Yximalloo’s (Naofumi Ishimaru) long and varied career in music covers a period as manager of Yellow Magic Orchestra back in the day, when he also started producing his own music on cassette. Later branching out into CDrs, his discography is voluminous. Sometimes collaborating with Momus, Jad Fair (Half Japanese), Sympathy Nervous (Vanity Records) and others, he has quietly put out over 70 releases, all with his undefinable catalogue of styles.
Final part of a three part compilation series that attempts to make sense of the vast catalogue of music Naofumi Ishimaru has released as Yximalloo. Dating back to, I believe, the late seventies, the history of Yximalloo is spread across a near-endless spillage of micro-release cassettes which detail an alternative vision of Japanese post-punk electronic music and proto-indiepop, one that runs parallel to YMO, Vanity, Kankyo Ongaku... One such release is a recording made of a performance in the toilet of Honda's factory in Japan... This, you've a sense of what's on offer here: playful & provocative electronic experimentations that in their nascent state cover similar ground to TG, Severed Heads, Portion Control et al but developed to embody a distinctly twee spirit that presages the Hamster and Cordelia aesthetic. Indeed, it's remarkable that Yximalloo didn't appear on the Japanese edition of the latter's Obscure Independent Classics compilation from 1987. Art-damaged DIY fuckery with a perfectly wanton singularness. These three records together do a remarkable job in distilling what previously appeared too obscure and distended to understand. Brilliant oddities, one and all.
"First off, the record should be set straight: previous reports of Yximalloo having managed YMO have proven to be false. That said, with one of his earlier tape releases being entitled "Live At The Lavatory In Honda's Factory", we should consult our lawyers before alleging anything further.
The world as we knew it may have unraveled before our eyes, but one thing remains constant, Yximalloo's singular, twisted musical visions keep coming. Here we all are, counting off The End Of Days with the one consolation, that his third volume is here. No, not The Book Of Revelations, but Yximalloo's self compiled bumper-car / helter skelter ride through his voluminous tape and CDr archive, realised over the last 40 years.
Yximalloo, pronounced Ishimaru, has produced over 70 CDrs & tapes since the early 80s, occasionally working with Sympathy Nervous (Vanity) and Jad Fair (Half Japanese), but mostly within his own universe.
An unknown track of his was released in 2013 by Kompakt, as "Wanted". An unknown artist - they had lost the details of the CD he'd sent them but were compelled to release it anyway. It was the only vinyl release of Yximalloo until "Best Of".
