Chi To Shizuku - 血と雫 Je Prie pour que la Goutte ne Tombe pas

First international release from Japanese three piece, Chi to Shizuku, with this live recording taken from a performance at Koenji HIGH in Tokyo almost two years ago to the day. Like with much of the music released on An'Archives, Chi to Shizuku might be a new name to most Western audiences but they've maintained a fairly active existence domestically for the past ten years or so, releasing five albums and a 7" during that period. Their pedigree stretches deeper still, with all three players having spent time in numerous more or less known Japanese acts over the past 20 or so years - i'd list them all here, but time doesn't really allow (and you can look them up yourself if you're really that intrigued). More to the point is how this wealth of experience translates into a distinct and confident sound that pulls from many of the shared touchstones of Japanese underground rock - free/psych rock, folk, indie, even elements of enka - without sounding exactly like any of their peers. There's an unexpected intensity to Morikawa Seiichirou's vocals suggestive of no little darkness hidden behind the eyes, and without the requisite language comprehension, it does make you wonder just what's got a grip on him. The mystery is all to the group's benefit, lending the songs a ghostly, almost gothic quality that on the second side of the record veers towards an anti-rock no-wave freeness that the folk arrangements of the opening half hadn't really signposted. A classic Japanese rock unit in that sense, though still clearly one walking their own jagged line.