Friday 11 January 2019

Tony Koba's Rough and Smooth from 1981 Japan




Tony Koba's only album, from 1981, with a stellar lineup of Japanese all-stars including fellow percussionist Shuichi "Ponta" Murakami, the unfortunately named 'Pecker' (Masahito Hashida), Nobuyuki Shimizu, Toshiyuki Daitoku, Ken Watanabe... He was a friend of Jun Fukamachi, but sadly for us his friend didn't play on this album.

Track 2 called "Miracle of Tungus" to me presents an electric guitar riff that is almost a miracle of progressive fusion songwriting:





As the LP title might indicate there is a slightly bipolar (not schizophrenic) mixture of harder, edgier fusionoid material and fuzak silky smoothness, plus pop balladry a la George Benson, the latter of which are not entirely successful especially when compared with such official progressreview-discovery albums as Rainbow Chaser by Miyako Chaki or the Anli Sugano Shining Wave.

As an example of the smoothness on the bipolar spectrum, Summer Moon:





A wonderful lost LP and slice of Japanese early 80s fusion though, for sure.


6 comments:


  1. https://www24.zippyshare.com/v/4bggIslG/file.html

    by request, new upload of Gianni Marchetti's April Orchestra RCA 15:
    https://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/ful0y9

    new upload of Steven Bard's Through the Fog:
    https://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/9yo9zt

    ReplyDelete
  2. I miss my favorite guitarist, Allan Holdsworth, but this looks great: Tim Miller's 'With the Distance.

    Also, I had heard that Mr. Holdsworth had played with PAZ, ( which I love anyway) but apparently it's true!:


    "Love In Peace" by Paz, the tune "Dream Sequence".


    ReplyDelete
  3. oh my,your blog has some incredible albums,lots i had but sold to my regret.thank you so much julian

    ReplyDelete
  4. https://www.sendspace.com/file/35cvvg

    ReplyDelete