KEIJI HAINO + SUMAC : American Dollar Bill - Keep Facing Sideways, You're Too Hideous To Look At Face On

'Japan’s fearless multi-instrumentalist and cultural provocateur Keiji Haino has made a career out of his free-form musical improvisations and diverse collaborations. Whether deconstructing American blues to a few rogue notes hanging across chasms of empty space in his solo endeavors, 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.
For American Dollar Bill - Keep Facing Sideways, You're Too Hideous To Look At Face On, Keiji Haino and SUMAC met up in Tokyo’s Goksound recording studio to track a series of unrehearsed, completely non-premeditated sessions. Captured across several reels of tape, the collaboration harnessed Haino’s tension-inducing use of empty space on songs like “I’m over 137% a love junkie, and it’s still not enough” while pushing SUMAC’s dissident metal vocabulary on “What have I done (I was reeling in something white...)”. 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.'



1 American Dollar Bill - Keep Facing Sideways, You're Too Hideous To Look At Face On 19:54
2 What Have I Done? (I Was Reeling In Something White And I Became Able To Do Anything I Made A Hole Imprisoned Time Within It Created Friction Stopped Listening To Warnings Ceased Fixing My Errors Made The Impossible Possible? Turned Sadness Into Joy) Pt. I 9:01
3 I'm Over 137% A Love Junkie And Still It's Not Enough Pt. I 11:07
4 I'm Over 137% A Love Junkie And Still It's Not Enough Pt. II 15:42
5 What Have I Done? (I Was Reeling In Something White And I Became Able To Do Anything I Made A Hole Imprisoned Time Within It Created Friction Stopped Listening To Warnings Ceased Fixing My Errors Made The Impossible Possible? Turned Sadness Into Joy) Pt. II 11:12

Artwork [Art] – A. Turner
Bass – Brian Cook
Design – A. Turner, Faith Coloccia
Drums – Nick Yacyshyn
Guitar – Aaron Turner
Guitar, Voice, Flute – Keiji Haino
Liner Notes [Title Translation] – Alan Cummings
Mixed By – Kurt Ballou
Mixed By [Additional], Edited By [Track Edits], Mastered By – James Plotkin
Photography By [Photographs By] – Takeshi
Recorded By – Kondoh Yoshiaki
Words By [Titles], Lyrics By – Keiji Haino
Square 4-panel digisleeve with fold-out sheet & paper sleeve to house the CD.

Artist names as given in Japanese:
灰野敬二＋スーマック

Album title as given in Japanese:
アメリカドル紙幣よ　そのまま横を向いたままでいてくれ　正面からは見られたもんじゃないから

Song titles as given in Japanese:
1. アメリカドル紙幣よ　そのまま横を向いたままでいてくれ　正面からは見られたもんじゃないから
2 and 5. しまった（白いものを手繰り寄せていったら　何でも出来るようになってしまった　穴を開けてしまった　時間を閉じ込めてしまった　摩擦を起こさせてしまった　忠告を聞かなくなってしまった　誤りを片付けなくなってしまった　不可能を可能にしてしまった？　悲しみを喜びに変えてしまった）
3 and 4. 僕は137%以上の愛のジャンキーだ　まだ足りない

Recorded at GOK Sound, Tokyo, June 2017.
Mixed at God City, Salem, September 2017.
Additional mixing, track edits and mastering at Plotkinworks, Bethlehem, October 2017.