Hisashi Imai and Maki Fujii's industrial side project SCHAFT is back with two new releases.
BUCK-TICK guitarist Hisashi Imai and Maki Fujii (minus (-), SUILEN) recently announced that their industrial side project SCHAFT will restart activities.
Originally formed in 1991, SCHAFT released its debut album SWITCHBLADE in 1994. It featured contributions from artists like Raymond Watts (PIG), MOTOKATSU (ex-The Mad Capsule Markets) and Takeshi Ueda (AA=). SCHAFT's last activity was in 1999, when they contributed to zilch's remix album BastardEYES.
Now, the duo have announced that SCHAFT will release its first new album in over 20 years, ULTRA, on January 20, 2016. Like SWITCHBLADE, it will feature a number of guest musicians, including L'Arc~en~Ciel drummer yukihiro, GARI vocalist YOW-ROW and, once again, Takeshi Ueda. Two days after the album release, SCHAFT will head out on their TOUR ULTRA - The Loud Engine -, hitting venues in Kanagawa and Tokyo.
A 3CD+DVD box set titled ARCHIVES will also be released on January 20th. The box will feature a booklet, a remastered version of SWITCHBLADE, a second CD including tracks from the duo's remix album SWITCH, songs they contributed to compilations and two new remixes, a third CD featuring live recordings from a concert held on September 26, 1994 at Shibuya Public Hall and a DVD including their live video SWITCHBLADE -VISUAL MIX-, which was originally released on VHS back in 1994.
