Another necessary volume in this on-going series documenting current activity on Tokyo’s psychedelic underground and a long-time personal favourite, the line-up and track choice here is unbeatable, with exclusives from Overhang Party, White Heaven, Fushitsusha (a fabulously unrelenting noise guitar blow-out), Cobalt, Kumo To Hae, Sweet & Honey, Ghost, Daiichi-Kakkensha, Uchu Engine, Maher Shalal Hash Baz and Shizuka, the latter of whom raise the roof with guitarist Maki Miura roaring his way through heavens of feedback and blues. Love that fake ringwear on the cover too, a real touch of class. Highest recommendation.

Brand-new self-released Japan-only album from Reiko Kudo of Noise/Maher Shalal Hash Baz et al: Reiko's compositions skirt the very edges of silence and form, with breathless vocals hovering around barely-there blues and spectral hymns and his might be her most heartbreaking set of songs to date, with an atmosphere that somehow reminds me of the sense of dislocation and loss at the heart of John Cale’s Paris 1919. The arrangements are minimal but spectacularly inventive, from seasick sawing strings that move in giddy contrary rhythms to minimal scattershot nod-out drums, picked acoustic guitar, glistening single-note piano... this is the perfect marriage of fragile, heart on your sleeve acid folk and advanced idiot-avant aesthetics. Reiko’s vocals move between Japanese and English and her phrasing is perfectly pitched, with a purity of delivery combined with a weight of experience that is uniquely devastating. A profoundly beautiful and inventive record, and one of the highlights of her amazing back catalogue. Still nothing remotely like her and the perfect follow-up to her previous collaboration with Keiji Haino. Comes in beautiful fold-out colour printed art sleeves. Very highly recommended!