotheca label in 1982. 

Second CD is the live recording held at Shibuya “Yaneura” on February 13, 1981, just before the band broke up. When they first formed, they repeatedly performed shocking performances with white make-up, but as they performed more than 50 times in total, their taste gradually changed to a pop line. This recording is from their final stage when they were at their most pop, and the finish is a powerful expansion of the characteristics of their only album. It also includes songs that were popular at the live shows at the time but were never recorded in the studio. 

Only a very few, ltd to 300 sold out at source

$65

Usurabi LP Chita

LP ltd to 415, black vinyl, 2 color (blue and black) silkscreened jacket with obi (black or light grey), 2 inserts and a postcard
Réf : [An’48]
Printed by Alan Sherry 
Photos by Akiyama Noriko 
Chita, the third album proper by Japanese guitar pop trio Usurabi, is their most elegant, stylish confection yet. Over the past four years, Toshimitsu Akiko (vocals, guitar), Kawaguchi Masami (bass) and Morohashi Shigeki (drums) have been recording, playing live, and releasing songs of rare melodic warmth, centring Toshimitsu’s unique musical vision, where melancholy and joy can co-exist, a split-second flick of her wrist switchblading the guitar from languorous sweetness to overloaded rock action.

Chita expands on the smartly sculpted pop and rock songs found on their previous albums, Remains Of The Light (2021) and Outside Of The World (2023), while infusing the music with more of the rough-housing energy that also coursed through the live CD, Once In A Red Room, they self-released in January 2024. There’s still a through-line, of course, that connects the music here to Toshimitsu’s earlier groups, Doodles and Animone, ,but Chita feels more deeply like a sussed, sharp take on the crumbling edges of sixties psychedelic folk and rock: the harmonica that blasts through the opener, “Bansho”, is pure Dylan in effect.

One of the many smart things about Usurabi, though, is that they never feel beholden to the historical moment. Soon after “Bansho”, we encounter “TurnOff”, a lush pop song that turns on a dime, with Toshimitsu tearing fuzztone notes from six strings that are like a more folk-reverent Kaneko Jutok. And there’s something about the guitar and bass riff that doubles through the thrilling two-and-a-half minutes of “Hakanonaka” that’s a dead ringer for the Only Ones. Flip the record, and things get more expansive, the spindly jangling of the title song spiralling ever inwards, before the sweet, sugary rush of “Kanata” resolves to the martial rhythms that pulse through “Aseranai”, winding the album down to its poetic, becalmed resolution.

Distribution in UK : This Ain’t Distribution / Japan Blues

Shop in Paris & distribution in France : Souffle Continu 

US : Worldgonemad

25€