Minimal Wave Records

While remaining predominantly unknown except amongst die-hard collectors, Portray Heads has proven to be one of the best kept secrets of the Japanese electronic underground. Tohru Tomita formed Portray Heads in 1984 in Matsuyama City, the capital of Shikoku Island, with fellow band members Ayumi Tokunaga and Mikiharu Doi, just after dissolving his solo bedroom project Onanie Bazooka. The trio entered the studio in August that same year, and recorded several songs. Two songs from the recorded sessions were released as the band’s first 7” single, a flexi entitled ‘Elaborate Dummy’ — a lost classic — on Kobe’s now defunct Kageroh Records.

Soon after the ‘Elaborate Dummy’ release, Ayumi, the band’s vocalist departed and Portray Heads worked on recruiting a replacement. They tried several vocalists until finally, they found Yumi Ochi – who was the perfect fit. She joined the band, and the trio went back into the studio between February and April 1986 and recorded ‘Oratorio’, their second and final release. They self-released it on cassette in October, and as a 7” EP in December that same year.

Matsuyama, where Portray Heads were based, was a conservative and isolated city so the band rarely had the opportunity to perform live. Eventually, they broke up and their two releases quietly became collector’s items. Upon making contact, band leader Tohru Tomita revealed to us two unheard demo recordings, one from each vocalist featured on their records. These recordings are not merely disposable studio experiments, but actually rival or surpass in quality the group’s released music. With this double LP, Minimal Wave Records and Bitter Lake Recordings present to you the recorded discography of one of the most overlooked and underrated minimal synth projects coming out of Japan in the 1980s.