Hijokaidan: Zouroku No Kibyou LP

Zouroku no Kibyo is the first album by Hijokaidan, released in April 1982. It is a compilation of live recordings from 1981, when the extreme performances of Hijokaidan first attracted attention, and is a record of the chaotic inner energy of young people in their early 20s, influenced by rock, jazz, contemporary music, and avant-garde art, erupting outside. It was first released on the independent Osaka label Unbalance Records and came to be regarded as a historical masterpiece of independent recordings in Japan. It was later released on CD several times by "Alchemy Records," and was also released by the major Japanese label Teichiku Entertainment. An analog reissue of the album was released in 2006 by the German label Vinyl-On-Demand in the form of a double LP set. This will be the first time that the album will be reissued in its original form as a single analog disc, this time on Urashima in 2022.

Hijokaidan is a Japanese noise band with a turning lineup that has ranged from two members to as many as fourteen in its early days. The group is the project of guitarist Yoshiyuki ‘’JOJO’’ Hiroshige, its one constant member, who is owner of the legendary Osaka-based Alchemy Records. The ensemble began at the very end of the 70’s as a performance art-based unit whose anarchic shows would often involve destruction of venues and audio equipment, food and garbage being thrown around, and on-stage urination. As the group's lineup changed over time, their focus became less performance-based and more musically based, fine-tuning their sound into a dense wall of white noise created by each member both for live performances and for studio recordings.

Zouroku no Kibyo resting at a fascinating juncture between space-harsh progressive, impro and noise, it was years ahead of its time when it first appeared becoming one of the great holy grails of Japan noise. Creatively thrilling - filled with emotive highs and lows - it’s a crucial piece in the puzzle of Japan’s wild and wonderful history of noise music. A truly stunning, visionary expanse of texture and tonality - pushing noise practice and the very notions of language into uncharted realms, improvising with a ferocity different from that of hard rock or punk, and a chaos unlike that of free jazz.

Superbly pressed with fully remastered for this 40th anniversary vinyl edition by Nobuki Nishiyama, that bring as well as possible on analogue format the stunning original audio master, and released with original iconic cover art with draw by Hideshi Hino, plus all the inserts that were on the original 1982 LP: live photo book (two A3 double face foldable), one Japanese sheet and a lucky triangle card with, exclusively for this edition, extensive liner notes by JOJO in Japanese and English and 40th anniversary adhesive.

It’s hard to call anything to mind quite like these sounds. Truly brilliant and an inevitable revelation for anyone yet to encounter this body of work, Zouroku no Kibyo is easily one of the most mind-blowing archival releases of the year. Available in an edition of just 299 copies, this one isn’t going to sit around for long.