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| Artist: TOMOKAWA, KAZUKI Title: Blue Water, Red Water Format: CD Label: PSF Country: Japan Price: $20.00 |
| "Latest album of devastating emotional transcendence from the Japanese undergrounds most lyrical singer-songwriter. Full of classic, richly textured songs of love, loss and stunned acquiescence to the wonders of the world. Alongside Tomokawas regular collaborators, Toshiaki Ishizuka and Masato Nagahata, the expanded group also includes Compostela-veteran Takero Sekijima on tuba and recorder, and improv-legend Hiromichi Sakamoto on cello. Includes Tomokawas ending theme song for director Rokuro Mochizukis Johnen - Jo no Ai, a re-telling of the Abe Sada story. Booklet includes lyrics in Japanese and English." -PSF |
| Artist: TOMOKAWA, KAZUKI Title: A Bumpkins Empty Bravado Format: CD Label: PSF Country: Japan Price: $20.00 |
| "Celebrating 35 years of vagabond soul by one of Japans most distinctive and original folk voices. A Bumpkins Empty Bravado (Japanese title: Inakamono no karagenki) is Tomokawas first completely solo album in fifteen years and a triumphant return to full-voiced form after his recent illness. Stripped of his usual backing band, theres a crystalline hardness evident in the best of Tomokawas songs here -- a hard, blazing core in which mellifluous lyricism and eruptions of highly individual madness are fused. Lyrically theres a new focus on Akita, the northern prefecture of his birth, as well as on the linkages between visual and musical art. Nine tracks; thirty-five minutes. Booklet includes liner-notes and lyrics in Japanese and English." -- Alan Cummings |
| Artist: TOMOKAWA, KAZUKI Title: Yatto Ichi Mai Me Format: CD Label: Showboat/Sky Station Country: Japan Price: $29.00 |
| "Faithful official reproduced reissue housed in the always top notch mini-LP styled gatefold jackets, obi and inserts. This was Tomokawas first record, released in October 1975. He is undoubtedly the unequaled master of possessed song-spirit. Here the young Tomokawa wails and screams emotionally hard enough in order to strip the paint of the walls. Nevertheless at times he gets quite emotional and laid back in order to hush his haunting demons to sleep. Just a splendid piece of Japanese acid folk and chant exorcism. Tomokawas music is violent, emotionally charged with insane screaming modes, piercing sensitivity, cathartic rhythmic purge, thrashing acoustic guitar aesthetic and harsh, reflecting the atmosphere of the bleak northern prefecture of Aomori. Hardly turns up these days. Stunningly great psychedelic-acid-avant-outsider folk music. For fans of Mikami Kan, Jandek, acid folk, Iuchi Kengo, J.A.Seazer, psych heads all around and adventurous music geeks. If you are interested in acid folk, well look no further cause it will not get any better than this. Highly recommended official top notch high quality reissue of this rare early (1st) Tomokawa disc."-Showboat/Sky Station |
| Artist: TOMOKAWA, KAZUKI Title: Satoru Format: LP Label: Tiliqua Country: Japan Price: $36.00 |
| "Limited LP set of 450 numbered copies and all but 50 copies stayed in Japan. We have the last of the 50 copies available from the label to sell for the USA market.“Satoru” is Tomokawa Kazukis first ever LP release in over 20 years time and Tiliqua Records is proud to be able to release this sonic gem. “Satoru” was previously only available as part of the 13 CD Box set that PSF Records put out some years ago and has never been available outside of the set. Now “Satoru” is finally available apart from the illustrious box and is been rebirthed as an LP, housed in sturdy and heavy jacket adorned with Tomokawas artwork. Coming with the LP is a two-paged insert printed on high quality glossy paper. It contains liner notes penned down by Alan Cummings and Johan Wellens, notes that shed some clarity on Tomokawas universe, historical background, poetic qualities and the position he takes in within a long line of historical Japanese poets. In order to get a glimpse of the aural regions this album will steer into, this is an as close a comparison one can have using plain words. “There is a raw immediacy to Tomokawas performances that effortlessly hurdles many linguistic barriers, speaking direct to the listeners nerves and emotions…… Tomokawas voice constantly storms against the confines of his own vaguely symbolist words, harshly screaming or melodically moaning, the emotional voltage that courses through his delivery constantly threatening to melt their neural circuitry.” (AC) and “Tomokawa succeeds in triggering apocalyptic waves of emotionalism through the tiniest gestures exhorted from his guttural howls and fevered guitar strummings. Keeping a razor-sharp balance between self-tormenting pained gloominess and soul-searching poetic lyricism he manages to create a tense and innovative acoustic music, sounding simultaneously ancient and contemporaneously authentic. And it is here that his especial strength resides, a music fully drenched in the past, yet so attuned to the present moment. His snarling howl and single syllable guttural moans seem to bridge time and space, epoch and eras; hermetic yowls recalling Enka crooners, circus sideshow barkers, carnival callers, Nikkatsu movie gangsters and soft-hearted balladeers, all embodied in the persona of Tomokawa Kazuki” - From the liner notes. One time only press of 450 copies. |
| Artist: TOMOKAWA, KAZUKI Title: Shibuya Apia Document Format: CD Label: Tomokawa Country: Japan Price: $25.00 |
| "Part of special PSF treatment of artist Kazuki Tomokawa, now reissued in special art editions, strictly limited to 500 copies each. Each will come in a gatefold card jacket, with new specially commissioned illustrations by Tomokawa on the cover and gatefold. All titles have been previously available from PSF in regular jewel box editions. Tomokawas seventh release for PSF consists of live performances recorded in 1993-95 at Shibuya Apia. He plays acoustic guitar and sings throughout, with only minor backing on piano or accordion. The power of musical performance demonstrated here is typically staggering; Tomokawas guitar playing is purely invigorating and intense (as physical as acoustic playing can get), and his voice is a towering outlet; an emotional songform beyond all international limits." |
| Artist: TOMOKAWA, KAZUKI Title: Muzan No Bi [Beauty Without Mercy] Format: CD Label: Tomokawa Country: Japan Price: $25.00 |
| "Six previously released titles by Kazuki Tomokawa have been reissued in special art editions, strictly limited to 500 copies each. Each will come in a gatefold card jacket, with new specially commissioned illustrations by Tomokawa on the cover and gatefold. All titles have been previously available from PSF in regular jewel box editions apart from Chuya Nakahara Poems, which was a bonus disk previously only available as part of the Tomokawa boxset. This is the second Tomokawa CD on PSF, a reissue of a 1985 masterpiece. More of his aggressive and inspired folk." |
| Artist: TOMOKAWA, KAZUKI Title: Live Manda-La Special Format: CD Label: Tomokawa Country: Japan Price: $25.00 |
| "Part of special PSF treatment of artist Kazuki Tomokawa, now reissued in special art editions, strictly limited to 500 copies each. Each will come in a gatefold card jacket, with new specially commissioned illustrations by Tomokawa on the cover and gatefold. All titles have been previously available from PSF in regular jewel box editions. This is the third Tomokawa (Buckley-esque folk legend) release -- a collection of live performances." - Tomokawa. |
| Artist: TOMOKAWA, KAZUKI Title: Works of Chuya Nakahara Format: CD Label: Tomokawa Country: Japan Price: $25.00 |
| "Part of special PSF treatment of artist Kazuki Tomokawa, now reissued in special art editions, strictly limited to 500 copies each. Each will come in a gatefold card jacket, with new specially commissioned illustrations by Tomokawa on the cover and gatefold. All titles have been previously available from PSF in regular jewel box editions. This one was previously only available as part of PSFs now out-of-print Tomokawa box set and features a series of accompaniment to the works of poet Chuya Nakahara (1907-1937)." |