Watashi-Dake? cover

Watashi-Dake?

Released

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

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