Keiji Haino

A unique and hugely influential figure in the underground scene; in many respects it’s his intense gravitational pull around which the Japanese psychedelic rock scene orbits. Although some in the West may have noticed when he first broke cover in 1971 with the legendary noise-rock unit Lost Aaraaff, real notoriety came with his power trio Fushitsusha (“the greatest power trio in the world” claimed the Melody Maker in the late 90s). Over the last forty odd years, Haino has honed a direct and sprawling catalogue of intensely realized conceptions – often as beautiful as they are jarring – stretching far beyond the rock cannon, and encompassing great dynamic range, numbing power and devastating emotional depth.

My Cat is an Alien

Since MCIAA’s inception in the late 90s, the Italian brothers Maurizio and Roberto Opalio have self-released a clutch of records that have slowly garnered international acclaim. Utilising an array of guitars, various toy-instruments and toy-microphones, MCIAA’s untutored, instinctive sound is one of deeply radiating cosmic drones and shimmering organs; reverb drenched guitar chords unfurled into eternal sheets of vibration that are both beatific and at times charged and brooding.

Jandek

Jandek’s is a melancholic, ghostly and desolate moan of a voice, as haunted as any of the great blues singers, bent to a sometimes iron, sometimes faltering will; enunciating far-sighted yet personal visions of universal existential truths. The songs are full of allegorical fictions and metaphoric dramas, degenerate and oblique blues imagery, hallucinatory theology and corrupted childhood memories.

The audio and video recordings of this solo piano performance, called The Cell, were released as Glasgow Monday (Corwood 0785) and lists the tracks

The Cell

Prelude – 5:12

Part One – 10:26

Part Two – 8:25

Part Three – 11:04

Part Four – 9:15

Part Five – 7:40

Part Six – 6:21

Part Seven – 7:51

Part Eight – 6:29

Part Nine – 12:10

Taurpis Tula

Duo of Heather Leigh Murray with David Keenan. “Heather Leigh furthers the vast unexplored reaches of pedal steel guitar. Her playing is as physical as it is phantom, combining spontaneous compositions with a feel for the full interaction of flesh with hallucinatory power sources. With a rare combination of sensitivity and strength, Leigh’s steel mainlines sanctified slide guitar and deforms it using hypnotic tone-implosions, juggling walls of bleeding amp tone with choral vocal constructs and wrenching single note ascensions.”