Yximalloo ‎– The Best of Yximalloo 1

Part one of a three part compilation series that attempts to make sense of the vast catalogue of music Naofumi Ishimaru has released as Yximalloo. Dating back to, i believe, the late seventies, the history of Yximalloo is spread across a near-endless spillage of micro-release cassettes which detail an alternative vision of Japanese post-punk electronic music and proto-indiepop, one that runs parallel to YMO, Vanity, kankyo ongaku... One such release is a recording made of a performance in the toilet of Honda's factory in Japan... This, you've a sense of what's on offer here: playful & provocative electronic experimentations that in their nascent state cover similar ground to TG, Severed Heads, Portion Control et al but developed to embody a distinctly twee spirit that presages the Hamster and Cordelia aesthetic. Indeed, it's remarkable that Yximalloo didn't appear on the Japanese edition of the latter's Obscure Independent Classics compilation from 1987. Art-damaged DIY fuckery with a perfectly wanton singularness. These three records together do a remarkable job in distilling what previously appeared too obscure and distended to understand. Brilliant oddities, one and all.