KAMIHITOE

Excellent fusion album! Being a fan of Japanese progressive artists, I noticed there are two main streams in Japanese progressive jazz/rock related music from last few decades: some bands (and there were really plenty of them in 80-90-s) play quite competent technically but usually faceless soft fusion, and another are just a brutal hardcore avant.

It's really not very often you can hear well-balanced musically release somewhere in between. Djamra is one of the few band , filling this niche. "Kamihitoe" is their great release,combining very energetic,in tradition of Japanese brutal avant, music with melodic tunes, very complex musicianship, but very jazzy, never too much dissonant or chaotic.

In fact, music of this album is real modern fusion, based on best European traditions, but very full-bodied,tasty,with light courage of Japanese avant in it!Kitamura's sax is everywhere and gives to whole sound very Elton Dean-like feel. Acoustic piano adds post-bop jazz tradition, but at the same time there are many of modern electronic keyboards. Energetic field comes from heavy fusion , some pieces sound almost as heavy metal (being absolutely jazzy at the same time). Bass is deep and very groovy. Rhythms and tempos are changing similar times during each composition, but there are not even traces of chaos ! Music is mostly improvised, but it sounds as pre-composed one! Free jazz sax over the top of many compositions is a last spice which makes this dish a gourmet one.

Possibly one of the best Japanese modern fusion release from last decade. My rating is 4,5,rounded to 5.