Vajra – Sravaka
“Breathtaking sounds of mystery that somehow never fail to move on a deeply human level. Experimentation and “progress,” but possessed of a wide knowledge and love of all music and a soul (if that were not too much of a cliché). This fourth album sees Vajra scaling yet higher peaks of collective individuality.”—Alan Cummings
Mikami Kan and Haino Keiji share vocal and guitar duties on this one, starting off with a chaotic whirl of dry guitar stabs plus corroded feedback mansion-crumble from Haino smeared with Mikami’s characteristic vocal flameplay and scattered drum interwork from Ishizuka. The second song displays some pleasantly strumming guitar-bob with hectic duo vocal interchanges that blows up and then comes back to more head-nodding fun. Track three is more of a jaunty, upbeat little ditty that momentarily turns pensive before returning to it’s former self.
Song four is filled with subdued guitar trades plus more intense vocal sharing. Next up is more of a “grunge” rocker than anything else so far. Some spoken vocals from Mikami dominate track six, accompanied by rather quiet guitar and drums. Rounding out the disc is a 43-second bit with additional speaking from Mikami accompanied by some odd background echo percussion and a barely noticeable, momentary guitar napkin from Haino. The cover art this time is just a silver-matted card with some sort of vague, india ink stippled arrowhead.
Label: PSF Catalog Number: PSFD-100 Format: CD Packaging: Jewel case Tracks: 7 Total Time: 34:46 Country: Japan Released: 1998 Related Artists: Fushitsusha, Keiji Haino More: Forced Exposure, Official, Poison Pie, Wikipedia
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