Vajra – Mandala Cat
Fifth album from the heavyweight PSF supergroup of Keiji Haino, Kan Mikami and Toshiaki Ishizuka. Veterans all, the group members have a combined playing career of virtually a century. The group has been in a state of suspended animation for the past four years, but this album will hopefully kick-off a new phase of activity for them. What makes Vajra unique is its bizarre energy dynamic. Entirely improvised, the three players seem to shoot off in utterly opposing directions: Mikami’s rhythm guitar and vocals providing a pulse universal to no one but himself, Ishizuka beating martial time signatures like three military bands on one parade ground, and Haino scuttling around, slicing and dicing beautiful abyssal depths out from beneath everyone else’s feet. Somehow (proof that space is curved?), three individuals arrive at the same place at roughly the same time. Highlights include the third track, which comes as close to their massive live sound as anything the group has yet recorded. And the set’s inevitable eyebrow raising moment? The accappella nursery rhyme version of Mikami’s “Koppu Wa Kowareru Daro” off Live in the First Year of Heisei Volume 2.—Alan Cummings
Label: PSF Catalog Number: PSFD-129 Format: CD Packaging: Jewel case Tracks: 6 Total Time: 39:32 Country: Japan Released: 2002 Related Artists: Fushitsusha, Keiji Haino More: Forced Exposure, Official, Poison Pie, Wikipedia
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