Zerosen barely existed. Katsunori Ishida led the group through the 1970s with a rotating lineup, cut two albums as audio component test records, and then vanished into a career scoring Japanese television and film. Those two albums became landmarks of Japanese rare groove anyway. Asphalt is the first, and it arrives fully formed: the rolling keyboard work of "Scramble," the hard drive of "Circuit," the Caribbean lean of "Majo no Sasayaki." Cut as a test record, which is exactly why it hits so hard.