Musica Transonic ‎– Musica Transonic

“In 1986, Tokyo’s PSF Records released the second album by High Rise, simply titled II, and it immediately became one of those legendary albums that hipsters worldwide whispered about, because hardly anyone had it to listen to . . . High Rise wasn’t nearly enough to occupy the busiest guy in Tokyo’s underground, though, and by the mid-90s Nanjo had enough bands going that nobody could really keep track anymore. PSF’s legendary high-quality standards recognized a couple of them, however, with releases in 1995, including the enigmatic Musica Transonic. This was an unhinged band that on first hearing seemed to check many of the same boxes as High Rise, including the trademark redlined sonics. But those who cranked it up and really listened realized it was actually a very different beast, a sort of musical manticore assembled from a variety of monstrous parts . . . Guitarist Makoto Kawabata would achieve renown the following year as the leader of Acid Mothers Temple, also appearing as the guitarist in Mainliner, another High Rise-adjacent project with Nanjo. While by 1995 he and Nanjo had been playing together in other projects for several years, on this album Kawabata brought a chaotic, free-flowing guitar aptitude that painted a stranger spectrum than the laser-focused rock of High Rise. In concert with the brilliant drummer Tatsuya Yoshida — well-known in the scene from his long-running duo Ruins — the results are entirely unpredictable, and joyously so. After focusing for some time on repetition, Nanjo struck off down a new road with Musica Transonic. The better-known High Rise is a straight-ahead blast, minimalist in its approach as they drive right at your gut. With Musica Transonic, the combination of Yoshida’s complex rhythms and Kawabata’s ability to find unexpected angles for his guitar attack recalibrated the rock trio, with magnificent results that retain their ability to shock even now, 25 years later…” –Mason Jones, San Francisco, CA, 2020

Label: Black Editions – BE-010/61/LA1

Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Limited Edition, Reissue

Country: US

Released: 2020

VG+/VG+