{"product_id":"naoki-zushi-paradise-lp","title":"Naoki Zushi - Paradise LP","description":"\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eRoughly twelve months on from their initial reissue, World Of Echo return with another couple of LPs from the back catalogue of Japanese psych hero Naoki Zushi. I feel like I’m constantly running around bleating, “can you believe that this guy was in Hijokaidan and Hallelujahs???” And the overwhelming response seems to be “uhhhh sure?”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"p1\"\u003eIn reality he was only in the former group for a brief period, and his 1988 solo debut, Paradise, veers closer to the latter. Originally released on the legendary Org label,\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"\u003e  \u003c\/span\u003ecompared to the reissue of last year’s IV, with its almost side-long songs, Paradise feels like a pop album. Teeming with great melodies and cracked and soaring lead guitar lines, it’s up the alley of those seeking out something akin to Electr-O-Pura-and-before Yo La Tengo or for a condensed version of IV. –Mitch\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e-----\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWorld Of Echo announces the reissue of two remastered albums by Japanese guitarist and songwriter Naoki Zushi, 1988’s Paradise, and 2005’s III. Two classics of Japanese psychedelia, both Paradise and III were originally released on Org Records, the imprint of Shinji Shibayama of acid-folk group Nagisa Ni Te, with whom Zushi has guested on second guitar for decades. Both intimate and expansive, rich with revelatory songwriting and blasted, sky-scouring guitar, these reissues return these albums to print for the first time since the 2000s. It’s the first time III has been officially released on vinyl, with an extra, previously unreleased track, “Under The June Moonlight.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRecorded in Kyoto’s Townhouse Studios in mid 1987 and released in limited-to-500 vinyl pressing in 1988, Paradise emerged from a scene in Kansai, Japan that was embracing the idiosyncracies of 1970s singer-songwriters, the soaring solos of early seventies psychedelia, and the DIY impulse of 1980s post-punk. While Zushi’s musical history stretched back to the early eighties – he was a founding member of Jojo Hiroshige’s noise outfit Hijokaidan – he found his feet with groups like Hallelujahs, whose dream-pop collection Niku O Kuraite Chikai Wo Tateyo was recently reissued by Black Editions, and Idiot\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan class=\"bcTruncateMore\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eO’Clock.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eParadise appeared two years after that Hallelujahs album and share much the same membership – Zushi’s backing band on several of the songs includes Shibayama on drums and Ken-Ichi Takayama (aka Idiot) on electric guitar, though just as often, Zushi plays all the instruments himself. The coordinates here are wide-reaching – you can hear the volume and intensity of Neil Young \u0026amp; Crazy Horse (on “Hallelujah: Left Side” and “Paradise: Midday”), the slow-motion magic of Galaxie 500, the idiosyncratic spirit of The Only Ones, all mixed up with tender guitar miniatures and stumbling garage-psych-pop moves.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSeven years later, after the transitional album Phenomenal Luciferin, Zushi released III. Perhaps his masterpiece, it’s already been bootlegged on vinyl, but this reissue is the real deal. The album was recorded at Studio Nemu over seven years, and sees Zushi backed by Shibayama (bass) and Masako Takeda (drums), his erstwhile bandmates in Nagisa Ni Te. By this stage, Zushi had started to really stretch out, and many of the songs on III swoon languorously, taking their sweet time to say what they need to say. It’s rich with lovely, melancholy songs, in a similar realm to bandmates Nagisa Ni Te, of course, but you can also hear traces of everything from Syd Barrett’s The Madcap Laughs, through seventies private press loner folk, to the slow-burn meanderings of the likes of early Low or Damon \u0026amp; Naomi.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen interviewed by Shibayama in the mid-nineties, Zushi said of Paradise, “it was a sort of collection of songs that had meant something to me up to that point… it was my paradise. I wanted to create paradise.” That’s something Zushi achieves on both of these albums – visionary Japanese psychedelia, en route to paradise. - Jon Dale\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe style=\"border: 0; width: 100%; height: 472px;\" src=\"https:\/\/bandcamp.com\/EmbeddedPlayer\/album=1814110253\/size=large\/bgcol=ffffff\/linkcol=0687f5\/artwork=none\/transparent=true\/\" seamless\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/naokizushi.bandcamp.com\/album\/paradise\"\u003eParadise by Naoki Zushi\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"World Of Echo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44245131034806,"sku":null,"price":49.95,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0525\/9119\/8390\/files\/a3610997675_10.jpg?v=1756865688","url":"https:\/\/repressedrecords.com\/products\/naoki-zushi-paradise-lp","provider":"Repressed Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}