I do love some stuff by Haino, but there is plenty he's released that I don't like at all. There were a few years when I bought a lot of CDs by him, but then sold a lot of it. The ones I really like are as follows:
- The collabs with Tatsuya Yoshida: Uhrfasudhasdd and Hauenfiomiume are fantastic (and some of the tracks on them are the same, which I don't like). New Rap, from memory, is very different, more like the group Knead (which was a trio with Haino, Yoshida and a then Ruins member): free-form guitar freakout and drums. I rarely listen to them, but they're actually pretty good. We can lump the band Sanhedrin here too, whose first album is great improvised rock. I don't know their other 2 albums or the other Yoshida/Haino collabs (they're usually too expensive).
- If you like Kawabata, you might like this DVD:
www.discogs.com/Haino-Keiji-Kawabata-Makoto-Yoshida-Tatsuya-Ichi-To-Ichi-Ga-Kasanatte-Shimaumade/release/1563970. It's good despite this kind of guitar butchery not being my thing generally.
- The 21st Century Hard-Y-Guide-Y Man: hurdy-gurdy and voice. Torturous sound, but I can hear the beauty in it and actually want to get his other hurdy-gurdy CD, but it's very expensive.
- Nijiumu (the Haino solo CD, not his project with the same name): bizarre album, like someone being strangled in an abandoned factory. Occasional metal banging. As far from easy listening as possible and I really like it.
- Purple Trap: double CD of a project with Haino, Bill Laswell and Rashied Ali (drummer who also played with John Coltrane). It's a hectic album, but quite good.
- To Start With, Let's Remove the Colour! and 'Next' Let's Try Changing the Shape: the first album is perfect late night listening; it's quiet acoustic guitar improv with similarly quiet vocals. From memory, the latter album is similar in style.
- Oren Ambarchi/Jim O'Rourke/Haino: Tima Formosa: a great live recording of experimental music. This trio has had a bunch of releases since, but I don't know them. I think this was their first one.
- Tenshi No Gijinka: good album of various percussion and vocals. It has a bit of a ritualistic feeling about it.
- Haino/Loren MazzaCane Connors: Vol. 2: live acoustic guitar improv (I seem to remember it's all acoustic at least). Good album.
- Fushitsusha: Origin's Hesitation: bizarre and great album. Lots of strange vocals, stuttering bass and drums. No guitars. Hard to describe, but well worth checking out. I've heard maybe half of the other Fushitsusha releases, and most of them were guitar and drums freakouts which I didn't like. The early ones have some great tracks on them though which have more traditional rock structures.
- Haino has 3 DJ releases (one is a triple CD) which I think are great. I've written about them somewhere else on this forum.
- Vajra: a trio of Haino, Kan Mikami (who's apparently kind of a singer-songwriter of the weird kind with lots of albums, but I don't know any of them) and a third guy. They play sort of deconstructed rock music, a description that sounds really pretentious and normally I wouldn't use it, but it's the best I can come up with. I've got all their albums except for the live one and the 3" CD, and all of them are awesome. It's an acquired taste for sure (what Haino isn't?), and for a start I'd recommend what I consider their best album, Sravaka. Mikami's vocals at times (not only on this album) are beautiful but coarse at the same time. I really have to get that live CD too (and maybe the 3" CD as well)...
So there it is. I definitely think there's hype around Haino, just like around Merzbow, but he's certainly a character who seems to be genuine (not that I know him, but anyone that looks and dresses like him for his whole life must be a genuine madman) and while I don't care for a lot of his work, he's also done a lot that I like, even if he's not on my daily listening routine.
Oh, Kikuri is an excellent album. I just listened to it. Merzbow's electronics are varied and Haino's contributions are great too. I especially like how there's what sounds like live drumming for a couple minutes in track 3, then it gets sampled and looped (including what sounds like a cowbell), and then sped up eventually. Akita's freeform drumming in the last track is barely audible under Haino's soaring guitar (which I like very much on this track), but the mix is just fine. The ending is perfect with Haino's manic screaming looped.