Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Purchasable with gift card
€6EUR or more
Limited Edition Vinyl LP
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Shipping via courier with tracking number.
Reissued for the first time ever on vinyl in just 199 copies with completely new artwork by the artist himself on reverse cardboard sleeve plus 12” double face insert on heavy cardboard.
Includes unlimited streaming of Highdrophobia
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Solmania is a Japanese noise music project founded in 1984 by Masahiko Ohno. The hallmark of this amazing artist, who builds his experimental electric guitars from spare parts, is his freakish ability to use the stringed instrument by generating absolutely unique sounds, both in his live performances and recordings. The guitars used by Masahiko Ohno are multi-neck guitars and harp guitars and take on extremely bizarre shapes, using unconventional body shapes, extra-necks, strings and pickups in unusual places, and various extraneous gadgets such as mics or tweets. Pushing far beyond expectations of free improvisation, Solmania weaves blistering passages that incorporate touchstones from progressive , punk, metal, noise, and drone, into more intricate movements of dystopian avant-gardism, culminating as a strikingly forward-thinking expanse of sonic creativity that pushing toward uncharted ground. Still, in all this, his advanced technical and interpretive skills are always evident, and his sense of lyricism in all music, quite profound.
Traveling through the winding and jagged grooves of modified noise guitar, we come across Highdrophobia. Recorded and mixed in September 1986 and released the following month on cassette on Fatagaga Tapes FTC-08 in an extremely limited edition, this rare gem finally rear its ugly head in a new analog version on 12" vinyl. With his stunning modified guitar, Solmania uses tape, radio, metal, turntable and vocals creating three incredible sound tracks of wild noise madness, offering the listener an excellent overview of his music’s development. From side A single session, with its gumtree-shaking shimmer and mottled chords, through to the wildly sophisticated free noise sculpting of side B, divided into two tracks, where a horse-galloping guitar figure transform and uplift it from standard to something deeply original.
A sublime, noisy effort of left field DIY minimalism constructed from recurring guitar pieces, vocal and a peppering of diverse object as turntables, radio and invisible effects, Highdrophobia illuminates a hidden but remarkable legacy of a great performer at the begin of his creativity and consciousness in the mid of the 80s.
Highdrophobia is a masterpiece of guitar drone, its dense harmonics and overtones induce trance-like states, providing one of the most creatively thrilling, immersive experiences that we can call to mind.
I cannot praise this album enough. This album is absolutely terrifying! The many starts and stops creates this very h settling tension. Each start expands on the stopper idea previously. It’s like the music equivalent of walking through thick fog while passing out multiple times throughout trying to find a place to orientate yourself. There may or may not be something sinister in that fog, but you don’t want to stick around to find out. Bought the vinyl so I summon the fog demons through spe showhornwithteeth
David Helm & Jozef Dumoulin dive into the haunting abyss of improvisational electronics on this harrowing, mysterious record. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 5, 2022
Every sound here is made using Megan Mitchell's voice, even though the music often sounds more like Earth’s vibrations than a human singing. Bandcamp Album of the Day Mar 28, 2023