Unofficial archival releases from beloved, departed bands is nothing new so at first I expected that this collection of early demos from Japanese shoegaze godheads Kinoko Teikoku was going to be some kind of sketchy, poor quality MySpace rip or something. Well colour me surprised to learn that The First Mini Demo Album is not only totally legit, but that was the band’s first-ever release, self-released by the band themselves in 2011.

While they might be demos, the versions here are hardly rough sketches. The production is a lot drier than on the versions that would eventually appear on their proper albums – two on 渦になる, one on Eureka, and the last on フェイクワールドワンダーランド – but everything is meticulously recorded and being able to hear every instrument clearly and Chiaki Sato’s vocals right up front is really quite energizing. Though it’s real, it’s not available anywhere official so it’s off to the wilds of YouTube if you want to hear but it’s definitely worth the effort, especially for anyone who complained about how slick the band got in their later records.