'TO BE TRUE THEN THE LOOP WILL RUN FOREVER' LP : Kawaguchi Masami / Mike Vest / Dave Sneddon

Kawaguchi Masami, Mike Vest, Dave Sneddon, 'To Be True, Then The Loop Will Run Forever' LP

WV Sorcerer / Echodelick records 2025

- 12" black or 'phantom flame' colour vinyl
- 4mm spine 350g reverse board cover. w* obi
- limited edition of 300

If Masami Kawaguchi was a Marvel hero, his superpower would be the ability to send multicolor sparks soaring into the air simply by touching his guitar. It’s a gift he’s been honing since the ‘90s, gradually evolving into one of Japan’s foremost ambassadors of psychedelic fury. On his own, and in a host of bands, the psychedelic superhero has carried forward the spirit of barnstorming, guns-ablaze acid rock, scouting new routes for the trail blazed by Jimi Hendrix and broadened in Japan by the likes of Flower Travellin’ Band, White Heaven, High Rise, Fushitsusha, and Acid Mothers Temple. (He’s even worked with members of some of those bands along the way.)

To Be True, Then the Loop Will Run Forever drops the singer/axeman into a classic power-trio format, bouncing his blasts of fuzzed-out fireworks off a pair of Brits—bassist Mike Vest and drummer Dave Sneddon. The title track, which opens the album, is a full-fledged lease-breaker that lets you know what you’re in for straight away. Imagine an aural assault somewhere between the bombing of Dresden and what would’ve happened if Jackson Pollock worked with guitars instead of paint, and you’ll be in the ballpark.

“Cursed Silver” slows things down but hits even harder, stirring up a sort of post-psychedelic doom-metal waltz. “Blight Morning Light” almost edges into poignant balladry, but Kawaguchi’s guitar sends so much shrapnel exploding every direction that you’ll need to duck for cover before you shed any tears. The instrumental jam “While My Broken Shoes Are Loose” is the closest thing to a conventional rocker, but even here, Kawaguchi seems like he’s informed as much by the cantankerous quirkiness of krautrock wailers Guru Guru as anything from Hendrix’s solar system. The record ends on an anthemic note, with the valedictory stomp of “Eternity Sustain.” Another instrumental jam-fest, it moves at a stately pace, leaving enough space between beats for plenty of fuzz-tone rockets to come bursting through and light up the sky; it’s simultaneously epic and elegiac.

It takes barely more than half an hour to swim through To Be True. But before it’s done, you’ll feel like you’ve passed the line separating the prosaic from the heady, heavy, tripped-out dimension that Masami Kawaguchi calls home. Living there 24/7 could be a challenge—but it’s a hell of a place to visit