"Tori Kudo and Reiko Kudo began Maher Shalal Hash Baz in the mid-80s & it has grown since into a multi-continental concern with a changing cast of true members of varying background & experience . as usual , any brief synopsis would be defective & by way of introduction you would be best advised to listen to the many extant recordings on youtube & read the many & comprehensive interviews published over the years . their first full-length record since 2009s Cest La Derniere Chanson , Hello New York was recorded in September 2014 when nearly a dozen members of Maher coalesced in New York for the occasion of a 30th anniversary gig . we holed up here at the sweltering Manual FX basement and worked for the majority of their stay on my deficient rig , joined intermittently by a gaggle of superfans like myself who couldn't pass up the opportunity to throw down a few notes on a Maher record (its unfashionable to wax autobiographical in this context but I will say that Maher was one principal light that brought me into music as a younger youngster & gave me the hope necessary to start this sort of enterprise in a dim world of hollow culture)\r\n \r\nMaher is often represented incorrectly by the Western press , who have typically lampooned its lack of traditional musical dramaturgy as a kind of "naivist" aestheticism & its emphasis on miracular playing as a sign of its instrumentalists deficiency , and refused to see the communal nature of the group & the nonlinear relationship between Toris composition & the groups playing . in fact , what is really unusual about Maher isnt any one specific quality or principle , but the extreme reverence appreciable in the music for what is beyond words and available only in experience , and a concomittant indeterminacy on all levels , always busy in the middle : composition v. improvisation , the page v. the ear , the group v. the writer , style v. content , the beyond v. the worldly , etc... Tori is drawn to spiritual themes , with many lyrics adapted from Bible verse , not as an aesthetic conceit but as one tool for working through this life . actually , the bands Western aestheticization is ironic given the direct critical treatment Toris lyrics give to that sort of process (see "Epignosis" with its "the 60s carries weight with you // you like it better than your wife , son , brothers & sisters") ... but enough of that sort of talk . we all did our best on this revelatory rock record & I will always remember it !" - OSR Tapes.
After nearly a decade of false starts, multiple game plans veering off the rails, and a handful of shattered hopes and/or dreams, the odyssey is finally complete—the new Fusetron site is here.
This is the first phase of a multipart rollout that will span the next few months: the currently browsable stock includes miscellaneous new releases from the past 8+ months (we have a lot of catching up to do), plus approximately a third of our backstock. Note that we’ve reduced/slashed prices on many titles and will continue to do so in order to make room for new stock. We’ll also be expanding / tweaking / improving / debugging the site itself (for example, we still have work to do on the automated international postage system, not to mention the inevitable inventory discrepancies that come with transferring an ancient and massive database to a new system).
Over the next few months, as we take inventory, clean house, and delve into our storage, we will be uploading thousands of additional items, gradually, on a near-daily basis. This will include the majority of the LPs, as well as many titles, in all formats, once thought long-gone. Many currently “sold out” items are likely to resurface.
Finally, once our general backstock is up (probably in the next two or three months) we’ll begin making our extensive stockpile of rarities available online for the first time: tons of random out-of-print titles, "deadstock," warehouse finds, secondhand collectibles, etc., accumulated over the past few decades.
Frequent/returning customers will be getting early access to these items. Details to follow on how this will work (a priority mailing list? a 'frequent flyer'-like program?), but it will not be based on dollars spent. We want to reward those who consistently support us, especially in the discogs marketplace era (to those who show up trying to poach five copies of a one-off rarity, and nothing else, ever… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ).
So—we suggest you take some time to dig through the site—even we’ve been surprised by what’s been turning up, and there’s much more to come.
