CHE-SHIZU - Nazareth

Live material from Chie Mukais group, recorded in 1981, who play ambient psychedelic music... includes Tori Kudo, leader of Maher Shalal Hash Baz." From Alan Cummingss "Japanese Psychedelia Primer" in The Wire: ""The dream-pop psych unit Ché-Shizu are one of the rare examples of a traditional Japanese instrument (in this case, the three-stringed kokyu bowed fiddle) being used in a psychedelic context. Nazareth is a sometimes shambling compilation of their live recordings and features the fascinatingly atonal sound of Chie Mukais kokyu drifting through the cracks of conventional melody. The groups interest in traditional English folk music is just one more indication of the breadth and complexity of underground Japans continuing interaction with the West."" - FE.