With an incredible year of releases already behind them, Urashima returns with a stunning, 40th anniversary vinyl edition of Hijokaidan's seminal debut "Zouroku No Kibyou". Originally issued in 1982, and effectively ground zero for the then emerging movement of Japanese noise, not only is it a wild ride of raw energy and rare artistry, but four decades on it remains remarkably relevant and reveals crucial insights into the origins of one of the 20th century's most vibrant musical avant-gardes.

Since its founding during the late 2000s, the Italian imprint, Urashima, has become a definitive voice in the landscape of noise. Bringing forth beautiful editions, they’ve sculpted a singular vision of one of the most vibrant and revolutionary bodies of experimental sound to have graced the globe. Already in 2022, they’ve delivered ambitious projects like Controlled Death’s "Death Synth Box”, Merzbow’s “Collection 001-010” and “Hybrid Noisebloom”, as well as Masonna’s “Masonna Vs. Bananamara”. Now they’re back continuing their much-needed dive into the seminal noise outfit Hijokaidan’s back catalog that began with 2021’s reissue of “Modern” with a stunning 40th anniversary vinyl edition of “Zouroku No Kibyou”, one of the wildest LPs to have ever emerged from Japan. As urgent and energetic as the day it was made, few records have had such a lasting impact on any scene.

Of all the sonic radicalism to have emerged from Japan over the last 3 quarters of a century, few movements have been as iconic, singular, or influential as its movement of Noise. First appearing during the late 1970s as an unexpected hybrid of punk, psychedelia, and experimental music, this raw swell of primal sound flowed from the hands of now iconic artists like Merzbow, Keiji Haino, High-Rise, Toshiaki Ishizuka, Mainliner, and dozens of others.

At the beginning of it all was Hijokaidan, a project founded as a duo by Jojo Hiroshige and Naoki Zushi in 1979, that rapidly expanded and contracted in its early years, playing host to an incredible cast of contributors, before eventually settling on a core line up of Hiroshige, Junko, and Toshiji Mikawa during the mid 1980s. Often regarded as "the most heinous band from Kansai" because of their wild performances, featuring spewing fire extinguishers, smashed venue lights, garbage, raw fish, and urinating on stage, particularly during their early years they were a band that laid it all on the line and took no prisoners.

Few artefacts from Hijokaidan’s sprawling back catalog better display the raw energy from which the project sprang as their debut LP, “Zouroku No Kibyou”, originally issued in 1982 by the Osaka-based noise label, Unbalance, run by fellow noise pioneer Naoto Hayashi of Auschwitz. While the band had appeared on the label’s first release - a split with Jurajium and NG - two years prior, this was the first chance that further flung audiences were given the opportunity to be fully immersed in their sound. It wasn’t wasted.

“Zouroku No Kibyou” comprises six tracks of sonic onslaught recorded live at as many gigs between 1980 and 1981, the period when Hijokaidan’s extreme performances had first begun to attract greater attention. Channeling the spirit and energy of youth, departing from a brief intro of gagging vocalizations, the band launches into a series of swirling tapestries of noise, weaving the sounds of guitar, percussion, electronics, and anything else that happened to be at hand into existential projections of a group of artists at odds with the world. While undeniably bound to rock, in more ways than one, the idiom of noise in Hijokaidan’s hands is far more subtle and specific across each of “Zouroku No Kibyou’s” movements than might first appear. Each is its own thing, seeking its own end. Collectively gathered together, the album feels far more like a logical successor to the more extreme gestures of free jazz from the 1970s, than anything to do with rock and roll.

Regarded by many as a historical masterpiece of independent recordings in Japan, Urashima’s 40th anniversary vinyl edition of Hijokaidan’s “Zouroku No Kibyou” is the first vinyl reissue to faithfully reproduce the original 1982 edition in its immaculate form. It’s a wild ride from the first sounding to the last, that remains striking and prescient four decades on. This is just about as close to a window into where it began as you can get.