Now we’re not massively big on re-issues here, even when they have been reworked, we’re mote about the now, the new, however, Koenjihyakkei‘s classic third album Nivraym is being revamped, revisited and released on vinyl for the first time on the 17th of February. Years after its original 2001 release, the Legendary Japanese band’s leader, Tatsuya Yoshida, and the current Koenjihyakkei line-up (as heard on Dhorimvishka) returned to the Nivraym master recordings and went to work, adding new flourishes, additional overdubs and re-recorded drum tracks. They are a band who we’ve been covering pretty much since day one around here of course, regulars on the various radio shows and pretty much a standard issue pop band to our ears but you know that. Do we need to go dancing around their architecture here?  We could dig out the original review from 2001 or we could just suggest you hit play and treat your eyes and ears, we surely don’t need to go on about “fusing elements of frenetic progressive rock” and such do we?

“After years of working with Tatsuya’s other band, Ruins, we released Koenjihyakkei’s fourth album, Angherr Shisspa, in 2005. Then we brought their first, second and third albums out internationally,” so says Skin Graft’s Mark Fischer, “In 2018, Koenjhyakkei returned to great acclaim with album number five Dhorimviskha, which we followed up with a vinyl release of Angherr Shisspa. Now we’re bringing back the third album under the title Nivraym (Revisited). It’s received an extensive overhaul since its original Japanese release. When the 2023 version is compared to the 2001 original, it is a huge difference”. 

There are some bonus live tracks on the new album, here, I do believe is an exclusive preview taste of one of the live tracks…

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Find the whole thing on Bandcamp

Here’s some footage of the band playing live in Japan, I do remember us broadcasting, sgharing this at the time, if this is the ame footage, it was a show they did live during the long days of the Covid lockdown

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Indeed Marina did open her Other Rock Show last week by playing a Koenjihyakkei track, they are probably the most played band on the show (well besides Cardiacs). Liste nbac kt othe whole show here…

Marina Organ presents an hour of music that uses unconventional structures and ‘other’ time signatures – gathered from the worldwide undergrounds of math rock, avant prog, weird electronica and strange pop. This week: featuring music from Koenjihyakkei, Kayo Dot, Zopp, Cardiacs, Oort Smog, Shy Low and more

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If you do feel like making a small donation – We bring all this art, music and underculture to you for free, we really don’t want to clutter up our pages with annoying adverts, no one wants that, but it does take up a lot of time, hours and hours of time. If you should feel like supporting Organ/Cultivate (for it is one in the same) by making a small donation to help keep all this flowing that would be delightful, thank you.