KUDO TORI/KINUTAPAN/YUMBO-DON'T FEAR AN ADJOINING ISLAND, CD, 2003, JAPAN

The most notable name among the variable groupings of Japanese kooks at work here is Tori Kudo, whose brilliantly naif ensemble Maher Shalal Hash Baz is one of the true high water marks of contemporary Japanese underground musical thought. I might not be readily able to connect the dots on the back story of the interrelationships of the various personnel on hand here, but regardless of the identity appended to a particular track, the variable groupings here all essentially adhere to the precariously jerry rigged and discombobulated provisional constructs that Maher Shalal Hash Baz have become renowned for; one that wrings unexpected poignance from the seemingly slack and lackadaisical and profundity from a proactive naivete that owes a great deal to the plink plonk delicacy of Pascal Comelade's addled early period.

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