Long-running Chicago metal experimenters Yakuza have announced they have a busy summer ahead of them, with four of the group's old LPs and a previously unreleased improvisational album to arrive through vocalist/saxophonist Bruce Lamont's War Crime Recordings imprint.
The reissue series begins July 1 with new deluxe packages of the group's self-released 2000 effort Amount to Nothing and their 2002 sophomore effort Way of the Dead. The latter, originally delivered via Century Media, will be beefed up with a cover of John Coltrane's "Seraphic Light." Exclaim!'s original review praised the record's blending of alterna-metal with "calm yet dramatic jazz breaks."
Next up are two of the avant-garde metal outfit's Prosthetic Records offerings, 2006's Samsara and 2007's Transmutations, which hit retailers July 14. The newly configured Samsara now features bonus track "The Ballad of Mr. K" and remix of "Back to the Mountain" by James Plotkin (OLD, Scorn, Khanate), while Transmutations is augmented with Godflesh leader Justin K. Broadrick's remix of "The Blinding."
Finally, due July 29 is Kabuki Mono, an album of improv recordings tracked back in 2001 but never before released. Kabuki Mono is the name Yakuza takes on whenever they perform "mostly instrumental" improvisational sets around the Windy City.
On top of the upcoming re-releases, a press release confirms that the band have recently been recording new material. Apparently, the band hit Chicago's Soma Studios with engineer Sanford Parker (Corrections House) and have recorded upwards of 100 minutes of improvised material. A release compiling the best takes will be delivered sometime early next year.
Of the reissues and the band's upcoming plans, Lamont said in a statement: "It's great that these recordings are available again as so to document the lineage of Yakuza but we are a band who does not dwell in the past. Into the future. Onward!"
The reissue series begins July 1 with new deluxe packages of the group's self-released 2000 effort Amount to Nothing and their 2002 sophomore effort Way of the Dead. The latter, originally delivered via Century Media, will be beefed up with a cover of John Coltrane's "Seraphic Light." Exclaim!'s original review praised the record's blending of alterna-metal with "calm yet dramatic jazz breaks."
Next up are two of the avant-garde metal outfit's Prosthetic Records offerings, 2006's Samsara and 2007's Transmutations, which hit retailers July 14. The newly configured Samsara now features bonus track "The Ballad of Mr. K" and remix of "Back to the Mountain" by James Plotkin (OLD, Scorn, Khanate), while Transmutations is augmented with Godflesh leader Justin K. Broadrick's remix of "The Blinding."
Finally, due July 29 is Kabuki Mono, an album of improv recordings tracked back in 2001 but never before released. Kabuki Mono is the name Yakuza takes on whenever they perform "mostly instrumental" improvisational sets around the Windy City.
On top of the upcoming re-releases, a press release confirms that the band have recently been recording new material. Apparently, the band hit Chicago's Soma Studios with engineer Sanford Parker (Corrections House) and have recorded upwards of 100 minutes of improvised material. A release compiling the best takes will be delivered sometime early next year.
Of the reissues and the band's upcoming plans, Lamont said in a statement: "It's great that these recordings are available again as so to document the lineage of Yakuza but we are a band who does not dwell in the past. Into the future. Onward!"
