Best of 2020
Gatefold edition with poster insert
First time vinyl run of a cassette released via Cav Empt last year, the thinking man's inscrutable Japanese noise terrorists confound once again with two near-indistinguishable tracks of ambient bliss. If you know what their name means (look it up - i'm not telling you) or have only previously heard Uguisudani Apocalypse, the much lauded Tokyo underground concept record from last year also, i doubt you'll have been expecting this. Far removed from their highly subversive industrial roots, this has far more in common with the environmental music now commonly associated with 80s Japan - think Yutaka Hirose's Nova, or Satoshi Ashikawa's contribution to the Wave Notation series. There may be precedent for this kind of thing in their catalogue, but it's far too vast for me to know. As beautiful as it is surprising. And that front cover!
