Orpheus 1983 [FLAC limited time only]

 

Last in my series of Japanese posts, which did stretch on longer than intended.  Some surprisingly original finds, and some not so remarkable.  

Into the last category I guess you'd have to put this one, which is the same symphonic style as the previous posts but with a harder edge, more electric guitar.  That's because it's a one-off founded by the guitarist of Mr. Sirius, Shigekazu Kamaki (who was also in Kehell from here.)  

Information here.

Nice to see such lovely artwork again.  Again, similar to Pageant, First track:

Requested Albums Part 2: Samurai 1970 and Kappa 1971

 

Wow, what a gorgeous cover painting for the second album, Kappa!  Incredibly beautiful and dramatically colorful with the pink / grey / blue skeletal griffon (?) crucifixion. Note on the verso, the fish-topped plant (?). The cover this time is by this guy, no other credits apart from Samurai.  Sometimes, as I've said so often before, an album is worth finding just for the cover art.  It's the case here.

This appropriately Japanese Samurai is not to be confused with the much more famous British band of course, that one too with an unforgettably beautiful cover painting, and that one too released in the same year of 1971. 

The discogs description this time oddly enough is both useful and accurate:

Samurai was a prog/hard rock band active in the late 60s/early 70s. Not to be confused with the british band Samurai (6) renamed from The Web , this group was started by rockabilly singer/actor Miki Curtis along with fellow Japanese and European musicians, creating a mix of hard rock, psych, prog and Japanese folk. In their time of activity they made two albums...

They went to Europe in late 1967, picking up some European members and thus becoming half-Japanese. In London they recorded in 1970 a single and their debut album, the double-LP Samurai aka Miki Curtis & Samurai, as well as a single only released in Italy (1969). Their 2nd album "Green Tea" (1971) was simply a single-LP repackaging of the debut only released in Japan, to where the band had returned. In 1971, the band released "Kappa". The band played a varied kind of psychedelic progressive rock, occasionally a bit hard-rocking, with jazzy and exotic Asian touches and a 22-minute closing jam. They've been compared by Vernon Joyson to Andwella's Dream and early Traffic. The bassist, Tetsu Yamauchi, later played in Kossoff, Kirke, Tetsu & Rabbit , Free and The Faces, as well as pursuing a brief solo career. Drummer Yujin Harada later played in the last incarnation of Far East Family Band.

And I guess Far East FB is quite similar musically.  The first album from 1970 with the Kabuki maekup cover is straight simple blues rock sung in English, of course.  Green Tea:

From the second album which is slightly more progressive but minimally so-- more psych jammy to my ears, Trauma:

Requested Albums Part 1: Genuine John (1970), Tetsu Yamauchi in 3 (1972 to 1976)

 

Again some wonderful cover art, the head of John the Baptist represents Genuine John. (Cover art by Fred Marcellino.)  You can see this is a one-off LP from 1970.  It's wholly blues rock, as you will correctly conclude from my sample, the instrumental Inside Out:

Moving on to bassist Tetsu Yamauchi:

Tetsu Yamauchi (山内 テツ, Yamauchi Tetsu; 21 October 1946 in Fukuoka, Japan – 4 December 2025) was a Japanese musician. In the 1970s, he was a member of several popular rock bands, including Free, where he replaced original bassist Andy Fraser before the band's final album Heartbreaker, and Faces, where he replaced Ronnie Lane and appears on the band's final single, "You Can Make Me Dance, Sing or Anything", as well as touring with them and playing on the live album Coast to Coast: Overture and Beginners. He also recorded various solo albums and did extensive work as a session musician before retiring from the music sometime in the late 1990s.

How sad to note he passed away last Dec.

Sammy's Allright from the 1970 collab album, which is eminently approachable and listenable, basically classic mild-rock ssw stuff (think early 70s Rod Stewart type stuff, Badfinger):

In the end this record which is basically the British band Free, plus Tatsu as fill-in bassist, is the best of the 3 here, perhaps because of the strength of composition from the Free members, that is Simon Kirke, Paul Kossoff, keyboardist "Rabbit".  Surprising to me that it's better than any Free album though, so far as I can tell, both in the quality of the songs and the stretching past ordinary rock chord progressions (I mean like I IV V).

From the first solo Yamauchi, 1972's Tetsu, in my not so humble opinion the best composition is Alexander Stone, with its lushly oceanic hammond organ rolling in the warm surf in the left channel, the female vocals here are by [?] no one bothered to update the discogs page with credits:

Plus a lot of groovy funky bluesy numbers, along the lines of sometimes just 2-3 chords per song.

The 1976 album Kikyou, again minimal credits info, sounds like the intervening half decade had never happened, with the same early 1970s British blues-rock ssw songs.  There is barely any hint of prog rock despite the silly description as such on the discogs page.  I am not sure what their idea of prog is but it's not mine.  Rather it's a mix of country/folk/blues/plain rock.

The River has a nice pipes of pan intro (always a surprise to make that statement), augmented by the electric arpeggios and dual acoustic rhythm guitars:

So the arranging is beautiful, and reminiscent of the classic rock hits of an earlier era.  Enjoyable records though altogether, and little to barely known at all.

Kazuhiro Miyatake Part 2: Pazzo Fanfano di Musica and Hirayama's Symphonia

 

Inevitably one album or artist leads to another.    Following the database information for the composer Miyatake, I saw he was in other bands separate from Mr. Sirius and Pageant.

The band called  Pazzo Fanfano di Musica presumably as a homage or tribute to the classics of Italian prog (Paese dei Balocchi, PFM, Celeste, etc.) is a one-off from 1989 which I enjoyed quite a bit, though it's neither as good as Mr. Sirius nor, of course, those aforementioned old Italians. Flowers for Algernon, which novelette I've mentioned before I loved as a child (probably would hate it now as I get closer and closer to inevitable dementia):

So as you can tell, mix of symphonic with a lot of classical, baroque elements thrown in, perhaps recalling mostly Maxophone from the old days-- not as good of course.

Teru's Symphonia:

Japanese symphonic progressive rock band founded in Osaka, Japan in 1983 and disbanded in 1999.

Amazingly, they put out 7 albums so far.  

This is the one from 1994, with involvement by Miyatake. Same style as Pageant to my ear.  Friday the 13th:

Kazuhiro Miyatake Part 1: Pageant

Keyboardist / Composer Kazuhiro Miyatake is the mastermind or leader of my overall favourite Japanese band, Mr. Sirius (apart from Bi Kyo Ran that is).  He was also in Mugen which followed after.  I love Mr. Sirius to death: it's the classic-prog old-school inimitable Genesis Symphonic style with a highly impressive and agreeable mix of classical music and rock sounds perfectly intertwined.  

I didn't realize that late in the 1980s he created another band called Pageant who then went on to put out a handful of CDs, last one in 1994 it seems.  Unfortunately the subsequent band, very much in the Mugen symphonic style, has less of the crazy creativity one finds in the original Mr. Sirius from 1987 and Barren Dream, I'm not sure why, since it's still just Miyatake as composer, as the time period in question is roughly the same.

From the 1987 album of the same name, the lovely female vocals of Kamen no Egao:

Lapis Lazuli from 1989's Pay for Dreamer's Sin:

Kehell's Galileo [FLAC limited time]

 

A one-off from this band, released in 1999-- so long ago already.  Not much in the database here.  But you can see this is the creation of the guitarist from Mr. Sirius, called Shigekazu Kamaki who was also in the 1983 symphonic one-off opus Orpheus.

It's quite consistently good from beginning to the end, the style being the same instrumental symphonic prog we have heard so much of lately.  From the track called Prologue - Behind the Earth you can get a sense of how interesting the music is, featuring varied instrumentation, modulations, odd rhythms, all the usual accoutrements of classic prog:

Same remarks can surely apply to a track called Paranoid:

At times the music feels derivative and monotonous, failings of so much of the latter-day prog I hate to say.  Still I would argue it's above average for this genre from this decade.

Gypsy Blood, 1972 Japan, by request [FLAC limited time only]

 

Gypsy Blood, a one-off LP from 1972:

Gypsy Blood Japanese country rock band.

In the Western world they are known as 'Gypsy Blood'.

Members:

Eiichi Tsukasa, Hiroaki Nakamura (4), Kiyoshi Hayami, Mitsuo Nagai, Shinichi Fujii

The music is squarely in the country rock genre, with accessible songwriting in a a typical Southern US sound, simple chord changes, twangy chords on acoustic guitar mostly, sometimes electric, slide guitar in most places, nice harmony vocals, sometimes the scratchy down-home fiddling and banjo that makes everyone 'of a certain age' think of the Burt Reynolds classic Deliverance.

Track 8, called Staring At The Passing Days (I think) = 過ぎし日を見つめて:

Guitarist Kunio Suma from Bi Kyo Ran: Solosolo (2007), Paradox Paradise Solo 3 (2024)

 

From discogs:

Japanese guitarist, vocalist and composer.

Of course he's famous because of the legendary King Crimson-like band, Bi Kyo Ran. I once posted their Anthology back here-- boy was that one brilliant!  Also good was their latest release, just posted.

He only made 3 solo albums, as you can see quite spaced far apart from 2007, 2019's Boundary of the Forest, and then just recently.  Amazingly the recent album is the superior one from the 2 that I have (again, missing the middle one).  The music is quite mixed in terms of Bi Kyo Ran-like and more acoustic guitar-oriented.

From Solo 3, The Night Shore:

New Bi Kyo Ran, Bloodliners 2025, limited time only

 

In the words of Discogs:

Japanese progressive rock band. Their sound is often compared with King Crimson (they started as a King Crimson tribute band) which is understandable given guitarist Kunio Suma's emulation of Fripp's renowned style and some similarity in song titles ("Vision Of The City", "21st Century Africa").

Their first album from 1982, the one with the Kabuki makeup guy, is still one of my all time favourite prog albums as a result.  In my opinion it actually goes beyond KC in terms of its high dynamic and overall sustained quality, which never lets up from beginning to end, with no weaker spots (eg the folky acoustic songs that KC were prone to).  I last posted these guys back here with their 2002 "Anthology" (not really that I take it) which I thought and still think is absolutely stunning too.  So it was surprising to hear they put an album out so recently.

The amazing thing about a track called Crustal Movement is that on top of the ultra-dissonant Frippian riffing, the singer manages to create a coherent albeit equally wild-eyed dissonant melody:

Note too the appearance of the (fake?) mellotron halfway through.  In general it follows along the same lines as the remainder of their releases, and it's overall quite good and worth hearing.  What a surprise, so many years later.

Finally, the third of the Tatsu Akiba albums: Cities in People from 2023 by request, limited time only

 

The other two posted here and here.  

Information on this one browsable here.  It's in the same vein as the other 2-- luckily.

As a sample, the bizarrely titled Fake Brain / Pure Virus / Virus in Brain (does it somehow refer to our old forgotten friend Sars-cov-2?) Again I note the resemblance to Yezda Urfa in particular, perhaps unintentional:

Gotta love the concept of  'fake brain' though.  

I note that the guitar riff in the middle of KC's 20th C. Schizoid shows up on the one track called The Surface of Each Persona.  Overall there is less of the Canterbury influence, more Yes-like sounds.

It seems unkind to criticize such a great effort at classic prog, but in terms of drawbacks, we could suggest sometimes the singing seems a little off, esp. in the backup vocals dept., and sometimes the music seems muddled when too many instruments are playing together, presumably since he is responsible for all of them.  Nonetheless, wonderful stuff in compositional terms.

Many thanks for the friend who helped obtain this hard to find album (unless you already have a subscription to one of those ripoff streaming services).

Some more Korekyojinn albums: ST (1999), Arabesque (2004)

 

As mentioned earlier, they play a kind of furious electric instrumental dissonant prog, like a more hyped-up adhd-like borderline bipolar Fripp, less accessible though, almost improvised, leaning a bit too much into the free jazz direction. 

Discogged here accompanied by the description:

Korekyojinn is a progressive jazz rock polyrhythmic ensemble, founded in 1998 by drummer Tatsuya Yoshida. They released albums on Tzadik and Magaibutsu. The band's name is translated as This Giant (as a pun to This Heat and Gentle Giant, two main influences of the band).

It's a bit of an odd combination to put together those 2.  But I would say right off the bat I don't detect much GG influence, and that's too bad because obviously we who love prog adore Gentle Giant.

Gibraltar, taken from the second release:

Paga Group by request [Paga 1985, Haunted 1988, Gnosis 1993] FLACs limited time only

 

Bernard Paganotti was a bassist in Magma, in the one-off (1978 release) Weidorje, and of course created his own group thereafter called Paga Group which made two albums, though the one credited to him called Paga from 1985 is essentially the same.

The music is zeuhl with light fusion, none of the high-energy dissonance that was in Magma and Weidorje, much, much more approachable and as you'd expect, more so the further along we get in the decade of the 1980s on to 1993's Gnosis, released in the early CD era.

Zigzag, from this last album, is a composition by the keyboardist Bernard Lajudie:

Akihisa Tsuboy with Korekyojinn in Doldrums, 2010

 

This is the violinist from KBB, whose own personal page is here.  I put up all the KBB stuff back here and here, it's a lot of music to slog through with the occasional delight, in my opinion.

In fact the music here is from the latter artist, a band called Korekyojinn, and not that similar to KBB.  The sound is quite dissonant-- almost atonal / free jazz, way beyond what the great Fripp would have been comfortable with.  As an example, the title track:

Tatsu Akiba in his ST from 2026, limited time only

 

Information on this one here.  The style is similar to the previous post but amazingly, the music is even better in my opinion.  A track called Sign 2 Turn 4 Another 1 sounds eerily like Richard Sinclair's singing on Hatfield, and that of course is a wonderful thing, something to be prized:

Amazingly at times he pulls out the classic Soft Machine sound of fuzzy bass plus wah-wah hammond organ.  Amazing!  Boy do I miss that sound.

The missing 2023 album was requested: Cities in People, does anyone have it, by chance, to share with us?

Tatsu Akiba in Swans Dance, Roses Bloom like Mad 2021, Limited Time Only! [Canterbury sound]

 

Information to be found here: 

"Japanese multi-instrumentalist, composer and progressive rock musician."

Definitely this is a case of understating the situation, it turns out it's brilliantly played, brilliantly composed classic prog of the kind we adore here, leaning towards the old Canterbury classics especially Hatfield. On this blog, the old Stubbs (Kojiro Yamashita) from more than a decade ago is very similar.

There are 3 albums in total so far from Akiba this being the first one from 2021.  I am not sure about the 'unreleased tracks' listed below on the discogs page.

A Host of Heroes etc. sounds very classic in the prog style, similar perhaps to Germans Epidermis, with the vocals sung on top of a dissonant and irregular-rhythm riff:

On the other hand a track called Brigid's Hut sounds like he listened very closely to beloved classic prog band Yezda Urfa of Boris fame, and learned how to play its own unique brand of insanity:

Pretty remarkable, right?

Note also the use of mellotron here and there.

Altogether, a very enjoyable album.

I'll be back with one more from him shortly.

Didier Malherbe in 1990's Fetish CD [plus 1979 Bloom, 1981 Melodic Destiny, 1986 Faton Bloom, 1989 Saxo Folies]

 

I thought for sure I posted him before, but only in connection with Faton Cahen, here, and Patrice Meyer. Of course he's most known for the work he did with Gong.

From the requested album Fetish, released 1990, the last 2 songs feature synth player Rykiel, discogged here.  These are really lovely, consider Hors D'oeuvres:

I'm assuming everyone is already familiar with the great Bloom album and Faton Bloom, which is a kind of follow up from 1986 with Cahen.  From that one, the lovely but oddly named Vulvox:

From the cassette only release with guitarist Yan Emeric, A Breughel really blew me away in its compositional glory, I am not sure which of his paintings the progressive complexity could be alluding to:

Otherwise this release is a bit of mixed bag.

Back to the Japanese stuff straightaway after.