PARADISE by NAOKI ZUSHI

Remastered reissue of this 1988 album by Japanese guitarist and songwriter Naoki Zushi. A classic of Japanese psychedelia, 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. Intimate and expansive, rich with revelatory songwriting and blasted, sky-scouring guitar.

Recorded 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 O’Clock.

Paradise 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 & 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.

Tracklist:

1. こびと
2. ハレルヤ：左側
3. 孤独のハープ弾き
4. パラダイス：真昼
5. Black Hole
6. 紫の夕べ
7. 目の前の天使達
8. Another Lonely Harpist
9. They’ve Gone, They Will Come
10. パラダイス
11. 童話
12. Spirit In My Hair