At the dawn of the 1980s, Osaka's Dendö Marionette stood at the front of Japan's first wave of synth-driven post-punk, an underground movement where icy electronics collided with the urgency of punk and the melodic ambition of new wave. Their sound was futuristic and atmospheric in equal measure, channelling a restless creative energy that mirrored the global wave of experimentation while remaining unmistakably Japanese.

This self-titled 2LP brings together, for the first time, the band's complete studio legacy: their lone 1981 7-inch flexi (a cult artefact of the Kansai underground that has long been one of the most-traded items among Japanese synth-wave collectors), a previously unreleased EP recorded in 1982 that captures the band at their most innovative and ambitious, and an array of demo recordings that offer an intimate glimpse into their evolving identity. The arrangements show a band thinking carefully about pop form, and the result is a body of work that feels both timeless and strikingly of its era: mechanical rhythms infused with raw human emotion, shimmering synth textures cut through with jagged guitar lines.

For listeners following the Spittle Made In Japan series, this is the central text. For collectors of early-80s synth-wave more broadly, it is one of the most important rediscoveries of recent years and a long-overdue restoration of a band whose echoes can still be heard across the contemporary Japanese underground.