Tomoyuki Aoki & Harutaka Mochizuki - Self Titled

First time vinyl edition of a legendary, self-titled 2014 album from sax improviser Harutaka Mochizuki and Up-Tight guitarist and vocalist Tomoyuki Aoki, deploying distortion and reverb-drenched guitar blowouts contrasted with low-lit sax laments, highly recommended for followers of Les Rallizes Dénudés, classic PSF x Maki Asakawa.Out of print since a 200-edition, CD-only 2014 release, Aoki & Mochizuki’s searing salvo hits thru nine richly evocative psych volleys of overdriven guitar and alto sax, contrasted with heartbreaking, reverberating torch songs. While patently echoing the raw enigma of Les Rallizes Dénudés, the duo also harness the fire of Anthony Braxton and the expressive bleats of Abe Kaoru, pursuing a timeless sense of anguished emotion and introspection that immolates and subsequently salves the wounds. Now highlighted to the world at large via Cairo’s killer Nashazaphone label, the duo’s distinctive sound works a blistering arc between the guttural opening of ‘Majiwaranu Niju’ and the quiet strums of ‘Naze Boku No Te Ga’ that bring the album to a close. In between, we’re yanked thru moments of penetrating melancholy in ’Shishin - Aika’ where the forlorn, pleading vocals are countered with nervy sax skronk, before the ghostly evocations of ‘Nagai Owakare’ take it there on a noir jazz tip. And while ‘Dansho I’ offers 86 seconds of destroyed, visceral riffs, ‘Dansho II’’ follows with a dip into late night sublime; a sort of tormented sax blues.