Magical Power Mako resurfaces with 1993 album Next Millennium Vibrations via new Tokyo imprint All Horned Animals
The Tokyo-based label All Horned Animals begins its operations with a reissue of Magical Power Mako’s 1993 album Next Millennium Vibrations. The CD was originally self-released on UAA (Underground Alien Agency) and later reissued by KeroJetter Records and 八幡書店 (Yahata Shoten) in limited numbers. This edition has been remastered from Mako’s original source and packaged in a standard jewel case with obi, manufactured in Tokyo. Artwork is by Yuko Asano.
Artist: Magical Power Mako
Release Date: 2025-05-21
Genres: Experimental Music, Krautrock, Psychedelic Rock
Label: All Horned Animals
Description: Magical Power Mako’s 1993 album Next Millennium Vibrations reissued by Tokyo label All Horned Animals on 24 May 2025.
Next Millennium Vibrations is available via All Horned Animals’ Bandcamp.
Recorded in the early 1990s, Next Millennium Vibrations sits within a later period of Mako’s output, marked by an ongoing fixation with tape decay, detuned electronics, and what he once described as “music for alien communication.” Its tracks move between looping percussive motifs and fractured ambient drift, incorporating cheap synthesizers, analog effects, and voice fragments processed into abstraction. Compared to his early Polydor albums, the structures here are looser, leaning toward what would now be termed lo-fi psychedelia or proto-hauntology, though Mako operated independently from such categories. At the time of its original release, the album circulated only in marginal fan circles.
The reissue was initiated and approved by Mako before his death on 7 February 2025, aged 69. It is the first public project from All Horned Animals.
Magical Power Mako (born Makoto Kurita, 15 January 1956 – 7 February 2025) was a composer and multi-instrumentalist from Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. By age 14, he was recording original compositions using reel-to-reel tape. After moving to Tokyo in 1971, he formed the group Genge with his brother and began performing in small venues including Shibuya Jean-Jean. In 1972, at 16, he contributed music to NHK documentaries and was invited to appear on television, prompting both acclaim and complaints due to the experimental nature of his sound.
He was associated early on with Keiji Haino, Toru Takemitsu, and worked on several film soundtracks including Himiko (1974) and Fossil Forest (1973). His debut LP Magical Power was released by Polydor in 1974, followed by Super Record (1975) and Jump (1977), featuring musicians Kaku Nakahara, Keiichi Nishina, and Shoji Watanabe, though the live unit operated under the name L5 Band.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Mako developed an extensive body of home recordings, experimenting with analog synthesizers, percussion, and early computer systems such as the MSX. Albums from this period include Magical Computer Music (1985), Trance Resonance (1994), and the Hapmoniym series. He also worked in radio drama, composed for NHK productions, and occasionally appeared live, often with altered line-ups. In later years, he focused on self-released recordings and continued studio work in Izu, where he had returned in the early 1980s.
His archive includes hundreds of unreleased recordings made with tape, synthesizers, homemade instruments, and found materials. Documentation of his live performances remains limited.
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