Airway / Hijokaidan
(Harbinger Sound - HAS099) split LP $15.00
Released to coincide with the LAFMS retrospective in London. Legendary free jazz percussionist Sabu Toyozumi joins Jojo Hiroshige on guitar, Junko on vocals and Toshiji Mikawa and Fumio Kosakai on electronics on this live recording from late 2009. The maddest of LAFMS mad dogs feature Joe Potts, Rick Potts, Tom Recchion, Dennis Duck, John Duncan, Fredrik Nilsen, Vetza, Linda Pitmon and Aaron Moore on this live recording from 2009.
Jojo and Junko
(Alchemy - ARCD117) Used CD $15.00 (Out-of-stock)
The second volume in the Hijokaidan rarity series. Two track from No Paris / No Harm (Alchemy 1988), plus a live recording from The No Music Festival in Canada 1998. Sealed.
King Of Noise T-Shirt
([ no label ]) Size M $30.00
Pop Collection. Materials not specified. Black with white ink. Sealed in original plastic bag. From mid 1990s
Konomama Shinde Shimaitai
(Alchemy - ARCD124) Used CD $15.00 (Out-of-stock)
Hijokaidan mastermind’s 2000 album that goes from harsh outbursts of guitar feedback accompanied by painful vocals to cold, hushed vocals over eerie synth drones, to drum / noise freakouts scarier than anything on a black metal record, to the pulsing krautrock-inspired. Guests include drummer Takeshi Ishida and Naoko Otani on keyboards and drums.
Noise From Trading Cards
(Alchemy) Used CD $25.00 (Out-of-stock)
Three tracks of drawn-out ache from 1997 that linger somewhere between pain and an unyielding disturbance of comfort. With Merzbow’s Masami Akita playing drums on one track, Junko screaming on two, Kosakai adding electronics to one and Mikawa adding same to all three tracks, Hijokaidan resolves fits of chaos into manageable textures and sounds, never moving too far away from pure intensity. Sealed
Polar Nights Live
(Pica Disk - PICA005) CD $14.50 (Out-of-stock)
The shredding guitar of bandleader Jojo Hiroshige along with the high-pitched, piercing voice of Junko instantly identify Hijokaidan. A rare appearance outside Japan at the All Ears Festival in Oslo, Norway in 2006, Polar Nights Live documents these historical (they very rarely perform anywhere as a duo) and astonishing performances. Jojo also collaborates here with guitarist Per Gisle Galåen (DEL, The Birds), unleashing thick layers of psychedelic and distorted guitar fog, which fans of Fushitsusha and Les Rallizes Denudes will appreciate. Junko also hooked up with Sten Ove Toft (Ryfylke) for a hellish meltdown of twisted electronics and the most intense voice in music.
Romance
(Alchemy) Used CD $20.00 (Out-of-stock)
A single harsh-mad track, seventy-seven minutes from 1990. Loud, freeform, relentless.
The Lowest Form Of Music
(Helicopter) split 2xCD $16.00
Los Angeles Free Music Society titans and Japanese icons energetically tear through boundary-pushing movement, raucously combining free improv experiments and sonic daggers with feral roar and pounding percussion. Disc one features the legendary live performances by each group recorded at The Lowest Form of Music weekend in London, 2010. Disc two reissues the split record originally released on Harbinger Sound to celebrate the festival, featuring performances from 2009 by Airway in New York and Hijokaidan in Tokyo. Mastered by John Wiese, packaged in a six-panel digipak with liner notes by Takuya Sakaguchi in Japanese and English.
Unlimited Edition
(Alchemy - ARCD120) Used CD $20.00 (Out-of-stock)
The third volume in the Hijokaidan rarity series reissues Limited Edition (Alchemy 1987), the first with the Jojo / Junko / Mikawa. Incudes a bonus track fro No Paris / No Harm (Alchemy 1998). Sealed.
Zouroku no Kibyou
(Vinyl on Demand) Used 2xLP $50.00
(Alchemy) Used CD $25.00 (Out-of-stock)
Twentieth anniversary edition (remixed, re-mastered and reissued in 2002) of Hijokaidan’s first album (Unbalance 1982), recorded live during their heyday of highly confrontational, somewhat unnerving performances. “Their music,” notes Female Trouble, “has little driving rhythm [and] is extremely disconnected…. It was said that Hijokaidan originally set out to sound like Hawkwind performing at an airplane landing, which is really not too far off…. Although this [abrasively spacey and psychedelic] record may not be as noisy as their future releases, it certainly captures a sort of essence of raw violence….”
2xLP includes live bonus tracks from 1988 and 1994