GreedyforBestMusic-Seito-Various-Artists-Akuphone-Bandcamp

Seitō {青鞜}

11/09/2019Akuphone Compiles Seven-Track Experimental Album Of Contemporary Female Artists From Japan
 

Paris-based label Akuphone, created by Fabrice Géry (aka Cheb Gero) in 2015, has made a name for itself with an abundance of rare and striking releases of global pop and folk, including Praed's "Doomsday Survival Kit", Mushapata's "Saba-Saba Fighting", Balinese funerary music on "Gamelan Beleganjur" or Kink Gong's "Tibetan Buddhism Trip". 

Back in June, the label released a fascinating compilation of contemporary "Japanese female artists from various electronic and experimental music fields", featuring a selection of seven tracks all recorded between 2017 and 2019. "Seitō: In the Beginning, Woman Was the Sun" derives its title from "a cult feminist magazine printed in Japan in the 1910s" and presents a trip-inducing cross-section of the Japanese underground music scene with a host of trailblazing female protagonists.

This far-out compilation kicks off with a "gloomy folk song" by Fuki-Yuki, which almost seamlessly merges into a "haunted dub tune" by Kiki Hitomi, then moves on to more danceable realms behind a formidable deep house cannon by Mikado Koko, only to be followed by a spacey "electroacoustic performance", the noisy avant-garde folk vibes of Kakushin Nishihara, an trance-inducing "oriental psych blend" by Kuunatic and finally "Keiko Higuchi's 9-minute cover of classic Japanese folk song Okesa Bushi." You can watch the album preview or stream the full release below.

AUTHOR: Lev Nordstrom