Hiroshi Nar/Nishinihon

Originally issued by Lexicon Devil in 2005. This is a special one-time-only CD, limited to a pressing of 500, of a rare live meeting of minds: power trio Nishinihon (featuring Kawabata Makoto of Acid Mothers Temple) and Hiroshi Nar of the legendary collector-scum/'60s/'70s Japanese uber-psych/garage destruction unit, Les Rallizes Denudes. Nishinihon are the amazing scorch 'n' burn three-man unit who've scarred eardrums for several years now with their acid-rock meltdown. Since his departure from Rallizes in 1978, Hiroshi has kept himself busy with a myriad projects running the scope of no wave, garage punk, Dada-rock and the occasional guest playing on an Acid Mothers disc. Suffice to say, his discography is as long as your arm and much more interesting. Hiroshi Nar with Nishinihon (which said 5 times with a belly of booze can be a great game) celebrates exactly that: A one-off live meeting in Japan in December of 2001 between these musical titans. With Hiroshi penning three of the four songs present, there's definitely a heavy musical similarity to Les Rallizes; both "20 Yen for Each Additional" and "Machiko" possess that crawling, stumbling vibe of his previous band's best '70s work, the combination of his guitar twang and stuttering garage stomp resulting in a kind of Crazy Horse/Quicksilver hybrid. Even more explosive, are the furious guitar explosions of "Are You Lady?" and "Peep Up," two short (er) ditties that get straight to the point and drive it home in a most Stoogely manner. As it says on the back cover of this release: "Do you wanna teste this fuckin' sweet wonder rock world, Brother?" Hell, yes.