Haino’s first solo album was originally released on the Pinakotheca label in 1981, then reissued on CD by PSF in 1993. It opens with five minutes of unnerving solo voice (with a few desolate notes of piano), followed by a string of tracks featuring just electric guitar and emotionally overwrought vocals. Haino sobs and whimpers, strumming as though comforting himself in a pitch-black room. The sixth track, “Umaku Dekinai” (translation: “I Can’t Do It Properly”), is a change of pace: a burst of raw guitar noise over which he chants the title phrase repeatedly, as if having a breakdown. The reissue includes three live bonus tracks, the last of which is a nearly half-hour tsunami of feedback and distortion. 

– Phil Freeman