Seven Inches: White Heaven and Loud Machine 5000

I was going through some old 7"s and dug out these two, featuring the massively awesome Michio Kurihara, one of my fave guitarists of all time. Kurihara is probably known best for playing with Ghost and Boris, but almost anything with his name on it is "worth it" in this house. His stun gun/swarm of bees Cippolina/Jacks sustain style is so damn psychedelic it boggles the mind. At turns beautifully melodic, other times harsh riff damage.

These were both released by Japan's HG records (?) back in the 90s, the White Heaven 7" is from '94 and Loud Machine 5000 (also known as Loud Machine 2000) is from '92. The Loud Machine 5000 tracks remind me somewhat of the angular sound of Heroin and Clikitat Ikatowi, but not quite as frenzied. The vocals are a bit pro, but worth it for the Kurihara pyrotechnics for sure. The White Heaven jammers are not on any of their other releases as far as I can tell. Enjoy and check out this awesome Kurihara discography and start filling in the gaps! Oh yeah, photo is from Ghost's May 8 2009 show at Johnny Brenda's. LINKS REMOVED

Loud Machine 5000 7" - Go Grace Go/Lord of Nothing Part I

White Heaven 7" - Threshold of Pain/4 Hours (In The Afternoon)

Ghost @ Johnny Brenda's May 8 2009

Rolled down to Fishtown for this one and met up with Mr. The Twin Atlas and Miss and Mrs Amanda Jones for pints and food before hand. Clutch parking directly across the street from Johnny Brenda's and a table was acquired inside. A few Victory Stouts and lots of babble (check out Harry Crews!) later we headed upstairs, alas, we missed the beginning of Ghost's set. A strangely semi full but not packed Friday night show. We headed to the balcony for more beers and a better view. Not sure what exactly we missed, but when we rolled in things were a little haphazard/not clicking. That said, by the time I finished my pint there were taking off quite well mainly thanks to Kurihara's subtle colorings and then over the top lightning bolt leads. Seriously, the best modern psychedelic guitarist? Perhaps. His crunchy spizzle grot note fuckery is just the best. Helena Espvall from the Espers sat in with the band and added some cello drone and vocals for a pretty decent effect. I was kinda buzzy and the players seemed to mesh a little better towards the end. It was all worth it just to hear Kurihara's solo on the encore, which I think was identified by Batoh as being "Comin' Home" (though maybe it was a diff arrangement of the Cosmic Invention song "Callin' Me Home")... just pure gorgeousness. That guitar solo is so far freakin' out, I wanna take it with me. A tad bummed they either didn't play "Hazy Paradise" or I missed it and they didn't play my other fave Ghost jam "Guru in the Echo" in spite of some calls from the audience for it. Alas... I think I first saw Ghost in 1995 opening for Magic Hour and it really kick started my interest in the whole Japanese psych thing so it is great to see them playing even further out 14 years later. We love you, Masaki!






Download of a live show from May 1 2009 Seattle here

New Boris stuff

A live version of the Smile album.

and...

A new collab with Kurihara called Cloud Chamber

Some pics from their 2005 show at the Church, more here: