不失者 [Fushitsusha]

After the first album that I listened to from Fushitsusha, Live/1st, I was absolutely ecstatic with listening to the next album in the course of Fushitsusha albums I’m going to listen to, Live 2, otherwise known as Fushitsusha (self titled). I love Keiji Haino and I am still absolutely excited to listen to Nothing Changes No One Can Change Anything, I Am Ever Changing Only You Change Yourself (Yes, the 3 hour one with Peter Brotzmann, it sounds incredible and great and it sounds like it’s going to be one of my favorite free improv/free jazz records of all time) and a multitude of other Fushitsusha and Keiji Haino releases.
DISK 1
Track 1 An opening of frantically loud guitar accompanied by low bass hums, ambience, and then drums. Sounds like very early Swans, very good so far. A slow brutal, no wave-style groove appears slowly out of the unique style and early collages of sound. Keiji’s vocals come in, sounding like a grittier and scratchier Michael Gira in early swans like Filth, in a very good way. The slow, minimalistic groove of low, deep, fuzzed out and distorted guitars creating pulses that are simply impossible to describe transform into somewhat of a solo section that quickly jumps back into a truly frightening groove. In the best way possible, I was a little scared. I have listened to several disturbing records, Soundtracks for the Blind and many more snippets of other disturbing material and yet there is something about this absolutely crushing valley of inescapable noise accompanied by a slow, aggressive groove that absolutely haunts my brain. I love when Fushitsusha does this stuff. Both Keiji’s guitar and vocals are absolutely WAILING in the best way possible, and it sounds truly evil as it is accompanied by a drum groove that rarely stops and then comes back in at some points. Incredibly strong track that sounds like very early Swans. Filth-esque, if you will, very enjoyable and absolutely vile and sinister sounding.
Track 2 opens with some very raw and interesting, wailing and low style guitar accompanied once again, a very interesting, slow drum groove and Keiji’s vocal, so far both of these VERY strong tracks sound like Japanese noise wave and early Swans. I like them both incredibly, they both deliver an incredibly cohesive, hellish and vile, no-wave aesthetic. Keiji’s solo, oh my God. It comes in, sounding in the best way possible, like a person being tortured, and wailing over this deep and low, fuzzed out bass hum and aggressive drum groove. Very, very, very good Keiji Haino solo, less melodic like track 11 on Secret Black Box and track 3 on 1st, less of that ambient, ethereal style of soloing that really ascends the listener to heaven, this type of solo still being, frankly, indescribable. Absolutely evil, grimy, vile, wailing and screaming, dark, and absolutely amazing, avant-garde soloing. This is what I absolutely love about Fushitsusha, and Keiji Haino’s amazing free improv noise rock soloing. It sounds like someone was forced to watch someone be utterly tortured, and their wails were accompanied by an absolutely smashing groove that absolutely SLAPS. 1.2 is legitimately one of the greatest rock experiences I have ever listened to, going hand and hand with the last track, track 8 off of 1st/Live (The 26 minute one that combines track 3’s beautiful ambient and ethereal soloing and track 5’s absolutely beautiful, calming and peaceful guitar, drums, and vocals). Even if the rest of the album was just complete dogshit, which I know it wouldn’t be, it would be great, but if it was, I really wouldn’t care. 1.1 and ESPECIALLY 1.2 did it well so goddamn much for me, that I absolutely adore this and would put in some of my favorite rock or free improv noise rock albums of all time, it is truly fucking incredible. AND I’M ONLY ON THE FIRST 2 SONGS!!! There’s no way it can get any better…It probably can. Whatever.
Track 3. Deep, wailing, dissonant guitar with some occasional drums and low bass hums before going into a very slow groove with Keiji’s vocals, sounding sometimes banshee-like, and frequently retching out screams of tortured pain as guitar makes good dissonant noise occasionally, however this intro section has a lot of space, mostly Keiji’s vocals and a very slow drum groove. The vocal performance on this piece is legitimately haunting, sometimes very low and quiet, smooth, but most of the time letting out some of the most gritty and scratchy and loud screams I have ever heard a human let out. The solo, is once again, in the incredibly transcendent, amazing, vile, tortured style of 1.2, only this time, a more minimalistic groove to really let Keiji and his guitar just wail in absolutely tortured pain in the best sounding way possible. This track, like the first 2, are incredibly amazing and transcendent examples of amazing Fushitsusha no-wave in this era, with the most tortured vocal performances I’ve ever heard, if anything ever coming close, it would be A Final Sacrifice, from Soundtracks for The Blind. The slow and groove accompanied by Keiji’s absolutely tortured and wailing vocals and guitar makes the track an incredible rock experience, like the first 2, purely UNIMAGINABLY strong tracks, delivering some of the most haunting, and crushing and brutal noise rock and no-wave that I have currently heard from anyone.
Track 4. Very, very, very, quiet low guitar or bass hums. Keiji’s vocals now deliver an absolutely beautiful smooth performance on this intro section. The harmonies of the low bass hums and Keiji’s vocals sound almost church-like. An incredibly beautiful experience, the vocals angelic and high, a light and slow beginning. This VERY minimalistic and long part, with this time, Keiji’s example of his most heavenly and angelic vocal performances touches the heart in a very beautiful way. Now there is some very nice guitar that blends slight noisiness and very beautiful guitar playing with, once again, Keiji’s vocals. Now most elements leave, and a very ethereal and beautiful guitar solo comes in, transcendent, absolutely amazing. Very good track.
Track 5. A slow bass groove with light, but sometimes frantic drums come until a frantic BLAST of noisy guitar, loud and abrasive, on top of the frantic drums. Free improv-style, noisy, low, wailing improv. Keiji’s vocals come in, delivering some growling yells, accompanied by drums, guitar occasionally wailing in sections where Keiji’s vocals aren’t present for very small sections. Very slowly and gradually ascending into hell through incredibly loud and wailing guitar and deep vocals sometimes screaming and wailing. Not one of the best tracks on this disk.
Track 6. The final track on the first disk, almost halfway there. Starts off already with haunting frequencies of an incredibly well-layered organ and Keiji talking. The organ gets louder, somehow already transcending me into a state of complete out-of-body experience, in less than 30 seconds. This incredible drone so present in the organ’s crushing and massive sound takes over the body in such an absolutely and completely hypnotizing and mesmerizing way, some outbursts of dissonant tones, but too enveloped in the seance-like qualities of the haunting organ piece. Twisting and shifting in tones of dissonance and consonance, keeping an eternal drone present the entire time as Keiji very occasionally speaks. It sounds like the creation of a new universe, it is haunting and beautiful. You, everyone you know and everyone you ever will know, and everyone is all the universe is floating in an ethereal space filled with voids and nebulas and supernovas caked with cosmic dust and debris, black holes of harmony sucking in and out everything and anything and you simply watching it all as you float in this cosmic space between the time space continuum and two eternal portals of darkness, this being the mere space between as you wait for the new universe to be created by matter made out of the hands of the god of this realm.
Disk 1: 100/100 The first disk of this album genuinely changed my life, it’s simultaneous absolutely incomprehensible beauty reflected by Keiji’s sometimes angelic and heavenly vocals with absolutely transcendent, beautiful, ethereal, airy and otherworldly soloing which takes you to a different universe completely. But the best part of this album is the absolutely CRUSHING and BRUTAL valleys of inescapable noise rock, absolutely delicious in sound, gritty, grimy, vile experiences with vocals and guitar solos sounding absolutely tortured, wailing in pain as a slow groove of fuzzed out bass and aggressive slow drums ties it in to sound like a truly haunting and terrifying experience as you watch and wait out the horror and become enthralled in this truly grimy and vile hellish experience, in literally the best way any human could imagine, and in literally the best way any human could create such a goddamn incredible experience.
DISK 2
Track 1 Right off the bat, a very slow and quiet bass hum playing a couple of notes with a slight amount of feedback, nice intro atmosphere. Some ethereal, slow, twangy guitar begins with nice chords and some notes. Keiji’s vocals enter, sounding banshee-like. It gets a tiny bit louder, all of the elements, the guitar, the ominous bass hums, and Keiji’s ghostly vocals. Fushitsusha always has the best intro atmospheres, they can build the best parts which slowly climax to something insanely rewarding, or not something super like that, a very interesting free improv piece sounding otherworldly. It gets louder, the twangy and bright guitar filling more space as the ominous bass hums grow louder with the guitar. Keiji’s vocals get louder, a tiny hit of a ride cymbal ominously helps set the tone for what sounds like the start to the absolute apocalypse. Very light drums are heard in the background as the guitar fills in more space and Keiji’s vocals start to have certain ups and downs in levels of volume. The drums become louder, and so does the guitar, once again filling in a space, it continues. More and more, it seemed to be more of a free improv track, but nonetheless, I don’t care, because it still felt, up to this point, felt like an amazingly cool free improv track with an amazing atmosphere sounding like a seance to summon demons from hell. And that’s what it was, a free improv track. And that’s perfectly fine, it still had an amazing atmosphere and ambience which I very much enjoyed. Some people say, even dedicated Fushitsusha fans, that some of their more mindless free improv tracks, you know, ones that don’t really have a groove, like these, aren’t as strong as the rest of the album, but I think most of them are actually really good. It absolutely amazes me how 1 album that I listened to already made me love them so much. Next Fushitsusha i’ll be listening to is Nothing Changes No One Can Change Anything I Am Ever Changing Only You Can Change Yourself, and I am so fucking excited! I love Peter Brotzmann, and have heard a multitude of snippets from the album that not only would put it in my favorite rock albums of all time, but TOTAL favorite albums of all time. Anyway, I'll get to that later, more tracklist breakdowns.
Track 2 IMMEDIATELY opens with a very distorted guitar and drums playing free noise improv with drums before going into solo guitar noise. Manic, crazy, static, noisy guitar, before cutting out and having a very vast silence with bass hums, quickly interrupted by Keiji’s crazy, violent-sounding noise soloing. It kinda sounded like Siren Head, but nevertheless, had a certain style of atmosphere. A snare drum playing the same style of free improv accompaniment as the last track as Keiji’s vocals come in for short bits every couple of seconds. It continues, once again, the same style of noisy and crazy soloing as the last track, with a slightly different atmosphere, the guitar sounding like a supernatural banshee-like spirit screaming. Once again, this was an incredibly noisy free improv track, that I really didn’t have a problem with. Like I was saying, it had a certain atmosphere, which I thought was cool.
Track 3 3 opens with a relatively fast drum groove with a very punk-like bassline. Some cool and interesting guitar comes in, and does a mix of some feedback, and extra noise improv, however, this track does have a very cool, nice punk groove. The drums fill every now and then, and Keiji’s vocals come in. It has a great, fast, punk groove. Guitar cuts out for a tiny bit, and now it’s Keiji’s solo, once again. Very noisy and ecstatic style of shredding that works very well with the fast punk groove. Keiji’s vocals come back in for a quick sec, and the track ends. Very strong track that takes an interesting turn in the noisier punk rock direction.
Track 4 Starts with ambient distorted guitar playing a slow, interesting groove with Keiji’s vocals happening every 5 or 10 seconds, the repeated chord having a certain texture and ambience, a nice, already interesting intro with Keiji’s vocals in an interesting rhythm. Over this period of time so far, it has already ramped up in volume and intensity, interesting. That was it. Really just a chord and some vocals…
Track 5 A light chord is strummed with Keiji’s vocals until it gets more slow and nice, Keiji’s vocals sounding more smooth, his guitar sometimes not being played for tiny seconds until. Sudden tiny bursts of riffs come in and out, followed by no guitars and bits of Keiji’s vocals, then complete silence. The quietest bit of what seems to be slide improv, with more of Keiji’s quiet vocals. That’s it… Yeah, most people said this track is definitely not a standout, I can see why, but most people said that the next 2 tracks are really good.
Track 6 Already pummeling the listener, the opening with frantic noisy bass free improv, Keiji’s guitar wailing, and drums doing an interesting style of frantic free improv. Keiji’s vocals enter, screaming as the frantic chaos, now somewhat backed up with a groove that morphs and screams and rips its cage in a manic and frantic manner. A nice, hard and aggressive drum groove now enters, stabilizing all the crazy free improv insane manic madness coming from guitar, bass, and vocals. Ripping and tearing shreds of absolute insanity, the ego and superego, frontal lobe completely ripped violently from the brain, only leaving the id, a violent mess of madness and craziness, in this case only stabilized by a moderate tempo drum groove as Keiji’s screams of madness on both vocals and guitar fill the scene with a showcase of complete loss of the mind, in the best way possible. Keiji’s guitar glitches out violently as he screams, the incredibly tight drums and bass groove filling the space as nothing but feedback and vocals are left from the rampage. Very strong track, started out aggressive, but then through the whole track, accompanying the absolute fucking insanity with a very space-filling, solid, and tight bass and drum groove as Keiji wails and screams on guitar and vocals.
Track 7 Automatically starts out with an incredible groove, guitar, drums, and bass all COMPLETELY locked into this groove that reminds me of Jimi Hendrix or Primus. Keiji’s vocals, great, Guitar playing a classic twang with an aggressive but super tight drum groove as a fuzzed out and distorted, vibrato-filled solo came in, perfectly fitting with the oddly tight groove. In the first couple seconds, I was a bit questioning, since I love when Fushitsusha has these amazing slow or frantic grooves that sometimes fluctuate, but this was straight, and tight, like I was saying, locked in. The drums were just playing this groove, relatively fast for most of Fushitsusha’s music, that was SUPER tight, and addictive. The bass, unlike anything from Fushitsusha I’ve ever heard, very focused on the 1, the root note of the groove, and much less of a slow, quiet hum style of bass guitar that they do, Keiji’s guitar playing a solo full of medium-length, maximum-vibrato notes, very interesting sounding, quite delectable in sound, like I was saying, sounding a lot like Jimi Hendrix or Larry LaLonde from Primus. He also used a lot of tritones in this solo, frantic bending and vibrato, not too much, not too little, the perfect amount, the classic style of soloing used a lot on the first disk of this album, wailing and screaming accompanied by an incredibly tight groove. I lost words for this track, easily my favorite from disk 2. It's an absolute masterpiece, and shows Fushitsusha’s incredible skills for making what I could really describe best, as garage rock or stoner rock. The groove and solo still makes me feel like if it went on forever, I wouldn’t care. Because I love it. When I first listened to 1st, very much doubting the band’s and Keiji’s abilities, I never thought I would be rewarded with something like this. A groove and solo so good that I couldn’t even put it into words, I would just sit back and listen, wondering how some human being on the planet could ever come up with something like this. Truly genius.
And just like that, I had finished the album.
An absolutely amazing, filled with, like I said, brutal and crushing tall layers and sheets and valleys of pure deep no-wave inspired noise rock. The solos were incredible, and like 1st, it bestowed to me, more of what I now think are some of my favorite rock pieces I’ve ever listened to. I fucking love this band so much.
Also, getting back to what I was saying earlier, Nothing Changes No One Can Change Anything, I Am Ever Changing Only You Can Change Yourself is the next Fushitsusha project I'll be listening to, featuring Peter Brotzmann! Yes! That’s right! The free jazz saxophonist who created Machine Gun! One of my favorite free jazz albums ever! 3 songs, and sitting a solid 2 hours and 55 minutes, basically an hour per performance. Also, if you look at my profile sometimes, you saw me kinda fuck around with it, well that’s because I’ve listened to SEVERAL snippets of the album, and I think it’s the best music I’ll ever listen to in my life. It’s also live, which is great, because I think live albums are much better than studio albums and I might be doing a list on that to, but nonetheless, I was making room for Nothing Changes with Peter Brotzmann, and I am so fucking excited! I’ll also be reviewing Arashi, a free jazz album by Yosuke Yamashita and Gerald Oshita, and I’m super excited about that too! I said this in the last Fushitsusha review, for 1st, but I didn’t specify when. I will be reviewing a bunch of scary sounding albums for October 2024, listening to as many on the list in the month of October! Here they are so far, and feel free to give me more recommendations in the comments!
Scary albums of October
For the entire month of October 2024, I will be listening, rating, and reviewing these albums, every couple days. These albums must have incredibly dark and terrifying soundscapes and atmosphere, sometimes vile lyrics, or anything like that.
The list so far
Throbbing Gristle - The Second Annual Report
Swans - Soundtracks for the Blind
Nurse With Wound - Soliloquy for Lilith
Today is the Day - Sadness Will Prevail
The Residents - Meet The Residents
Scott Walker - Tilt
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
(October 2024 edit: oh hell no boy, that shit ain't happening)
Thank you so much AOTY, for introducing me to the Fushitsusha and Keiji Haino community, it has done unimaginably good things for me!
Good riddance, Alex ❤️