Meets The Dengie Hundred

Transparent orange vinyl. Taking its inspiration from early-20th Century Min’yo folk and experimental dub, Howard Williams returns under his Japan Blues moniker for some more deep dive stuff. Not quite sure about early-20th Century Min’yo folk? No worries, that’s not necessarily important, with the NTS DJ and label chief taking those sources and feeding them through a very 21st Century tapestry of field recordings and hauntingly spatial sounds
The result is something that is steeped in atmosphere and vivid aural imagery waiting to be transposed into something visual, in the mind’s eye at least. Noises and sounds and captured bits of something that happened meet strange, often otherworldly instrumentation, using enka and minyo recordings from 2018 studio sessions with London-based singer Akari Mochizuki and Tsugaru shamisen master Hibiki Ichikawa to exceptional and unexpected effect