Audiopile Review: The ‘90s psychedelic rock scene centred around Japan’s PSF label was quite militantly underground. Keiji Haino is an avant garde legend and those Acid Mothers Temple have a significant cult following. But few of the PSF bands and artists appeared to have much crossover potential. Ghost had the most. Not to be confused with the theatrical metal band, Ghost was a Tokyo group led by Masaki Batoh and Michio Kurihara. This Ghost synthesized various folk forms, classic minimalism, and pure psychedelia into some very attractive and extremely prescient music. If you’re sad there won’t be any more Kikagaku Moyo albums, you’ll be delighted to discover Ghost. Maybe you already know them via their collaborations with Boris and Damon & Naomi. Or maybe all this is old news to you, and you’ve just been waiting for Drag City to reissue the albums it licensed from PSF in the late ‘90s. The wait is over. Here they are, sounding ancient and futuristic all at once, just like they always did and just like they always will.

2024 vinyl reissue. Green color vinyl. “Returned from early ’90s Japan are the holy sounds of Ghost. Their collective, clearly inspired by various forms of transcendental music throughout history, created a new syncretic psychedelia with these albums, mixing the texture and vibe of multinational forms of traditional music, with strummed antique stringed instruments and the haunting wail of a recorder on top of their heavy beats and guitars. The considerable depth of this approach was explored through 2014 over another five Ghost LPs, as well as the further explorations to the present day of leader Masaki Batoh, as a solo artist and with The Silence, Damon & Naomi, Helena Espvall, and most recently, nehan. The first three Ghost titles (Ghost, Second Time Around, and Temple Stone) were originally released by P.S.F. on CD in 1990, 1992 and 1994, respectively, radiating enigma and energy in palpable waves with their original sound. After the acclaim that greeted Drag City’s 1996 US release of Lama Rabi Rabi, the label quickly reissued all three on vinyl — and they quickly went out of print! At which point, Ghost had Snuffbox Immanence and Free Tibet ready to go. And then, Hypnotic Underworld. And then, and then… Now, it’s been 25 years since they were last offered on vinyl. In the twenty-year sweep of Ghost history, these first three releases qualify as primitive early Ghost — sort of like a German Os Mutantes (or perhaps a Brazilian Amon Düül). The subterranean presence of a diversity of progressive/avant classic rock influences (Pink Floyd, Incredible String Band, Captain Beefheart, Scott Walker, Led Zeppelin, Popol Vuh, Third Ear Band, to name but a few) provokes further synthesis, making for an entirely new meditation on the traditional order of psychedelic music. The first two studio albums, each one an iteration of Ghost’s unique lysergic folk music, were followed by the monolithic ‘live in various places’ happening of Temple Stone, which raised the trippiness levels considerably.”