Fushitsusha – I Saw It! That Which Before I Could Only Sense
At this point, what is left to say? With almost every release, Fushitsusha further refine and perfect their absolutely one-of-a-kind music. Seemingly incapable of making a stale move, this new set finds the band just totally peaking—it’s got to be their best effort since the glory days of PSF. I Saw It! is yet another 2-CD offering from merely the heaviest band of all time, packed in a double jewel case from the British label Paratactile. A three-panel booklet contains the usual front cover design, three photos of Haino close-up at the mic, plus more lengthy track titles on the rear.
A short intro called “A Reflecting, Reflecting Echo, My Soul Could Perhaps Become” throws out the welcome mat: totally unique, dry guitar tangle with massive reverb and buried vocals. “I Sink Down in Search of Your Breath’s Abode” and “Don’t Be Afraid. Even if Your Nerves Snap, You Can Tie Them to A Fragment Of The Universe” are both likewise surprisingly short–by Fushitsusha standards–and are just so thick with totally non-lame, abstract, electric beauty.
“Staring at a Point in Time, Memorizing. Vowing Never to Return” is a floating array of airy strum beauty and another messy mesmerizer that lopes along so nicely in an almost minstrelsy way. The centerpiece is the title track, which takes up the final half-hour of disc one. It’s full of distant, cavernous quaking and Haino himself seeping over the event horizon into the black abyss, twisting unbelievable dream weave guitar wail through chaotic asteroid belts of non-generic, well-fedback sound-shawls. This is one of those spontaneously- and perfectly-constructed realms of supreme spirit-density that only Fushitsusha is capable of.
The title track shifts gears a bit as it continues onto disc two for some slightly less-filling, overboard graveyard screech. Fascinating, dry-slash-distorted strum interchanges appear later, a spell before the maelstrom simmers down for some destroyed psych lines around the 40-minute mark. The track finally draws to a close at 54 minutes after another brave dive into full storm thickness. Total elapsed time: 84 minutes, making this the longest Fushitsusha track ever by nine minutes—and probably one of the longest pieces of music on CD anywhere–except, you know, La Monte Young’s The Well-Tuned Piano.
A way quiet, muted array of bass, drums and voice called “Hasn’t Something Like This Happened Before?” appropriately closes the set. It’s been totally thrilling watching the Fushitsusha saga unfold this past decade and I feel really lucky to be a small part of it. Here’s looking forward to the future…
Label: Paratactile Catalog Number: PLE1106/07-2 Format: 2-CD Packaging: Double jewel case Tracks: Disc 1: 5, Disc 2: 2 Total Time: Disc 1: 61:34, Disc 2: 58:25 Country: England Released: 2000 Related Artists: Keiji Haino More: Forced Exposure, Official, Poison Pie, PSF, Wikipedia
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