Keiji Haino & SUMAC 'American Dollar Bill - Keep Facing Sideways, You’re Too Hideous To Look At Face On' 2xLP

Japan’s fearless multi-instrumentalist and cultural provocateur Keiji Haino has made a career out of his freeform musical improvisations and diverse collaborations. Whether deconstructing American blues to a few rogue notes hanging across chasms of empty space in his solo endeavours, sparring with the nebulous fringes of psychedelia in Fushitsusha, or teaming up with musicians like Faust, Boris, Jim O’Rourke, Stephen O’Malley, John Zorn and Peter Brötzmann for fleeting aural experiments. Haino’s work is never pre- planned or structured but rather a completely spontaneous exploration of chemistry, texture and dynamics.

SUMAC’s tenure is much younger than Haino’s, though guitarist / vocalist Aaron Turner has covered a similarly large swath of musical territory across numerous projects and collaborations, from the sedated drones of recent projects with Daniel Menche and William Fowler Collins to the modern compositions of Mamiffer and all the way back to the restless evolutions of post-metal stalwarts ISIS. With his cohorts Nick Yacyshyn (Baptists, Erosion) on drums and Brian Cook (Russian Circles) on bass, Turner has dissolved the rigid forms of heavy music, searching for a balance between disciplined precision and unhinged musical barbarism, crafting music that vacillates between meticulously detailed instrumentation and uninhibited forays into oblique abstraction.

Throughout the course of its hour-plus length, ‘American Dollar Bill’ pushes and pulls at the strictures of metal and bends the stylistic formalities of improvised music to create a sonic purge unencumbered by convention.

CD packaged in a 4 panel mini-LP style gatefold jacket printed on uncoated stock with metallic ink and 4 panel booklet.

2xLP pressed on virgin vinyl, packaged in a wide spine jacket printed on uncoated stock with custom slipcase also printed on uncoated stock with metallic ink and free download card.