Fushitsusha ( 不失者 ) - It Was Eternity That Reached Out First (2003)

| Avant-Garde | Noise Rock | Experimental Rock |
| Psychedelic Rock |

This is an archival recording dating from 1978 that, fortunately, finally received a public service release 25 years later in 2003. While it’s nowhere near as dense as classic Fushitsusha of the ’90s, this set finds Keiji Haino and cohorts in a quite scorching free improv mode fairly similar to that contained on their Purple Trap CD, which was part of Keiji Haino’s The Soul’s True Love

box set from 1995. Documenting the very beginning of Fushitsusha, this lo-fi recording is chock-full of heavy tape hiss and amp hum, which only adds to the overall raw flavor of the proceedings. Clocking in at 13:54, track one moves effortlessly from dry, dissonant guitar strums alternating with high-pitched scree–accompanied by Jun Hamano’s plodding bass and Takashima’s simple cymbal and drum smacks–into a completely corroded cumulus cloud of massive, blurry, almost-rock.

What’s a Fushitsusha CD without at least one really long track? The second one on this disc offers up over 35 minutes of all-over-the-map fun for your noise-hungry head. Haino nonchalantly navigates his guitar all the way from dry strums to amp squeal to heavy reverb to scattered free picking to distorted wailing–occasionally nicely melded with some spare drum splack and even a little bass rhythm at one point. A couple of huge crescendos of distortion–accompanied by Haino’s lost ghost vocal wailing–appear near the middle and end of the piece. The second one–a massive, sound flurry-spewing sphere bigger than the sun–rolls into view and completely pummels the life out of the unsuspecting listener. Overall, after listening to this CD, it’s quite obvious that Fushitsusha practiced their unique deconstruction of rock in a fully-realized manner from the get-go. It comes housed in an all-black mini-LP gatefold cover with a black disc and booklet just like all of the previous Fushitsusha CDs on PSF. Just lovely, all around.

Catalog: PSFD-8016 (P.S.F. Records)
Album Overview on Arcane Candy
On Last.fm
Download