2008-07-10 Gazeuse! / Gong
maybe you know... Daevid Allen, Gilli Smyth, Steve Hillage, Tim Blake... important persons in Daevid Allen's Gong were not on this album. this is the first album that the drummer Pierre Moerlan led the band... the band totally changed from psychedelic prog rock group to percussive jazz rock group. they have 4 percussionists!! so some parts remain me a kind of minimal music like a bit Steve Reich's works or a bit African music... although winds player Didier Malherbe still plays on this album, their music futures so much percussion! and Allan Holdsworth plays too, but i'm not so interested in his guitar playing always... (even Soft Machine, UK...) unfortunately his guitar is totally pointless for me even i agree some people said me his guitar work was very unique... the new bassist Francis Moze is well known as Magma's original bassist...
why am i listening to this album now? i bought this album earlier than any Daevid Allen's Gong's albums when i was a teenager... then i didn't know any Gong's discography... i just found it at the record store... that's all!! when i listened to it, i felt so strange... because i read some disc reviews of Daevid Allen's Gong's albums on the magazine. i was really interested, so i went to the record store to get any Gong's album!! but... there was no vocals! no synthesizer!!! hahaha... what a stupid boy i was!!!
anyway it was my funny memory about Gong... but then i spent a kind of big money for me... (i was a poor teenager... records were so expensive for me!) anyway i tried to fins any parts what i like, and i tried to like this music then!! i liked at least this percussion ensemble...
i hadn't heard Pierre Moerlen's Gong's music for long time, maybe more than 20 years!! but suddenly i wanted to listen to it again...!! hummm... still i feel that i'm interested in only percussion ensemble and Didier Malherbe's flute playing, like same as my first impression when i was a teenager...
why am i listening to this album now? i bought this album earlier than any Daevid Allen's Gong's albums when i was a teenager... then i didn't know any Gong's discography... i just found it at the record store... that's all!! when i listened to it, i felt so strange... because i read some disc reviews of Daevid Allen's Gong's albums on the magazine. i was really interested, so i went to the record store to get any Gong's album!! but... there was no vocals! no synthesizer!!! hahaha... what a stupid boy i was!!!
anyway it was my funny memory about Gong... but then i spent a kind of big money for me... (i was a poor teenager... records were so expensive for me!) anyway i tried to fins any parts what i like, and i tried to like this music then!! i liked at least this percussion ensemble...
i hadn't heard Pierre Moerlen's Gong's music for long time, maybe more than 20 years!! but suddenly i wanted to listen to it again...!! hummm... still i feel that i'm interested in only percussion ensemble and Didier Malherbe's flute playing, like same as my first impression when i was a teenager...
2008-07-09 Emerson, Lake & Palmer / Emerson, Lake & Palmer
finally Speed Guru's time is back!!
i had been so busy from March when AMT & TMP U.F.O.'s US tour started... JNMF European tour, AMT & TCI's recording, Terrastock 7, AMT & TCI's Hokkaido tour and JNMF Japan tour... anyway finally i found a bit enough time to write Speed Guru's time now!
i love Emerson, Lake & Palmer as one of the great heavy rock group!! i think EL&P is not prog rock group... of course they were called the one of the prog rock originator, i agree it... but i like their music as the great heavy rock!!
track #1 "The Barbarian" is very emotional track for me!! Greg Lake's fuzz bass, Keith Emerson's heavy organ sound, Carl Palmer's amazing speedy and powerful drumming!! it looks perfect as the great heavy rock sounds!!! also i love Greg Lake's lyrical singing, it isquite a contrast to their heavy sounds! and Keith Emerson's gorgeous piano playing is very sweet and mellow, it's so beautiful contrast too!!
i think more people who loves heavy rock should reappraise EL&P's music!!!
i had been so busy from March when AMT & TMP U.F.O.'s US tour started... JNMF European tour, AMT & TCI's recording, Terrastock 7, AMT & TCI's Hokkaido tour and JNMF Japan tour... anyway finally i found a bit enough time to write Speed Guru's time now!
i love Emerson, Lake & Palmer as one of the great heavy rock group!! i think EL&P is not prog rock group... of course they were called the one of the prog rock originator, i agree it... but i like their music as the great heavy rock!!
track #1 "The Barbarian" is very emotional track for me!! Greg Lake's fuzz bass, Keith Emerson's heavy organ sound, Carl Palmer's amazing speedy and powerful drumming!! it looks perfect as the great heavy rock sounds!!! also i love Greg Lake's lyrical singing, it isquite a contrast to their heavy sounds! and Keith Emerson's gorgeous piano playing is very sweet and mellow, it's so beautiful contrast too!!
i think more people who loves heavy rock should reappraise EL&P's music!!!
2008-03-09 Squimaoto / Squimaoto
Squimaoto is a female trio from Kobe. this is their first full album. (i think they released 2 mini albums on cdr.) when i saw their show at Helluva Lounge in Kobe, i got a shock also i couldn't understand what kind of music their music was... something like a bit This Heat atmosphere, but totally different! their music is so unique for me... ensemble of 2 guitars is really unique and strange sound... also drummer's playing was looks like "playing space"!! ("Squimaoto" means probably Sukima Oto, it means "sounds of the opening space") what a great drumming was!! i had seen their shows a couple of times, always i felt their music was so unique, strange and floating...
i got this new album from them when i played as MMM (Mani Neumeier + Yamazaki Maso + Kawabata Makoto) at Helluva Lounge in Kobe in last February. then Squimaoto played as our support act. when i started to listen to it in first time, i murmured aloud "You got me..." what the great intro is!! this is typical their style what i felt from their music since i saw them first time... intro of 1st track "Uida", guitar sounds are so far and so small volume with a sound of amp buzz, i thought why the volume was so small and sounds were so far...!? suddenly a sound by a cymbal comes with normal volume, finally guitar ensemble with normal volume comes!! what the great guitar riffs are!! also always the drummer keeps just playing space!! and there are some whisper vocals... it looks perfect as the one of the great female group!!
anyway their music is so unique, humble like typical old-fashioned Japanese women, but also strong like typical recently Japanese women... and like drawing... i'm sure more many people will love their music...
their base "Helluva Lounge" in Kobe is the one of the best club in Japan. they try to organize many good concerts, support many local good groups, and make so beautiful cool posters!! i've felt a new movement of the new music will happen from Helluva Lounge in Kobe...
i'm going to reissue their 2 cdrs of 1st and 2nd mini albums on CD from AMT label in near future... i hope more people will discover their beautiful music...
i got this new album from them when i played as MMM (Mani Neumeier + Yamazaki Maso + Kawabata Makoto) at Helluva Lounge in Kobe in last February. then Squimaoto played as our support act. when i started to listen to it in first time, i murmured aloud "You got me..." what the great intro is!! this is typical their style what i felt from their music since i saw them first time... intro of 1st track "Uida", guitar sounds are so far and so small volume with a sound of amp buzz, i thought why the volume was so small and sounds were so far...!? suddenly a sound by a cymbal comes with normal volume, finally guitar ensemble with normal volume comes!! what the great guitar riffs are!! also always the drummer keeps just playing space!! and there are some whisper vocals... it looks perfect as the one of the great female group!!
anyway their music is so unique, humble like typical old-fashioned Japanese women, but also strong like typical recently Japanese women... and like drawing... i'm sure more many people will love their music...
their base "Helluva Lounge" in Kobe is the one of the best club in Japan. they try to organize many good concerts, support many local good groups, and make so beautiful cool posters!! i've felt a new movement of the new music will happen from Helluva Lounge in Kobe...
i'm going to reissue their 2 cdrs of 1st and 2nd mini albums on CD from AMT label in near future... i hope more people will discover their beautiful music...
2008-03-03 1st album / Ueh
this album was released from our AMT label in 2002. this dbl cd set, disc-m is composed, disc-i is improvised. when i met them in their base Toulouse France first time, it was maybe in 1999. when i stayed at their bassist Audrey's flat, she played their damo recordings. although i was a little interested in their music, their music was so incomplete yet. then they were just trio, Stephane (g), Audrey (b) and Frederic (dr). i met them next time, i saw their show... it was the first time to see their live performance. 2 more members joined, Benjamin (g) and Lemi (kb, tp). their music changed more like completely... when i played in Toulouse, many times they played as my opening act, it means i've seen how they changed and make their music better... one day, they said they recorded 2 discs, so i proposed to release both as one album from AMT label. because i felt their music was so pure and beautiful... of course sometime i felt something were like a bit post-rock atmosphere (usually i don't like), but their music gave me more something to me even i felt like that... at that time, they were so younger, also they didn't know so much music, but it was normal situation in such countryside. even they didn't know so much music, their music was cultivated a pure culture in such countryside...!!!
i feel their music is so pure, consequently fragile too... it means if they will know moremusic, they will grow up as more better musicians, i'm sure they may lose something what is the one of the most important thing for their music... so this album is the one of the diamond in the rough, it's a miracle for me...
i also released Frederic's 1st album from AMT label too. it was his very early recordings. when i listened to his first dbl cdr first time, i loved it so much! he said me he could sell only 3 copies at that time!! so i released it. (i chose the tracks from dbl cdr to make one cd.) after that time, Frederic formed a new group "Hyperclean" that play more like French Pops, they got a kind of success. and he formed a fake American rock group "Ray Vasco & The Crocodiles" too. although he is a kind of genius as a song writer, i love his drumming too. always good song writers / singers can be good drummers! like Robert Wyatt, Charles Hayward, Christian Vander, etc... they can play drums like singing!! Stephane plays always beautiful riffs discreetly in the band. i think he is the key person of Ueh. Audrey's bass playing is brawnily also obduracy, this is antithesis to Stephane's guitar playing. Benjamin's playing is bohemian, and although Lemi's playing is looks like extraneous, he find his place in the band!! i love this collaboration by these 5 musicians... the one of the miracle was recorded on this dbl cd set... so i hope more people will discover this pure music... maybe someone saw their shows when they played in US as the support band of Kinski (then i play as the guest guitarist instead of Matthew) in summer 2004...
Benjamin and Audrey started a new group "Aquaserge", the sounds like 60s psychedelic sound track!! they'll release 1st album from Manimal Vinyl Records.
i feel their music is so pure, consequently fragile too... it means if they will know moremusic, they will grow up as more better musicians, i'm sure they may lose something what is the one of the most important thing for their music... so this album is the one of the diamond in the rough, it's a miracle for me...
i also released Frederic's 1st album from AMT label too. it was his very early recordings. when i listened to his first dbl cdr first time, i loved it so much! he said me he could sell only 3 copies at that time!! so i released it. (i chose the tracks from dbl cdr to make one cd.) after that time, Frederic formed a new group "Hyperclean" that play more like French Pops, they got a kind of success. and he formed a fake American rock group "Ray Vasco & The Crocodiles" too. although he is a kind of genius as a song writer, i love his drumming too. always good song writers / singers can be good drummers! like Robert Wyatt, Charles Hayward, Christian Vander, etc... they can play drums like singing!! Stephane plays always beautiful riffs discreetly in the band. i think he is the key person of Ueh. Audrey's bass playing is brawnily also obduracy, this is antithesis to Stephane's guitar playing. Benjamin's playing is bohemian, and although Lemi's playing is looks like extraneous, he find his place in the band!! i love this collaboration by these 5 musicians... the one of the miracle was recorded on this dbl cd set... so i hope more people will discover this pure music... maybe someone saw their shows when they played in US as the support band of Kinski (then i play as the guest guitarist instead of Matthew) in summer 2004...
Benjamin and Audrey started a new group "Aquaserge", the sounds like 60s psychedelic sound track!! they'll release 1st album from Manimal Vinyl Records.
2008-01-20 Shiawase No Kashi / Moon Mama
Moon Mama is the name of Pikachu's accompanying herself solo. Pikachu is well known as the drummer of Afrirampo, also she has joined Acid Mothers Temple & The Cosmic Inferno since Western Japan tour in last summer. she released this solo cdr from her label Moon Light Records in last December when Moon Mama had Japan tour at that time. you can find her other faces from Afrirampo, more like just as one young woman from this album. she sings and plays guitar, also plays drums on only one track as drums solo. so this is almost her folk album, the sound is really cosmic motherly love!!
especially i was really impressed by one song "Okaasan (Mama)"... she sings "mama,mama, i saw a dream that you died in yesterday... when i woke up in the morning, i had watery eyes until my pillow got wet with tears... and my tears made me cry again... i love you mama, i love you mama... it's a little difficult to sing this song... but i should sing this song... i wish children in the whole world sing this song... i love you mama, i love you mama..." right, almost Japanese people don't say "i love you" to anyone in their family, even their parents, even their children, also even wife or husband... and they don't touch with each others, no shake of the hand, no hug, no kiss, this is typical our Japanese custom. it's totally different from Western custom... so i guess singing this song was courageous action for her... but probably she loves her mama much more than her sense of shame or her identity with Japanese custom...
i enjoy talking with her, always i was surprised and impressed by her flabbergasting thinking and unique philosophy... i doubt she might come from another world or outer space...? anyway i can enjoy her singing with such pure mind from this album... maybe many people has been faded away this kind of pure mind by their social livings...
she wrote my name on the sleeve of my disc as superscription... probably someone who is like a rare record mania will say this is damaged jacket!!... hahaha... this kind of people totally has been faded away his pure mind!!
especially i was really impressed by one song "Okaasan (Mama)"... she sings "mama,mama, i saw a dream that you died in yesterday... when i woke up in the morning, i had watery eyes until my pillow got wet with tears... and my tears made me cry again... i love you mama, i love you mama... it's a little difficult to sing this song... but i should sing this song... i wish children in the whole world sing this song... i love you mama, i love you mama..." right, almost Japanese people don't say "i love you" to anyone in their family, even their parents, even their children, also even wife or husband... and they don't touch with each others, no shake of the hand, no hug, no kiss, this is typical our Japanese custom. it's totally different from Western custom... so i guess singing this song was courageous action for her... but probably she loves her mama much more than her sense of shame or her identity with Japanese custom...
i enjoy talking with her, always i was surprised and impressed by her flabbergasting thinking and unique philosophy... i doubt she might come from another world or outer space...? anyway i can enjoy her singing with such pure mind from this album... maybe many people has been faded away this kind of pure mind by their social livings...
she wrote my name on the sleeve of my disc as superscription... probably someone who is like a rare record mania will say this is damaged jacket!!... hahaha... this kind of people totally has been faded away his pure mind!!
2008-01-19 The Square Root of Two / Night Shadow
although Night Shadow are one of the longest garage band from 50's, i know only this bootleg cd... (i think their compilation albums "vol.1" ~ "vol.3"has been released...) anyway this album is quit good psychedelic garage sound!
i like their great cheap playing with many strange collage that remains me Os Mutantes or Mothers of Invention... also only one track "I Can't Believe" is more longer than 9 minutes including so long cheap fuzz guitar solo...
i like this kind of collage and effects on the albums... when i was 12 or 13 years old, i loved the middle part of Zep's "Whole Lotta Love" in all of their songs... so when i covered this song, we played just short part of riff and so long this middle part!! hahaha... maybe this is errant listening style...? but anyway i was really interested and liked Stockhausen's music concrete at that time... so it was normal for me...
this is one of the masterpiece for me... the great garage punk meets psychedelic collage!!
i like their great cheap playing with many strange collage that remains me Os Mutantes or Mothers of Invention... also only one track "I Can't Believe" is more longer than 9 minutes including so long cheap fuzz guitar solo...
i like this kind of collage and effects on the albums... when i was 12 or 13 years old, i loved the middle part of Zep's "Whole Lotta Love" in all of their songs... so when i covered this song, we played just short part of riff and so long this middle part!! hahaha... maybe this is errant listening style...? but anyway i was really interested and liked Stockhausen's music concrete at that time... so it was normal for me...
this is one of the masterpiece for me... the great garage punk meets psychedelic collage!!
2008-01-18 Electri City / Michael Bundt
Michael Bundt was the bassist of German prog-rock bands Medusa and Nine Days Wonder. after these group, he changed to play keybords as solo. this is his third album in 1981, it's quit good album that electronics meets rock, even i felt a bit 80's atmosphere... so-called "electro music" in early 80's makes me a bit boring... because too mechanical atmosphere... like robots play these music... of course i understand these musicians tried to play like robots or aliens from other planets... also Michael Bundt said he came from outer space too... but i guess Michael Bundt couldn't be such alien... however even Gong who came from Planet Gong, their music is not like aliens' music...
the sound of this album is really nostalgic cheap electro-rock! and there is collage of woman's ecstasy voice on fast-forward... the sound like cheap easy listening music!! hahaha... but i love it!!!
anyway this is typical prog-rock and kraut rock burnout! many prog-rock and kraut rock musicians started to play this kind of music from late 70's or early 80's... although i understand this kind of music is not great, i love it so much!!!
by the way if robots or aliens from other planet play music, what kind of music will they play??? i'm sure they won't play this kind of electro-rock!! because this is typical illusional sound by human who likes such science fiction...
the sound of this album is really nostalgic cheap electro-rock! and there is collage of woman's ecstasy voice on fast-forward... the sound like cheap easy listening music!! hahaha... but i love it!!!
anyway this is typical prog-rock and kraut rock burnout! many prog-rock and kraut rock musicians started to play this kind of music from late 70's or early 80's... although i understand this kind of music is not great, i love it so much!!!
by the way if robots or aliens from other planet play music, what kind of music will they play??? i'm sure they won't play this kind of electro-rock!! because this is typical illusional sound by human who likes such science fiction...
