Maher Shalal Hash Baz is the artistic alter ego of Tori Kudo, a Japanese naivist composer and musician. The name is taken from Maher-shalal-hash-baz in the Book of Isaiah, and translates roughly as "Hurrying to the spoil, he has made haste to the plunder." Tori Kudo has been cagey about details of his life before MSHB. He was once a member of a shadowy, revolutionary political party in Japan, although he has dissociated himself from politics since becoming one of Jehovah's Witnesses. He also works as a ceramicist. He claims to have played classical and jazz piano, as well as playing organ in a Protestant church. His other musical influences included T. Rex and saxophonist Steve Lacy. He and his wife Reiko Kudo joined a band called Worst Noise when they moved to Tokyo; other members dropped out, leaving Tori and Reiko as a duo, known simply as Noise. Under this name they released an album called Emperor. The impetus for Maher Shalal Hash

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