SOLD OUT - Gu-N "群" LP

SOLD OUT - Gu-N "群" LP

$25.00 — Sold out

ltd to 385 copies -Silkscreened jacket with obi (tan, orange or black) & inserts, liner notes by Michel Henritzi

Formed in 1994 by Fumio Kosakai (Incapacitants, Hijokaidan, C.C.C.C.) and Hidenobu Kaneda (Yuragi), alongside Ikuro Takahashi (Fushitsusha, Kousokuya, LSD March), Ryuichi Nagakubo (C.C.C.C., Yuragi), and Morihide Sawada (Yura Yura Teikoku, Marble Sheep), Gu-N played regularly at Plan-B in Tokyo, but released little during their relatively short time together. Hazy and hypnotic, their laminar improvisations, four of which appear on this untitled album, are compelling, oneiric visions for the ear.

In his liner notes for the album, Michel Henritzi writes that these Gu-N recordings situate the group within a broader trajectory of free improvisation and collective sound within Japan – Taj Mahal Travellers, East Bionic Symphonia, Marginal Consort, each of whom sprung, in many ways, from the radical vision and creativity of Takehisa Kosugi. But there’s a unique spirit here that aligns Gu-N with these predecessors, while also marking out singular territory.

Kosakai’s background in noise, via his participation in Hijokaidan and Incapacitants, can be heard in the unrelenting oscillations and heavyweight drones that purr throughout each of these four tracks. Both Kosakai and Nagakubo were members of C.C.C.C., perhaps the clearest precursors to Gu-N in their psychedelic density, though Gu-N trade in C.C.C.C.’s volcanic energy for a more tempered, sensuous exploration of tone and time.

There’s also a brutish element to Gu-N’s improvisations – see the saturated spectrum, rumbling and phasing throughout the album, and the crushing, almost Amon Düül-esque drum tattoos that Takahashi pounds out on the second track (recorded in 1998), punctuating the music from deep inside its hallucinatory murk. Elsewhere, as on the third track (one of three recorded in 1994), Kosakai’s cello scrapes out armfuls of buzz-tone as Sawada’s bouzouki trills out, elastic and vibrant, across spindrift electronics and lung-spun winds.

What’s most impressive here, though, is the way each player, formidable musicians in their own right, defers to the might of the communal and the collective. The quintet broke up in 1998, leaving behind scant recorded evidence – just one, self-titled CD, on Pataphysique, released in 1995. This LP is a most welcome addition to the small but blissful body of recorded work made public by this mysterious quintet of spirit channelers.

SOLD OUT - Gu-N "群" LP Image 2 SOLD OUT - Gu-N "群" LP Image 3 SOLD OUT - Gu-N "群" LP Image 4
SOLD OUT - Suishou No Fune 水晶の舟 "The wind is spring-..." LP
$27.00 — Sold out
SOLD OUT - USURABI "Outside Of The World" LP
$25.00 — Sold out
ARCHEUS "Kusōzu : Nine Death Stages" LP
$20.00
HUH "You Don't Need Magic" LP
$20.00
KI "Tearful Face Of My Cute Love (Is Begging To Me)" LP
$20.00
Carnivorous Bells "Room Above All" LP
$18.00
Carnivorous Bells "The Upturned Stone" LP
$18.00
PADKAROSDA "S​ö​t​é​t V​é​gek" LP [OUT NOW]
$13.00
INFERNO PERSONALE "In Ira Veritas" LP
$15.00
HÆVNER "Kaldet Fra Tomrummet" LP
$15.00
UTOPIE "Seconde Figure" MLP
$15.00
CRISPY NEWSPAPER "Судургу Тыллар" LP + "Ой Дуораан" LP
$24.00
CRISPY NEWSPAPER "Ой Дуораан" LP
$14.00
CRISPY NEWSPAPER "Судургу Тыллар" LP
$14.00
Pharaons "Evil World" (Early 90s Malagasy Thrash Metal)
$15.00
You might also like