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Artist: Slum Title: Sunflowers of Today Label: Sunflowers of Today Records. (Really?) Date: May, 2008 1. Deprive of It 2. It's Luckylife 3. Don't Miss the Aimed Loot 4. I Don't Think That We Are Defeated 5. My Turn, Again 6. Get Close Behind Men Only of Pretense 7. Season of Counter Attack 8. Go and Go, Anyway Go 9. We Must Choose 10. It Expands Toward The Sun What in the holy f*ck? Look I try not to stereotype Japanese entertainment, but they make it so f*cking hard. Chubby dude in a diaper and a knee brace rubbing his belly whilst tentacles wave on his arms. For God's sake the machine gun out of the chick's ass is the least unusual thing here! Japanese people must be aliens. Ahem. I like sunflowers. Not sure which is cooler the album cover or the poorly translated Ingrish track titles. This is Shuji Ichimura who is apparently the James Brown of Japanese psytrance. Actually I made that up. Maybe he's the James Woods of Japanese psy. Now that doesn't even make sense. Anyhoo...this is his 2nd album and like all things Japanese it's a little out there. But since we're dealing with full-on it's a welcome change from the tired crap we've been force fe over the years. Take sounds that would be unpleasant by themselves and put it with a bass line and a hi hat and that's where we are. The power is there without most of the annoying things full-on hoists upon the ears. As this unfolds and I get wrapped up in images of smiley Japanese high school girls in ultra short uniforms engaging in ridiculous cosplay against a backdrop of intense colorful flashing lights while sumo wrestlers perform an awkwardly choreographed dance routines. I suppose this happens on the streets of Japan everyday. I don't know I've never been there. The album is a loud and pumping barrage that makes no apologies for its straight forward approach. It's more in your face than melodic, but it will get you moving. Sometimes it gets a little too heavy, but don't discount the havoc his dissonant style could wreak on the dance floor. Acid, guitars, funky last track...there's a bit of everything in here. Psyshop