Fifty years in Keiji Haino’s music resonates across interdimensional divides with distorted clarity. His work is wide, but singularly focused, always honing in on the visceral promise of sonic expression. In 2004, Haino released the enigmatic catharsis, Black Blues. Six songs, each in two different versions: Violent and Soft. While there is a tonic connection between each, the differences are chasmic. “Black Petal (violent)” is guttural, razor sharp. Haino flings hard-edged chord shards into broken mirrors and casts vocal spells with raw fury at the leftover bits. It’s propulsive and charred. At the opposite pole, “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean (soft)” swoons with impermanence, taking fleeting, ghostly melodies apart to form a dense haze. The dichotomies flourishing on Black Blues are at the heart of Haino’s legacy.
Black Blues (20th Anniversary Edition) will be released by Room 40 on August 2. Stream below and pre-order HERE.
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