This is the nearly complete discography of Up-Tight, a psychedelic rock band based in Shizuoka, Japan. Included are seven albums and five extra tracks.
The band was founded in 1992 by guitarist Tomoyuki Aoki and bassist Yoshifumi Kira. Drummer Takashi Shirahata soon joined. Kira was later replaced in bass by Kazuhiro Nakanishi who was in turn replaced by Takashi Ogata in 2000, completing the line-up that has been consistent since. The band stayed firmly in the underground until 2003 when they were picked up by Osaka's Alchemy Records for a compilation appearance. The next year saw an album release by both Alchemy and UK's Static Records, and in 2005 the band appeared at the Instal festival in Glasgow as well as touring the US. Also in 2005, they released a collaboration album with Makoto Kawabata from Acid Mothers Temple. An European tour followed in 2008.
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"If any group of artists has managed to keep psychedelic rock alive, it’s those involved with the continual mutations and developments of the Japanese underground. And while there is an identifiable approach particular to most Japanese psychedelic rock – unfurling screeds of electric guitar, shape-shifting rhythms, gulped and consumptive vocals – the artists involved still manage to drag new configurations out of base elements. Up-Tight is part of a new wave of outfits that are pouring light back into the source, and alongside Miminokoto and LSD-March, they’re the most potent example therein. Up-Tight eschews the more obtuse approach of their immediate peers for an attack that places post-Velvets structures up against acid-flare guitar and moments of improvised discourse." - Jon Dale/Dusted Magazine
"Alongside LSD March, Doodles and Miminokoto, Up-Tight are in the vanguard of Japan’s post-PSF next wave, psychedelically informed avant gardists who combine a reverence for outer forms with a liberating approach to content. They eviscerate garage jams with improvised, atonal shots at heaven, while evacuating folk forms with silent punctuations and rhythms that confound mathematics." - David Keenan/The Wire
"Black-clad and with an ominous aura created by their distorted guitar epics, burnt-out ballads and raucous mantric jams, Up-Tight are seriously not to be messed with. Heading up the second generation of Japanese psychedelic rock acts (following on from Fushitsusha, Kosokuya and Shizuka) they're one of the best live groups in Japan. As you might expect from their name, there's a chiselled intensity to their playing which displays some startling post-Velvets stances. With the power to lay down spontaneously loose, acid-fried and drugged garage psych jams of hypnotic guitar squall, and a line of impassioned and fathomless vocals that are capable of kicking you right in the gut, Up-Tight have a mesmeric feel to them, unmatched by any peers." - Instal 05 festival program
"Up-tight is one of the most impressive bands emerging from the japanese so-called "second wave" of psychedelic rock (bands highly influenced by psychedelic rock bands such as Fushitsusha). Instead of taking a more experimental/avant-garde approach, Up-tight focus on doing primary what they do best: blending the well-known japanese psychedelic-noise rock with the best of the progressive and alternative rock. Still, comparisons with Fushitsusha and Les Rallizes Dénudés are all worthy, since the band borrows most of its elements from them (but without feeling like a rip-off). Strong drumming, highly structured-but-improvised jams filled with lightning-like noise strikes, shimmering guitars and howling bass, all together with garage-like cold vocals that reminds me a lot of Mizutani (from Les Rallizes Dénudés). Up-Tight is one of those bands that after listening to the first track, you get up and think: "Holy shit! this shit is..! holy shit, this is fucking awesome!". And I must add, Up-Tight owns nothing to the "first wave". In fact, they're as creative and powerful as only a few bands from that time managed to be." - Rafaello/Ferocity of Practical Life
"Enter into the fray Up-Tight, a trio based in Tokyo or thereabouts, who’ve been around to a greater or lesser extent since 1992. ‘Five Psychedelic Pieces’ features three studio and two live cuts that encompass everything from metal, stoner, drone, garage and gruelling improvisations into their cauldron of darkly tripping psychedelia, yet its the bands ace card in their ability to balance melodic soft psyche touches alongside the more brutalised freak-outs that makes this stand out as one of the essential releases of the year so far, Up-Tight arguably provide a structurally cleaner and more concisely direct sound than their fellow compatriots that’s more rooted in Western reference points so that the influence of heroes Velvet Underground are keenly apparent bleeding as they do into elements of early Floyd, Sabbath and Spacemen 3. Up-Tight might just be the perfect antidote for those restless with the varying quality of AMT product. Stunning stuff." - Mark Barton/Losingtoday
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artist: Up-Tight
title: Up-Tight
type: album
label: none
release date: 1999
length: 48:06
genre: psychedelic rock
country: Japan
language: Japanese
format: mp3
bitrate: 192kbps
codec: lame 3.91
credits:
Tomoyuki Aoki - vocals, guitar
Kazuhiro Nakanishi - bass, drums
tracklist:
1. Melt Rain
2. 異邦人
3. Just A Dreamer
4. 夜明けは遠い
5. 無題
---
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artist: Up-Tight
title: Sweet Sister 1994-2003
type: live album
label: none
release date: 2003
length: 67:50
genre: psychedelic rock
country: Japan
language: Japanese
format: mp3
bitrate: 192kbps
codec: lame 3.93
Track 1 recorded live at Ritz, Koenji, January 1994
Track 2 recorded live at Studio, Hamamatsu, October 1998
Track 3 recorded live at Taku-Taku, Kyoto, November 2001
Track 4 recorded live at UFO Club, Koenji, February 2002
Track 5 recorded live at FM Stage, Iwata, January 2003
credits:
Tomoyuki Aoki - vocals, guitar
Yoshifumi Kira - bass (track 1)
Kazuhiro Nakanishi - bass (track 2)
Takashi Ogata - bass (tracks 3-5)
Takashi Shirahata - drums
tracklist:
1. Sweet Sister
2. Sweet Sister
3. Sweet Sister
4. Sweet Sister
5. Sweet Sister
---
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artist: Up-Tight
title: Five Psychedelic Pieces
type: album
label: Static Records
release date: 2004
length: 54:33
genre: psychedelic rock
country: Japan/UK
language: Japanese
format: mp3
bitrate: vbr (241-305 kbps avg)
codec: lame 3.98
credits:
Tomoyuki Aoki - vocals, guitar
Takashi Ogata - bass, backing vocals
Takashi Shirahata - drums
tracklist:
1. Do The Pop
2. At 2:00 am, I Am Waiting For Someone
3. Visions Of Key Of A
4. Falling In Love
5. Sweet Sister Session
---
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artist: Up-Tight
title: Lucrezia
type: album
label: Alchemy Records
release date: 2004
length: 60:11
genre: psychedelic rock
country: Japan
language: Japanese
format: mp3
bitrate: vbr (218-275 kbps avg)
codec: lame 3.98
credits:
Tomoyuki Aoki - vocals, guitar
Takashi Ogata - bass
Takashi Shirahata - drums
tracklist:
1. Song For Lucrezia I
2. 醒めた瞳／Cool Eyes
3. Daydream Believer
4. 長いお別れ／Long Goodbye
5. Song For Lucrezia II
---
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artist: Up-Tight & Makoto Kawabata
title: Up-Tight & Makoto Kawabata
type: album
label: Galactic Zoo Disc
release date: 2005
length: 68:25
genre: psychedelic rock
country: Japan/US
language: Japanese
format: mp3
bitrate: vbr (282-316 kbps avg)
codec: lame 3.98
credits:
Tomoyuki Aoki - vocals, guitar
Takashi Ogata - bass
Takashi Shirahata - drums
Makoto Kawabata - drone, guitar
tracklist:
1. Rainy Day Girl #12&35
2. The S.C.R.E.A.M (Walks With Munck)
3. The Scat Singer At The Gate Of Midnight
4. Where Does She Go?
5. Born To Fly
6. Collapsing
---
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artist: Up-Tight
title: Early Years
type: compilation album
label: aRCHIVE
release date: 2007
length: 66:43
genre: psychedelic rock
country: Japan/US
language: Japanese
format: mp3
bitrate: vbr (209-319 kbps avg)
codec: lame 3.98
Tracks 1-5 are a remastered edition of the 1999 self-released debut album
Track 6 was recorded live at Ritz, Koenji, 1994
Track 7 is a studio recording from 1994
credits:
Tomoyuki Aoki - vocals, guitar
Kazuhiro Nakanishi - bass, drums (tracks 1-5)
Yoshifumi Kira - bass, echo (tracks 6, 7)
Takashi Shirahata - drums (tracks 6, 7)
tracklist:
1. Melt Rain
2. L'Stranger
3. I'm Just A Dreamer
4. Never Come Morning
5. Non-Title
6. King Of Ice
7. Shining The Red Light
---
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artist: Up-Tight
title: The Beginning Of The End
type: album
label: 8mm Records
release date: 2009
length: 40:09
genre: psychedelic rock
country: Japan/Italy
language: Japanese
format: mp3
bitrate: vbr (194-261 kbps avg)
codec: lame 3.97
credits:
Tomoyuki Aoki - vocals, guitar
Takashi Ogata - bass
Takashi Shirahata - drums
tracklist:
1. Our Own Portrait
2. A Song For Your Pain
3. The Destruction
4. The Beginning Of The End
---
The extra tracks folder contains tracks taken from multi-artist compilation releases:
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artist: Up-Tight
title: Sweet Sister (edit)
type: compilation track
from album: The Night Gallery: 21st Century Psychedelic Underground
label: Alchemy Records
release date: 2003
length: 13:44
genre: psychedelic rock
country: Japan
language: Japanese
format: mp3
bitrate: 128kbps
credits:
Tomoyuki Aoki - vocals, guitar
Takashi Ogata - bass
Takashi Shirahata - drums
---
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artist: Up-Tight
title: Sweet Sister, Vol. 4
type: compilation track
from album: Hall Of Mirrors
label: Emperor Jones
release date: 2005
length: 6:01
genre: psychedelic rock
country: Japan/US
language: Japanese
format: mp3
bitrate: 192kbps
credits:
Tomoyuki Aoki - vocals, guitar
Takashi Ogata - bass
Takashi Shirahata - drums
---
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artist: Up-Tight
title: Falling Into A Doze / Prisoner No. 0 / Le Bleu Du Ciel
type: compilation tracks
from album: Invisible Pyramid: Elegy Box
label: Last Visible Dog
release date: 2005
length: 20:06
genre: psychedelic rock
country: Japan/US
language: Japanese
format: mp3
bitrate: vbr (206-243 kbps avg)
codec: lame 3.90
credits:
Tomoyuki Aoki - vocals, guitar
Takashi Ogata - bass
Takashi Shirahata - drums
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The band was founded in 1992 by guitarist Tomoyuki Aoki and bassist Yoshifumi Kira. Drummer Takashi Shirahata soon joined. Kira was later replaced in bass by Kazuhiro Nakanishi who was in turn replaced by Takashi Ogata in 2000, completing the line-up that has been consistent since. The band stayed firmly in the underground until 2003 when they were picked up by Osaka's Alchemy Records for a compilation appearance. The next year saw an album release by both Alchemy and UK's Static Records, and in 2005 the band appeared at the Instal festival in Glasgow as well as touring the US. Also in 2005, they released a collaboration album with Makoto Kawabata from Acid Mothers Temple. An European tour followed in 2008.
---
"If any group of artists has managed to keep psychedelic rock alive, it’s those involved with the continual mutations and developments of the Japanese underground. And while there is an identifiable approach particular to most Japanese psychedelic rock – unfurling screeds of electric guitar, shape-shifting rhythms, gulped and consumptive vocals – the artists involved still manage to drag new configurations out of base elements. Up-Tight is part of a new wave of outfits that are pouring light back into the source, and alongside Miminokoto and LSD-March, they’re the most potent example therein. Up-Tight eschews the more obtuse approach of their immediate peers for an attack that places post-Velvets structures up against acid-flare guitar and moments of improvised discourse." - Jon Dale/Dusted Magazine
"Alongside LSD March, Doodles and Miminokoto, Up-Tight are in the vanguard of Japan’s post-PSF next wave, psychedelically informed avant gardists who combine a reverence for outer forms with a liberating approach to content. They eviscerate garage jams with improvised, atonal shots at heaven, while evacuating folk forms with silent punctuations and rhythms that confound mathematics." - David Keenan/The Wire
"Black-clad and with an ominous aura created by their distorted guitar epics, burnt-out ballads and raucous mantric jams, Up-Tight are seriously not to be messed with. Heading up the second generation of Japanese psychedelic rock acts (following on from Fushitsusha, Kosokuya and Shizuka) they're one of the best live groups in Japan. As you might expect from their name, there's a chiselled intensity to their playing which displays some startling post-Velvets stances. With the power to lay down spontaneously loose, acid-fried and drugged garage psych jams of hypnotic guitar squall, and a line of impassioned and fathomless vocals that are capable of kicking you right in the gut, Up-Tight have a mesmeric feel to them, unmatched by any peers." - Instal 05 festival program
"Up-tight is one of the most impressive bands emerging from the japanese so-called "second wave" of psychedelic rock (bands highly influenced by psychedelic rock bands such as Fushitsusha). Instead of taking a more experimental/avant-garde approach, Up-tight focus on doing primary what they do best: blending the well-known japanese psychedelic-noise rock with the best of the progressive and alternative rock. Still, comparisons with Fushitsusha and Les Rallizes Dénudés are all worthy, since the band borrows most of its elements from them (but without feeling like a rip-off). Strong drumming, highly structured-but-improvised jams filled with lightning-like noise strikes, shimmering guitars and howling bass, all together with garage-like cold vocals that reminds me a lot of Mizutani (from Les Rallizes Dénudés). Up-Tight is one of those bands that after listening to the first track, you get up and think: "Holy shit! this shit is..! holy shit, this is fucking awesome!". And I must add, Up-Tight owns nothing to the "first wave". In fact, they're as creative and powerful as only a few bands from that time managed to be." - Rafaello/Ferocity of Practical Life
"Enter into the fray Up-Tight, a trio based in Tokyo or thereabouts, who’ve been around to a greater or lesser extent since 1992. ‘Five Psychedelic Pieces’ features three studio and two live cuts that encompass everything from metal, stoner, drone, garage and gruelling improvisations into their cauldron of darkly tripping psychedelia, yet its the bands ace card in their ability to balance melodic soft psyche touches alongside the more brutalised freak-outs that makes this stand out as one of the essential releases of the year so far, Up-Tight arguably provide a structurally cleaner and more concisely direct sound than their fellow compatriots that’s more rooted in Western reference points so that the influence of heroes Velvet Underground are keenly apparent bleeding as they do into elements of early Floyd, Sabbath and Spacemen 3. Up-Tight might just be the perfect antidote for those restless with the varying quality of AMT product. Stunning stuff." - Mark Barton/Losingtoday
---
artist: Up-Tight
title: Up-Tight
type: album
label: none
release date: 1999
length: 48:06
genre: psychedelic rock
country: Japan
language: Japanese
format: mp3
bitrate: 192kbps
codec: lame 3.91
credits:
Tomoyuki Aoki - vocals, guitar
Kazuhiro Nakanishi - bass, drums
tracklist:
1. Melt Rain
2. 異邦人
3. Just A Dreamer
4. 夜明けは遠い
5. 無題
---
artist: Up-Tight
title: Sweet Sister 1994-2003
type: live album
label: none
release date: 2003
length: 67:50
genre: psychedelic rock
country: Japan
language: Japanese
format: mp3
bitrate: 192kbps
codec: lame 3.93
Track 1 recorded live at Ritz, Koenji, January 1994
Track 2 recorded live at Studio, Hamamatsu, October 1998
Track 3 recorded live at Taku-Taku, Kyoto, November 2001
Track 4 recorded live at UFO Club, Koenji, February 2002
Track 5 recorded live at FM Stage, Iwata, January 2003
credits:
Tomoyuki Aoki - vocals, guitar
Yoshifumi Kira - bass (track 1)
Kazuhiro Nakanishi - bass (track 2)
Takashi Ogata - bass (tracks 3-5)
Takashi Shirahata - drums
tracklist:
1. Sweet Sister
2. Sweet Sister
3. Sweet Sister
4. Sweet Sister
5. Sweet Sister
---
artist: Up-Tight
title: Five Psychedelic Pieces
type: album
label: Static Records
release date: 2004
length: 54:33
genre: psychedelic rock
country: Japan/UK
language: Japanese
format: mp3
bitrate: vbr (241-305 kbps avg)
codec: lame 3.98
credits:
Tomoyuki Aoki - vocals, guitar
Takashi Ogata - bass, backing vocals
Takashi Shirahata - drums
tracklist:
1. Do The Pop
2. At 2:00 am, I Am Waiting For Someone
3. Visions Of Key Of A
4. Falling In Love
5. Sweet Sister Session
---
artist: Up-Tight
title: Lucrezia
type: album
label: Alchemy Records
release date: 2004
length: 60:11
genre: psychedelic rock
country: Japan
language: Japanese
format: mp3
bitrate: vbr (218-275 kbps avg)
codec: lame 3.98
credits:
Tomoyuki Aoki - vocals, guitar
Takashi Ogata - bass
Takashi Shirahata - drums
tracklist:
1. Song For Lucrezia I
2. 醒めた瞳／Cool Eyes
3. Daydream Believer
4. 長いお別れ／Long Goodbye
5. Song For Lucrezia II
---
artist: Up-Tight & Makoto Kawabata
title: Up-Tight & Makoto Kawabata
type: album
label: Galactic Zoo Disc
release date: 2005
length: 68:25
genre: psychedelic rock
country: Japan/US
language: Japanese
format: mp3
bitrate: vbr (282-316 kbps avg)
codec: lame 3.98
credits:
Tomoyuki Aoki - vocals, guitar
Takashi Ogata - bass
Takashi Shirahata - drums
Makoto Kawabata - drone, guitar
tracklist:
1. Rainy Day Girl #12&35
2. The S.C.R.E.A.M (Walks With Munck)
3. The Scat Singer At The Gate Of Midnight
4. Where Does She Go?
5. Born To Fly
6. Collapsing
---
artist: Up-Tight
title: Early Years
type: compilation album
label: aRCHIVE
release date: 2007
length: 66:43
genre: psychedelic rock
country: Japan/US
language: Japanese
format: mp3
bitrate: vbr (209-319 kbps avg)
codec: lame 3.98
Tracks 1-5 are a remastered edition of the 1999 self-released debut album
Track 6 was recorded live at Ritz, Koenji, 1994
Track 7 is a studio recording from 1994
credits:
Tomoyuki Aoki - vocals, guitar
Kazuhiro Nakanishi - bass, drums (tracks 1-5)
Yoshifumi Kira - bass, echo (tracks 6, 7)
Takashi Shirahata - drums (tracks 6, 7)
tracklist:
1. Melt Rain
2. L'Stranger
3. I'm Just A Dreamer
4. Never Come Morning
5. Non-Title
6. King Of Ice
7. Shining The Red Light
---
artist: Up-Tight
title: The Beginning Of The End
type: album
label: 8mm Records
release date: 2009
length: 40:09
genre: psychedelic rock
country: Japan/Italy
language: Japanese
format: mp3
bitrate: vbr (194-261 kbps avg)
codec: lame 3.97
credits:
Tomoyuki Aoki - vocals, guitar
Takashi Ogata - bass
Takashi Shirahata - drums
tracklist:
1. Our Own Portrait
2. A Song For Your Pain
3. The Destruction
4. The Beginning Of The End
---
The extra tracks folder contains tracks taken from multi-artist compilation releases:
artist: Up-Tight
title: Sweet Sister (edit)
type: compilation track
from album: The Night Gallery: 21st Century Psychedelic Underground
label: Alchemy Records
release date: 2003
length: 13:44
genre: psychedelic rock
country: Japan
language: Japanese
format: mp3
bitrate: 128kbps
credits:
Tomoyuki Aoki - vocals, guitar
Takashi Ogata - bass
Takashi Shirahata - drums
---
artist: Up-Tight
title: Sweet Sister, Vol. 4
type: compilation track
from album: Hall Of Mirrors
label: Emperor Jones
release date: 2005
length: 6:01
genre: psychedelic rock
country: Japan/US
language: Japanese
format: mp3
bitrate: 192kbps
credits:
Tomoyuki Aoki - vocals, guitar
Takashi Ogata - bass
Takashi Shirahata - drums
---
artist: Up-Tight
title: Falling Into A Doze / Prisoner No. 0 / Le Bleu Du Ciel
type: compilation tracks
from album: Invisible Pyramid: Elegy Box
label: Last Visible Dog
release date: 2005
length: 20:06
genre: psychedelic rock
country: Japan/US
language: Japanese
format: mp3
bitrate: vbr (206-243 kbps avg)
codec: lame 3.90
credits:
Tomoyuki Aoki - vocals, guitar
Takashi Ogata - bass
Takashi Shirahata - drums