AGI JO -Hardly Living

Format: 7" Vinyl
Catalogue No.: JBAY001
Release Date: Oct 2022
Genre: Blues

01 Ikiteru Dake No Koto Nanda (Hardly Living)
02 Oira Wa Kanashii Uiikendo Hippy (I Am A Sad Weekend Hippy)

Agi Yuzuru (aka Agi Jo) from late 60s kayou groove singer, actor and model, to dogged krautrock and free music researcher, underground music journalist, magazine owner / editor, and early 80s Japanese electronic music pioneer / instigator, with his (holy grail) label Vanity Records

A spiky existential protest song, Agi pressed 100 copies of the record himself in 1970, after he had briefly joined folk harmony pop-rock group The Happenings Four. The single was arranged by band member (now Japanese rock legend) Kuni Kawachi. A nihilistic number, in the vein of underground musician / singer- songwriter Mikami Kan: a pained cry of confused existence, in the darkness of a rapidly modernising world. Weekend Hippy, with a Bob Dylan style barely-in-tune harmonica blasted intro, Agi comments on the hippy movement.

Two songs that express anger, and a rejection of accepted norms, both the everyday, and the so-called alternatives. A small testament to the character of a near unsung great of new music in Japan.

Licensed in a limited edition of 300 copies, in a facsimile of the original sleeve, with Japanese lyrics, and professionally printed insert with lyrics in English.