Japan'archives mailorder

Nijiumu 2LP When I sing, I slip into the microphone. Into that… – Black Truffle

Among the true Keiji Haino devotees, Nijiumu’s Era of Sad Wings (released on P.S.F. in 1993) has always held a special place in the pantheon. Operating for only a few years in the early 90s and apparently only performing a handful of shows, Nijiumu operated at the opposite end of the dynamic spectrum to Haino’s famed power trio Fushitsusha, dwelling in a hushed, meditative realm of mysterious droning sonorities and free-floating melodies that occasionally erupts into violence. Black Truffle is pleased to announce a new double-LP edition of a lesser-known 1994 Nijiumu recording, When I sing, I slip into the microphone. Into that void, I bring comrade “prayers”, then, turning to face the outside, together we explode. Here, Nijiumu is the trio of Haino, Tetuzi Akiyama and the obscure Takashi Matsuoka, the three performing on a wide variety of string, wind and percussion instruments, as well as electric guitar and bass, and Haino’s unmistakeable voice.  

In this new edition, the Nijiumu trio recording is supplemented by a piece recorded solo by Haino in 1973, a bracing electronic blowout stretching almost half an hour. Using a homemade electronics setup to unleash a barrage of crunching distortion and shuddering harmonic fuzz, it takes its place in the canon of extreme live electronics next to Robert Ashley’s Wolfman and Walter Marchetti’s Osmanthus fragrans, looking forward to extreme noise years before Merzbow. Taken as a whole, these four sides of music are a stunning document of some of the lesser-known waystations of Haino’s singular creative path.

36€

Masayuki Takayanagi – Ryozo Sugiura – Hideto Kanai CD Stardust – Jinya

Recorded live Dec 1979 at Stork Piano Lounge.

25€

Angry Waves (Masayuki Takayanagi – Nobuyoshi Ino -Tetsu Saitoh) – Jinya

Recorded live 8 Dec 1985 at Aketa No Mise

25€

Tomomi Adachi + Toshiji Mikawa CD And A Fire And An Instruction – Neurec

Comes in a pasted oversized box

29€

Keizo Miyanashi CD Itan Kyozo – Keizo Miyanishi & Friends – Saramandra Saramandare

New CD from the incredible mangaka and leader of Onna band since the 80’s. After a first EP in 1983, Onna has shamely such a meager discography with only a couple of CDs with one released on P.S.F in 2007.

Miyanashi’s voice is really unique, slow stoner riffage , dark folk., with friends such Louis Inage (Majutsu No Niwa), Kotei Penguin Paradise (Onna), Teruhisa Nambu (Aural Fit ) , Mondo Bohachi (Aural Fit), George Murakami… All musicians have been there for years and involved in so many projects that I can’t name them all.

23€

Michio Kadotani CD  ’87 KAD 3:4:5:6 – Wine and Dine

New and unbelievable album with archives from Michio Kadotani who was the leader Leader of the group Rotting Telepathies and had only one Cd released by PSF records in 1991. Some other stuff were released with and by Najo Asahito on his label Ma Musica records. Between punk, post punk and psychedelic / schizophrenic music, born in 1959 Kadotani died too soon in 1990 . Bonus tracks include a rare session featuring Nakajima Ramo and Suzuki Soshi.

Incredible, probably one of the the archives of the year.

22€ SOLD OUT

Release date : June 20th, 2025

Jyuriaano LP Dreaming Glass

LP ltd to 300, black vinyl, 3 color (gold, purple & black) silkscreened jacket with obi (black, red or salmon), inserts and a postcard, liner notes by Jon Dale, printed by Alan Sherry

DL available on Bandcamp

An’archives are thrilled to present the debut album by Tokyo avant-pop duo Jyuriaano, Dreaming Glass.

Consisting of Morimoto Ariomi and Cobalt, the two members of Jyuriaano have long histories in Japanese underground music. Morimoto’s history traces back to the late nineties; his nascent interests in noise collage and solo acoustic performance slowly transmuted to group endeavours, and more recently he’s performed with the likes of Akiko Toshimitsu (Usurabi), Maki Miura (Shizuka) and Doronco (Los Doroncos).

Cobalt has released a string of excellent singer-songwriter albums, many on his Poet Portraits label, which has also released material by the likes of Kazumi Nikaido, Place Called Space, Cuthberts, and moools, the latter of which he also performs with on occasion. While Morimoto and Cobalt have known each other for decades, they decided to form Jyuriaano in 2016, and since then have performed at live houses and small bars in Japan, all while slowly working together on their gentle, spirited songs.

The group’s formation story is typically playful – “It all started when we brought an acoustic guitar into the car on a rainy afternoon and started writing songs while eating Japanese sweets,” Cobalt recalls. That sense of play is important to the songs on Dreaming Glass, which vary wildly, from bright, infectious pop songs with a sixties lilt (“Dreaming Baby”, “How Close”), through slinky jazz-pop numbers (“Drawing A Nude”) to melancholy folk laments (“Erica”, “Night Window”). There’s something in Jyuriaano’s collaborative dynamic that gifts Morimoto and Cobalt a particularly open field, when it comes to their creative endeavours.

Some of this might also be down to their listening habits. When asked about their interest in Japanese folk precursors, legendary groups like Folk Crusaders and Itsutsu-no-Akai-Fusen, Cobalt agrees that they have a place in the duo’s listening pantheon, but that’s not where the story ends. “We’ve also listened to commercial folk music outside of those core genres,” he reflects, “We don’t just listen to one genre, but [also] rock and roll, noise industrial, punk, new wave, jazz, chanson, and more.”

You might also hear touches of groups like the forementioned Usurabi, or Maher Shalal Hash Baz, or songwriters like Kazumi Nikaido and Shintaro Sakamoto. But Jyuriaano’s songs, somehow, feel quite sui generis in the way they magic up alternative visions for pop’s possibilities. Dreaming Glass is, quite simply, a lovely, unpretentious joy of an album.

25€