As "reviewed" by me in February 1994:Shinjuku Thief are 3 guys: Darrin Verhagen, Francois Tetaz, and Charles Tetaz. I don't know where they're from or anything more about them. Their only other release is an album they put out themselves, limited to 500 copies.Overall, Shinjuku Thief are different from C-Schulz but are oriented in a similar direction with this album. A mind-movie of fantastic proportions, not overly reliant on electronic sounds, incredibly diverse in the directions it takes. The tracks are more separate and don't depend on each other very much to set the tone, so the album can be listened to either as a whole or in pieces. It doesn't sound like a collection of songs, though; it's very calculated.Komachi Ruins: wailing Japanese man, organ, sirens, and a sudden crash into 3 minutes of fuzz guitar and industrial dance insanity.Feather Woman of the Jungle: What the ..? Blam! You're listening to a tender saxophone, a sparse, funky bass, and congas all around. Plus some ambient effects and the organ, again, all mixed really well, as far as use of stereo. A little long, but builds up suddenly at the end just in time to crash down into...Burden of Dreams: Yahhh! Infinity out of 10, twice! This is amazing! Yet another turn, this time into a piece with a great sample percussion loop, a beeping tone you can't hear, a real bass line, sampled sound effects and voices, and a killer symphonic break.. once again I'm left trying to describe what I'm hearing but not being able to compare it to anything.The Sacrifice: At first sounds like the beginning of Enigma's "The Principles of Lust", this is down to earth space music. After 3 minutes things get quiet and dreamier, voices and distant howls can be heard, various percussion sounds drop in and out, and heavily reverbed drones rise and fall. Reminds me of the tone of the Bryan Ferry "I Put A Spell On You" remixes.Preacher's Ghost: A synthesized breeze, a flute, and a bass that plays one note, arranged in a spooky, sparse arrangement combined with movie samples from a spaghetti western (people talking tough, something about a murder by a preacher)... very intense, evokes the unmistakable feel of being in a hot desert ghost town in the old west.Hallucinations: Continuing the western motif, with Mexican influences, big drums of all types, tablas, tambs, more samples, even a female vocal (ahhh ohhh oooo ohh ahhh is how it goes i believe), builds up and then stops.Open Wound: Sounds of the surf, gulls, people around, a beautiful piano ode to contemplation, at 2:15 into the track the sonic space is enveloped by a Tangerine Dream style harmonic pattern, a minute later the piano lead moves away and some creative percussion comes in, with chanting Japanese men in some kind of classroom to keep you company. Everything fades back down into the bit from the beginning, with a little bit of improvised acoustic guitar. Some rain and wind, then at 7:15 it sounds like a different song. Slow piano, wind, creaking, Japanese woman singing something traditional, some sort of wind instrument I've never heard before, all very lonely and slow but not depressing.Nkoma: Very quiet, heavily processed ambient sounds in the background, African percussion (drums & ..xylophone?) played very slowly, sounds similar to something Peter Gabriel would do but in a much more soundtracky vein. Electricity arcs, the pace picks up a little, staying in the movie soundtrack mode for a few seconds, then BLAMMO! Funky funky funky jazz bass and drum solo!! Totally out of nowhere! And a damn good one, too!The Year Of Silence: Of course it was too good to last. It's back to deep, deep spacey ambience. Moody, all electronic, great effects, after 2 minutes another big change to something sparse and slow, still lots of effects, then nearly nothing.Graven Image (remix): Crowds talking, ultra rhythmic tribal percussion a la Psychick Warriors ov Gaia, building up with the ambient noises around, a distorted electric guitar comes in after a few minutes to provide angry, insane noise, severely clashing with the rest of the otherwise terrific song. Very loud and annoying, everything cuts off at the end.Ba-Benzele II: Ever heard the Eno/Hassell album Fourth World: Possible Musics 1? This reminds me of that. A quiet, somewhat confusing end to the album.

Re - Preachers Ghost. Watch "Pale Rider" with Clint Eastwood as The Preacher. I bought this CD from a small independent music shop in the CBD of Melbourne back in late 1992. I remember talking to the guy at the shop and he said Darrin Verhagen is Australian and his music is very much in the the tribal/world music genre. In my opinion this floats gently across a number of genres and remains undated and valid now as ever. I have enjoyed this album for the past 26 years and I'd encourage anyone to relax, shut yourself off from the world and escape into this beautiful, tense and entrancing work of art. Cheers. BB