I am not sure when or with whom I traded for this one, but I got this in the early 2000s and digitized it around then as well. Not much info to to go on, but a great live recording (soundboard? I have no idea of the lineage, sorry) of a short-lived Makoto Kawabata project featuring Shoji Hano on drums and Koji Shimura on bass.
The sound is jazzy, which makes sense considering Hano's background (Derek Baily, Peter Brotzmann, Nicky Scopelitis), though he also played and toured with High Rise. Similar to Musica Transonic but much less fuzz frenzy and lots more fluid. It sounds improvised as riffs get teased and taken over and under, jamming if you will. And yes, that is the Latino Cool of current Melting Paraiso drummer, Koji Shimura on bass! Definitely a surprise, but some searching reveals he did some time as White Heaven's bass player in the nineties. His playing is bouncy and deft, very different from Nanjo/Musica Transonic's bludgeon bass. Kawabata's playing is very clean, Fender Strat with little effects. Almost funky in parts. They also do a few songs twice, not really sure why on that either. If anyone knows anything more about this, please drop a line. Otherwise, enjoying some of the more trad end of Kawabata's playing with two of Japan's best drummers (though one is playing bass).
Zu-Kanka - Live March 15 2001 Tokuzo Nagoya Japan
Makoto Kawabata - Guitar
Shoji Hano - Drums, Vocals
Koji Shimura - Bass
I have this from a trade around the same time as yours! Mine has a tracklisting:
ReplyDelete1 Black Forest
2 Funny Beat
3 Waking of Thunder
4 River in the Desert
5 Red Heart
6 Disappear
7 Zu Kanka
8 Son of the Brain
9 Funny Beat
10 Waking of Thunder
...like you say, some dupe songs there - no idea how they got these titles!
Got a bunch of Kawabata cdrs here, I'm just tallying what I have against what you posted. Thanks for the memories of these years! Been a while.
Jim