The solo debut by Ghost (Japan) bandleader Masaki Batoh is a great record and I was very happy to find one in the used bins. It opens with excellent covers of Can and Cream before moving through the sparse folk and droning ambient that would become typical of his solo albums. On the whole though, the record is a bit closer to a Ghost album than his later solo work.

The recording quality (and pressing quality, on my physical copy) are extraordinary. His playing wrings every ounce of texture an emotion from the instruments. I found the acoustic guitar and vibraphone work especially captivating. The more ambient passages have plenty of life in them as well- literally, in the case of some field recordings. This record has since been released with his second solo album as an early works comp, which I’ve embedded below.