JUMP

I will admit that MAGICAL POWER MAKO is not for everybody, not even "jump", despite being his most accessible release, as a fact I only knew about this band by accident, because a friend received some albums from his brother and he forgot this one in my house (At least I believed that), the LP got mixed with my own records and only discovered it several years later when the guy was already married and living in USA. Only a couple years ago I found my friend in a reunion of the youth gang and told me he left "Jump" on purpose because he hated it and believed nobody would had paid him a dime in a country as Perú.

When I read DamoxT7492, was surprised with his opinion about "Jump" not being Prog, because even when I agree their first two releases are far more attractive for Avant or Electronic Prog fans, we can't deny the complexity and excellent musicianship of is third release

The album starts with "Jump to Me", a song that for the casual listener may seem mainstream "Rock & Roll", when listening carefully the dissonance between guitar, keys and bass it's obvious that this guys are really experimenting with incredibly complex arrangements.

I normally avoid the pure or almost pure percussion tracks, but in he case of "The story of our Master" I have made an exception, being that from the first instant, that almost military combination of voices and Japanese percussion is fascinating, many rappers could learn a couple of lessons about how you can almost talk during a song, but still make it interesting, and when about the third minute "Kid" joins with the distorted bass is simply delightful, specially when without advice the song links with "Give me Present" a track with a very simple lyric hat consists in the phrase "Give me Present"

I believe there's some sort of sarcasm directed towards "Revolution 9", being that the melody starts with a BEATLES reminiscence, but that's all we got in common, a nice keyboard and a wonderful and almost chaotic dissonance invade the atmosphere, simply brilliant.

What impresses me more about MGICAL POWER MAKO, is their capacity to move from one genre, style and/or mood to another, "Rest Light Down" is a soft melodic and jazzy interlude that prepares us for the almost martial "So", in which the excellent work with distorted guitar is simply impressive.

"Blue Wind" is the most melodic song, with an amazing guitar work, the are thrown one over the other, adding the Avant touch, again a short track preparing for"Elephant's Jungle", a longer but disappointing song in which each instrument resembles a different jungle animal, really tedious, only the final sitar sitar section saves the song partially.

Now, MAGICAL POWER MAKO are able to rock, and "Jump" leaves no doubt about this, as usual the apparently simple music is made more interesting with a weird choice of instruments and excellent arrangements.

The album is closed with the beautiful but short "21th Ocean", IMO the most beautiful song of the album with a strong Japanese side and a killer but trippy organ finale, excellent closer.

If it wasn't for "Elephant's Jungle", the rating job would had been harder, being that could had take me hours to decide between 4 or 5 stars, but being after this weird song , I have to go with solid stars that should be 4.5.

MAKO is one of the pioneers of Japanese Prog and I believe among the most original.