Much anticipated deluxe CD version of what was originally an OTT LP package only available direct from the label. This set comes in a run of 500 copies and is packaged in a screenprinted slipcase with eight card inserts. Recorded across 2005 and 2006, Light features duo (plus one trio) interpretations of tracks from the last three Reiko Kudo solo albums along with two previously unrecorded tracks. Reiko’s music is even more fragile and precariously-structured than the music of partner Tori’s Maher Shalal Hash Baz, her fragile vocals more like barely-articulated breath while Tori’s fractured cabaret jazz moves impact like pebbles dropped into deep, dark pools.

Gorgeous live performance from two of the most important musical thinkers to come out of the Tokyo underground, Tori and Reiko Kudo of Noise, Maher Shalal Has Baz et al. This is a live performance, recorded at the same show as the simultaneously-issued Ai Aso album and it features Tori on piano and Reiko on vocals. Tori’s piano style is a as radical and potentially revolutionary as Cecil Taylor’s, breaking time in the middle of phrases, combining solemn, hymn-like chord structures with sudden blasts of cluster-fuck power chords and developing melancholic arcs of song from simple three note patterns. Reiko’s vocal are highly charged, flower-frail but full of pathos and gentle poignancy and she combines material from her solo albums with earlier work and new compositions. One of the most stripped-down and ‘purest’ of Reiko and Tori’s recordings: if you like your Maher intimate and beautifully sad then this is the ticket. Recommended.

Solo piano album from Tori Kudo of Worst Noise/Guys N Dolls/Maher Shalal Hash Baz et al. Tori’s style relates to both free jazz and classical composition, albeit elevating ‘errors’ to the status of creative prima materia. Some of his playing here sounds a little bit like Muhal Richard Abrams’ early AACM recordings, that same slightly off sense of melancholy, a quality which the boxy nature of the recording gives further emphasis to, giving the performance a nice alone-in-a-room ambience. Kudo plays fairly gently, chasing fortuitous ghostly ideas up and down the keyboard, now stuck on a simple repeating melody, now spreading out into elegiac waves of stumbling exegesis. The title comes from a piano performance piece (not sure if it’s the one on the CD) where Kudo played the piano while a dancer danced in and out of a cut-out frame.

Much-in-demand release of some eye-opening early live footage from the ‘classic’ and most punk-primitive incarnation of Tori Kudo’s idiot-avant orchestra and Japanese underground legends Maher Shalal Hash Baz circa 1987. Trading on mis-interpretations and amplifications of the more feral aspects of musical outsiders like Mayo Thompson, Syd Barrett, The Raincoats and Albert Ayler, Maher Shalal Has Baz created some of the warmest and most melancholic post-punk avant garde music ever articulated by non-musicians. This 75 minute film documents the group when they featured the late Masami Shinoda on alto sax, a central player in the whole Maher mythos who Kudo still describes as one of only two full-time members of the group. Also features another key member, Hiro Nakazaki, on euphonium, Hirofumi Mitani on bass, Kanji Nakao on drums and Takuya Nishimura on guitar and bass. Maher’s music is fragile but very physical and getting to grips with the dynamic up-close and in the flesh adds a whole new dimension to your appreciation of the depth and rigour of Kudo’s beautiful, a-musical vision. And Shinoda’s playing is a real joy. Highly recommended.