Browse by Artist: MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ

Artist:	MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ
Title:	Live Aoiheya January 2003
Label:	CHAPTER MUSIC (AUSTRALIA)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	CH 050CD

2005 release. Live Aoiheya January 2003 documents an entire brief performance by this unique band, incidentally the first Maher show that Chapter boss Guy Blackman saw after moving to live in Japan in 2002 (he returned to Melbourne in 2004). It captures the band in a variety of guises unusual even for them, including an extended abstract instrumental, songs based on conversations between band members, passages by Japanese composers, vocal relays and a Brahms waltz. In the EP's 26 minutes, Maher Shalal Hash Baz manage to cover more ground than most bands do in their whole career, all the while maintaining a spirit and idiosyncrasy that is identifiably their own.

Artist:	MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ
Title:	L'Autre Cap
Label:	K RECORDS
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.00
Catalog #:	KLP 179CD

"Composing his music to be played by amateur musicians, Tori Kudo, the enigmatic conductor of Maher Shalal Hash Baz, has been called 'The Master of Mistake.' On L'Autre Cap he is a wickedly inspired bandleader, presenting a tight package of 27 songs both fierce and fragile. Barely held together by threads, these songs seem just a note away from falling apart completely. The effect is at turns serene, dissonant, enchanting, rockin' and intensively catchy: kind of a Langley School kid's orchestra alongside Syd Barrett with Charles Ives conducting, fusing the most captivating elements of twisted jazz, psychedelic rock rebellion, and dreamy pop chamber music to form a most intimate and cohesive vision of the future of music on Planet Earth."

Artist:	MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ
Title:	C'est La Dernière Chanson
Label:	K RECORDS
Format:	2CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	KLP 210CD

"Tori Kudo, the conductor and band leader of Maher Shalal Hash Baz, fuses stray elements of pop, folk, jazz and experimental music into pieces of candid musical gestures. C'est La Dernière Chanson is a double album of songs composed by Kudo between 2005-2007. For the recordings, Kudo assembled nine musicians from Japan and bunkered down for six days in St. Pierre-Eglise, France. Bassoon, guitar, drums, trumpet, trombone, clarinet, glass percussion, organ, rocks and sticks are expanded by a sophisticated counter-repetition technique into an extensive tonal range of colors; the effect is at turns serene, dissonant, enchanting, crisp, spacious and maddeningly catchy. The future of music on Planet Earth. Listen closely, please."

Artist:	MAHER SHALAL HASH BAZ
Title:	Kunitachi Kibun ('84 & '85)
Label:	PSF (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$18.00
Catalog #:	PSF 164CD

"Maher Shalal Hash Baz stand at the pinnacle of Tori Kudo's eccentric and beguiling musical weltanschauung, a stew of soaring melodic genius, naïve wisdom and the eternal amateur freshness of left-footing your own brain. Emperors of error, indeed. Their very special talent has been recognized by a slew of underground labels across the world and garnered them famous friends and fans aplenty including The Pastels. But until now, the very earliest roots of the band have remained shrouded in misty tendrils of mystery. Kunitachi Kibun delves deep into the band's beginnings, presenting two previously unreleased gigs, including their first show from December 1984 when they played in a legendary triple header with High Rise and Kosokuya at the Kid Airaku Hall in Tokyo. The second show from six months later includes an appearance by the late alto saxophonist Masami Shinoda. Both soar with idiot-savant genius, Tori's truly distinctive guitar and vocals creating their own idiot-savant networks of logic with the rest of the group. A stupendous glimpse into a simpler world of communal transcendence and music making." -- Alan Cummings

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