1971 (Kutabirete / Buttsubuse!!)

The earliest recordings of Murahachibu, the studio album Kutabirete from April 1971, and the live album Buttsubuse!!, recorded three months later during their July concert at Tokyo's Kita Ward Public Hall, are being re-released as a two-disc vinyl set titled 1971, with newly remastered audio by Makoto Kubota who is a member of Les Rallizes Dénudés. The album’s cover art features rare, never-before-seen photos, adding a special touch to this release. The two works featured in this release—Kutabirete and Buttsubuse!!—were first issued on vinyl as limited editions for Record Store Day, Kutabirete in 2015, and Buttsubuse!! in 2016 (now out of press). However, since those was in mono, this marks its first release in stereo on vinyl.

The cover art includes a rare, previously unseen photo of Charbo,(the nickname of kazushi Shibata who is the vocalist of Murahchibu), taken by Shigeto Murase, who became known as Murahachibu drummer from 1972 onward. This photo, discovered in April this year at Murase’s home, was shot in the garage of his San Francisco apartment, where he lived before Murahachibu was formed. It shows Charbo wrapped in a burlap coffee sack (dongoros), a look famously mentioned by Fujio Yamaguchi in the book “Murahachibu”, where he recalls being struck by Charbo’s appearance when they first met. Kutabirete features six tracks, including what is said to be Murahachibu’s first original song, the title track “Kutabirete”, the sharp, piercing lyrics of Charbo on “Ah!!”;, and the track “Ayatsuri Ningyo” (which means Puppet), where drumming is unbelievable for a 17-year-old—is matched by Yamaguchi Fujio’s razor-sharp guitar work. This is one of the band's rare studio recordings. Three months after this studio session, on July 28, they recorded their live performance at Tokyo's Kita Ward Public Hall, which became the live album Buttsubuse!!. This includes tracks that weren’t featured on Kutabirete or their sole original album Live, such as the title song “Buttsubuse”, as well as fan-favorites like “Hadaka no Machi” and also a rare early version of “Himegari” with significantly different lyrics, a track that would eventually become known as “Hana Kara Chouchin”. Both albums have been newly remastered by Makoto Kubota and will be released as a two-disc vinyl set

Kazushi Shibata / Vocals Fujio Yamaguchi / Guitar Tetsu Asada / Guitar Shinichi Aoki / Bass Hiroshi Uehara / Drums