Suzuki Junzo/Nishimura Takuya/Shimura Koji
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2009/05/25
New album 'ALL ABOUT MIMI' Out!! (PSF RECORDS/PSFD188)
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"Another first release on PSF for Miminokoto , a Tokyo-based garage psychedelic rock trio
who have previously released a string of acclaimed albums on the Alchemy, Gyuune, Siwa and Last Visible Dog labels.
This is the group's first album since Junzo Suzuki (20 Guilders, Astral Travelling Unity, ex Overhang Party) took over on vocals and guitar.
The key to this group has always been their deep sense of song
-- a densely emotive core around which the songs surge, billow and break. That core is retained here with an even harder psychedelic edge to the guitar.
Includes two covers of songs by the late Jutok Kaneko of Kousokuya. Forty minutes, seven tracks."
-- Alan Cummings
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Woah ? some kinda upheaval in the ranks of Miminokoto results in the replacement of
Masami Kawaguchi with Suzuki Junzo (Astral Travelling Unit/Overhang Party) on guitar and vocals and then they only go and cut an unbelievable album for PSF
with no less than two (!) cover versions of Kousokuya tracks penned by the late Jutok Kaneko.
To say that this is precisely my kinda deal is state the bleeding obvious. One of the things that always made Miminokoto stand out was the languorous,
sun-swallowing vocal style of Kawaguchi and Junzo does a great job of approximating his post-Jim Morrison style.
Of course no one can play Kaneko material with quite the brokedown gravity of Kaneko himself but these fantastic re-thinks
(of gHour Of Deathh and gFarside Of The Dreamh specifically) demonstrate what a fantastic and talented composer he was.
Still miss him. Miminokoto's own tracks are totally classic and they have the feel of an earlier generation of PSF artists,
with doomy death-decadent ballads soaked in reverb while single chords hang in the air and Junzo's vocals waft around them like smoke.
The lead guitar work is totally thrilling and the rhythm section of bassist Takuya Nishimura and drummer Koji Shimura have that classic minimal/explosive style
down to a teardrop. A classic PSF side, an amazing reinvention, this is the sound of the psychedelic Japanese underground. Highly recommended.
-- Volcanic Tongue (Scotland/UK)
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Following a lineup change, Miminokoto released a superb live CDR last year, which had me looking forward to a new official album ?
and here it is, albeit under the name New Miminokoto, apparently to distinguish itself from the earlier incarnation.
