Originally released on vinyl in 1997 by the Japanese label Devour, this avant-grind classic has been out of print on wax ever since. Now reissued by Hydra Head as an expanded double album set, this new vinyl edition includes the original album as well as all of the additional bonus material that was added onto the 2. Perfect Collection. Jouhou CD release that Hydra Head put out in 2004. Here's my original write-up for the CD version from when we first got that in stock a decade ago:

   Hydra Head's deluxe reissues of Discordance Axis' Original Sound Version and Jouhou discs are unquestionably essential for anyone even remotely into modern grindcore. Seriously, if you're into grind and you don't have these (and everything else that Discordance Axis ever released) in your music collection, you've got a major malfunction occurring. Packaged in plastic DVD style cases in the same manner as DA's Inalienable Dreamless album, and accompanied by freaking enormous booklets loaded with lyrics, liner notes, photos, artwork, and TONS more, these reissues are crucial.

   Long one of the most sought-after collections from grind extremists Discordance Axis, Jouhou was finally re-released by Hydra Head a few years ago, and it's as essential an entry into your grindcore and Discordance Axis collections as any of the other crucial releases by the band. Again coming in a sleek looking DVD style case that the entire DA series is uniformly packaged in, this disc is a 31- track feast of DA destruction, collecting their second album Jouhou from 1997 as well as their tracks from the splits with Melt Banana (who would actually eventually bring Discordance Axis' drum god David Witte into their ranks as their touring drummer) and Plutocracy, and a long improvised jam that the band played in Tokyo in 1998. Utterly crucial grindcore, with some of the craziest abrasive riffing ever, savage angular stop/start songs, some of the most vicious blastbeats ever set to tape, and Jon Chang's totally out of control shrieking, all delivered at nuclear levels of intensity. This late 90's era is when DA was fine tuning their sound and evolving from their hysterical noisecore origins into the post-modern killing machine that would be perfected on the band's magnum opus The Inalienable Dreamless, the guitar playing becoming more intricate with bizarre melodic runs crammed in between the shredding riffs, the song structures were starting to get weirder, and Witte's drumming is mind-blowing. Also, Japanese noise fans should note that this also contains the track "Nikola Tesla", the first collaborative track between Merzbow and DA. This reissue is accompanied by another massive 24 page booklet filled with lyrics, photos, incredibly detailed song-by-song liner notes, artwork, and more.

   This new vinyl edition includes the same booklet that came with the CD version.