Makoto Oshiro and Takahiro Kawaguchi Reissue Cassette Featuring ISSUE Project Room Performance

This past December, Makoto Oshiro and Takahiro Kawaguchi released a limited run of cassettes featuring a performance they had at Brooklyn's ISSUE Project Room in March 2016. They've just reissued the cassette in a small batch of 30. As before, the tape's B Side features remixes from Masahiko Okura, Giuseppe Ielasi, and Dawang Yingfan Huang. You can see an image of the colored cassettes above and the tracklist below. The tape costs ¥2000 and comes with a digital download code. If interested, you can order the tape directly from Makoto by emailing bsf.releases@gmail.com. Act quick though, as he is approximately down to fifteen tapes at the time of this post.

Recently, Makoto recorded, mastered, and appeared on a new album from Kakudo Manami. You can find more information about that pop-leaning project here. You can watch a music video of one of the tracks here. Makoto does have copies of those CDs as well.


Makoto Oshiro/Takahiro Kawaguchi tracklist:

Side A:
1. Makoto Oshiro/Takahiro Kawaguchi
Recorded at ISSUE Project Room 2016 by Bob Bellerue

Side B:
1. Masahiko Okura Remix
2. Giuseppe Ielasi Remix
3. Dawang Yingfan Huang Remix

Winds Measure Recordings Releases a New Album from Billy Gomberg, Anne Guthrie, Richard Kamerman, and Takahiro Kawaguchi

Winds Measure Recordings has recently released a new album entitled 4x4. It's a collaboration between Billy Gomberg, Anne Guthrie, Richard Kamerman, and Takahiro Kawaguchi. It features two pieces, one entitled "2x2" and the other "3x3", which span 54 minutes. You can listen to an excerpt from the former above. You can find more information about the album on the Winds Measure website here. There, you can purchase a physical copy or download the full thing in FLAC.

In other news, Winds Measure Recordings recently released their annual mix featuring excerpts from their 2015 catalog. You can stream it below via Soundcloud or download it from their site here.

4x4 tracklist:

1. 2x2 (27:23)
2. 3x3 (26:27)

Read Production Notes on Amorphous Spores from Takahiro Kawaguchi

Photo by Yohei Chiba

If you're like me you purchased Amorphous Spores, the new album from Takahiro Kawaguchi and Utah Kawasaki, immediately after pre-orders became available. It's an incredible album that doesn't sound like anything else right now and I highly recommend getting your hands on a copy if you can.

A couple weeks ago, Kawaguchi tweeted some interesting anecdotes about the album. Yuko Zama, the wife of Erstwhile label boss Jon Abbey, recently took the time to translate this series of tweets. They're presented as is below:

About Production of "Amorphous Spores"

I would like to write about the production process of our new CD that will come out by the end of this month.

Production Note 1:
The first recording day was at Ftarri, an open live recording. Although there was a big earthquake during the recording session, we kept recording our performances while the room was shaking badly. Somehow I remember that Nancy came to see our show by bicycle on the day. The owner (Suzuki) told me, "For the first time, I recognized you as a musician". He said so after ten years since we have met...

Production Note 2:
On the second day, we recorded at pool, creating the atmosphere of an organic reverb driving through the underground drainage tank like a motorbike runs through a mountain path aggressively. The heavy bass sounds of analog synthesizer made the metal walls of the ditch sound amazing. Everything was recorded perfectly by the wonderful engineer Taku Unami. After the session, we went to eat ramen at Maruyoshi Store.

Production Note 3:
We listened to the recordings and worked on editing. By overdubbing wild runaway sounds via automatic synchronization of a synthesizer, the whole album was tightened up nicely. We had an after-working party at Hinata in Shimurasakaue. It was a nice bar.

Production Note 4:
We went to a mountain in the morning with our designer Hirozumi Takeda and a photographer Ujin Matsuo, to look for mushrooms and fernbrake for our cover image shooting. The strangeness of mushrooms that emerged in the middle of the forest out of blue was quite interesting.

Production Note 5:
After adding some adjustments with patience, we completed the whole production. The CD will be released from Erstwhile Records in the US. The contents are quite deep and interesting.

Production Note 6:
I am a kind of person who listens to anything from improvisation, experimental music, hip hop to J-pop of idol singers, but I can recommend this album as something that anyone will find interesting with some strange impression.

Production Note 7:
I would like to thank Jon who has been pushing us with patience, Unami-san for recording, Takeda-san for design, Matsuo-san for photography, Suzuki-san from Ftarri, biki from pool, Michael Pisaro for his help in deciding the track order, and everyone in the audience who had listened to our performances so quietly during the big earthquake. It was really fun!

Production Note 8:
As a bonus for you, I attached a motion video of the mushroom on the CD cover: (It was on Twitter)
moby.to/kmw3gb

Production Note 9:
Takahiro Kawaguchi/Utah Kawasaki"Amorphous Spores"
Kawasaki-san is the best in this album.
http://goo.gl/VlW7C6

BTW, Kawasaki-san and I played in the entire album. (I added this comment since it sounded like it was my solo album when I read my tweets again.)

Jon Abbey also mentioned on Facebook that he and the artists would like to thank Michael Pisaro for his help in sequencing the tracks on Amorphous Spores. You can pre-order a copy of Amorphous Spores now by emailing Abbey at erstrecs@aol.com. All pre-orders come with immediate digital download.

Takahiro Kawaguchi/Utah Kawasaki's Amorphous Spores & Kevin Drumm/Jason Lescalleet's Busman's Holiday Out Now

To solidify itself even further as the best record label of the year, Erstwhile Records has just released two new albums. The first comes from Takahiro Kawaguchi and Utah Kawasaki and is entitled Amorphous Spores. This marks the second time Kawaguchi has appeared on Erstwhile. His first appearance was n 2011 when he collaborated with Taku Unami on Teatro Assente. This is, however, Kawasaki's first time on the label. Kawasaki released the charming U as in Utah last year with Ju Sei.

The second new album comes from Kevin Drumm and Jason Lescalleet and is entitled Busman's Holiday. This is a follow up to The Abyss, the ambitious double album they released last year on Erstwhile. The album has 6 tracks and is about 52 minutes long. The album covers for both Amorphous Spores and Busman's Holiday are above.

You can pre-order both albums now by contacting label owner Jon Abbey at erstrecs@aol.com. Pre-ordering Amorphous Spores comes with an immediate digital download (note: it's .wav files). Busman's Holiday, however, needs to reach 100 pre-orders before digital copies will be given out. Tracklists for both albums are below.

Amorphous Spores tracklist:

1. 12:32
2. 10:59
3. 4:17
4. 10:01
5. 5:20

Busman's Holiday tracklist:

1. The Hunt
2. Powerless
3. The Wait
4. The Push
5. Belligerence
6. Honest Toil