MADE IN JAPAN

For years I thought that review "Made In Japan" on any rock music related site has no sense at all - everyone knows every single note of this album. But with time I saw more and more "music fans", participated in hot discussion about "level of innovation and progressiveness in new Gazpacho release", who even didn't heard about this Deep Purple album. So it looks the time is come.

This double LP live album contains 7 excellent Deep Purple songs from their top period, played with big inspiration. Same songs almost all sound great on studio releases as well, but there in concert they got new life. Musicianship is of the highest level, but three obvious stars of this concert are Gillan's vocals,Lord's keyboard passages and Blackmore's guitar solos.

Songs versions are much longer,than on studio recordings,and that jamming and soloing added very much to the album's attraction. Being one top-level hard rock band of early 70-s, Deep Purple shows there their more progressive side, especially on keyboards arrangements.

For sure, it's really difficult to speak about this album as prog rock example. But this concert recording for decades will become etalon for future heavy metal and even metal prog bands coming on scene. I believe that till now " Made In Japan" is best ever released live hard rock album. Everyone with interest to heavy/prog rock should start from here.

For real fans I could recommend Japanese 3 CD re-release with added material from few more concerts during same band's Japan tour , I could compare this edition with Miles Davis' Bitches Brew Sessions set.