A first-ever pairing of Japanese jazz giants Akira Sakata and Masahiko Satoh with the Chikamorachi duo of Darin Gray and Chris Corsano facilitating. Sakata is on alto and clarinet (and vox), Satoh on piano, Gray on up right bass and percussion and Corsano thrashing the kit, sounding 72 feet tall here. Just a monster session, swinging between deep-listening improv and all-out aggression. Beauty. Somehow I missed the joint Family Vineyard put out with Sakata, Chikamorachi, Jim O'Rourke and Merzbow, I'll have to right that wrong. But meanwhile - this set is HEAVY.
DOPE re-ish of Midori Takada's 1981 debut album as MKWAJU Ensemble - you may recall last year WRWTFWW released Takada's Through the Looking Glass LP, but this one's even better - a wild mix of Japanese ambient and African rhythms played on marimba, vibraphone, synthesizer and percussion. RIYL Terry Riley or Tubular Bells, or even more new age-y weirdness like Vangelis, but these rhythms are so wild I wouldn't bat a lash at all if you told me the Animal Collective bros stayed up nights listening to these. Check out "Angwora Steps", totally out of pocket. "Hot Air" is a spacious breather, the other tracks pile up the rhythms in slowly-shifting crescendos...crazy stuff.

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