Fushitsusha: Classic or dud

This is nonsense. Fu-Shitsu-Sha (for it is made up of three Japanese characters (kanji) means something along the lines of "un-person". Alan Cummings has translated it as "man with no qualities". The "fu" and "shitsu" parts mean "un-", "non", the "sha" means "person".

In February 2008, longtime bassist Yasushi Ozawa passed away.

rip

Fuuuuuuuuuck dude

very sad. saw him with fushitsusha in 1996, absolutely towering.

And young as well :-(

rip

Yeah, he was an amazing foil for Haino, his other band Marginal Consort are pretty great too.

much respect to the dude, he was a heavy player in every sense.

rip

Echoing what I said on the noise.as forums, it's very sad that there's now no chance of any further recordings or live shows from the arguably 'classic' Fushitsusha line-up. While I admit I wouldn't have known his name before hearing of his death, from browsing the discography he was fundamental in the vast majority of the Fushitsusha recordings that I know and love, not least the Double Live sets.

R.I.P.

:(
I saw Keiji Haino solo at the Walker in mpls last year, the only US show he was able to play, and it was absolutely paralyzing. Four Twin Reverbs just cranking out layers of bizarre vocal loops and gutting shards of what I can only assume was his guitar.

I have always wanted to see Fishitsusha. Too, too bad.

All I have is Withdrawe, and this dvd I picked up at that show. Can't seem to find these acclaimed live albums, any idea where I should look?

Not for under $50 anyway, and I found zero torrents. Would anyone be willing to burn me double live or something? I want to legitimately buy this, but...don't know how.

they're $40 with postage at Forced Exposure if that helps.

You can get this stuff direct from PSF still : http://www.psfrecords.com/index.html
Around $40 each for Live 1 & 2.

I'm not sure if posting links to mp3s is against the rules here or anything (nothing about in the FAQ), so I'll just mention that the double live albums were posted on Lost-in-Tyme a while back, if you're so inclined

if it's any consolation they are totally worth the 50 dollars.

As mentioned above, it's less than $40 each including postage from Japan when bought directly from PSF. Their prices are postage paid internationally, except for a flat $4 insurance charge on top of the whole order.

I similarly echo the sentiment that it is completely and undoubtedly worth it.

Ohh...oh man... I have to save my dough for a plane ticket to New Zealand ... and I want that White Heaven too.... This hurts me inside.

Has anyone heard Lost Aaraaf?

Oh man that Lost Aaraaf album is fucking strange...I can't even think how to describe it. Recommended!

Oddly enough I just bought the Lost Aaraaf album today and having stuck it on for the first time just now, I had to come see if anyone had ever said anything about it becuase it is indeed "fucking strange".

Bloody great though, it's going straight back on again once it finishes...

I knew this would be you reviving it!

But of course.

P.S. Julio Desouza: I feel like he's a long lost mysterious spiritual guide or something; he was before my (ilx) era, but he's always there on the interesting threads. What's the story?

I have two copies of A Death Never To Be Complete (won them both on ebay at the same time). I've been meaning to ebay my spare copy for about 2 years now, but never get round to it. One of the few bands of whom I have everything.

I just paid a lot of money for that one. You should make a good price on eBay or discogs for that.

All I'm missing is "The Time Is Nigh", which I would most definitely make serious offers for anyone can be persuaded to part with it.

*if anyone

Right. You may think I'm shitting you, krakow, but I was just checking (and putting on) the Fushitsusha CD I have double, and it is "The Time is Nigh" and not (as I'd thought) "A Death etc". I tend to think of it as "the one with Black Cluster on it".

PM me and I'll send it to you. Better that than it lying around here for another two years. If you like (and only if you like) you can perhaps send me something.

Oh my!

I think my heart just stopped. Just be glad you don't live nearby or I'd be running over to kiss you right now! PM most definitely sent.

no worries! I just know that I'll never get round to selling it. (and I don't want any payment from you).

julio is around sometimes. some variation on xyzz or something

Ah, I'll keep an eye out. (Waves at the mythical Julio).

I saw Fushitsusha play at Tonic back in November '99; it was supposed to be a two-set night, one solo Haino set and a Fushitsusha set, but for whatever reason was changed at the last minute to a three-hour Fushitsusha performance that was, no kidding, life-altering. Loads of wall-topplingly loud guitar, but also an astonishing electronics-and-hurdy-gurdy drone section in the middle. Fucking awesome.

P.S. Julio Desouza: I feel like he's a long lost mysterious spiritual guide or something; he was before my (ilx) era, but he's always there on the interesting threads. What's the story?

I'd wondered the same thing. And I recognise xyzzz from avant-gardey London show threads, so this makes sense.

Yeah, he's xyzzz or whatever, and he's an A++ fellow.

Listening right now to "the wound that was given birth to must be bigger than the wound that gave birth".

It is highly recommended not least for the fact that it gives good prominence to Yasushi Ozawa's bass. On many other recordings (especially the double live sets) the bass gets rather smothered in the guitar madness. This album (recorded live in London) gives some real space to the bass.

Yeah, that's one of my favorites. Also love Gold Blood and Withdrawe, this sable disclosure ere devot'd.

Is the first translation of Fushitsusha, as "breathing life into non-living things" potentially valid, or not, as Tim Duke said? This is the meaning that I always had in my head.

What is Robert Musil's book called in Japanese, if Fushitsusha apparently means the same thing ("Man without qualities")?

"A very simple translation of Fushitsusha is something along the lines of "breathing life into nonliving things"(eg stereo systems) but Haino said you would have to read a really big book to even begin to understand the meaning of it"

This is nonsense. Fu-Shitsu-Sha (for it is made up of three Japanese characters (kanji) means something along the lines of "un-person". Alan Cummings has translated it as "man with no qualities". The "fu" and "shitsu" parts mean "un-", "non", the "sha" means "person".

― Tim Duke, Sunday, 30 April 2006 14:30 (3 years ago)

I just wrote a lengthy reply to your query and it somehow got lost...

"Breathing life into non-living things" is not a valid translation of Fu Shitsu Sha. In an interview Haino did once talk of "breathing life into non-living things", but he was not saying that this was the meaning of the group's name, simply that this was the effect/intention of its music.

不 = Fu
失 = shitsu
者 = sha

"Sha" is one of several Kanji that convey the idea of a person/human
"Fu" and "shitsu" both convey the idea of "non-" or "un-". "Fu" is very common indeed, "Shitsu" less so (although I should say my Japanese is very basic".

Alan Cummings (no less) did once translate Fushitsusha as something along the lines of "A man without qualities" (if I recall correctly). Whether this is an indirect Musil reference is a good question, and one which has not been asked of Haino, to my knowledge.

The title of Musil's literary work is however written with different Kanji to those used in Fu Shitsu Sha -- but then you could convey this idea in so many different ways.

Thanks Duke, that sounds pretty definitive to me. Sorry to have got you to restate your case, but it's quite frustrating to have no Japanese myself and so be completely in the dark on this stuff without major help.

non-unhuman

?

non-unhuman
?
― what u arrestin me for, innit (╓abies), Thursday, 11 June 2009 09:37 (10 hours ago)

I would assume the two negatives enhance rather than contradict each other here.

I finally found the Alan Cummings note on the name Fushitsusha (and if anyone knows what it means, he does!)

Haino thought that he had coined the term himself. From the literal meaning of the characters used to write it, Fushitsusha means "a person without qualities." As far as I understand it (which probably isn't very far), in Buddhism the term refers to a process that occurs during deep meditation–after losing all sense of self, if you continue to meditate to a very deep level you will eventually rediscover yourself, but a self devoid of all qualities and spiritually pure. Nijiumu is also supposedly a Buddhist term–the literal meaning of the characters is "the merging of that which is and that which is not."
The above is from Cummings' notes at the bottom of this interview with Haino: http://www.halana.com/haino.html

Here are two quotations from Haino which illuminate what he's getting at with the name:

I was really surprised once when someone told me that the word "Fushitsusha" appears in a Buddhist sutra. On one level, if you are able to explain what "Fushitsusha" means then that means that you can also define what Buddhism means. I heard that from an actual priest, someone who has read a lot of obscure texts. That's the sense in which I use "Fushitsusha." We talked about this before – how in Buddhism nothing is the same as everything, so nothingness is not something that you should aim for

I am not an anarchist, I am Anarchy... When Buddha meditated he achieved satori [spiritual awakening, or enlightenment], and the body disappeared, that would be the end. But what physically remains after satori is what was written up by the Buddha's pupils, not the satori itself. Buddha said he's got something that he cannot understand or express in words. My job, my anarchy, which is political only insofar as not being interested in politics at all is political, what I am trying to do is to express in music the satori that the Buddha achieved but couldn't explain

In the interview linked above (http://www.halana.com/haino.html), Cummings writes that he and Haino spoke over iced tea and cake. Which reminds me that Haino has a very sweet tooth (especially cake, it seems). So much so that he had to cancel an appearance about 3 years ago because he'd eaten too much cake and felt unwell. So much for the Lord of Darkness etc!

Amazing.

Thanks for your help again, and for a massive genuine laugh.

Anyone picked up the new Fushitsusha, "Hikari to Nazukeyo"? I'm trying to see if I can buy it locally before ordering online. Volcanic Tongue has it for a reasonable price (with typically OTT write-up by Keenan):

Fushitsusha
Hikari to Nazukeyo
Heartfast HFCD-013
CD
£18.99

Possibly the most anticipated release of 2012, the return of the greatest rock band on the planet, Keiji Haino’s Fushitsusha: Hikari to Nazukeyo sees Haino on guitar and vocals joined by original Fushitsusha/Kousokuya drummer Ikuro Takahashi and bassist Mitsuru Nasuno (who he also plays with in Seijaku).
The rhythm section of Takahashi and Nasuno is as formally boggling as you might have hoped, with the pair playing in the kind of staggered signatures and over-lapping time/space visions of the Seijaku discs, but whereas the focus of those recordings was on birthing a form of future blues that took off from Steppenwolf, Albert King and The Doors here it feels very much as if the trio are attempting to reformulate original rock & roll moves, with a feel that’s somewhere between Scotty Moore, Eddie Cochran and John Lee Hooker, albeit wrestling with the kind of rhythmic equations that are most assuredly post-improvisation and deeply Japanese. Indeed, the album has two distinct sides, there are the ultra-thrifty insistent monochord carve-ups of classic trio rock/roll moves and there are the heady F/X saturated blow-outs, with Haino’s guitar exploding the kind of post-Hendrix vectors of Double Live while he sings in an otherworldly castrato, birthing a form of violent sacred music. At this point in time I think it’s safe to say that no one else has so successfully and rigorously disinterred and interrogated the basic tenets of rock music as Fushitsusha and to think that at 60 years old Haino is still making the most radical and searching rock music of anyone’s career is a tribute to his commitment to the specifics of vision and his belief in the potential of the form. From where I’m sitting it feels like the whole history of rock music has led up to this. Highest possible recommendation!

as if the trio are attempting to reformulate original rock & roll moves, with a feel that’s somewhere between Scotty Moore, Eddie Cochran and John Lee Hooker

I predict I will not hear what they're talking about and this will sound exactly like Fushitsusha to me.

Well done Dave for that write-up. Not buying it tho' but hopefully I can see them if they come to London.

I can really recommend Haino's new-ish trio, Seijaku. Haino describes them as "21st century blues". Two albums so far: http://www.doubtmusic.com/mart/dmf-136-7_e.html

Yeah, I wrote about Seijaku (and Haino generally) for Burning Ambulance a while back. Killer stuff. So's Aihiyo. Got a copy of this new Fushitsusha but haven't played it yet.

Fushitsusha Double Live (1991) is supposed to be getting a 5 LP (!) reissue on Black Editions

God I don't want to see the price on that, be nice if they could do a CD as well.

I paid $65 for a CD copy of Live II last year. I do not regret this.

I probably would jump for that price, I haven't seen a copy for under three figures.

I remember even back in the '90s those Fusitsusha CDs were pricey. I think like $30 for a typical import single CD was common.

Back in about 1990 I sold a copy of Iron Maiden's "Soundhouse Tapes" 7" for $70 to some guy in the US, it's now worth about 20 times that. Anyway I recycled the cash by sending it to PSF in Japan for Fushitsusha "Live 2" plus I think CDs by Ghost, High Rise and maybe a Tokyo Flashback comp. Money well spent, even though I could have bought half the PSF catalogue with it if I'd waited a decade or two before selling. But who can wait for Fushitsusha?

Every time I see one pop up on Discogs for a reasonable amount, it's always like someone asking like $40 for shipping.

https://www.discogs.com/release/7946687-Fushitsusha-Secret-Black-Box

This is on YT btw..

Apparently there's a new lineup with Shingo Naruke on bass and Noriaki Yoshida on drums, both also members of Keiji Haino & the Hardy Rocks.

Do you know if they’re going to play in the US at all?

feels like haino was here all the time as recently as 10-15yrs ago and then he just stopped completely. my guess is it’s a combination of getting older and this country getting super duper dumb. i prob wouldn’t bother either.

I feel so lucky to have gotten to see the classic Fushitsusha lineup at Tonic in 2000.

I think I was at that same show. I also saw Haino solo a couple of times but that was the only time I saw Fusitsusha.

I was at this gig in London, for reasons unknown they were booked into some nothing pub in Brixton that seemed more suited to Irish dance bands or somesuch.

https://www.discogs.com/release/1023073-Fushitsusha-Purple-Trap-The-Wound-That-Was-Given-Birth-To-Must-Be-Bigger-Than-The-Wound-That-Gave-Bi

That's one of my favorite Fushitsusha recordings. Would love to have been there.