Back at the tail end of August, Hibushibire (Japanese for Freak-out Orgasm for those that don’t know) released their second album as a four-piece, Phantom Fuzzy Exotica. Led by guitar psych-god changchang, the band has now been joined by Kohei Kotsuma on percussion, theremin, conga and vocals, alongside long-time stalwarts Tetsuji Toyoda on bass and AOI HAMA on drums.
Other than the personnel changes, things haven’t changed much with the way the album is structured in relation to the band’s previous studio offerings. We have four shorter tracks on (the virtual in my case) side one, followed by a much longer track filling out side two. The album is supposedly themed on ghosts and things that seem to exist but don’t; but that’s not really apparent and probably would be if I had a grasp of Japanese, which I most certainly haven’t. Because one other change on this album is the fact that there are a lot more vocals.
So, on to the music. Track one, “Mandrake Oracle”, leads off with a dash of gloopy electronics before a jagged riff starts up, quickly devolving straight into the freak-out zone, the whole underpinned by an insistent motorik-style bassline. Everything is quickly enveloped by distorted vocals weaving into, under and through the instrumental onslaught. Absolutely no hanging around here and a very strident start to the album.
“Minigoroshi Western” is the second track, a spaghetti western-themed number that starts at a slightly more sedate pace before galloping drums drive home the prairie ambience. The vocals take a more prominent position on this one, but the space that was created during the initial stages by the fairly (for Hibushibire) restrained guitar and effects work is slowly surrendered to more freak-out territory as changchang’s soloing firmly takes its place at the centre of things.
Things get a lot more chilled out with “Daydream Rendezvous” as a you can probably guess from the title, the overall sound existing somewhere between the universes of early Floyd, psychedelic-era Beatles and Fairport Convention. Again we have the same distorted vocals as earlier, but this time taking a whimsical path around the gentle guitar before everything just fades away. The title is a nod to Frank Zappa’s “Ritual Dance of the Child Killers” as “Invocation And Ritual Dance of the Electric Nonsense” takes us back into more straightforward Hibushibire territory, a heavy-psych / kosmische crossover with repetitive riffs collapsing down into chaotic noisescapes.
Final track is a cover of Occitan traditional folk song “Ai Vist Lo Lop”. Unusually for Hibushibire, the long intro is an almost a capella series of chants and exclamations that give way eventually to acoustic guitar and some very folky Mediterranean-sounding vocals. The melody of these vocals is then repeated in the electric guitar riff that comes in, sounding uncannily like something I’m sure Goat have played at some point.
This track is for me almost certainly the highlight of the album, containing as it does rich layers of sound and texture exploring an area not readily associated with the band. But never fear! The track does eventually break down into more cosmic territory without losing the Moorish feel it started with.
Phantom Fuzzy Exotica is a good album; I really enjoyed it, and I would expect nothing less at this point from the band. I do wish though that changchang would start being a less formulaic with his album structures — everything always feels very planned and laid out. Sometimes it would be nice if they could just let go and see where it took them. They could maybe get really far out then. Man.
-Dave Pettit-
