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Renowned US producer Maceo Plex releases his highly anticipated third album, ‘’93', a homage to his three-decade journey through the realms of electronic music. Marking both a passion and a prolific career, the maestro presents a tantalising body of work that masterfully blends House, Hip Hop, Global Bass, Techno, Breaks, and Electronica. This audacious fusion delves into historic and modern influences, crafting an audio journey that transcends time, rich in history yet boldly future-facing.

‘’93' is a cross-genre exploration, seamlessly balancing emotion with hard-hitting beats. Maceo Plex collaborates with a stellar lineup of artists, including Diplo for his contribution on ‘You Don’t Have To Wait’ with Cubicolor, Oscar and the Wolf, Perry Farrell (Jane’s Addiction), Johnny Jewel and Desire, Kirsty Hawkshaw, Mystic Bill, AVNU, Giovanni, Ishi, and Tyler Hill, resulting in a diverse and dynamic musical affair.
This album narrates the story of a highly esteemed artist at a pivotal juncture in his career, consistently evolving towards new directions. Departing from the early deeper house sound that initially defined him, Maceo Plex intentionally ventures into new territory, steering away from his famed melodic and techno direction in recent years. Nevertheless, '93' retains the essence of Maceo Plex's signature style, transcending various sounds and genres in a manner reminiscent of his electrifying DJ sets, meticulously curated for the dancefloor and the crowds.

‘93’ vinyl LP by Maceo Plex is available on Lone Romantic from 17th May 2024.

Key Feedback Quotes:

Pete Tong - Maceo is such a talented producer. A sonic juganaut. An inspiration to so many aspiring music makers. He's a master of analogue and digital in the studio. He's a total 'one of'.
Kolsch - Incredible album!!!!
Artbat - “Very cooooool album!
Gregor Tresher - Wow, now this is what I call an album! Extraordinary stuff, I love it! Big up, Eric!
Hot Since 82 - Nothing short of sensational. My fav producer and DJ who consistantly sets the bar far too high and we all play catch up. Love it.
Rodriguez Jr - Awesome album. LOVE IT. Such a wide spectrum of influences here. Respect!
Laurent Garnier - Very cool. Will play these
Hernan Cattaneo - This is a really good album!
Wehbba - happy to finally see the album coming out, lots of gems, Nasty, Just You and I, Get out Of Here and You're My Desire are my main picks.
Eelke Kleijn - Already listened to the whole album on Spotify. Fantastic. Miles ahead of everyone else. Thanks for sending this, will play many of these for sure.
AFFKT - all tracks are amazing
Ida Engberg - Loooove this release! Stop that and Serpent jazz for me, can't wait to play them. Lone Romantic killing it!
Victor Ruiz - Honestly, you’re a genius! 10/10 productions always.
Pig&Dan - Great to hear new tunes from one of my favorite producers out there
Oliver Huntemann - some real gems on here
Fideles - wow, love it all
Peter Kruder - Love 'em all! Thanks for sending my way!
Yotto - Sick Sick Sick work!
Jody Wisternoff - Insane tracks from Maceo!!!
Terr - Amazing music as always, thx!
Nicolas Masseyeff - Solid release! Full Support!
Paige - Nasty is an absolutely mind-blowing track!!
Braxton - Incredible Album. .
Dense & Pika - Wicked stuff from Maceo.
Eli Brown - Always great music from Maceo Plex.
Anden - Congrats on the album! Love it!
Sergio Muñoz / Fur Coat - Great work from Eric! Congratulations.
La Fleur - So many gems in there, looking forward to having a proper listen from start to end! Thx
Captain Mustache - Big work here from Maceo, congratz!
Alex Kennon - This is a masterpiece!
Timo Maas - Clickbait is a cool track, I like the deep funk.
Martin Eyerer - This is a great album!! I love nasty most, but all great.
Nick Warren - This is such a great album.
Laurent Garnier - Very cool EP. Will play these.
Jonas Rathsman - Stop That sounds interesting

Von seinem ersten Album „Minima Moralia“ („Excellent“ 8.1 Pitchfork) im Jahr 2006 bis hin zu den über 70 folgenden Alben hat Chihei Hatakeyama einen gewaltigen Kanon an Werken geschaffen.
Shun Ishiwaka, der mit Künstlern wie Ai Kuwabara, Hiroki Chiba, Kei Matsumaru, Gen Hoshino, Terumasa Hino, Tony Allen und unzähligen anderen zusammengearbeitet hat, ist einer der produktivsten Modern-Jazz-Schlagzeuger Japans.
Gemeinsam haben sie in Ambient-, Experimental-, Elektronik-, Pop-, Hip-Hop-, Jazz- und Metal-Projekten gespielt, und genau das repräsentiert diese neue Veröffentlichung - ein Treffen gleichgesinnter Musiker mit unzähligen Bezugspunkten, die an einem epochalen Punkt zusammenkommen, um ein Ambient-Werk zu produzieren, das vor Kreativität und Verständnis strotzt
Sie lernten sich bei Live-Auftritten im Radio kennen. Dies führte zu einer Reihe von Auftritten. Die Chemie stimmte sofort, und im März 2023 folgten die Aufnahmesitzungen für dieses 2-bändige Epos.
Zu Chiheis spezifischen Referenzen für die Gitarrenbearbeitung auf diesem Album gehören My Bloody Valentine, Les Rallizes Dénudés und Keiji Haino.
Beide Musiker schöpften aus ihrer Vorliebe für Free Jazz und Spiritual Jazz, insbesondere für die Werke von Alice Coltrane und später Sun Ra.
Psychoakustische Überlegungen, Zufall, Spontaneität und der Schnittpunkt, an dem Musiker in der Hitze des Gefechts aufeinander reagieren (oder auch nicht), waren allesamt Inspirationen für dieses bemerkenswerte Projekt, das in zwei separaten Teilen im Jahr 2024 veröffentlicht wird.

Composed by Jim O’Rourke and pieced together by Jim together with longtime collaborator and trumpeter Eivind Lønning at Jim and Eiko Ishibashi’s home in the Japanese mountains, this engrossing new album blows brass wails and tense fanfares across O'Rourke's manipulated Kyma tapestries for a deep, captivating trip into the aether.

Eivind Lønning has been sharing ideas with O'Rourke for several years: the duo collaborated on music for the Whitney's 'Calder: Hypermobility' exhibition, and Lønning played trumpet on O'Rourke's brilliant 2020 album 'Shutting Down Here'. For this new work, Lønning headed to O'Rourke and EIko Ishibashi's home studio in the Japanese mountains, where he teased unfamiliar, alien textures from his trumpet to open the labyrinthine three-part composition. O'Rourke took the material and subsequently funnelled it through his Kyma system, transforming it into a swirl of sound that hums alongside Lønning's original takes. The album was composed, mixed and mastered by O'Rourke, with everything's based on Lønning's virtuosic performance.

The album begins by cautiously introducing us to its sonic palette: wavering, bird-like horn wails that O'Rourke contorts around quiet synth oscillations and computerised swarms. Lønning's spittle-drenched blasts are given the spotlight, but O'Rourke's manipulations - often gentle and illusory, and sometimes utterly lacerating - lift the sounds into completely new territory. When Lønning begins to turn rhythmic cycles using the trumpet keys, popping with his mouth to compliment its leathery timbre, O'Rourke replies with dense, hallucinatory drones, juxtaposing unstable electronics with Lønning's breathy, sustained notes. All these sounds coalesce into a dizzy vortex, but O'Rourke is careful not to overwhelm the senses, dropping to near silence as the first act transitions into the second. O'Rourke pelts Lønning's vertiginous wails, steadily mutating them into Xenakis-like stabs until they sound like cybernetic strings and icy tones that extract the tension from Lønning's brassy harmonics.

The third act is more screwed, with O'Rourke allowing Lønning's improvisations wail into cathedral-strength reverb, accompanying the sound with glassy penetrations and throbbing subs. Here, Lønning sounds as if he's heralding the arrival of a celestial being, piercing the atmosphere with bright, sustained tones and muted, jazzy flourishes. O'Rourke hangs back, carefully spinning the notes into naturalistic fibres and orchestral drapery, before he allows the electronics to subside completely and the trumpet to echo into the imposing negative space.

'Most, but Potentially All' is a dumbfounding piece that shifts the dial on contemporary experimental music; dizzyingly complex but never showy, it's the kind of record you can spin repeatedly and hear something different each time. As an exploration of the trumpet, it's a unique expression, and as a progression of electro-acoustic compositional techniques, it draws a deep trench in the sand, setting a new standard.

About 20 years ago, Carlos Giffoni quickly made a name for himself both as a noise guitarist and a laptop noisician upon arriving in New York (via Florida and Venezuela). His expertly curated annual No Fun Festival, as well as his No Fun label, further solidified him as a key figure in the international noise scene. The festival's success proved the formula for experimental and improvised music fests could work with the noise underground as well, but it also capitalized on the faster rate of connections being made between geographically disparate artists as a result of the (still relatively nascent) internet. Back then Carlos would play his laptop like a pinball machine, in contrast to the static stage presence of most laptop performers, and his solo music, like many others' at that time, expressed a less dark and dour vision of the implications of harsh noise. By the close of the 2000s, he had stopped doing the festival, switched gears musically to playing the lighter No Fun Acid sets, and moved to LA. Now he has re-emerged in a big way with Dream Walker, his first full-length since 2018's Vain (and only his second since 2010). Inspired by the masterful performances and diffusions he heard at the February 2023 GRM electronic music festival in Paris, particularly sets by old friends Lasse Marhaug, Jim O'Rourke, and Eiko Ishibashi, he began conceptualizing new music of his own in response, turning to synthesizers and other hardware to produce a work more firmly in the tradition of European electronic music than anything else he's done. Intended as a late night listen that evokes the edge of consciousness, with Carlos getting as close as possible to a trance state during the actual recording and mixing, each of the eleven tracks transition into one another rather than being standalone discrete pieces, forming two side-long suites that proceed like stages of a dream. Unabashedly tonal and repetitive, the glistening opener "Now Dream," the droning "Sleep Walker," and the closing triptych of "Lost in Descanso," "Sunrise," and "The Hidden Path" occupy a power electronics-ambient nexus that feels spiritually close to the Mego label. Elsewhere, "Ticking Clock" is reminiscent of Stereolab's non-easy listening vintage electronic side, while the two-part arpeggiated "Euphoria" recalls early Oneohtrix Point Never (which Carlos released on No Fun). The contrast between "One Breath"'s crackling opening and its remarkably fluid and soaring sustained synthesized chords is a distillation of the album's lingering tension between electronics' ability to project mechanical rupture as well as the organic and the infinite _or "walking between dreams," as Carlos himself puts it. Produced by Lasse Marhaug (who also mastered Carlos' first solo album, Welcome Home, back in 2005), released by Stephen O'Malley (who I remember DJing at the No Fun fest), with cover art and photos by personal friends, Carlos considers the album a family affair. But Dream Walker most of all heralds a maturation of the artist, and stands as a record that exists out of pure desire, rather than obligation or force of habit; a statement of reconnecting with music not by merely revisiting it, but by building on what's come before, both in his own work and in the music he loves. -Alan Licht, New York, December 2023

The sixth studio album, 'Matango!, its title referring to the 1963 Japanese psychological horror film of the same name (directed by Godzilla/kaiju maestro Ishiro Honda) by Australian band The Kill Devil Hills is out on Bang! Records! New album has ten songs, that - according to the band's own words - "entwined in the lyrics are inferences of global unrest and displacement, near future scenarios, climate catastrophe, pandemic vortices, the Simpsons, the grace of women, refugees and boat people, Cold War paranoia, the creative process itself, and of course Australia and its peculiar place in things". Cheery stuff, no? A strange and sinewy beast of an album, it's something of a departure from earlier KDH work: minimal, leering with glitching drums samples, synth swells, empty spaces, and a soup of fat bass tones to float it all in. From the opening ghost radio hums of Survivor Guilt, to the entrancing closing whispers of violin on Weigh of a Woman, this album goes on a pretty strange and serpentine journey. Enjoy listening, as much as we have enjoyed making it.

The upcoming album, How to Build an Ocean: Instructions is a project doused in personal conflict, but simultaneously a love letter to the normal and how beauty can be found in just being. Charged with references to literature, philosophy and film, as well as first hand experiences, the band explore thoughts of what it means to find purpose when everything feels purposeless, all whilst ultimately instructing themselves to find “small joys in the face of cosmic indifference”. Produced by George Perks (Enter Shikari, The Doves, You Me At Six), How to Build an Ocean: Instructions marks an exciting new development for Bears in Trees, being the first album they’ve recorded with the help of consultants outside of the band themselves, having previously relied on drummer George’s expertise, who outside of the band, works as an engineer at Subfrantic Studios. Tenderness, triumph, and a totally unashamed feeling of enjoying the ride whilst they're on it, How to Build an Ocean: Instructions is their definitive statement. Though no matter how far this record takes them, the most important thing is that they are together and doing what they love. Because when all is said and done, that's the connection that will last a lifetime. "We started the band because we loved hanging out with our friends and wanted to make stupid music together"; Iain concludes. "That's always been the reason, and it hasn't changed. All we want to do is make what we do as honest and authentic as possible. That's what it means to be in the Bears in Trees business."

The upcoming album, How to Build an Ocean: Instructions is a project doused in personal conflict, but simultaneously a love letter to the normal and how beauty can be found in just being. Charged with references to literature, philosophy and film, as well as first hand experiences, the band explore thoughts of what it means to find purpose when everything feels purposeless, all whilst ultimately instructing themselves to find “small joys in the face of cosmic indifference”. Produced by George Perks (Enter Shikari, The Doves, You Me At Six), How to Build an Ocean: Instructions marks an exciting new development for Bears in Trees, being the first album they’ve recorded with the help of consultants outside of the band themselves, having previously relied on drummer George’s expertise, who outside of the band, works as an engineer at Subfrantic Studios. Tenderness, triumph, and a totally unashamed feeling of enjoying the ride whilst they're on it, How to Build an Ocean: Instructions is their definitive statement. Though no matter how far this record takes them, the most important thing is that they are together and doing what they love. Because when all is said and done, that's the connection that will last a lifetime. "We started the band because we loved hanging out with our friends and wanted to make stupid music together"; Iain concludes. "That's always been the reason, and it hasn't changed. All we want to do is make what we do as honest and authentic as possible. That's what it means to be in the Bears in Trees business."

2024 Limited edition LP & CD reissues of this cult minimalist pop album by japanese singer songwriter Ai Aso, originally released in 2014 on Ideologic Organ. Tokyo's Ai Aso (???, Aso Ai) is a Japanese psychedelic pop singer-songwriter whose work has a whisper-thin acid folk quality to it. She started performing as a solo singer around 2000. Her solo work, infrequent collaborations with White Heaven members You Ishihara and Michio Kurihara, Yurayura Teikoku, and Boris bring a level of fragility and hypnotism to the stage recalling lost memories, small flavors of COIL and serial playing on the verge of evaporation. As for her recent activities, she has performed on bills together with Sunn O))), Boris, Masaki Batoh (Ghost), Touri Kudoh, Kim Doo Soo, Mark Fry, Simon Finn etc.

To record "Ease the Work", Hour traveled via ferry with an entire studio’s worth of equipment to an old off-Broadway theater on Peaks Island in Maine, months before the first tourists would show up. The week-long session started with an island-wide power outage that halted recording on the first day, and ended with twelve songs that walk steadily between longing and contentment, sentimentality and subtlety, the lift of harmony and the compulsion of a melody you wish would play forever. Hour’s music cuts a broad pathway, and remains hard to classify or compare. Perhaps most at home beside work from Bill Frisell, Eiko Ishibashi, ECM Records, or the Louisville experimental chamber group Rachel’s, Ease the Work shows us life on the boundary of composition and improvisation. It reaches for the sweeping gestures and inspired pacing of classic film scores, Frank Sinatra ballads, and Scott Walker’s pop orchestra. It also retains the arresting intimacy of the band’s early work. Strings swell and harmonize in counterpoint with electric guitar, clarinet, and piano, while drums, synth pads, and field recordings complete the aural world.

"Ease the Work" by Hour includes the following tracks: "Stoner", "Brain Scrub", "Dying of Laughter", "The Most Gorgeous Day in History" and more.

This release comes with a Download Code.

Japanese jazz, rare groove masterpiece re-released on clear lime yellow color vinyl!

The pleasure of feeling numb all over your body with a single drum beat. Akira Ishikawa, the super funky drummer born in Japan, runs through a wonderland of grooves!

Akira Ishikawa is a super funky drummer born in Japan. His ability to freely explore and fuse jazz, rock, and African music to create a unique musicality has been highly praised in many fields. His career includes masterpieces from jazz rock to rare groove, but this work is especially beloved for its outstanding song selection and exciting musicality. "Let's Start" is a tight cover of Fela Kuti's Afro-funk, "Bongo Rock" is a dynamic song with drum breaks, and "Pick Up The Pieces" is a jazz-funk version of the Average White Band's classic song. It is full of amazing monster tunes that are hard to believe were recorded in 1975. Support from masters such as Kiyoshi Sugimoto, Hiromasa Suzuki, and Takeru Muraoka also shines.
text by Yusuke Ogawa (universounds/Deep Jazz Reality)

Repress!

Mr Bongo are delighted to present an officially licensed re-issue of this underground Japanese rock rarity 'Uganda (Dawn of Rock)' by Akira Ishikawa & Count Buffaloes. This album has become highly sought-after amongst psych, prog and acid rock collectors and due to the rare nature of original copies they come at a hefty price tag.

The respected Japanese jazz drummer Akira Ishikawa was not messing around when he recorded the 'Uganda (Dawn of Rock)' album with his band the Count Buffaloes. For this offering, originally released in 1972 on Toshiba Records, Akira Ishikawa takes us on a deep tripped-out journey. 'Uganda (Dawn of Rock)' is a fusion of progressive and psych rock with African percussion workouts, dergy-wah wah blues-funk, and jazzy sensibilities; with different genres morphing and uniting as they progress.

A long way from his funk and afrobeat album 'Back To Rhythm’, re-issued on Mr Bongo in 2019, this record has a darker, deeper, abstract and experimental stoned tone with the listener being pulled into its vortex for the ride. This record doesn’t pull any punches.

For this album, Akira is joined by Hideaki Chihara on bass, guitarist Kimio Mizutani, sounding at times like an early 70s Peter Green, percussionist Larry Sunaga and composer Takeru Muraoka.

The album has become highly sought-after amongst psych, prog and acid rock collectors and due to the rare nature of original copies they come at a hefty price tag.

We are delighted to present an officially licensed re-issue of this underground Japanese rock rarity.

Available in 2 formats: Original LP in Box version & Tip-on Sleeve with OBI version.


• Highly sought-after underground Japanese rock rarity, originally released in 1972.

• Feat. Hideaki Chihara, Kimio Mizutani, Larry Sunaga and Takeru Muraoka.

• Available as the original LP in Box version & Tip-on Sleeve with OBI version.

Acclaimed Japan “minyo footwork” duo WaqWaq Kingdom - aka Shigeru Ishihara (DJ Scotch Egg / Seefeel) and Kiki Hitomi (ex-King Midas Sound) - return with feverishly joyous new album Hot Pot Totto, a bubbling hot pot of dance music that responds to ecological anxiety.

“Two words are conjoined: hot pot and ottotto,” vocalist Kiki Hitomi tells us. “Ottotto is the Japanese equivalent of “oops”, or said when someone nearly falls over but manages to get their balance back: “it was dangerous but now we are safe!” Combined with the heady brew of their musical styles (“like a psychedelic Nabe hot pot: melting traditional Japanese Minyo with Jamaican dancehall, footwork, dub, techno, tribal polyrhythms and Super Nintendo soundtracks”), producer Shige Ishihara’s time in East Africa working with local musicians, and the dayglo hallucinogen of the duo’s visual aesthetic, WaqWaq Kingdom’s thumping, thrilling, irresistible third release is a unique ride.



Thematically - despite its ostensibly celebratory impact - Hot Pot Totto addresses the world’s grave ecological state. “Now our earth is on the way to catastrophe, as global warming becomes a serious problem through humanity’s fault. We are on the edge,” Hitomi writes. “We need to get back on the right track.” The ottotto of the album title refers to this experience - the need to get back on track. However, this is not lamenting music: it is fiercely defiant, full of colour and rapture, maintaining an optimism that we can.



Opening single “Hakke Yoi” ties treated voice, a floor-shaking beat, and a dizzying, transforming colour palette to a heart-quickening BPM. The track is named after the traditional cry of a sumo wrestling match, shouted by the referee to maintain tempo, commonly translated as “put some spirit into it!” The lyrics refer to humanity’s sacrifice of our planet for our own material gains. Later, key track “Buri Buri” features Ugandan experimental dance producer Catu Diosis and centres around the lyric “Turn disaster to our advantage / good fortune and happiness will come to those who smile,” offering not regret but encouragement and empowerment with its neon alien sonics and relentless vibrancy.



Kiki Hitomi was formerly a member of Ninja Tune / Hyperdub’s King Midas Sound (along with The Bug and Roger Robinson), and co-founded iconic Japanese dubstep-noise duo Dokkebi Q. She is also a celebrated illustrator and designer, having created artwork for countless record sleeves (including this one) and brands. Shigeru Ishihara - aka DJ Scotch Egg - has been orbiting the dance music galaxy for over a decade, releasing radiantly unpredictable solo records through Lightning Bolt’s Load Records, as a member of Warp Records’ legendary Seefeel, and performing with both projects across the world. He recently undertook a residency at the Nyege Nyege Villa in Uganda, working with Phantom Limb alumnus MC Yallah. More recently, Ishihara has been releasing music under the guise of Scotch Rolex, collaborating with the likes of Shackleton, Swordman Kitala, Lord Spikeheart and more.



Hot Pot Totto is WaqWaq Kingdom’s third release for Phantom Limb, following the rapturously received album Essaka Hoisa in 2019 and follow-up EP Dokkoisho in 2020. The band recently performed at the label’s sold out 5th anniversary event in London, setting an ecstatic venue alight with energy.








f B1 Buri Buri feat. Catu Diosis

Trailblazing instrumental synth pop experiments created to soundtrack Japan’s booming 1980s cartoon and comic industries. The brightly futuristic instrumentals on this collection reflect the mindset of composers and musicians who believed in a technological future where everything was possible.

In the late 1980s Japan experienced a brief but heady period where societal changes combined with new-found wealth to open up a world of possibilities. A huge influx of cash - artificially created by slashed interest rates after an agreement with the US to weaken the dollar relative to the yen - resulted in the inflation of real estate and stock market at a rapid pace. While the economic bubble it created was unprecedented and impossible to sustain, for a while money was in plentiful supply.

The musical genre City Pop reflected the aspirations of the country’s booming leisure class. Video games flourished with Nintendo's 1983 launch of their Family Computer (or FamiCom). Studio Ghibli was founded 1985 to later became one of the most famous and respected animation studios in the world, and Anime and Manga were established as major forms of entertainment for all generations of the Japanese public.

Music was no mere footnote to the anime and manga boom: the two forms of media often went hand in hand, and not simply through the presence of background melodies. With generous budgets available, even two-dimensional static manga comics could be released with an accompanying soundtrack of original music known as an ‘Image Album’.

Composer and arranger Kazuhiko Izu was one such beneficiary of this open budget approach. Written to accompany artist Katsuhiro Otomo’s manga comic Domu, the composer and arranger took advantage of the world-leading (and wallet-busting) Japanese synthesiser technology available at King Records’ fully equipped studio. Featured on this compilation, A3: Act 2 Scene 26 reflected the story’s sci fi themes with a blazingly futuristic yet warmly funky slice of synth pop that presents a joyful celebration of synthesisers and their seemingly endless possibilities.

Kan Ogasawara was another composer who made early mastery of the litany of synthesisers, drum machines and sequencers that had become available. Two tracks written to accompany the 1985 period manga Yume No Ishibumi are featured here; Honowo’s experimental electronic textures add spice to a jaunty electro pop melody that recalls the Rah band’s 1983 hit Messages From Stars; the jazz-tinged Utage rounds out Ogasawara’s shimmering synth textures with beautifully crafted backing from legendary musicians Yuji Toriyama (guitar), Pecker (percussion) and Jun Fukamachi (piano).

Before becoming one of the pioneers of Japanese Kankyo Ongaku (Ambient Music), Takashi Kokubo worked on the proto techno track Kiki (Jungle At Night). It was put together for the 1984 anime film Shonen Keniya (Kenya Boy) using some of the most expensive music technologies available at the time. This Africa-Inspired dance track offers a contemporary parallel to the early techno music that young Detroit based producers were then creating using cheap Japanese Roland drum machines and synthesisers.

This is the first compilation of Japanese anime and manga soundtracks curated by Kay Suzuki and Rintaro Sekizuka from Vinyl Delivery Service (a Tokyo based online record shop which also operates in East London's renowned wine and hifi shop Idle Moments). With a cover by artist Kazuki Takakura and two pages of liner notes, this vinyl only compilation of music never before released outside of Japan, captures a vital aural snapshot of an era whose forward-thinking sounds went hand in hand with cutting edge technology.

"Omoiyari" means to have empathy and consideration for others, and act on it. This fall, the American indie-folk multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Kishi Bashi is set to release the companion album to his forthcoming documentary song film, titled Music from the Song Film: Omoiyari. Consisting of two LPs_"The Songs" and "The Score"_the release showcases what is essentially the soundtrack to Omoiyari, the feature-length motion picture co-directed by Kishi Bashi, aka Kaoru Ishibashi or "K," which is being released via MTV Documentary Films in November. Focusing on K's own six-year journey of discovery surrounding his research of the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans that followed the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the film is part social justice documentary and part song-film experiment. The album includes K's live improvisations, which are featured in the documentary, many recorded on the sites where the concentration camps stood. Written during and about the artist's transformational dive into his personal identity and serving as a broad survey of the Japanese American experience as well as the incarceration_Music from the Song Film: Omoiyari serves as an evocative musical accompaniment to the lessons of empathy and compassion portrayed in the film and highlights the process and power of one of modern indie's most talented musicians.

Introducing Count Buffalo! An ambitious work that explores the sound of the next generation with innovative arrangements and outstanding performances. A new era opens here.

Akira Ishikawa, a drummer who led groups such as Midnight Sons, Genchers, and Count Buffaloes and has released countless works to the world. This work, the earliest recording under the name of Count Buffalo, features Ken Muraoka, Hiromasa Suzuki, Kiyoshi Sugimoto, Masahiko Sato, and others. Hip jazz-rock “Cougar” led by disquieting strings, “Greensleeves” with a hint of avant-garde, his own interpretation of “Hey Jude”, and a dry jazz-rock version of a folk song such as “Makouta”. , so dense that you don’t even have time to breathe. It is one of the most important works in the history of Japanese jazz-rock, not only in content, but also considering the era of 1969.
text by Yusuke Ogawa (UNIVERSOUND/DEEP JAZZ REALITY)

The sound that swallows jazz rock, mode jazz, and free jazz is serious and profound.

A magnificent concept album that will remain in the history of Japanese jazz with the theme of global anti-war and peace

Hiromasa Suzuki, a rare pianist/composer/arranger who showed his skills in the groups of Terumasa Hino and Akira Ishikawa. Collaborating with Big Soul Media, led by Jiro Inagaki, one of the best jazz rock groups of our time, this work is unusual for a Japanese jazz work, and the concept is based on the theme of “global anti-war and peace.”

The sound that swallows jazz rock, mode jazz, and free jazz is serious and solid, but at the same time, it is full of overwhelming dynamism.

Suzuki’s ability to manage a big band and create a masterpiece sound is also splendid, and Big Soul Media, which listened to Suzuki’s intentions and responded to his request, is also splendid.

Both Suzuki and Inagaki’s activities in the jazz-rock era are at their peak, and this work is also important in that it captures the overlap.

text by Yusuke Ogawa (universounds/Deep Jazz Reality)

Composition/Arrangement/Conductor: Hiromasa Suzuki
Performed by Jiro Inagaki and Big Soul Media
Jiro Inagaki (S.Sax, T.Sax)
Shigeo Suzuki (A.Sax)
Tadayuki Harada (B.Sax)
Takehisa Suzuki (Trumpet)
Tetsuo Fushimi (Trumpet)
Takeshi Nomura (Trumpet)
Shigemichi Domoto (Trombone)
Tadataka Nakazawa (Trombone)
Kazuo Usui (Trombone)
Tsunehide Matsuki (Guitar)
Masaru Imada (Piano, Organ)
Hiromasa Suzuki (Piano, Organ)
Yasuo Arakawa (Bass) / Gen Ishimatsu (Drums)

Curate your music collection with the year most-wanted remixes. Elevate your mind and catalogue with the definite vision of Robert Armani’s timeless bestsellers. This double vinyl boasts new levels of techno.

Discover never-before-seen versions of the Chicago Legend’s Hits of all times. We have a plethora of artists as Mark Broom with a banger, Alexander Johansson & Mattias Fridell, Ken Ishii, amazing Misstress Barbara, Van Czar with a rework of 3 in 1 tracks, Spanish crew featuring Cristian Varela, Paco Osuna, and Jesus Riaño, Belgian classic Dj Bountyhunter, Miss Mana and Waffensupermarkt. These brand-new gems have been carefully selected and the artists involved wanted to pay a deserved tribute to Armani’s career.

'Scapegoat' is the new album by TRIOLA, the project led by the prolific Tokyo-based composer & experimental string musician Atsuko Hatano, featuring the Japanese violinist Anzu Suhara.

Conceived as a strings project, with Hatano on viola and Suhara on violin, TRIOLA involves a rotating ensemble of guest musicians, including the likes of Chicago-born musician, composer & producer Jim O'Rourke (Drag City, Sonic Youth, Steamroom), the composer & musician Eiko Ishibashi (Drag City, Black Truffle), Australian composer Joe Talia (Touch, Room40, Feeding Tube Records), Yamaguchi-born drummer Tatsuhisa Yamamoto (releases on Black Truffle, Longform Editions, SUPERPANG, performances with Keiji Haino, Oren Ambarchi & Phew +++), Sendai-based vocalist & musician Koji Shibuya (Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Yumbo) & many more.

New Music Fix BBC Radio 6 8th August.

Corey Fuller and Tomoyoshi Date are the Illuha duo but for this new Tobira album they link with percussionist Tatsuhisa Yamamoto. He is a skilled drummer who has worked alone on Black Truffle but has also collaborated with Jim O'Rourke, Eiko Ishibashi, Keiji Haino, Phew and Oren Ambarchi among others. This new record focusses on electro-acoustic sounds that are run through with all manner of precise sonic details and are carried by Yamamoto's unique playing style and singular sense of groove which were recorded over two sessions. That playing style finds him playing very lightly with closely mic'ed drums so plenty of softness is captured and then interwoven with layers of Rhodes, piano, distant synths and metallic murmurations.

High-octane tour-de-force by legendary post-punk group, INU. Widely considered in Japan to be one of the all-time greatest punk records, 1981's Don’t Eat Food! remains shockingly unknown to the rest of the world. Led by literate but unhinged Machida Machizo, a magnetic stage presence who sang in a thick Osaka dialect that sounded like nothing else at the time, INU took Japan by storm in the late '70s with their powerful and often belligerent live show. Their membership changed frequently but INU's final lineup -- the group that recorded Don't Eat Food! -- was sharp as a knife, and the band's airtight debut still wows forty years later.

It's hard to describe INU's unique sound in comparison to other bands, but maybe imagine a more fidgety Richard Hell & The Voidoids jamming with PiL? Better yet, just listen for yourself.

This first-ever fully-licensed edition has been remastered from the original tapes and cut by Kevin Gray and includes an 8-page booklet with never-before-seen photos, lyrics in English and Japanese, and liner notes by Syojiro Ishibashi in English and Japanese.

Sublime ethereal minimalism from Hiroyuki Onogawa on this retrospective compilation album for
Mana, the first dedicated release and remaster of his soundtrack compositions.

The album August in the Water: Music for Film 1995-2005 plots a decade of Onogawa’s compositions for films by the renowned filmmaker Gakuryū Ishii (formally known as Sogo Ishii). Ishii’s leftfield and trailblazing cinema has proven highly influential - Crazy Thunder Road (1980) is frequently cited as the starting pistol for the Japanese cyberpunk genre - and unfathomably difficult to source outside of Japan. This, coupled with the mysterious and artistic nature of the films, has seen him build a cult-like following. Most of his oeuvre remains undistributed outside Japan, though Third Window Films has recently taken great strides toward making some titles available internationally.

This retrospective publication, sequenced into an album by Onogawa himself, spans a fertile period of collaboration with Ishii, through soundtracks for three remarkable films: August in the Water (1995), Labyrinth of Dreams (1997), and Mirrored Mind (2005). Each feels texturally and sensually linked with the spiritual, ambient, dreamlike quality that lingers in Onogawa’s music.

The sound Onogawa conjures for these films is elegant and patient, often minimal or essential in form, but saturated in a poetic emotion and atmosphere that feels strange and otherworldly, touched by the metaphysical in subtle ways. Boundaries are crossed between New Age and science fiction, locating a blissfulness, melancholy and paranoia within the same spectrum, and moving toward an enchanting sense of mood and colour.

It’s notable that the compositions on this album straddle the millennium, and the mix of divine and uncertain themes in the music carry that currency. New listeners might hear links to Mark Snow’s compositional work for the X-Files and Millennium, or other celebrated future-facing and future-fearing Japanese anime or cyberpunk.

Onogawa’s music adds great depth and tenor to the sensory experience of the films themselves, but it stands just as strongly as a listening experience on its own terms, a virtuosic example of ambient that changes in hue when turned in the light. Remarkably, and in similar circumstances to Ishii, Onogawa’s work has never been widely available outside of (always highly enthusiastic) underground fan posts, usually sourced from extremely limited and private CDs limited to Japan. This retrospective seeks to remedy that, and hopes to achieve recognition for Onogawa as one of the great composers of the last three decades.

Onogawa continues to work in film, both in the creation of soundtracks, and now as a producer and director. He composed the music for Koji Fukada’s Harmonium (2016), which won the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival, as well as for Fukada’s A Girl Missing (2019). As a director, he received the Grand Prize for Best Short Film in the Noves Visions category at the Sitges Festival in 2022 for Flashback Before Death (Guu), co-directed with Rii Ishihara.'

Still on and about after years of the most intense crate digging, gem mining, desperate head-scratching and avid schooling, thirsty as ever for the next musical thrill to wrap our ears and brains around, here comes the fruit of our life-long love story with Japanese electronics, Denshi Ongaku No Bigaku Vol. 1 and Vol.2. From the soul-fulfilling first crush felt upon hearing the iconic soundtrack of ‘Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence’ by Ryuichi Sakamoto onto our release of Inner Science ‘Cosmo Tracks’, through the life-affirming sets of Laurent Garnier at Dijon’s seminal club, l’An-fer, which have at all times nurtured and expanded our taste for Easternmost delicacies, the influence of Japanese music on our vision and endeavours was paramount to the development of our catalogue, whether directly or indirectly.

This first volume gets the ball rolling with a fine assortment of mostly ambient, electronica and deep house-focussed joints. Draped in organic membranes and ASMR-like synth tapestries, K. Inoue’s nu-agey opener ‘Em Paz’ takes us on a ride across the most serene dreamscapes. Jazzing up these lush and oneiric coastal vibes, Gabby & Lopez ‘Drive form the Miracle’ merges a sense of Californian psychedelia with a straight out hard-bop swing. No stranger to our catalogue, Inner Science returns to serve up a crystalline slice of laid-back house on a mystique-imbued tip he holds the secret to. Flip it over and here comes Aquarium with the splendidly immersive ‘Rainy Night in Shibuya’, which very much feels like wandering amidst its neon-upholstered streets and swarming hallways in a bubble of your own.

Naohito Uchiyama treats us to a synth-drenched nocturnal ballad with the ‘80s-inflected vibes of ’Shugetsu’, whereas Keta Ra cuts a path of ethereal sublimation via the mischievously fun and bouncy balearic lounge of ‘equals’. Masterly crafted by Yuu Udagawa, ‘Infinite Possibility’ eases us in a realm where weightless pop and low-slung abstract hip-hop combine to further exhilarating effect. All in harp-driven brittleness and velveteen sub-bass stealth, Noah ‘Gemini - Mysterious Lot’ has us drifting to a lavishly orchestrated headspace, laying down an impressive work on textures and arrangements. All in on the sedated drip-tease flex, Sauce81 ’Sign of Secret Love’ is a blast of freaky hedonism, just as ready to cast its hypnotic spell down the sweatbox as it was upon its original release ten years ago.

Languid jacking house tune ’Tai+Dai’ from Keita Sano blows the winds of discoid luvin’ across the room with its impeccable balance of sharp, glimmering synthwork and driving bass onslaughts from the depths. An odd slice of reshuffled folk music, Waltz ‘Folkesta’ makes for some eerie invitation of sorts, enchanting and spookily haunting in equal measure. Back to a fevered, hip-swaying mindset, Kuniyuki hi-NRG jazz number ‘Free’ is an absolute wonder of piano and drums-driven boogie, cut from the same cloth as some of Blue Note’s finest Cuban jazz classics. Rounding off the package, Japanese legend Ken Ishii’s version of Larry Heard’s house Hall-of-Famer ‘Can You Feel It’ is pure bliss in a can, tailored to turn any crowd into a shapeless cloud of balmy euphoria and universal love, whatever the place or time.

Still on and about after years of the most intense crate digging, gem mining, desperate head-scratching and avid schooling, thirsty as ever for the next musical thrill to wrap our ears and brains around, here comes the fruit of our life-long love story with Japanese electronics, Denshi Ongaku No Bigaku Vol. 1 and Vol.2. From the soul-fulfilling first crush felt upon hearing the iconic soundtrack of ‘Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence’ by Ryuichi Sakamoto onto our release of Inner Science ‘Cosmo Tracks’, through the life-affirming sets of Laurent Garnier at Dijon’s seminal club, l’An-fer, which have at all times nurtured and expanded our taste for Easternmost delicacies, the influence of Japanese music on our vision and endeavours was paramount to the development of our catalogue, whether directly or indirectly.

This first volume gets the ball rolling with a fine assortment of mostly ambient, electronica and deep house-focussed joints. Draped in organic membranes and ASMR-like synth tapestries, K. Inoue’s nu-agey opener ‘Em Paz’ takes us on a ride across the most serene dreamscapes. Jazzing up these lush and oneiric coastal vibes, Gabby & Lopez ‘Drive form the Miracle’ merges a sense of Californian psychedelia with a straight out hard-bop swing. No stranger to our catalogue, Inner Science returns to serve up a crystalline slice of laid-back house on a mystique-imbued tip he holds the secret to. Flip it over and here comes Aquarium with the splendidly immersive ‘Rainy Night in Shibuya’, which very much feels like wandering amidst its neon-upholstered streets and swarming hallways in a bubble of your own.

Naohito Uchiyama treats us to a synth-drenched nocturnal ballad with the ‘80s-inflected vibes of ’Shugetsu’, whereas Keta Ra cuts a path of ethereal sublimation via the mischievously fun and bouncy balearic lounge of ‘equals’. Masterly crafted by Yuu Udagawa, ‘Infinite Possibility’ eases us in a realm where weightless pop and low-slung abstract hip-hop combine to further exhilarating effect. All in harp-driven brittleness and velveteen sub-bass stealth, Noah ‘Gemini - Mysterious Lot’ has us drifting to a lavishly orchestrated headspace, laying down an impressive work on textures and arrangements. All in on the sedated drip-tease flex, Sauce81 ’Sign of Secret Love’ is a blast of freaky hedonism, just as ready to cast its hypnotic spell down the sweatbox as it was upon its original release ten years ago.

Languid jacking house tune ’Tai+Dai’ from Keita Sano blows the winds of discoid luvin’ across the room with its impeccable balance of sharp, glimmering synthwork and driving bass onslaughts from the depths. An odd slice of reshuffled folk music, Waltz ‘Folkesta’ makes for some eerie invitation of sorts, enchanting and spookily haunting in equal measure. Back to a fevered, hip-swaying mindset, Kuniyuki hi-NRG jazz number ‘Free’ is an absolute wonder of piano and drums-driven boogie, cut from the same cloth as some of Blue Note’s finest Cuban jazz classics. Rounding off the package, Japanese legend Ken Ishii’s version of Larry Heard’s house Hall-of-Famer ‘Can You Feel It’ is pure bliss in a can, tailored to turn any crowd into a shapeless cloud of balmy euphoria and universal love, whatever the place or time.

The last time Canadian underground techno tastemaker Rennie Foster had a record on a French label it was the historic F-Communications. Back then Rennie’s penchant for bringing warehouse nostalgia together with hi-tech futurism was a consistent theme and in 2023 this fusion based musical concept is realized further toward the future through a new EP release, Cryptic Layers on Parisian imprint Skylax Records.


The record opens with Let It Go, a simple title for a complex and dreamy piece of lo-fi rave house featuring clattering breaks, ear worm vocals and a drastic bassline driving the whole custom vehicle. Then the similarly, simply titled Just Do It explodes into action with an inspired mix of Detroit inspired dub techno chords, fierce amen breaks and a hip-house energy akin to both current urban style and authentic musical roots. These tracks sound like they could have been released at any time during the past decades but still sound current, or even futuristic. Apparent is craft, design and an understanding of dance music from the perspective of obsession, experience and passion.



The remixes come from absolute legends in the world of techno, representing Rennie’s other home-base territories, the techno cities Detroit and Tokyo. Japanese electronic music icon Ken Ishii provides a storming acid remix of Just Do It with liquid 303 bass, anxious and trip vocal snips, and punchy drums that will sound absolutely ace in a club. Detroit third wave pioneer Sean Deason closes out the record with a crisp dose of hi-tech funk that is sure to be a DJ weapon with it’s hypnotic energy and timeless production style.



The digital only portion of Cryptic Layers begins with a second version from Ken Ishii, this time sans vocals leaving the acid stripped down and bare. Two more original tracks by Rennie Foster are also on offer. Sadlands is an organ laden deep house, synth-wave, contrasting piece of melancholic dream dance while I Say Peace signs off the project in a layered classic house style with early rave stabs and grooving after-hours appeal.

In Japanese, the word “Guru-Guru” refers to the state of spinning, whirling.?
This state is captured in the work of Japanese artist Hoshina Anniversary, who makes his third appearance on MUSAR with his EP Guru Guru and marks the return of the label after an extended break.

Hoshina’s self-titled brand of ‘Watechno’ has appeared on well-loved dance music labels like ESP Institute, Volvox’s Jack Dept and Young Marco’s Safe Trip, alongside MUSAR where he also appeared as Shifting Gears back in 2022; an electronic-jazz-centered moniker.

His Guru Guru EP captures the latest snapshot of Hoshina’s sound and sees him draw from Japanese language as a through-line.
The title track is the clearest representation of his ‘Watechno’, where he uses Japanese instrumentation on top of a menacing EBM-style march. The track's slowly whirling momentum is the “Guru-Guru”.

On tracks like “Banri”, which means far away in Japanese, we see new shades to Hoshina’s work as he mixes a Japanese Wadaiko drum groove with acidic elements and piano melodies to make a track of contradictions which pairs roughness with elegance. Whereas on “Usagi”, Japanese for rabbit, Hoshina fires up the BPM.
Piano melodies remain here but their effect is more drifting and emotive than on “Banri”.
“Kaga” is named after a place in the southernmost part of Ishikawa Prefecture, between Kanazawa City and Fukui City.
On this track, Hoshina’s love for jazz comes through and even mirrors the work we heard from him under Shifting Gears.

Percussionist Takashi Nakazato is well known for his work with Jazztronik and Kyoto Jazz Massive and is now back on Ten Lovers Music with a stunning new Japanese Latin Jazz EP.

The Takashi Nakazato Set are the following musicians featuring over the four tracks; Willy Calderon (Timbales), Yu Hagiwara (Alto Sax/Soprano Sax), Kei Ishi (Baby Bass), Miwa Kashima (Rhodes/Piano), Ryo Kawasaki (Electric Bass/Double Bass), Takahiro Miyazaki (Tenor Sax), Oli Savill (Congas), Ayumi Suzuki (Vibraphone/Marimba), Mitsuru Tanaka (Trumpet), Hayato Yamazaki (Drums) and of course Takashi Nakazato himself (Batá Drums, Cheqere, Cowbell, Claves, Wind Chime, Chaworó, Congas, Bongo, Catá, Iyá, Vibra Slap, Cymbal).

The EP was mixed by Eiji Hirano at Studio Happiness in Japan and mastered by Jose Rico in Madrid, Spain. All four tracks are quality pieces of music in their own right and we were more than happy to commit this to vinyl.

For the exhibition “Flowers in 20th and 21st Century Art“, Eiko Ishibashi and Jim O‘Rourke had created the installation ”Lifetime of a Flower“ in which they set parameters but allowed the process itself to grow uncontrollably. Literally: in the garden of their Japanese house, they planted seeds and filmed the plant growing and thriving throughout the duration of the exhibition. Visitors were able to watch the stream in real time - and they heard a composition in which Ishibashi and O‘Rourke reflected the organic process in sound. The eponymous composition now available on LP, is an enigmatic and sophisticated layering of sounds, melodies and rhythms, noises from everyday life, all of which are repositories of associations, memories and expectations.

Although its name comes from the literal translation of the Korean term - which could mean anything from fanciful daydreams to nightmarish terrors, but always alluding to the idea that they are nonsensical, unrealistic, or simply silly - Lucy Liyou's sophomore album instead takes seriously these questions of why we dream what we dream, what slumber offers us that sober reality fails to, and
which forgotten desires dare only emerge as our bodies go to rest. RIYL: Elysia Crampton, Eiko Ishibashi, Mariah Carey, Valerio Tricolor (Tour Sketch), Perfume Genius.

Behold the might of Rodan, the giant monster from the sky! In 1956, Toho unleashed their first colour kaiju picture: RODAN, directed by Ishiro Honda and produced by Tomoyuki Tanaka, is a terrifying tale from the creators of the original Godzilla that sees a giant Pteranodon rise from a deep underground cave after being disturbed by miners. Like the Big G, Rodan has mutated to excessive size after being exposed to nuclear radiation, subsequently soaring free above Kyushu to cause as much mayhem as possible as the JSDF do their best to protect the island from his bloodthirsty rampaging. It was inevitable that the man behind the music of Godzilla would also take on scoring RODAN, and the great Akira Ifukube created a score with a solemn edge as with Godzilla, which makes the music of RODAN fit in the larger universe while allowing it to feel unique to the character. For the main theme, Ifukube introduces a malevolent low piano and brass phrase before cointerpointing it with horns to create a howling menace worthy of Rodan. In contrast, beautiful but melancholy material represents the carnage the monster has brought upon the Earth; in a more upbeat mode, the composer includes another of his jaunty and jazzy marches for the JDSF in the guise of "Get Rodan". It's another Toho triumph from the great maestro Ifukube! (Charlie Brigden)

It is with a singular pleasure that we welcome Marc Romboy to the ever growing stable of live artists at ASW!

Marc Romboy is an artist renowned within the electronic scene for his eclectic, boundary-pushing approach and decades worth of experience working both behind the scenes and behind the decks.

In recent years he has embraced performing live as another creative outlet and, indeed, creative challenge. As an artist and performer, Marc has always pushed the boundaries of his creativity and this, Marc’s first studio album in 6 years is a true masterwork of techno from one of the masters of the genre.

Growing up in the West of Germany close to the borders of both The Netherlands and Belgium, Marc was always instinctively drawn to music. He would attend the acid house parties prevalent in the area, with an epiphany of sorts on the dancefloor of Front club in Hamburg in 1987. An avid record collector, he would listen to Krautrock, breaks, Italo disco, Chicago house and more, and experienced some of the first all house and techno clubs in Europe; the legendary Roxy club in Amsterdam and Dorian Grey in Frankfurt. Learning to DJ, and later on produce, was a natural step.

He founded the ’Le Petit Prince’ imprint in 1993 as a platform for the music of friends he was playing out, which went on to be named Label Of The Year by various German electronic music publications the following year. Its reputation led Marc into collaborating with other DJs to manage their labels too.

Meanwhile, Marc went on to notch up an impressive discography of EPs, tracks and collaborations, carving his own sound; emotive, versatile, and featuring distinctive basslines.
2004 was a landmark year for the artist, with the beginning of his own, completely self-run label Systematic. Since It's birth, the label has provided a home for productions from the likes of Robert Hood, Kenny Larkin, Omar-S, Terrence Parker, Timo Maas, kINK and many more. It also provided the platform for Marc’s first album, ‘Gemini’ in 2005, followed by four further LPs; 2008’s ‘Contrast’, 2009’s ‘6 Monde’ with Stephan Bodzin (which birthed the pair’s now-legendary track ‘Atlas’), 2013’s ‘Taiyo’ with Ken Ishii, and 2014’s three-disc retrospective compilation ‘Shades’. And his collaborative orchestral LP ‘Voyage de la Planète’, Marc’s forward-thinking last album. Pushing the boundaries between classical and electronic music, it makes for a moving , atmospheric outing for the producer - “I feel like there are still a couple of beautiful sounds to create”.

Marc’s output has been exemplary and with his inspiration rising for performing live he now brings us the wonderful “Music Made for Aliens”. A work of true electronic inspiration. Marc will be performing live at ASW events coming up soon.

This new EP grey and black splattered 12" from Orlando Voorn features a real glut of goodness - there is the stone-cold classic 'Flash' under his Fix alias which is big, bouncy techno with wigged-out synths and plenty of playful energy. There is also the brand new title track 'Pulsor' which is a nice heady and deep cut with silky synth ripples and rubbery drums intertwining with one another perfectly. The two remixes included have never been available on vinyl before. The first is Orlando's chunky and funky techno rework of 'Boucle To The Beat', one of Toddy Terry's most recognisable early tracks. Then last of all is the colourful house sound of Ken Ishii's remix of 'Dope Computer'. It's a filter-heavy and loopy jam with prickly acid that will pump any party.

This new EP grey and black splattered 12" from Orlando Voorn features a real glut of goodness - there is the stone-cold classic 'Flash' under his Fix alias which is big, bouncy techno with wigged-out synths and plenty of playful energy. There is also the brand new title track 'Pulsor' which is a nice heady and deep cut with silky synth ripples and rubbery drums intertwining with one another perfectly. The two remixes included have never been available on vinyl before. The first is Orlando's chunky and funky techno rework of 'Boucle To The Beat', one of Toddy Terry's most recognisable early tracks. Then last of all is the colourful house sound of Ken Ishii's remix of 'Dope Computer'. It's a filter-heavy and loopy jam with prickly acid that will pump any party.

Renoir Of The Toys is a deep dive into the world of Youri Kun, the nom de plume of Japanese guitarist, singer and songwriter Hiroshi Nar. It follows a similar compilation, Unheld Ball, released in 2022 on Japanese label Inundow; like that album, Renoir Of The Toys draws from the rich catalogue of outsider psych-garage and rock recorded by Youri Kun over the past two decades. Deeply wired into the history of Japanese underground music, Nar was a founding member of legendary ‘70s outfit Datetenryu, and a member of both Brain Police (Zuno Keisatsu) and Les Ralllizes Dénudés (Hadaka No Rallizes), appearing on the latter’s ’77 Live.

After going to ground during the 1980s, Nar started making music with Niplets in the mid-90s, and releasing music at a prolific pace in 2000 – an excellent run of (sometimes archival) CD-Rs on the Hello Goodbye Studio label, both solo, and with his groups Molls, Niplets and Port Cuss; an album on P.S.F. by Jokers, where he was joined by fellow Rallizes member Yokai Takahashi, and drummer Toshiaki Ishizuka (Brain Police, Vajra, Cinorama, etc.); and sixteen albums (and counting) as Youri Kun, for labels Gyunne Cassette, Inundow, and Hören. He’s also fallen in with the Acid Mothers Temple crowd, guesting on a few of their albums, and recording a live set with Kawabata Makoto’s Nishinihon trio.

All Nar’s music shares a deceptive primitivism; it moves with the simplicity of the best 1960s garage punk, but its edges are blurred and stretched, allowing for all kinds of weird, elliptical, and psychedelic moves to happen in its margins. His guitar playing on songs like “Kakunin” (from 2011’s Yamaimo Boogie) shimmies and slurs magnificently; “Kurokami”, from 2012’s Su, has clanking six strings scrawling over loose, spaced-out synth; there are clunky psychobilly moves (“Oshiro no Ninjya”), spirited rave-ups for rattling organ and sputtering guitar (“Totsugeki”), and some lovely, drowsy, melancholy moments (“Sora”).

The constant throughout is Nar’s blues-blurred, drawling voice, as unique a tool as the non-idiomatic speak-sing styles of solo Syd Barrett, Jad Fair, or Dave E. McManus. There are also three Les Rallizes Dénudés covers here, where Nar locates the pop genius at the heart of songs like “Shiroi Yoru” and amplifies this with his simple garage-reverential take on things. Renoir Of The Toys is yet more evidence that Hiroshi Nar was, and is, one of Japan’s musical visionaries, a lonesome voice dedicated to a singular, streamlined vision, one that’s in eternal pursuit of the joy and kicks at the heart of rock’n’roll, and a reminder of what a great, unpretentious rock’n’roller truly should be.

WRWTFWW Records is deeply honored to announce the release of Chu Ishikawa & Der Eisenrost’s soundtrack for experimental action drama Tokyo Fist, released in 1995 and directed by legendary director/producer/writer Shin’ya Tsukamoto (Tetsuo: The Iron Man and its sequels, Bullet Ballet, Hiroki The Goblin, Nightmare Detective). Previously only published on CD in Japan, the cult movie soundtrack is available on vinyl for the first time ever and housed in a heavy 350gsm sleeve.
The Tokyo Fist soundtrack gorgeously blends explosive industrial music, heavy percussion, martial rhythms and noise experimentations with contemplative ambient and emotion-filled synth soundscapes, perfectly encapsulating the nihilistic pain felt by the characters of the movie and the brutally visceral rebirth they go through. Ishikawa and Der Eisenrost’s compositions hit hard, sometimes truly terrorizing, sometimes heart-gripping in gloomy and bewitching ways. This is no holds barred music, a venture into the darkest yet most strangely beautiful corners of the human mind (and heart).
The late great Chu Ishikawa was one of the innovators of the industrial and experimental scene in Japan and has collaborated with Shin’ya Tsukamoto on numerous movies. He also worked extensively with Takashi Miike, another visionary filmmaker from his home country. Ishikawa was the leader of groundbreaking Industrial-Metal-Percussion unit Der Eisenrost whose live performances around Japan left an indelible mark on the genre’s history.
This new project by WRWTFWW Records follows previous Japanese soundtracks from the catalogue: Ghost in the Shell, Patlabor 2, Evil Dead Trap…and more to come.

A pure journey inward into the headspace of an artist, that reveals his gaze at the earth-ly zones he walks in: “Song for Joni”, the new album by Japanese musician Shunji Mori, brings pure natural music full of artificial nuances who create in conversation with ana-logue tones a new kind of musical nature, loaded with vibrant seasons, unknown to us, the unwise humans. moreover, the album is a fine continuation of Japan’s rich ambient leaning music traditions, carrying them into Lorren Connor’s like pending guitar galaxies.

In the 1990s Tokyo based Mori was part of the trip hop, nu-jazz, deep house, and down-tempo duo natural calamity, releasing a string of albums and EP’s on labels like legend-ary London based imprint Nuphonic, Japanese Idyllic Records or Down 2 Earth Record-ings.

In 2003 he launched the instrumental guitar duo Gabby & Lopez with his buddy Masayuki Ishii. Together they created three albums and performed live. Additionally, Mori plays improvisational concerts with Japanese musician, multi-instrumentalist, and stage direc-tor Daiho Soga and finds time to invent his very own, charismatic guitar music.

His solo work now finally gets introduced with a full-length album for Studio Mule, con-sisting of recent and a decade ago compositions, all merely recorded with the electric guitar, pedals, and field recordings.

In the center of “Song for Joni” is the guitar, spreading longing, drifting melodies. Free floating, yet deeply felt compositions, performed in an accurate journey music style. around the string notes, ambient landscapes soar and vanish.

In some moments, the guitar works like a slow-mo yacht rock lead, flying speed less over and under imaginative sonic clouds. Then, Mori’s music distributes psychedelic ef-fects in the tradition of krautrock legends like Günter Schickert, just without the echo fuzz.

Additionally, in warm vibrating seconds, his creations remind on the calm flashes in the musical work of English photographer, musician, and artist designer Steve Hiett, while Mori’s ambient spheres come close to the magic vibe of records like “Pier & Loft” by his fellow countryman Hiroshi Yoshimura.

A mixture, that transports considerate listeners into the meditative world of Shunji Mori, a calm island of bliss, made for all those that follow the heedful path of life.

Japanese street music icon, Yasushi Ide released new album featuring Don Letts, Josh Milan, Jeff Mills, DJ Krush and more.


"This is a sound track for rude, underground adults! Amazing mixture of reggae, dub, funk, jazz, rock, afro, house. Masterpiece that goes beyond genres of music created by great producer, Yasushi Ide who has relentless motivation and global network of talents." - Shuya Okino (Kyoto Jazz Massive / Kyoto Jazz Sextet)

"Great album! It is amazing to finish such a big project involved many collaborators at this high quality only in a year and 4 months. The magic of Cosmic Suite is there are variety of styles, and it makes you feel deep and spiritual at one point, but at the same time you can feel relaxed. Also, I have to say that the sound quality is great. It sounds very clear and it can only be done with top level recording and mixing professionals." - Ken Ishii

Yasushi Ide is the Japanese street icon. In the 90's he was called "the Guru of Shibuya-kei" which was the movement of Shibuya style of eclectic pop by the artists such as Cornelius, Pizzcato Five, or Original Love who is once again recognized in City Pop revival of recent years. (Yasushi Ide was a manager of Original Love, and also Kenji Ozawa)

Through his works, he has been creating the global network of musicians such as Josh Milan of the Blaze, house music icon, Don Letts, the pioneer of connecting punk rock with reggae, and Jeff Mills, Detroit techno legend, and released a great amount of hi-quality music on his label, Grand Gallery.

The Cosmic Suite project started in 2020, during the pandemic. It started as a project to reconstruct the parts of music Jeff Mills created for Chieko Kinbara, a violinist which Mills produced. However, it turned out to be 36min of spaced themed original track = Cosmic Suite.
(There are few phrases of Jeff Mills music left in the final version) This masterpiece created a buzz in the music scene in Japan and overseas, and became Yasushi Ide's new beginning.

In June, 2022, Ide released "Cosmic Suite 2". Originally, Cosmic Suite was an instrumental. "Cosmic Suite" is the reconstruction of "Cosmic Suite 2" with the element of vocals. In this project, Don Letts, Josh Milan, DJ Krush are featured as guest musicians. Moreover, drums of Tony Allen, the legendary Afrobeat drummer, and Style Scott, a drummer known for his works in early days of ON-U label, and Gota Yashiki, a Japanese drummer known for his works with Soul II Soul are featured in this album. Also, Japanese brightest talents such as Kan Takagi of Major Force, Kaoru Inoue aka Chari Chari, Tomoyuki Tanaka aka Fantastic Plastic Machine and Calm are featured as artists and engineers. This is the true dream team of the Japanese underground music scene.

The artwork is done by Josue Thomas, the founder of popular fashion brand, Gallery Dept. He is also featured as poetry reading artist in track 1 of "Cosmic Suite 2." Ide and him collaborates in various projects under the concept of "Universal Music Connection."

Yasushi Ide's also well received as a dub artist. (beside his wide range of musical styles)
His dub cover of Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine (Space Dub Mix)" is selected for "Late Night Tales mixed by Don Letts" in 2021.

Highlight of "Cosmic 2" is the unique dub sound in tracks such as "Lava" feat. UA, the Japanese singer often described as "Japanese Bjork", and "Sumimasen Suite" feat. Rebel Dread (= Don Letts).

Tokyo is the melting pot of street music from all around the World such as Dub, Jazz, House, Hip Hop, Afrobeat, Punk rock, Techno,,, You can see the influence of all spectrums of rebel music in this album. This unique avant-garde music can only be created by Yasushi Ide, who has been heavily involved in this truly unique music scene for a long time.