Author Archives: Joseph Neff

On March 14, Craft Recordings serves up a double dose of prime 1960s rediscovery blues with Lonnie Johnson’s Blues & Ballads, originally released in 1960, and Mississippi John Hurt’s Today!, which first hit record store racks in 1966. The albums offer a study in contrasts, with Hurt exemplifying the country blues style and Johnson specializing in a citified sound. Both albums are pressed onto 180 gram vinyl and are available as a bundle or separately.

As the title Blues & Ballads makes clear, Lonnie Johnson wasn’t strictly a bluesman, though when it came to the blues, he had considerable range and polish. It’s fair to say that when he played the countrified stuff, he did so like a city slicker. It’s notable that when historical jazz surveys devote space to the blues, Johnson name is often included. Johnson toured with Bessie Smith and recorded with Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five and Duke Ellington. He’s also noted as an innovator of the guitar solo.

Blues & Ballads was cut for the Bluesville label, the name of which Craft Recordings has repurposed for their current blues reissue line, a program that pulls from assorted catalogs, including Vanguard, the enterprise responsible for Hurt’s Today! The original Bluesville was a subsidiary of Bob Weinstock’s Prestige label, an association that surely strengthens the jazz connection, though the Bluesville roster spanned from Victoria Spivey and Memphis Slim to Lightnin’ Hopkins and Robert Pete Williams.

For Blues & Ballads, Johnson’s accompanists are guitarist Elmer Snowden, a major early jazz figure, and double bassist Wendell Marshall, who played on dozens of jazz albums including works by Ellington, Jimmy Guiffre, and Grant Green. Marshall understood the assignment here, giving the 10-song set a solid foundation, and Snowden is in strong form, his interaction with Johnson elevating the record considerably; he also brought two songs to the session, “Blues for Chris” (a co-write with producer Chris Albertson) and “Elmer’s Blues.”

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Remembering Dexter Gordon, born on this date in 1923. —Ed.

On May 23 of 1963 a trio of bebop originals joined up with a worthy European compatriot and visited CBS Studios in Paris. The comeback of tenor giant Dexter Gordon was well underway, but the Continent was a relatively recent change of scene. Pianist Bud Powell and drummer Kenny “Klook” Clarke had been living in France for quite some time however, and bassist Pierre Michelot was born there. Together this quartet agreed upon five standards and executed them with utter brilliance. Blue Note titled it Our Man in Paris, and years later it remains a classic.

They ate voraciously as Dean, sandwich in hand, stood bowed and jumping before the big phonograph, listening to a wild bop record I had just bought called “The Hunt,” with Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray blowing their tops before a screaming audience that gave the record fantastic frenzied volume. —Jack Kerouac, On the Road

Much deserved praise gets heaped on Dexter Gordon for his comeback(s), but it can be occasionally overlooked that even if he never came back at all, he’d be a hugely important figure anyway. To begin, he’s the most distinctive tenor saxophonist to emerge from the ‘40s bop scene, extending the influence of Lester Young and quickly adapting the innovations of Charlie Parker, recording with Bird and Dizzy Gillespie and as a leader for Savoy before heading back to California and cutting those tenor battle 78s for Dial, the very sides that impacted Kerouac and Neal Cassady (i.e. Dean Moriarty) so massively.

It was heroin that nearly ended Gordon’s career for good; the ‘50s were a lost decade, though he did cut two records in ’55, Daddy Plays the Horn for Bethlehem in September and Daddy Blows Hot and Cool for Dootone two months later. After kicking the habit, he commenced his return with The Resurgence of Dexter Gordon, a minor session (some would call it a false start) for the Jazzland label.

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The latest On-U Sound box set is the second one dedicated to the work of Dub Syndicate. Out Here on the Perimeter (1989–1996) collects four albums from the long-running project helmed by Lincoln Valentine “Style” Scott and Adrian Sherwood, Strike the Balance, Stoned Immaculate, Echomania, Ital Breakfast, and adds Obscured by Version, a set of new versions by Sherwood based on rhythms from the era. It’s out February 28 as a 5CD set, with all the albums available to purchase separately on vinyl.

Released in 1989 as the group was transitioning into a touring entity, Strike the Balance maintained the high standard of Dub Syndicate’s prior output, with Sherwood and Scott extending a welcome to On-U Sound regular Bim Sherman for guest vocals on the opening cover of Lloyd & Devon’s “Cuss Cuss” and a version of Lloyd Parks’ “Mafia.” Both are quite strong (particularly “Mafia” with its smeary vocoder action), as is the sweet take of Serge Gainsbourg’s “Je T’aime” with vocals by Massive Attack’s Shara Nelson and a load of synthetic strings via keyboard setting.

Befitting an On-U Sound product, there’s plenty of appealingly weird bits occurring across Strike the Balance’s runtime. The “borrowed” vocals in “Shout It Out” are especially effective, for one example. But the tropical aura of “Hawaii” is quite relaxing, and the lothario vocal dunked in cough syrup in closer “I’m the Man for You Baby” is quite funny (and weird).

Cited as Dub Syndicate’s best-known album (for a reason that should be obvious), Stoned Immaculate hit stores in 1991 with a recurring Jim Morrison sample in the title track and a general musical thrust that’s a bit more synthetic than infused with roots reggae thickness. One could describe the record as tapping the ’90s sensibility, and with a track titled “Fight the Power” and the hard rock guitar wailing in “Well Tuned Now” it’s difficult to argue with that sentiment.

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Saxophonist-composer-improvisor Tim Berne has been on the scene since the late 1970s. Here it is, a quarter of the way into century 21, and he’s still at it. Berne’s latest, featuring him in a trio lineup with guitarist Gregg Belisle-Chi and drummer Tom Rainey, is the LP Yikes (limited to 500 copies) and its 2CD expansion Yikes Too, both out now, co-released by Berne’s long-running label Screwgun and Out of Your Head Records. The 2CD offers the full studio set on disc one and a live set from March 2024 at Seattle’s Royal Room on disc two. Purchase of the six-song LP gets the buyer a download of everything on the 2CD.

Tim Berne emerged as a recording musician in a period when avant-garde jazz had been essentially abandoned by the major record companies. His first album, The Five Year Plan, came out in 1979 on his own label, not Screwgun, but Empire. A few more self-released LPs followed before he was picked up by Soul Note, a vastly important enterprise (alongside Black Saint) in the period prior to the major label’s rekindled interest in the avant-garde. And when the big companies came looking, it was Columbia that grabbed Berne for a pair of records, Fulton Street Maul in 1987 and Sanctified Dreams the next year.

As is the jazz norm, Berne has recorded a whole lot, and he’s also cut a bunch of sessions with guitarists. There’s Bill Frisell, Nels Cline, Ryan Ferreira, Samo Šalamon, David Torn, most prominently Marc Ducret, and most recently Gregg Belisle-Chi. This trio with Belisle-Chi and Tom Rainey deepens Berne’s long association with the drummer as their prior output includes another trio, Big Satan, with guitarist Ducret.

Except for the track “Julius Hemphill” (by saxophonist Hemphill, a jazz great crucial to Berne’s development as a musician), all the compositions here are Berne’s, a reality that solidifies him as Yikes Too’s leader, though as the record’s cover makes plain, the leadership designation is nominal. Given Berne’s preference for naming working bands (a sample: Big Satan, Bloodcount, Broken Shadows, Caos Totale, Hard Cell, Miniature, Paraphrase, Science Friction, Snakeoil), his comfort with ensemble collectivity is clear and reinforces his extension of Fusion methods into contemporary avant jazz.

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Celebrating Doug Yule on his 78th birthday. —Ed.

Contrary to what’s sometimes published, the studio legacy of The Velvet Underground didn’t end with 1970’s Loaded. No, it culminated with what many consider to be an abomination, an offense in the annals of one of the greatest bands to ever transcend and redefine rock’s limitations. The record is 1973’s Squeeze, and despite music that’s inescapably lackluster there is a case to be made for bringing the album out of the shameful shadows that persist in shrouding its existence.

For many VU fans, Squeeze exists on the same plane as that uncle who’s been sent up the river for crimes that nobody in the family feels comfortable discussing. Other Velvets fanatics LLLOOOVVVE to talk about this understandably scarce LP, mostly because it helps to flesh out theories over what made the band so exceptional, speculations that often vary greatly from person to person. Because if The Velvet Underground are the ornery granddaddy of an often sorta suspect category known as “cult bands,” unlike many of the groups awarded with this stature there is no consensus on what is VU’s best LP, or for that matter what is even their finest era.

And this seems to have been a gradually evolving process. Around 1987, when I first began listening to the Velvets in earnest, the older heads with whom I spoke (almost always inside the welcoming walls of record stores), seeking guidance on this somewhat daunting entity, were essentially divided between which of the band’s first two records, The Velvet Underground and Nico and White Light/White Heat, was best. This is to say that while surely considered valuable, the post-John Cale material was definitely esteemed as lesser.

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Measuring seven inches from side to side and top to bottom, the vinyl single is quite the prudent item to display on the merch table whilst out on tour. If the songs are up to snuff, the situation grows from sensible to splendid. And when two bands on the road together elect to share the sides of a tour single? Well, that’s an even happier circumstance, and is exactly what’s transpired with Damaged Goods’ pairing of Leeds, UK-based Cyanide Pills and Bern, Switzerland’s Nasty Rumours. In celebration of their “Two Wrongs” Euro tour, it features four short sharp bursts of catchy punk rock und roll, two per band per side, with only 400 copies pressed, 200 on pink wax and 200 on yellow (and no digital), out February 28.

Cyanide Pills are nothing if not prolific, and nearly all of the band’s stuff has been released by Damaged Goods, starting back in 2009 with a pair of singles that teased a self-titled debut from the following year. Four more albums, one of them live, have hit the bins since, plus a slew of singles along the way, with a prime stylistic reference point being the Buzzcocks. Given Damaged Goods’ honcho Ian Damage’s love of punk rock classique, it’s no surprise Cyanide Pills found a spot on the label’s roster.

The danger that specialists in melodic punk face is going overboard with the catchiness so that the songs stop being fun and teeter over into obnoxiousness. This is thankfully rarely a problem with Cyanide Pills’ raw and snotty early stuff, which is represented on this new single with “Falling for You,” an unused track recorded for their debut album.

“Falling for You” is loaded with energy and neither too tight (which often results in streamlining) nor too sloppy, instead hitting the sweet spot of spontaneity, so that the harmonies in the chorus accent and complement the raucous velocity rather than overwhelm it. The other Cyanide Pills track “I Don’t Wanna Dance,” was cut during the same period that produced their latest album Soundtrack to the New Cold War; it intensifies the harmonies and guitar strum for a result that’s decidedly ’60s aligned, and we’re talking early Byrds, Bobby Fuller and Beau Brummels over the standard Nuggets moves.

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Remembering Kurt Cobain, born on this day in 1967. —Ed.

In 1991 a Pacific-Northwest three-piece changed the direction of the record industry, securing a spot in music history as the spearhead of Grunge. In 2002 a self-titled album attempted to sum up their essence; rather than electing to represent the trio’s actual range, Nirvana is dominated by chart entries, a handful of non-surprises, and a (then) previously unreleased track. 

To obtain a full grasp of how well Nirvana succeeds in offering a tidy retrospective of an important, oft volatile, and enduringly polarizing act required getting reacquainted with their discography from ’88 to ’94. With time spent the verdict is in: first hitting racks roughly 8½ years after Kurt Cobain’s suicide and a little over a decade removed from the band’s unexpected runaway success, Nirvana ultimately falls short of top-tier.

This assessment comes not by any fault of the group but through unimaginative assemblage and a problematic title. Leaving the occasional sarcastic usage aside, the words Greatest Hits summarize an objective truth, and the use of Best Of, while potentially arguable, is a nomenclature making its intentions plain. The eponymous treatment employed here is merely ambiguous.

If the purpose behind Nirvana was to encapsulate its subject’s breadth and heights on one record the results don’t meet the goal. Far too safe to accurately embody the Best, it essentially flirts with Greatest Hits; perhaps the term was just considered tacky when applied to retail achievements stemming partially from a perceived lack of calculation and even borderline disinterest.

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The February additions to Elemental Music’s ongoing Motown Sound Collection series focus on less celebrated albums by three of the label’s foundational and persevering groups. They are Let the Sunshine In by Diana Ross & the Supremes, Puzzle People by The Temptations, and Changing Times by the Four Tops, all pressed into 140 gram vinyl. While the three records can all be considered transitional in nature, the LPs maintain a level of quality that reflects Motown’s standards during this era, and with individual highpoints that are detailed below.

Released in 1969, Let the Sunshine In is listed as the 16th full-length studio album by the Supremes, and the fourth with the top billing of Diana Ross firmly established. That it is a highly listenable effort, and occasionally more than that, overcomes the law of averages in relation to musical longevity by a significant margin.

Even more impressive is how they continued to overcome the exit of the Holland-Dozier Holland songwriting team. Reflections, released a year and a few months prior, was the last Supremes album to benefit from the compositions of Holland-Dozier-Holland, and a big part of the strategy in filling the void was a focus on interpretations of current hits, returning to the work of the 5th Dimension (“Up, Up, and Away” was covered on Reflections) as referenced by the title track.

On side one sits consecutive versions of Sly Stone’s “Everyday People,” Jerry Butler’s “Hey, Western Union Man,” and staying in house, Jimmy Ruffin’s “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted,” all three tracks very appealing as they lean into lively R&B. “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” succeeds in its ambitions, but it’s not really an album standout. The opening take of Smoky Robinson’s “The Composer” is, however. But there are no missteps on Let the Sunshine In, which benefits from the general lack of Copacabana-style lushness.

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With New Dawn, centenarian Marshall Allen hit the Guinness Book, becoming the oldest person to release a debut album and also the oldest person to release an album of new material. Most importantly, these fresh works by the longtime member and current director of the Sun Ra Arkestra cohere into a delightful listen, delving into a variety of styles with the assurance and flair that can only come from a wealth of experience. Allen is in top form, the band is deep, there is a string section, and Neneh Cherry guests on the title track. The record is out now on vinyl, compact disc, and digital through Week-End Records of Cologne, Germany, with Stateside distribution by Mexican Summer.

If it seems odd that Marshall Allen has just gotten around to releasing his debut as a leader in 2025, do keep in mind that two other high-profile Sun Ra Arkestra saxophonists, John Gilmore and Pat Patrick, only managed one LP each as a leader across lengthy careers, Gilmore sharing top billing with saxophonist Clifford Jordan on Blowing in from Chicago in 1957 through Blue Note, and Patrick seeing Sound Advice released in 1977 via Sun Ra’s Saturn label.

Allen has a bunch of recordings in his discography as co-leader including two from his quartet released in 1998 on the CIMP label that are considered collaborations with saxophonist Mark Whitecage. New Dawn is the first release solely credited to Allen, and it’s an achievement of striking ambition. A prologue featuring Allen on the Japanese koto sets the stage for “African Sunset,” a gorgeous ballad with Arkestra associate Knoel Scott on baritone sax.

Allen plays the EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument) for “African Sunset,” a distinctive element in an instrumental scheme that’s largeness of scale includes the aforementioned string section and Bruce Edwards’ clean toned guitar, as a highly accessible whole is established. And then the strings turn lush on the title track, a second balladic entry with bold sweep and impeccable execution in terms of atmosphere as Cherry contributes a superb vocal.

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Based in Athens, GA with connections to the Elephant 6 scene, The Rishis are built around the songwriting prowess of Sofie Lute and Ranjan Avasthi, with members of Neutral Milk Hotel, Olivia Tremor Control, and Elf Power contributing to the recordings, of which there are now two; their self-titled sophomore effort, with Mac McCaughan of Superchunk/Portastatic and Robert Schnieder of Apples in Stereo on board as guests, arrives February 21 through the combined forces of Cloud Recordings and the Primordial Void label. The Rishis’ sound is subtly psychedelic without ever abandoning song form, as a wide range of styles get integrated into the mix.

The Rishis debuted with August Moon in June of 2022, a full-bodied and confident set of psych-pop that set a high standard for what has now followed. The Rishis do fit into the Elephant 6 scheme of things, but not in a blatantly obvious way. They aren’t as edgy or out-there as Neutral Milk Hotel or Of Montreal, nor are they as overtly psychedelic an experience as Olivia Tremor Control.

Furthermore, The Rishis aren’t as relentlessly catchy as Robert Schnieder’s numerous bands, although “Coloring” does open their new LP with a bit of upbeat, almost sunshiny pop. Along the way, the song’s appeal gets boosted by a few strategic guitar maneuvers that are reminiscent of All Things Must Pass. And there is a horn that hints at the Ladybug Transistor, which is a nice touch.

“Miles” follows with some wistful strum pop augmented by a shaking tambourine, and then “Buffalo” slows the pace even more for a savvy blend of bowed strings, plucked banjo and vocal harmonies. If the presence of banjo nods toward country, “Ride” deepens the connection with pedal steel, though the strings and harmonies continue to solidify the psych underpinning that bonds the ten songs on this set into a cohesive whole.

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Tone Scientists are vocalist-guitarist Bucky Pope (Tar Babies), bassist Mike Watt (Minutemen, Firehose, Stooges), and drummer John Herndon (Tortoise), with flautist/sax player Vince Meghrouni and keyboardist Pete Mazich, both longtime Watt associates, filling out the band. They released a 45rpm 7-inch for Record Store Day Black Friday in 2018 and now they are back with a 5-song EP, “Kiiroi Tori,” that solidifies the outfit as a blend of punkish rock, robust jazz, and hearty R&B. And good news for those just getting hip to the sounds Tone Scientists are laying down: the 7-inch (black vinyl) and the new EP (banana peel vinyl) are available as a bundle via ORG Music’s website while supplies last.

The Tone Scientists 7-inch drops “Nuts,” an exuberant bit of hard driving flute heavy business onto its A-side, the gist a bit like a gang of art-punk-wavers striving for a Booker T & the MG’s sort of groove. It served as an inspired harbinger of what has just arrived on the new EP, as did the flip side, a killer version of “Tiny Pyramids,” a Ronnie Boykins composition heard on Angels and Demons at Play by Sun Ra and His Myth Science Arkestra.

The motifs established on the single are given room to productively expand on the EP, as the opener “Excuse Yourself” and the cut that follows “Struggle Bus,” both Pope compositions, spring from the longstanding mutual desires of Pope and Watt to broaden the possibilities of punk rock by delivering judicious injections of funk to the style.

The punk connection is deepest in “Those Isthmus Blues,” a co-write from Pope and Watt, which ushers a post-Beat punk-aligned spoken word sensibility (Pope dropping the names Dan Peters from Killdozer, Doc Dart from Crucifucks, and Clyde “Funky Drummer” Stubblefield, amongst others) into the utterly non-clichéd groove scheme as Mazich is given ample room to beautifully go off with his organ solo.

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First there was Tokyo Glow, which hit stores in 2021, and then came Funk Tide just last year. Both sets were curated by city-pop expert DJ Notoya and issued by Wewantsounds, and now, with the release of Tokyo Bliss – Japanese Funk, Boogie and City Pop from King Records 1974–88 on February 14, the compiler and label have teamed up for the third time, rounding up ten selections that will have fans of slick and suave groove pop salivating like a pound full of Pavlov’s pups. If that fan is you, please consider ponying up and commencing to boogie down, as this baby is available on vinyl, compact disc, and digital.

The intermingling strains of Japanese pop heard on these DJ Notoya-curated sets present often fascinating variations on well-established Western models that are sometimes subtle, and at other moments wildly different. There aren’t any radical departures on this third volume, but that’s ultimately for the good, as the sides flow quite well.

Opener “Garasumado” from Buzz (the duo of Hiroshi Koide and Masakazu Togo) spotlights a relationship with Japanese art-pop, as the track was produced by Nobuyuki Takahashi of Yellow Magic Orchestra with two members of Sadistic Mika Band in drummer Yukihiro Takahashi (brother of Nobuyuki and later of YMO) and bassist Ray Ohara. The pair deliver some funky potency to the warm mid-tempo pop glide.

As with the predecessor volumes, Tokyo Bliss avoids a chronological progression, beginning in 1974 with “Garasumado,” then jumping ahead to 1987 and the up-tempo synth pop of Mami Ayukawa’s “Sabita Gambler” and after that moving back nine years for the funky elasticity of Johnny Yoshinaga’s “The Rain,” a song with symphonic injections and some big rock guitar soloing.

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With the February 14 release Fania Records: The Latin Sound of New York (1964–1978), Craft Recordings offers an outstanding primer into what is almost certainly the greatest of all Latin record companies. It’s an essentially flawless party soundtrack, but with ensemble playing so elevated that one could just collapse into the sofa to soak it all up. These 16 tracks aren’t the last word in salsa; indeed, the four sides of vinyl aren’t even the last word in Fania’s back catalog, but for anybody who’s been tempted to take the Latin vinyl plunge, if this set doesn’t whet an appetite for heightened groove science, then nothing will.

As is so often the case with the great record labels, nobody else was doing it, so musician Johnny Pacheco and lawyer Jerry Masucci stepped in to fill a void. Fania Records wasn’t the first Latin record label, and had Fania never existed it’s very likely that many of these bandleaders and vocalists would have cut records for other companies, but what’s uncertain is the level of quality that hypothetical output would have attained.

Fania didn’t just intermittently hit high points, the enterprise sustained a level of inspired mastery, and assuredly so across the 14 years covered by The Latin Sound of New York. The final track, “Pedro Navaja,” is from Siembra, a 1978 album by Willie Colón and Rubén Blades that just last year topped the Los 600 de Latinoamérica (The 600 from Latin America) list of the greatest Latin recordings from 1922–2020. Siembra also topped Rolling Stone magazine’s 2024 list of the greatest Salsa recordings.

In a nutshell, Fania thrived through a deep understanding of the music and a strong bond with the community. As “Pedro Navaja” makes clear, the sound of Fania grew in ambition over time but without diluting the essence in an attempt to cross over to broader commercial success. Instead, consumers have gravitated to Fania’s output over time through reputation and exposure.

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Celebrating H.R. in advance of his birthdate tomorrow. —Ed.

The discography of the incalculably influential Bad Brains is in the midst of a long-overdue reissue program, and as the releases are coming through Bad Brains Records with assistance from ORG Music, this return to circulation has been a sweet development for both the fans and the band. I Against I, the beloved 1986 album from this stylistically restless outfit returns to availability; the options are compact disc, cassette, and black or plutonium color vinyl tucked into its original sleeve or a fresh Punk Note jacket designed by John Yates. Arguments will long persist over Bad Brains greatest achievement, but this album, their third and biggest seller, is surely a contender.

The Bad Brains story has been well documented. One of the few bands to come to punk from jazz fusion, they were a powerhouse of precise energy that barreled forth so furiously that the barrage could register as barely controlled. African-Americans in a scene dominated by Caucasians, Bad Brains stood out and excelled because they remained true to their experience, broadening the punk landscape rather than conforming to its more prevalent norms.

For some listeners, Bad Brains are the only hardcore punk band that matters. I don’t share this viewpoint, but do acknowledge that the list of worthy contemporaries is a short one, and will add that many of the other solid HC bands from the same era took direct inspiration from singer H.R., guitarist Dr. Know, bassist Darryl Jenifer, and drummer Earl Hudson.

Bad Brains weren’t perfect, however. They were enthusiastic about reggae (enough so that they became Rastafarians), and while that was admirable (and as said, helped to set them apart), the band’s excursions into the style, if not terrible, are still pretty far from top tier. I Against I is the first Bad Brains full-length release to not include any straight reggae tunes, which makes it their most consistently satisfying album to that point, even as its stand out moments don’t rocket as far into the stratosphere as those on the self-titled debut from 1982.

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You Ishihara is primarily known as the vocalist-guitarist in cornerstone Japanese underground psychedelic rock band White Heaven, but in 1997, his striking solo album Passivité was released, only on compact disc, to almost no fanfare. Alternating delicious late night vibes with terrifically bent blasts of rock, the album isn’t easily comparable to anything else that was happening at the time, or developments since, for that matter. Unsurprisingly, positive feelings toward the record have grown and with a first-time-on-vinyl reissue scheduled for February 7 via Black Editions, the music is sure to become even more esteemed.

White Heaven formed in the mid-’80s, but it took roughly a decade for the band’s rep to spread through the international underground, in tandem with fellow purveyors of Japanese psych rock like High Rise, Mainliner, Fushitsusha, Acid Mothers Temple, and Ghost, all bands from the roster of P.S.F., a label formed by Hideo Ikeezumi with connections to a record store and a fanzine.

Passivité was not released by P.S.F. but instead Creativeman Disc, a label that from inside a short timeframe emitted an impressive gush of Japanese noise and related u-ground sounds (C.C.C.C., Ground Zero, Otomo Yoshihide, Taku Sugimoto, Phew). And Passivité benefitted from a stunning aggregation of players including White Heaven bandmate Michio Kurihara on guitar for five of the album’s seven tracks, Chiyo Kamekawa of Fushitsusha on bass for four tracks, and Koji Shimura of Acid Mothers Temple on drums for three tracks.

For Passivité’s closer “For You,” a short cloud of hazy pulsing drift recorded in 1980, 16 years before the rest of the album, Yojiro Nagano played synthesizer and You’s brother and eventual White Heaven bandmate Ken Ishihara played drums, with You contributing organ and vocals to the track. It contrasts pretty sharply with what precedes it but still works as a sort of flashback snapshot that’s in keeping with Passivité’s general spirit of eclecticism.

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