KOUSOKUYA - 1st

Reissue of one of the absolute, no-doubt-about-it, stone classics of the Tokyo underground, with one bonus unreleased track. The first album by Kosokuya was originally released on the groups own Ray Night imprint in 1991. The original edition was of just 200, with very few copies making it out of Japan and as a result has long fetched huge sums amongst collectors. Kosokuyas unique brand of space-rock has been a fixture on the Tokyo underground rock scene since 1978, and both Narita and Nanjo (who would go on to form High Rise) were one-time members. By the time this album was recorded, though, the group had stabilized into the classic trio line-up of Kaneko, Mikk, and Takahashi -- the same line-up that appeared on the tracks on Tokyo Flashback, and on the Forced Exposure album. The infinite, echoing spaces contained in this music still sound unbelievably great. Kosokuya specialized in loud, very extended pieces with the capacity to utterly destroy your sense of time. Takahashis heavy drumming and Mikks bass lay down a defiantly non-linear foundation, layering just-out-of-time accents that perfectly fracture the cold darkness that envelops the group. Kaneko, armed with nothing more than a single Marshall amp and a beat-up old fuzz pedal, twists and weaves immense feedback fields and eloquent clusters of single notes in and around Mikks anguished voice. This is a heavy, heavy record, fully on a par with the early Fushitsusha classics or the second High Rise album. - Alan Cummings. Kaneko R.I.P. Highly recommended!!