First Album from SHAG

LUNA SEA guitarist SUGIZO's psychedelic jam band SHAG will release its first album on July 1st.

Formed in 2002, SHAG was mainly active in the club/rave music scene. In 2020, after 12 years of inactivity, SUGIZO reorganized some of the band's members and restarted SHAG with a new concept.

The new concept is inspired by the members' respect for Miles Davis' album Bitches Brew, which just celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2020. It also draws inspiration from the music scene of the time period it was released in, which saw jazz and rock fuse and music become closely connected with social rebellion, outrage, protests, and anti-war messages. The reborn SHAG aims to capture that attitude, carrying it into the 2020s and building upon it with their continuing musical evolution.

SHAG consists of six members: SUGIZO on guitar and violin, RIZE's KenKen on bass, Shinpei Ruike - SUGIZO's jam session partner for 15 years - on trumpet, ex-Yasei Collective member Kazuhiro Bessho on keyboards, Kenji Yoshiura on percussion and Yukino Matsuura on drums.

The current version of the band is said to have a jazz-rock sound, freely incorporating funk, punk, new wave, avant-garde, noise, ambient and dub elements.

Titled THE PROTEST JAM, the band's first album will contain eight tracks. A unique method was used to record the release: all of SHAG's shows since their restart were recorded in multi-track format, and SUGIZO himself edited the selected takes from the recordings. Due to this process, takes from different dates and venues have been mixed together in each song. Any overdubs required for the members were then added in the studio. This method is said to "combine the powerful vibrancy that can only be achieved live with the extreme acoustic treatment of a recording studio".

In addition, SHAG will hold a concert to commemorate the album's release, titled THE PROTEST JAM for PEACE, at Ebisu LIQUIDROOM on July 4th. More details on this concert and the album are available on this special site.