Zouo – The Final Agony

I'm looking for an original cover of that record, any help welcome!
Sam

From Osaka with Butchers(Outo) older brother Cherry..Zouo have been improving steadily since I first heard them in April. The speed, style and nearly hysteric anger which once seemed imitative and fatuous, some how clicked. Unfortunetly Zouo has broken up, and Cherrys forming a new band..details in the future. The audience was prone to violent fist shaking and fighting during Zouo's set, as it usually is.. Zouo's first EP (and only EP, long since sold out) is not expected to be repressed. Roger A (u.n.k.o. fanzine Japan 1984).

Without being ironic, this is one of the most beautiful Japanese Hardcore Records ever made. There is a reason this has been topping want lists since the beginning of the "Send cash in a sealed envelope" collectors underground. It's among the absolute top of the genre and the era, along with a dozen or so other MONSTERS (think Kuro, Gism, Antiseptic, Confuse and other lost puppies).
Here we get it all; rusty obscure production, memorable riffs, an odd blend of occult metal and mid tempo UK hardcore, extreme proto grindcore vocals spewing forth unintelligible (but evil!) lyrics drenched in reverb, a band nobody knows fuck all about, inspired mixed materials artwork with an obvious early UK leaning, cultural appropriation and misinterpretation and massive mohawks from thin asian hair. In short a whole box of moldy chocolates to give you the most exquisite indigestion.

As with all of the records from this period it's worth mentioning how big the world was in 1984 (the year Neuromancer coined the tern Cyberspace to describe a consensual collective hallucination), and how far the West was removed from Japan, through culture, language and infrastucture. Before perhaps 1990 this was barely on the radar outside of Japan, like so many others it was a ghost, a shadow with almost mythical status. Imagine how weird and out of place these kids must have been in their own country. It makes records like this just mind boggling, for those who had the chance to even hear it back in the days on Xth generation cassette, but also for us in the now, because even in a world where everything can be heard all the time it stands out. A keeper.