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: