Psych /
Second Time Around
2024 vinyl reissue. Blue color vinyl. "Returned from early '90s Japan are the holy sounds of Ghost. Their collective, clearly inspired by various forms of transcendental music throughout history, created a new syncretic psychedelia with these albums, mixing the texture and vibe of multinational forms of traditional music, with strummed antique stringed instruments and the haunting wail of a recorder on top of their heavy beats and guitars. The considerable depth of this approach was explored thr…
Ceremony Buddha Meet Rock
Ceremony ~ Buddha Meet Rock was originally released in 1971 by Japanese label Teichiku. This trippy album is a true meeting of East and West, combining Buddist chanting with psychedelic/progressive rock. Apparently even this re-issue is fast becoming scarce, get a copy while you can, you will certainly never hear anything like it.
Heavy Way
A long-lost Japanese acid folk gem, Niningashi’s 1974 private press debut Heavy Way shimmers with originality, deft song writing and a dream-like groove.
Uganda
**Tip-on sleeve with OBI strip.** 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 an…
Ghost
Formed in 1984, Ghost burgeoned slowly, blowing open the gate in 1990 with their eponymous debut. Opening with a vast spirit plosion – shards of antique light and clouds of centuries-old, dust-laden airs escaping from a primeval tomb – they settle into the deep feeling. A variety of mostly acoustic instruments aids their projection of traditional sounds from space and time, troubadours of unknown, an enigma of eternal trippiness all about them.
FM Tokyo Pioneer Sound Approach
Doji Morita, who debuted in 1975 with the single 'Sayonara Boku no Tomodachi / Mabushii Natsu,' she was a unique and enigmatic presence in Japanese folk scene with her characteristic sunglasses and curly hair. Starting with 'good bye' in the same year, she went on to release a series of masterpiece albums, including 'Mother Sky: Can You Fly Alone in the Sad Blue Sky?' (1976) and 'a Boy' (1977). This album is a live recording from the spring of 1978, during the peak of Mori's career, when she app…
Baus '93
** 2LP, red velvet vinyl edition** BAUS ‘93 contains the Rallizes storied comeback performance from Baus Theater in Kichijoji, Tokyo, which took place on February 13, 1993 in what was their first live appearance in five years. BAUS ‘93 follows the widely acclaimed worldwide release of Città ‘93, which captured the Rallizes’ fiery gig that took place four days later at Club Citta’ in Kawasaki.
Newly mixed and mastered by Makoto Kubota, BAUS ‘93 features the previously unheard live recording meti…
Dr. Siegel's Fried Egg Shooting Machine
1972 Debut album by cultish Japanese combo!
Sixties Japanese Garage-Psych Sampler
Here's for the real thing! A late 60s Japanese compilation investigating the so-called "group sound" movement. Includes early recordings by a series of musicians later to perform with legendary bands such as the Flower Travellin' Band, Speed Glue & Shinki, Les Rallizes Denudes and Foodbrain. Must have !
The OZ Tapes
One or two bumped corners, hence reduced price. ** Black Vinyl edition. Comes in a craft board jacket, including a 12-page liner notes book with archival photos ** Operating out of a small upstairs space just around the corner from the train station in the Kichijoji neighborhood of Tokyo, OZ was a scruffy, DIY affair that lasted not much more than a year. Between June 1972 to September 1973, the café and performance space became the nerve center for the city’s burgeoning underground and counte…
House in the Tall Grass
*2023 stock* Like a long journey this record unfolds itself through many layers. Fans of Kikagaku Moyo will be comforted by the soft vocals harmonies and warm Sitar but what sets this release apart is the refinement of the band’s songwriting and their delicate execution. Side A begins with a pair of travelling songs where the interplay between the vocals, guitar, and sitar lift and suspend you on an unexpected journey. The patient listener is rewarded by tracks like “Trad” and “Silver Owl” that …
Forest Of Lost Children
2025 Repress Kikagaku Moyo here sound anything but lost, their child-like wonder manifested in a confident, courageous exploration of sound. Labels – psychedelic, folk, prog-rock, psychedelic-folk-mixed-with-prog-rock – do little to accurately reflect the spectrum of influences on display, let alone the more impactful realization of completeness in Kikagaku Moyo’s songs.
Kumoyo Island
“The fifth studio album & last euphoric mind-trip to Kikagaku Moyo's imagined island. Best-suited for counting stars, looking at the ocean, and dancing in one’s daydream.”
Flightless Bird Needs Water Wings - Vol. 1
This record is a nice summary of some of the band's earlier work -- when infamous bassist Moriaki Wakabayashi was still playing before he went and hijacked a plane (he was a member of the "Yodogō Group" of the radical New Left Japan Communist League's "Red Army Faction" that carried out the hijacking of Japan Airlines Flight 351 in 1970, ultimately forcing the plane to fly to North Korea, where Wakabayashi currently resides). A seemingly endless sonic flame-throwers of phased white noise streak …
Acid Psychedelic King Go To The East
Rare 1975 live and studio recordings by the Japanese psychedelic noise legends Les Rallizes Dénudés.
Speed, Glue & Shinki
**Deluxe Japanese edition, analog version using a 96khz24bit sound source. The jacket is a single jacket x two, a full-length Obi, a lyric card, etc** Originally released in 1972 on Atlantic and often referred to as Tiger, Speed, Glue & Shinki's second album featured some tracks not found on Eve in addition to some newly recorded material with a radically different musical approach. Joey Smith purchased a synthesizer because he thought it was time to try a new instrument because he could play t…
Tokyo Flashback
Lucky restock. Black Editions present the first ever vinyl edition of Tokyo Flashback, the legendary 1991 compilation that defined the Tokyo psychedelic movement and first brought it to the outside world. Tokyo Flashback is one of the most iconic compilations in the history of underground music. Originally released by Japan's P.S.F. Records, Tokyo Flashback defined the breathtakingly unique and previously obscured musical movement that had been developing in Japan since the late 1970s. The compi…
Azabu Studio Demo 1985 Vol. 1
"More unearthed demo recordings by the Japanese psychedelic noise legends Les Rallizes Dénudés. Recorded in Azabu, Tokyo 1985." - Take It Acid Is. Vol. 2 of a two-volume set.
Studio Sessions 1972 & 1980
Freaked out lo-fi psychedelic noise recordings from 1972 and 1980 by the mythical Japanese psych rockers Les Rallizes Dénudés, including the 23 minute "Guitar Jam" filling the complete A-side, a sort of Stooges riff with Ramones like drumming ending up in a total feedback noise orgy. Recorded on Sept. 9, 1980. Side B starts with the droning 18 minute track "A Tale Of Love," from the same 1980 Mars Studio sessions recorded 3 days before "Guitar Jam" and ends with a 6 minute version of the classic…
Citta' '93
** 2CDs housed in a gatefold wallet** In 1991, Les Rallizes Denudes released three full-length albums on CD, the band’s first-ever recordings to be made available since their formation in Kyoto more than two decades prior. In 1993, the band appeared in front of an audience for the first time since 1988. Their February 17 appearance at Club Cittaʼ, which came four days after their “comeback” gig at Baus Theater, turned out to be one of the most notable out of all the Rallizes performances thus …