Kuro – Who The Helpless Blue Jug Records ‎– BJR-001 – 1984 – 8″

Collectors of Japanese early-mid 80 hardcore end up with a bunch of flexis. Apparently there were not many pressing in Japan and they were really expensive to use. So the flexi was basically a more economical option. Of that reason the 8 inch Kuro EP “Who The Helpless” with an insert and a heavy stockcard sleeve is a rare bird. Priced at 1,500 yen it was possible sold under production cost. The first time I ever heard Kuro was on a tape with the song ♬ Selfish Cow (MP3 320 kbps). At least here in Swedish I don’t really remember anyone keeping track on the Japanese stuff back then, most of the stuff from the 80s started to surface in the 90s and “exploded” with internet.

At some time I promised myself not to collect Japanese hardcore, well nothing is holy I assume

In addition to this record, Kuro put out four flexis, two prior this release and two after. There are some overlaps with these flexis.

♬ Full EP (MP3 320 kbps)

Songs: 1) X / 絶望 2) Human Gas 2) Body 3) Who The Helpless 4) Selfish Cow 5) お前だ / OiMaeda 6) No More No

A challenge with weird format like this 8 inch record is how to store it. What I do with all formats like 8 inch and 10 inch is that I take a 12 by 12 inch white cardboard and glue a home-made sleeve (in this case 8 by 8 in on it where the record is stored. Then I add a 12 LP plastic sleeve on top of and store it with my other LPs or 12 inches.

Click on the images to expand them to higher resolution. The rips and images are from my record.

Front and rear sleeve

Record

Insert, front and rear

Insert, fold-out