Tokyo Flashback

The best scene-based compilations tend to share several qualities. They’re selective, offering the best the scene can offer; they’re focused, aesthetically; but they also leave enough space for surprises, which allows the compilation to smartly avoid homogeneity. Tokyo Flashback, which corrals together eight of the artists circling around the P.S.F. Records / Modern Music axis in the early ‘90s, does its job perfectly. The focus of this ‘psychedelic sampler’ is indeed psych rock, but it approaches this from many perspectives: the ‘60s San Fran worship of White Heaven; the drooling, dazed monotones of Marble Sheep; the motorpsycho fury of High Rise; the wild, black hole meta-rock of Kousokuya and Fushitsusha. Keiji Haino, the leader of Fushitsusha, also offers up a room-stilling, chilling solo voice performance; Ghost, perhaps, claim the crown though, with their lovely, spiralling folk-psych improvisation. It’s so potent, it’s no surprise Tokyo Flashback spun out into a series.