Nothing Changes No One Can Change Anything, I Am Ever-Changing Only You Can Change Yourself

This nearly three-hour performance from April 1996 was legendary for years; during a 2000 interview, Haino told me that the recording was sadly unreleasable, but it made its way into James Plotkin’s hands and whatever he did to it, the final product sounds amazing. It has a ritualistic quality, beginning with nearly 13 minutes of slowly pounding drums and small cymbals, and Brötzmann doesn’t even show up until hour two, when he unspools long muezzin-like cries as the bandmembers (or maybe the audience?) shout and wail like tormented souls in hell. Bassist Jun Kosugi and drummer Yasushi Ozawa get a lot of room to stretch out, creating a kind of improvised psychedelic jazz-doom. When Haino’s guitar comes in for the first time, around the 20-minute mark, it’s like the fabric of the universe tearing open. This is not an album you can just throw on, or skip around in; you’ve got to take the whole ride.