Music Arcades: Fushitsusha (不失者): Allegorical Misunderstanding

I reckon Allegorical Misunderstanding is the missing link between Glenn Branca and Summers & Fripp.

I guess I'd read about Fushitsusha in The Wire. Then I saw this CD in the racks of Rare & Racy. It was £16.40 — I think I only paid more for a single CD once — but that reflects the costs of small-scale import distribution and niche retail. Thank the Internet for saving us from those (and probably putting Rare & Racy in jeopardy at the same time).

Any album that sounds like this — noisy, formless, dense, dare I say unlistenable? — well, one of my first thoughts is, "I bet Julian Cope and Thurston Moore like this." (And John Zorn, too, but then he produced the album, so that goes without saying.) A bit of googling quickly confirms both, though I was reassured to read a comment on Cope's message boards: "Allegorical Misunderstanding-can't say this is a favourite, always find it hard going". Reassured because I can't say it's a favourite either.

Inevitably Keiji Haino, Fushitsusha's main man, has built a moat of mystique around himself, always dressed in black, with shades, hair down to his waist. That must be a necessary step if you're going to keep showing up at the studio and make a full career out of this kind of music: you've got to believe that it's part of a broader Reframing of the World through Art; not just a halfway house between Glenn Branca and Summers & Fripp.