KAMIHITOE

The title of the album references the difference between genius and madness, 'KAMI' means paper and 'Hitoe' means a very little difference, so it is the thickness of a sheet of paper. This is the third album from this instrumental quintet (guitar, bass, keys, sax, drums) and there are times when all five of them are on exactly the same wavelength and others when they are all pushing forward to front to try and wrest control of the songs from others. But, and this is a huge but, there is always a great deal of control so even if the sax is going off like crazy during the title song he is straight back in with the others at exactly the right moment. There is the feeling that the music is very carefully constructed with an agreement for one or the other to go mad for a set number of bars but that they have to be able to drop right back into the theme at the right moment.

Although this is very much jazz based the guitar is far more from the rock area, much more metallic, but this definitely doesn't come across as lightweight fusion. It is possible to view the band's site in English (something unusual for Japanese bands) at www.djamra.com and also listen to samples and I feel that this is one act that does benefit from hearing first. But if you like inventive progressive jazz then this is one of the most interesting releases from Poseidon. www.poseidon.jp