{"title":"World Of Echo","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"paradise-2","title":"Paradise","description":"\u003cp\u003eWorld Of Echo announces the reissue of two remastered albums by Japanese guitarist and songwriter Naoki Zushi, 1988’s \u003cem\u003eParadise,\u003c\/em\u003e and 2005’s \u003cem\u003eIII.\u003c\/em\u003e Two classics of Japanese psychedelia, both \u003cem\u003eParadise\u003c\/em\u003e and III were originally released on Org Records, the imprint of Shinji Shibayama of acid-folk group Nagisa Ni Te, with whom Zushi has guested on second guitar for decades. Both intimate and expansive, rich with revelatory songwriting and blasted, sky-scouring guitar, these reissues return these albums to print for the first time since the 2000s. It’s the first time III has been officially released on vinyl, with an extra, previously unreleased track, “Under The June Moonlight.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRecorded in Kyoto’s Townhouse Studios in mid 1987 and released in limited-to-500 vinyl pressing in 1988, \u003cem\u003eParadise\u003c\/em\u003e emerged from a scene in Kansai, Japan that was embracing the idiosyncracies of 1970s singer-songwriters, the soaring solos of early seventies psychedelia, and the DIY impulse of 1980s post-punk. While Zushi’s musical history stretched back to the early eighties – he was a founding member of Jojo Hiroshige’s noise outfit Hijokaidan – he found his feet with groups like Hallelujahs, whose dream-pop collection Niku O Kuraite Chikai Wo Tateyo was recently reissued by Black Editions, and Idiot O’Clock.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eParadise\u003c\/em\u003e appeared two years after that Hallelujahs album and share much the same membership – Zushi’s backing band on several of the songs includes Shibayama on drums and Ken-Ichi Takayama (aka Idiot) on electric guitar, though just as often, Zushi plays all the instruments himself. The coordinates here are wide-reaching – you can hear the volume and intensity of Neil Young \u0026amp; Crazy Horse (on “Hallelujah: Left Side” and “Paradise: Midday”), the slow-motion magic of Galaxie 500, the idiosyncratic spirit of The Only Ones, all mixed up with tender guitar miniatures and stumbling garage-psych-pop moves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSeven years later, after the transitional album Phenomenal Luciferin, Zushi released III. Perhaps his masterpiece, it’s already been bootlegged on vinyl, but this reissue is the real deal. The album was recorded at Studio Nemu over seven years, and sees Zushi backed by Shibayama (bass) and Masako Takeda (drums), his erstwhile bandmates in Nagisa Ni Te. By this stage, Zushi had started to really stretch out, and many of the songs on III swoon languorously, taking their sweet time to say what they need to say. It’s rich with lovely, melancholy songs, in a similar realm to bandmates Nagisa Ni Te, of course, but you can also hear traces of everything from Syd Barrett’s The Madcap Laughs, through seventies private press loner folk, to the slow-burn meanderings of the likes of early Low or Damon \u0026amp; Naomi.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen interviewed by Shibayama in the mid-nineties, Zushi said of \u003cem\u003eParadise,\u003c\/em\u003e “it was a sort of collection of songs that had meant something to me up to that point… it was my paradise. I wanted to create paradise.” That’s something Zushi achieves on both of these albums – visionary Japanese psychedelia, en route to paradise. Jon Dale\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"World Of Echo","offers":[{"title":"LP - Black","offer_id":52636232843595,"sku":"R1624-7832","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/NaokiZushi-ParadiseLP.jpg?v=1751555833"},{"product_id":"iii-2","title":"III","description":"\u003cp\u003eWorld Of Echo announces the reissue of two remastered albums by Japanese guitarist and songwriter Naoki Zushi, 1988’s \u003cem\u003eParadise,\u003c\/em\u003e and 2005’s \u003cem\u003eIII.\u003c\/em\u003e Two classics of Japanese psychedelia, both \u003cem\u003eParadise\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eIII\u003c\/em\u003e were originally released on Org Records, the imprint of Shinji Shibayama of acid-folk group Nagisa Ni Te, with whom Zushi has guested on second guitar for decades. Both intimate and expansive, rich with revelatory songwriting and blasted, sky-scouring guitar, these reissues return these albums to print for the first time since the 2000s. It’s the first time \u003cem\u003eIII\u003c\/em\u003e has been officially released on vinyl, with an extra, previously unreleased track, “Under The June Moonlight.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRecorded in Kyoto’s Townhouse Studios in mid 1987 and released in limited-to-500 vinyl pressing in 1988, \u003cem\u003eParadise\u003c\/em\u003e emerged from a scene in Kansai, Japan that was embracing the idiosyncracies of 1970s singer-songwriters, the soaring solos of early seventies psychedelia, and the DIY impulse of 1980s post-punk. While Zushi’s musical history stretched back to the early eighties – he was a founding member of Jojo Hiroshige’s noise outfit Hijokaidan – he found his feet with groups like Hallelujahs, whose dream-pop collection Niku O Kuraite Chikai Wo Tateyo was recently reissued by Black Editions, and Idiot O’Clock.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eParadise\u003c\/em\u003e appeared two years after that Hallelujahs album and share much the same membership – Zushi’s backing band on several of the songs includes Shibayama on drums and Ken-Ichi Takayama (aka Idiot) on electric guitar, though just as often, Zushi plays all the instruments himself. The coordinates here are wide-reaching – you can hear the volume and intensity of Neil Young \u0026amp; Crazy Horse (on “Hallelujah: Left Side” and “Paradise: Midday”), the slow-motion magic of Galaxie 500, the idiosyncratic spirit of The Only Ones, all mixed up with tender guitar miniatures and stumbling garage-psych-pop moves.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSeven years later, after the transitional album Phenomenal Luciferin, Zushi released III. Perhaps his masterpiece, it’s already been bootlegged on vinyl, but this reissue is the real deal. The album was recorded at Studio Nemu over seven years, and sees Zushi backed by Shibayama (bass) and Masako Takeda (drums), his erstwhile bandmates in Nagisa Ni Te. By this stage, Zushi had started to really stretch out, and many of the songs on III swoon languorously, taking their sweet time to say what they need to say. It’s rich with lovely, melancholy songs, in a similar realm to bandmates Nagisa Ni Te, of course, but you can also hear traces of everything from Syd Barrett’s The Madcap Laughs, through seventies private press loner folk, to the slow-burn meanderings of the likes of early Low or Damon \u0026amp; Naomi.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen interviewed by Shibayama in the mid-nineties, Zushi said of \u003cem\u003eParadise,\u003c\/em\u003e “it was a sort of collection of songs that had meant something to me up to that point… it was my paradise. I wanted to create paradise.” That’s something Zushi achieves on both of these albums – visionary Japanese psychedelia, en route to paradise. Jon Dale\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"World Of Echo","offers":[{"title":"2LP - Black","offer_id":52636253192523,"sku":"R1140-3381","price":31.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/NaokiZushi-IIILP.jpg?v=1751556040"},{"product_id":"baghali","title":"Baghali","description":"\u003cp\u003eOperating on the fringes of pure improv, organised chaos, minimal composition, lo-fi electronics and Italian spaghetti westerns, wide-eyed and with a healthy dose of DIY aesthetics lies the world of Jaan. It’s a poetic and cosmic universe, exploring “discreet music” whilst wandering on the edges of the Cat People soundtrack \u0026amp; Brian Eno’s more experimental output, in which you might yourself find floating, wandering or in the middle of a market place.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJaan is a collective of one, a deliberately anonymous activistic unit with strong ties to the international art scene. Purposefully bypassing the know-it-all of the the internet \u0026amp; embracing the bygone mystery of dusty old archives and deep-dive searching, remarkably little is known about this project. Jaan is lead by veteran experimental sonic alchemist Jaan; they operate between Greenland, the Middle East and Europe, with frequent associates Lisqa, Mashid \u0026amp; Schneorr N. acting as local hubs for collaboration  and exploration.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe purpose of this wilful obscurity: full focus on the actual music, whether live events or on recordings. Which brings us to \u003cem\u003eBaghali,\u003c\/em\u003e their first for World of Echo. It’s a deeply personal album, much like slowly browsing old family albums filled with vaguely remembered tales, some still very much present, some faded, leaving but a ghost-like reflection of what once was. \u003cem\u003eBaghali\u003c\/em\u003e was compiled over the course of a year on the road, trapped in snow storms, waiting for cancelled flights and stuck rides. It’s made up of snippets of diary, quick recordings on road sides, abandoned buildings, garden ruins, vast desert and focussed studio sessions, following a collage-like aesthetic and steeped in an exploration of non-lineair storytelling. There’s broken memories, a sense of displacement and an occasional yearning for what can’t be again, clouded in fever and unrest, but there is also hope, wonderment and bright colours seeping through the cracks in the wall. Jaan weaves home-made instruments, old tape loops, broken synths, beat-up reeds, dusty beat boxes and the occasional doom guitar squall into a tapestry of fractured sound, with tracks following their own inherent logic rather than following formats. Sounds crash in and out, field recordings placing the listener firmly in an environment then throwing several perspectives at once onto them, with individual elements - a wandering clarinet, a lone mandolin, a beat out of place yet perfectly in place - slowly walking in and out \u0026amp; doing their thing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe whole album is alive, breathes, takes a wrong turn, gets lost, somehow finds its way again - effortless and with a unique sense of space and flow.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"World Of Echo","offers":[{"title":"LP - Black","offer_id":53114026295627,"sku":"R4771-3418","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/Jaan_Baghali.jpg?v=1754401732"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/collections\/world-of-echo-1.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}