Arcane Candy

eBay alert! This album was originally released as an LP in an impossibly rare, private edition of 100 copies, each of which contains an original acrylic painting and a one-of-a-kind Polaroid photo on the cover. I may or may not be stoked that I don’t own one. But, as a consolation, at least it was reissued on CD! Keiji Haino scores the first of two long tracks, which was recorded live on November 22, 2005 at Koenji Show Boat in Tokyo, Japan. The black clad elf completely fills the room with more of the scalding electronic noise feedback, oscillating theremin-like nightmares, scattered drum samples and layered vocal torture that filled his first two air synth albums that were released back in 2005. Italian duo My Cat Is An Alien grab ahold of the reins on track two, which was recorded live on September 29, 2006, at The Beach in Torino, Italy on a bill conveniently shared with Keiji Haino. They maintain a heavily reverbed atmosphere full of tinkling bells, distant clatter, sparse drumming, wailing banshee vocals and churning feedback for the better part of a half-hour. Good for them…and you!

Labels: Opax Records, A Silent Place Catalog Numbers: OPX LP10, ASP28 Format: LP, CD Packaging: LP: Handpainted covers, CD: Mini-LP gatefold Tracks: 2 Total Time: 44:03 Country: Italy Released: 2007 Related Artists: Fushitsusha More: Forced Exposure, Official, Poison Pie, PSF, Wikipedia

After a wait of several decades, the first-ever collaborative album from longtime Japanese noise-mongers Keiji Haino and KK Null comes kicking and screaming into the world. Contrary to expectation, these two characters offer up exactly zero examples of dueling electric guitar feedback, opting instead to open the album with two tracks of power electronics spackled with Haino’s plaintive vocal screeching. End result: The walls of your ear canals come crashing down. On track three, Haino supplies a staggered drum beat while Null continues spluttering the electronics and screeches like a cat that has been skinned alive then set on fire. On tracks four and five. Null takes over on sloppy drums while Haino brandishes some dry, quirky guitar tussle that gets mangled inside an aluminum tornado. Track six is a long, 22-minute excursion into the wonderful world of garbled power electronics, as both men handle those duties and vocals, plus Haino on drum machine. (Don’t worry, you can’t dance to it.) Track seven closes the whole album in a similar manner, but with the added “pleasure” of Null on drum machine. Basically, we’re talking about a 16-minute free noise fest that sounds like a gigantic peanut butter and jelly sandwich got shoved in a meat grinder stuck on the “Reverb” setting. So, if you’re a die-hard fan of Haino or Null, there’s at least a 50% chance that Mamono will most likely make you moan “Oh!” with delight.

Label: Blossoming Noise Catalog Number: BN018CD Format: CD Packaging: Custom folder Tracks: 7 Total Time: 67:50 Country: United States Released: 2006 Related Artists: Fushitsusha More: Forced Exposure, Official, Poison Pie, PSF, Wikipedia