I have a thing with my kids called ‘the eight second challenge’, when they can’t find something I reckon I can usually find it within that time period…I usually do. I thought of this when I first listened to this HIBUSHIBIRE album, because it took me easily less than eight seconds to realise that this was going to be
AN ABSOLUTE FUCKING MONSTER!
I’d never heard of the band before Andy from Riot Season sent this along, and I think he must have had a similar experience when he first heard it…it’s that sort of album that you feel has already been there in your life, yet simultaneously you are so eager to hear every bar of its exciting magnificence for the first time.
HIBUSHIBIRE are an Osaka based Japanese hard psychedelic freak out rock band and the album is produced by Kawabata Makoto of Acid Mothers Temple at his mountain top studio temple in Osaka…that’s basically all you really need to know, but I’ll continue…
The band was formed by guitarist Chang Chang and bassist 821 as a improvisation jam rock band in 2012, the present line-up has been in place since 2015:
Chang Chang (Guitar/Vocals)
821 (Bass/Chorus)
Ryu Matsumoto (Drums)
…and this three piece really crank out some seriously good fuzzed up psychedelic rock music.
Kicking things off is the relatively short track, ‘Lucifer Is My Friend’, and sees the band get stuck right into a groove from the outset with everything turned up to 11 for maximum impact. This is an intense and high powered opener with some stupendous fast riffs that tell you that this isn’t so much going to be a ride and a major expedition into a far out psychedelic freak out zone.
Straight after than comes ‘Hallucination Valley Blues – Flying Shiva Attach – Hallucination Valley Blues (reprise)’, yet another stonking track beginning and ending, as the title(s) suggest(s) with some great heavy fuzzed-out blues with a total mind bender of a freak out in between.
If anything HIBUSHIBIRE crank it up even more for ‘Trepanation Breakdown’ which immediately reminded me of The Heads…and not just The Heads…The Heads on top form.
This. Is. A. Total. Banger!
If ‘Freak Out Orgasm!’ were an exhibition, and what a brilliant totally fucked up exhibition it would make, ‘Trepanation Breakdown’ is seriously worth the entry fee on its own. A real fuzzed up on the edge of the abyss colossus that you’d just want to hear over and over again.
So that’s side one, I guess. Side two is comprised of just one track…a twenty minute leviathan ‘Deep Throat Holy Mountain High’ which starts giving from the first bar to the last. Just get yourself lost in the fuzzed wah wah reverbed guitar, overdubbed with some Japanese folk instruments which give it a unique and otherworldly feel. Wonder at what this track would be like live as wave upon wave of aqueous power slams into you before the band drift into some spacey meandering that takes you into their cosmic void before bringing you out again by returning to the riff that started the track off. Then its full power towards the end of what has been a real sonic experience.
As if you haven’t guessed by now I think that this is one heck of an album. After four years existence the band have delivered a debut that has not only arrived fully formed, but equipped to blown anyone who listen to it out of the water. It’s brutal and its heavy. But HIBUSHIBIRE are not a one trick pony… this is a varied album and the band are the real deal…I’m going to be playing this album regularly for years to come…about that I have no doubt.
-o0o-
‘Freak Out Orgasm!’ is available from Riot Season Records in a limited edition 400 only translucent magenta coloured vinyl LP housed in 350gsm printed card sleeve with black inner bag. Initial mail order copies come with a free promo CD-R, order here.
It is also available on a limited edition cassette of 75 numbered copies (60 for sale worldwide) with salmon pink tape shells and download code on Swap Meat, order here.
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The Fragmented Flâneur 