Há-Zá-Má
Under The Radioactive Fallout
Sloow Tapes – CS 54
Japanese Deadheads who have been tripping since the late eighties. Back in the day Michio Kurihara used to jam with these guys, but in recent years the band has been orbiting around the mellow guitarsolos of Yukotopia's Roku. Outraged by the Fukushima accident in march this year, this tape is a collection of protest songs against nuclear energy. 100 copies.
It’s no secret that around these parts we rate Sloow Tapes as perhaps the premier underground cassette label and you gotta hand it to them, their recent form has been completely off the chain. This latest release from Japanese underground psych legends Ha-Za-Ma represents another amazing turn-up, a new studio set from these Deadheads who at one time boasted Michio Kurihara (White Heaven/Ghost et al) as lead guitarist. It’s easy to imagine Kurihara’s endless, rippling style coasting over these amazing jams but current guitarist Roku Yukotopia ain’t no slouch and he peels off beautiful, clean post-Garcia ecstasies with alla the force and feeling of your favourite west coast pilot. The songs are simply gorgeous, with that perfect lost-in-translation feel of Rob Jo Star Band or even Brush and a vocalist who sings with such feeling – mostly raging against nuclear power in the fallout from the Japanese earthquake – that it’s enough to make you crease and comes over as wide-eyed as anything on Ainigma’s equally stupe Diluvium LP. This is quite simply a classic and timeless Japanese psych release and one that would sit equally well alongside first generation bombs by Flower Travellin’ Band, Rallizes et al as it would with the whole Tokyo Flashback scene. Somebody has to re-do this in a swank vinyl edition but in the meantime, here’s the original pressing in a run of only 100 copies. Can’t stop spinning this. Highly recommended! (Volcanic Tongue)
