psychopompe

I would like to read it again now, 20 years later; who knows what effect it would have on me. At the time, it was my bible; I was 17 and had just discovered PF with the first two albums. They are still my favorites. I also like Gilmour's early work, but Barrett's insights are timeless. I love him as a solo artist too, but I understand that it can be a matter of taste. However, the first PF album is the quintessential example of what psychedelia means; it has everything and more. In about 40 minutes or so.

After more than a week of casual listening, I can say that this album is a masterpiece in the making, constantly evolving.

Ah cool, he looked like the guy on the cover of Torture Garden! Anyway, in relation to littlehorn's comment, I'd like to share an anecdote that happened when I lived in Tokyo in '99. A dear friend of mine from university, a convinced erotomaniac and great connoisseur of the sick underbelly of Akihabara (the infamous electronics district of Tokyo, where if you stay out for more than 3 hours, you get a colossal headache from the magnetic fields, but you might stumble upon a group like Intillimani playing in front of the subway exit) invited me to visit the "porn palace," as he called it. In a very hidden alley in Akihabara, there was this anonymous prefab building (anonymous like 90% of Japanese architecture) of 6 floors, the first of which was filled with VHS tapes of cute Japanese idols in bikinis. Already on the second floor, things started to get interesting: among the "normal" porn, there was a section for anime (Sailor Moon, Lamù-Uruseiyatsura, Ranma 1/2, etc.) in pornographic versions, an "ethnic" section (titles like "John 35," featuring two adoring Japanese girls on their knees in front of a mischievous-looking African American stud, I'll let you guess what was on the back of the VHS...), and the stunning "office" section, with the mythical Japanese porn secretaries, all cute on the front (but surrounded by leering Japanese salarymen) and then amusingly "bukkakkate" on the back. The third floor (the last one I visited before leaving pretty disgusted) was a deluge of fetishes of all kinds: various bondage, different dominations, fanciful sodomizations (there was a subsection called "yasai," which means "vegetables," and I'll leave it to your imagination...), up to coprophagia and the terrible "doubutsu" section (animals). And here, honestly, I started to feel a bit sorry for it all. Yes, because it's well known that the Japanese censor genitalia in porn with pixellation (at the time, all of it), practically transporting porn from the gynecological to the fantasy realm. But for some absurd and twisted reasoning, the reproductive organs of animals and feces (from both animals and humans) were not censored. By the third film in which a guy in a suit and tie got feces in his mouth from a cheerful Japanese lady, who was trying to give a blow job to the German shepherd of the moment, I had to give up. However, I remember something even more terrible (for the Japanese): the penis of the aforementioned dog was definitely longer than that (pixellated) of the human partner in the act.... Ah, it was rumored that on the 4th floor they started with kids, but I never had the desire to investigate. On the other hand, I discovered five years later that it quickly closed down in 2000. Conclusions? Everyone can draw their own, but if my daughter ever marries a Japanese man, it won't be on my watch.

Oh fucking hell, everyone’s listening to it, commenting blah blah blah and no one is telling me where to find it (maybe in a private msg???). Thanks in advance :) (by the way, I’ve never been crazy about the MBV, but if I have to listen to something shoegaze, it's them....especially since is there any other decent band in the shoegaze genre? Can’t say Slowdive or Ride because I really can’t stand both of them)

I would have bet a million euros that someone had done it at the time of its release, but well done Jurassic for bridging the gap, and especially for reminding me of the existence of the album that I had blocked out! I have Hex and Indipendency, I'm just missing this one and I'm all set. By the way, great review!

Damn, I was sending it, I had written it back in November. Great, I'll read it later, to date my favorite OM, but now we’re in the devotional realm, first and last track total trip!

I bought it after reading about it in the latest Mucchio Extra; it had completely slipped my mind at the time (it's from 2010, right?). Nice review, I need to digest the album; for now, it's a very easy listening monolith, perhaps too much. Anyway, I'll make an effort to dive into it.

Just to clarify one thing and maybe get you even more fired up: we aren't even certain about the historical authenticity of the Gorin No Sho (that is, the Book of Five Rings), in the sense that it seems to have been written way after what Japanese tradition claims (remember that until 1868 only a small group of Dutch confined to Hiroshima had the chance to be in Japan; the borders had been closed since 1615, for example). This does not undermine the content, of course, just as it doesn't undermine the Hagakure by Tsunetomo. But, speaking personally, approaching this tired and stereotypical idea of Japan as if everything were based on Bushido, from when one leaves the house until one gets drunk in the Izakaya, is an enormous pain in the ass. That's why the core or at least the moral and ethical implications of the film have been enormously irritating to me from the very beginning; it has always felt like Orientalism for dummies. Okay, now you can continue to love each other passionately. Mata kondo.

Oh, but am I the only one that neither dadamah nor hash jar has ever told me a damn thing???? I mean, honestly, sometimes the word "genius" should be validated by a neutral body before being applied to someone. I'm not blaming the reviewer or the participants in the discussion, just to be clear.

Don't get me wrong, guys, I wasn't saying that ONLY the Can are among the top. I would more or less include those that jdv mentioned in the first post. @nes: I'm alive, checking out a bit less deb, finding few interesting records reviewed or, let's say, time passes and one has a thousand things to think about, and deb takes a back seat. Anyway, as I mentioned to jdv, I have like 8 reviews done from October until now to publish; if I can, I’ll start this week. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, I just hit 9 years of debaser not long ago, damn it feels like yesterday, Christ!