American Dollar Bill – Keep Facing Sideways, You're Too Hideous to Look at Face On (Japanese: , and occasionally shortened to just American Dollar Bill) is a collaborative album between Japanese free improvisation/noise music artist Keiji Haino and American post-metal band Sumac. Serving as Haino's 86th and Sumac's third studio album, American Dollar Bill was released on February 23, 2018 through Thrill Jockey.
Background and production Sumac frontman Aaron Turner first saw Keiji Haino perform live nearly 20 years before the recording sessions for American Dollar Bill – Keep Facing Sideways, You're Too Hideous to Look at Face On. Turner was a fan of Haino's music and personal image, and reached out to Haino after some of his friends encouraged him to email his manager. All members of Sumac entered the studio with Haino in June 2017 to record "a series of unrehearsed, completely non-premeditated sessions". By Haino's request, the group performed two improvised sessions: one practice session and a second, entirely different session that would become an album. They recorded over an hour's worth of music across three tracks (two of which were separated into two parts) that became American Dollar Bill.
Reception
American Dollar Bill received widespread acclaim from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 81, based on nine reviews. Aggregator Album of the Year gave the release a 75 out of 100 based on a critical consensus of 9 reviews. Spin listed the album on their "15 Experimental Albums We Loved in 2018" list.
Track listing Titles and lyrics by Keiji Haino. Title translations by Alan Cummings. Music by Haino and Sumac.
Personnel Album personnel adapted from CD liner notes.
Band Keiji Haino – guitar, vocals, flute Aaron Turner – guitar Nick Yacyshyn – drums Brian Cook – bass
Production Kondoh Yoshiaki – recording Kurt Ballou – mixing James Plotkin – additional mixing, track edits, mastering
Artwork and design Aaron Turner – artwork, design Faith Coloccia – design Takeshi – photographs
References