Yesterday I shared a brilliant (and sadly unheralded) record by Karuna Khyal. Today you can end your work-week with what is perhaps my most-favorite Japanese rock record of all time, the incredible “Debon” by Brast Burn.
From the Freak Emporium Catalog:
“Quite an unbelievable find! This mysterious record has lain undiscovered since the mid seventies when (it is guessed) it was recorded by a group of unknown Japanese musicians and then released privately by Voice records. Rumours of the greatness of this psychedelic masterpiece have circulated for years (largely propagated by Nurse With Wounds famously obscure “list” on which Brast Burn feature) and it has finally seen re-release in a beautiful hand numbered CD issue of just 500. So, now that it’s available what’s it actually like? Well,… it’s simply astonishing. Split into two long sequences, the music runs right up to the edge of sanity and screams wordlessly in the face of madness then jogs back to a lone hill top to lazily invent the form of psychedelic acid folk that Ghost have made an entire career from. There is utterly freaked out, acid-drenched genius at work on this record. Strains of Kraut rock run throughout, Can, and particularly Damo Suzuki’s vocal style, are certainly valid comparisons, but this music really does seem to be running a race of its own, clouded in pot smoke, and headed in the wrong direction but glorious while doing it. Highly Recommended.”
From Julian Cope’s “Japrocksampler”:
“This virtually unknown free chant’n’ritual ensemble made one brilliant LP DEBON for Voice Records in 1974, before disappearing back whence they came. Often compared to Faust, they actually come across more like some Cajun inbreds at a cannibal sacrifice, the chanting exhibiting an apocalyptic bluesy quality somewhat akin to Exuma the Obeah Man, or Captain Beefheart circa STRICTLY PERSONAL and MIRROR MAN. Hand drums, sleigh bells, tambourines, blues harp, and many many vocals go into the sonic stew that makes the sound of Brast Burn.”
Alternative Press Said:
“Brast Burn’s Debon is an intricate concatenation of cascading sleigh bells and hand drums, windswept Himalayan acid atmospherics, bottleneck acoustic-guitar twiddle and Damo Suzuki-like mantric babble. All of the above is held aloft by a synthesist with a terminal case of pitch wheel woozies and is strategically embellished with outbursts of tumbling bass drums, spiraling flutes and recorders, and some exquisitly hallucinogenic electric guitar. Coming on like an eternal cosmic caravan, the whole damn thing is soaked in a higher-key music of the spheres vibe. Yes, Brast Burn are indeed the real goods, and they will suck you into a hypnogogic reverie.”
Brast Burn
Debon
(Voice, 1974)
MediaFire DL Link
Side A [Edit] [MP3]
Side B
