IL BERLIONE

3.5 stars. IL BERLIONE are the second Japanese band to actually fool me with their Italian band name. A five piece, these guys operated in the first half of the nineties releasing two studio albums. This is the debut from 1992 and while we have some players here, this one has quite a bit of variety to it. A lot of fans consider them avant, but the jazz quota is strong as well. So Eclectic is an interesting choice and I like it. KING CRIMSON would be a band not in jazz or avant that they seem to be fans of. Mostly the 80's stuff.

A great sounding record with the sax and guitar soloing while the rhythm section impresses. All instrumental as well. I honestly had trouble with the first half of the album for the classic rock sounding guitar and smooth sax. That statement had me wondering how legit these guys were. I mean angular guitar and dissonant sax please. Unless your not into the avant which I'm guessing they weren't much. The final three tracks make up for this though. What an incredibly strong finish, causing me to reconsider my rating, until I start over again and it's like "Oh yeah."

1992 was not a bad year for adventerous music in Japan despite it being a weak year overall for my music. GROUND ZERO, BOREDOMS and RUINS all releasing recordings that year. IL BERLIONE's debut would be the least adventerous of those.