Hallelujahs

Organized and led by prolific Japanese experimental rock musician Shinji Shibayama, Hallelujahs was a short-lived project that combined the melancholic jangle of early indie rock with post-Velvet Underground psychedelia. Hallelujahs were active only long enough to release 1986's Eat Meat, Swear an Oath, their sole album. Shibayama independently released the set on his own Org Records imprint in a scant run of 300 copies, but the material saw re-release in 2022 on the Black Editions label, padded out with the little unreleased material Hallelujahs still had in the archives.Shibayama was active since the early '80s both as a solo artist and as part of Kyoto rock group Idiot O'Clock, but he formed Hallelujahs around 1984, aiming for a more directorial role. Shibayama sang and played guitar, and was joined by guitarist/bassists Koji Saga and Takahisa Watanabe, vocalist Naoki Zushi, and several other friends, including a drummer who went only by "Idiot." The group worked in the studio, crafting songs that felt melodic and psychedelic in equal shares, and released their work as Eat Meat, Swear an Oath in 1986 before Shibayama moved on to work on other projects, including the gently pastoral Nagisa Ni Te. Original copies of the Hallelujahs record quickly fell out of print and became high-priced collector's items as the years went on. In 2022, archival label Black Editions reissued Eat Meat, Swear an Oath, making it available for the first time on a streaming service and bringing it back to print on vinyl for the first time in decades. The vinyl edition included a bonus 7" single with two previously unreleased songs recorded around the same time as the album.
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