Compilations

"Squeeze yr. eyes hard 'till you feel t'spikes in the back of your throat"

Two things are at the core - CONSCIOUSNESS AND FREEDOM. Without these you aren't going anywhere, stuck and stagnating in a two-dimensional world. Luckily the CD you now hold in your hands can show you another world, through the Looking Glass, into Dreamland. So before you read anymore of this, put it on and listen all the way through. Because if you don't, what is going to follow isn't going to make a lot of sense. Dig?

In certain ways, the Tokyo of today is a nineties version of Interzone. An intersection of dreams and realities, of hopes and possibilities. A flowing together of the multitudinous varieties of the world's cultures, all mutating into some previouly unknown hybrid. A crash/flash point between the dark centuries of Japanese isolation and self-obsession, and the new lights of cultural infinity.

Music is ridiculously easy to obtain in the 'Zone. From free jazz to bluegrass, reggae to hard-core noise, avant-garde classical to samba. You name a 'genre' and there is some enthusiast here specially importing it and selling it to eager fans. You wanna go and here anything from ancient noh music to Ice Cube, Derek Bailey, the latest indie wank out of anywhere? It's possible on almost any given night. Imagine the same easy availability expanding into every possible sphere: films, food, theatre, clothes. You want anything from anywhere and this city can immediately gratify that desire - at a price of course. Information and access have become commodities, the first true realization of the cyberpunkers' NET.

However, none of this is apparent to the outside world. It is as if Japan is surrounded by a giant sheet of one-way glass. From the inside the world outside is clearly visible, but nothing from the inside ever gets out. Just distorted reflections, glimpses and echoes of things that might be. Maybe you think you know about Japanese music. "Yeah, Japan? The Kodo Drummers. Yellow Magic Orchestra. Shone Knife." Think again, my friend. There's music out here which doesn't fit neatly into any of your preconceived notions about how it should be. Not heavily nature-bound tradition, not faceless hi-tech cyberisms, and most definitely not grammatically-suspect kitsch. Those are just some of the masks that this country makes a habit of showing to the world. Where the real revolution is going on is in the Underground. People are CONSCIOUSLY breaking down the barriers that have traditionally existed between musical forms here, then combining the results with the full spectrum of global music. New musical worlds of FREEDOM are being created almost daily out here in the City on the Edge of the World.

How does this CD sound? Slightly bewildering? As comfortable as a flask of hot sake from a shack under the tracks on a cold night in Shinjuku? You tell me, bud. 'Coz that's the way it's gotta be - personal reaction. There are no guidelines for playing it. Sure, you can peg some of the sources, but the music itself is always going to be a couple of steps beyond, behind, to the side, in space and time. That's the way it's gotta be, because the original sources have been put through a blender, reshaped and refined with the consummate Japanese talent for creation through assimilation. Ideas collide and merge. Like music heard through a half-open window, certain aspects are distorted, the lyrics are hard to make out. So the WORD is ... don't try and reference it to anything, just dig it the way it is. There are people out here Knock-Knock knocking on the doors, kicking down the barriers (or occasionally just levitating over them), and generally being on the FREEDOM trip. The only one to be on. That's all you really need to know. Listen. Step through the gateway. And squeeze yr. eyes hard 'till...

Alan Cummings, August 1993, Tokyo

Overhang Party - coming back for perhaps their best showing yet, heavily overblown distortion grunge-fiesta, guitars fly off into oblivion etc

White Heaven - Ishihara You and like-minded friends make their third straight showing in the series. Continuing on from their recent "Strange Bedfellow" release, this is darkly laidback and cool. Dig the cockail piano.

Fushitsusha - Haino's Blue Cheer-influenced rock unit has long ago surpassed anything anyone can say about them. The entire universe expresses itself through previously non-existant, truly human forms of mystery, beauty, and power.

Cobalt - Primitive and insistent guitar/vocal duo who formed back in 1991 make their recorded debut. Fukita's "vocalising" is totally fucked up and quite excellent indeed.

Kumo to Hae (Spider and Fly) - ah, the joys of loud guitars. Straight, simple and heavy, just the way it should be. Previously unrecorded Tokyo youngsters slip down into a murky groove and prove that the garage ethic is alive and "kicking" in Tokyo.

Sweet and Honey - first time appearance on the series for these hard-gigging Tokyo scenesters. heavy bottom, guitars wah-wahed off somewhere near Jupiter, sweat-rock. You know the scene.

Ghost - for their third materialization on Tokyo Flashback, the cosmic voyagers refine their trademark sound of formless elementalism. The mysterious beauty of nature in chaos and repose.

Daiichi-Hakkensha - the name means First Discoverer. An out-there four piece making their first showing on the series, following their recent debut CD release. Some pretty great philosophizing and an almost enka-like atmosphere.

Uchu Engine - the fourth new name on the compilation this time round. Light and structured Tokyo psych band save themselves with a monstrously babbling guitar solo.

Maher Shalal Hash Baz - return of one of Japan's strangest and most enigmatic bands for their second appearance. Unique and fragile-complex sound. Call Maher inept and you miss the point entirely.

Shizuka - floating sensuality redefined by the gorgeous vocals of Miura Shizuka along with the drummer and guitarist from Fushitsusha. Spacious, alone and a definite scent of sex - the world needs an album pretty soon.