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.