Suzuki Junzo is a renowned Japanese psychedelic rock guitarist and ''If I Die Before I Wake'' is his latest album, released only as recently as late August. The album puts forth some truly fine Japanese underground psychedelic noise rock from start to finish, and this is of course something normal to expect from the likes of Suzuki Junzo.
The first track on the album is titled ''Crossing The Valley of The Cosmic Death Demons'' and it is all about avant-garde improvisational guitars in the vein of Suzuki Junzo, as well as many other Japanese psychedelic rock greats. The track boasts a forward propelling drum section and nearly 9 minutes of maddened far-out psychedelic improvisation in a relatively structured format. And that is what makes this track an awesome one. The second track ''Les Visiteurs Du Soir'' as well as the third track ''The Hidden Strokes on Elsa Bannister'' on the other hand tend to be rather ambient, with a few guitar and drone bits thrown in here and there in a somewhat Keiji Haino'esque manner. The fifth track ''If I Die Before I Wake'' can be summed up in an almost similar manner, as it evolves from ambience to some improvisational avant-garde psych moments in the last third of the track, while the two bonus tracks tend to have a similar message to convey as well.
All in all the album seems to almost have two different parts. Namely the far-out improvisational psych of ''Crossing The Valley of The Cosmic Death Demons'' and rest of the tracks that pack a much more ambient and drone-infused approach. It is as though the first track marks the crossing to the valley of the cosmic death demons, and the rest of the tracks are about wrestling with these demons in an echo laden vacuum. Whatever the case may be the album is definitely worth checking out, as it is probably one of the best Suzuki Junzo albums of recent years. At least the best after ''7''.
Some related links:
Bandcamp: https://utechrecords.bandcamp.com/album/if-i-die-before-i-wake
