Japan'archives mailorder

Mikami Kan CD “Sono Saki ni mieuru mono” Operiko Records

New and concise album…It’s a short one but maybe one of the most interesting for years

Carboard jacket with insert; sorry for the price but I haven’ t any wholesale and only have a few

$35

The Gerogerigegege 2CD >​(​decrescendo) Final Chapter = デクレッシェンド 最終章 – Undo records

Recorded in a park before dawn in August 2019, it was released for the first time in December on a series of cassettes by fashion brand CAV EMPT and sold out immediately. In 2020, “Ugusudani Apocalypse” was released on LP by The Trilogy Tapes in the UK.In 2020, he self-released a cassette box with three versions recorded in the same park. In 2021, The Trilogy Tapes will release a second pressing of the album with a poster in a double-page jacket. Finally, a limited release of a record buried in the same park for a week. For the first time on CD, the entire recording will be released on two discs as a completely new and final form of sound image. Recorded 18/9/2019 iphone Mono Recording. No Cut No Overdub Edit. Hapi Drum: Juntaro Yamanouchi Disc 1 : Farewell Dream Treatment (aka Our Dreams is Over) 48:18 Disc 2 : Destructive Crust Treatment (aka To The End Of The World) 35:32 Farewell Approached by J.Y + Toshihisa Hirano 19/1/2022

$28

The Gerogerigegege CD + CDR in a 7′ xeroxed jacket “Tokyo Anal Dynamite Singles ” Vis à Vis

$35

Liang Yiyuan CD “Thing loses itself” WV Sorcerer

One of the pioneers of the Chinese experimental music scene, this is the latest composition from Liang Yiyuan, an album for prepared yangqin. This is an album composed for yangqin. Some bamboos, woods, and iron clips were clamped to the strings during the recording. A violin bow, several small iron boxes, springs, drumsticks, and other metal objects were also used, to create a special timbre.

$15

Jan Bruyndonckx LP “rails and other tracks” Metaphon

first ever release of concrete and electronic collage works by Belgian underground sound explorer Jan Bruyndonckx. ‘Rails and Other Tracks’ contains autonomous compositions, music for film and documentary, all independently recorded in his private studio between 1958 and 1965.
A small collection of adventurous and mysterious sound evocations with text/poetry (Paul De Vree) recited by Julien Schoenaerts.

$25

Li Daiguo cassette 聽風 – Sloow Tapes

Edition of 70 copies * Blending several musical traditions as western music, Chinese classical music, Finnish folk music, Carnatic music and much more Li Daiguo creates an extended sound world with a variety of instruments as pipa, erhu, ethnic flutes, shona mbira, violin, viola, cello, overtone singing and lots more pushing their sonic capabilities into uncharted territory

$10

Hibishubure cassette “Official live bootleg N°7” Sloow Tapes

Edition of 70 copies . Japanese heavy psych blow-out that rubs the third eye and instantly flings you in an overdose of speed fuzz soaring in/out of focus between hallucinatory visions of spiked Mainliner, High Rise, Les Rallizes Denudes et al. Lysergic hard rock riffs, dirty punk vocals and ferocious guitar shredding. Break through the aether with this one.

$10

Li Jianhong CD “Mountain Fog” WV Sorcerer Productions

6 panel digisleeve, edition of 500

Guitar: 李劍鴻 Li Jianhong
Saxophone in “山霧 Mountain Fog”: 王子衡 Wang Ziheng

“Like Sonic Youth and Japanese rock collective Ghost, he straddles and/or blasts his way across the line between psychedelic rock and exploratory noise; he also frequently incorporates a spiritual component inspired by Buddhism and traditional Chinese art.” – Noah Berlatsky, Chicago Reader

SOLD OUT

Meitei CD Kofu – Kitchen Label

On ‘Kofū’, Meitei masterfully closes his trilogy of lost Japanese moods with an engaging interrogation of artforms and aesthetics as a provocation — or, as fashioned in the album’s subtitle, a “satire of old Japanese aesthetics”. Each entry’s distinct flavour has earned Meitei acclaim for conjuring a bygone culture through his transportive form of ambient music. ‘Kofū’ arrives as a deconstruction of this approach.

These stories cloud the overall mood of ‘Kofū’, but Meitei takes a Mizoguchi-like approach to mould that unimaginable pain with tenderness. ‘Oiran I’’s hidden subtitle is Hana, and ‘Oiran II’ is Shiokaze. As Meitei explains, “Hana means gorgeous and glorious. Shiokaze is the sea breeze — for her life.” Tracks like ‘Urameshi-ya’ and ‘Gen’ei’ provide a meditative space amidst the turbulence, while ‘Shōnen’ takes a turn for the cinematic. The eight-minute odyssey is engulfed by shadowy voice loops, mixed best for a headphone experience in a solitary setting.

Meitei bids farewell to an expedition first sparked by a passion for a long-forgotten cultural past. ‘Kofū’ is a definitive conclusion with an open invitation to listeners from Japan and beyond — encouraging continued appreciation of this sacred part of history, wholly untethered from the world at large.

Glass-mastered CD housed in a die-cut outer case with rounded obi, 16pp inserts with words in Japanese and English from Meitei. Offset printed, full colour on premium matt paper.

Only a few $26

Meitei LP/CD Kofu II – Kitchen Label

180g heavyweight vinyl in 12″ debossed sleeve with capped obi, 16pp inserts (22 x 14cm) with words in Japanese and English from Meitei. Offset printed, full colour on premium matt paper. LP ships with tracking. Glass-mastered CD housed in a die-cut customised debossed outer case (14.5 x 14.5cm) with rounded obi, 16pp inserts with words in Japanese and English from Meitei. Offset printed, full colour on premium matt paper.

Meitei sounds right at home celebrating the past he first reimagined in his previous work. The merriment is palpable in its first two tracks of Kofū II – a loop of cheery whistling amidst the clanking of wood leads into strings, cricket sounds and flutes, all united in bustling harmony. Happyaku-yachō is where it comes into focus. Pitch-shifted vocal samples roam around in the crowded sonic field as Meitei conjures the vibrancy of a dense Edo of the past. The affair becomes bittersweet as the track leads into the desolate Kaworu, a composi- tional piece lifted from his Komachi sessions – a final requiem to his late grandmother.

The album is bursting with spectral vignettes of wandering samurais, red lanterns, ninjas, puppet theatres, poets, even a vengeful assassin (Shurayuki hime, known to Western audiences as ‘Lady Snow- blood’).

We only have a very few

CD $26

LP $40