98.12.28 OTOKOTACHI NO WAKARE [98.12.28 男達の別れ]

Recently I added Fishmans to Prog Archives and decided that I should try to review at least one of the albums. The first album I heard by Fishmans is "Long Season" from 1996, and it was love at first listen for me. I was working in Japan as an English teacher (feels like yesterday) when it was recorded and released, but sadly it would not be for many years that I got to hear Fishmans. While I have not reviewed many albums, I decided to attempt a review, or something akin to a review, of what is something of a monster, the two hours and ten minute live album from 1998, "Otokotachi no wakare". I first wanted to hear this album for its over 41 minute long version of "Long Season", which has ended up being my favourite version, but ended up loving the whole album. I would say this is my favourite live album without diminishing other great 90s lives such as Portishead's Roseland Live, Swans' Swans Are Dead and Cardiacs' All That Glitters Is a Mares Nest . This album comes from a concert in Tokyo on December, 28, 2008 and was released on September 29, 1999. Tragically, the main composer/songwriter, vocalist, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Shinji Sato died less than three months after this concert, on March 15, 1999 at the age of 33. I only found out about that after getting into the album and that hit me hard, but it explained why this wonderful band had not lasted.

I do suggest trying to watch the performance at least once, not just listen. I will try a brief track-by-track commentary for this attempt at a review.

They introduce themsleves and the concert's first song "Oh! Slime" is one of the album highlights for me and also has the band asking "Are you feeling good?" Yes I am! Thanks the Fishman. It sets the mood for what is to be, I think, a dynamic, electrifying and ethereal experience. "They float, they all float" ? Stephen King's IT I reference because this can be a flotatious experience especially in the final act. I love hearing the band/ Sato talk to the audience, and it may help that I retain some knowledge of Japanese.

Then we have the wonderful "Night Cruising" which is quite dreamy, tranquil, and gently post-rocky. "Nantettano" is another highlight, it just makes me feel happy in a way that only kinds of Japanese poppy music does. "Thank You" has a reggae thing going on, and Sato sings "Thank you for my life", which is very bittersweet to hear. Many thank him for his life.

"Shiawasemono" is smooth and lightly jazz rocky. Very nice. "Tayorinai Tenshi" has a kind of ska thing happening. "Hikouki" is a very fun and lively song. "In the Flight" is gorgeous, a bit country, folky and just wonderful, and the music shifts. Wonderful keyboards. It is another serious highlight for me. Love it. And the violin of Honzi really lifts part of this. She is wonderful in this album. "Walking in the Rhythm" is a more Bluesy affair and has wonderful transition near the end to a different more classic psychedelic dynamic. I would have loved this to be expanded to 20 minutes. "Smilin' days, Summer Holiday" is lighter and poppier while still having a rock edge. "Melody" is a bluesy number.

"Yurameki in the Air" is the second longest track on the album, and one of the most major highlights of a release full of highlights for me. I adore the range of expression/ modes/ feelings in the track, the different sections of it and the shifts in the music.

"Ikareta Baby" is a light and enjoyable Reggaeish track.

Then we get to the most significant track of the album, "Long Season", which is magnificent. Wow! This is perfection, sublime, triumphant. It was especially due to this that I decided to suggest Fishmans for Prog Archives consideration. It reminds me a bit of the Boris' Flood in feel in part somehow. But it is unique, and I am strange. I love the chorus, it has great groove. It is joyous, the guitar is down to Earth and joyful. And this is one where the drum solo (not quite solo) with related sounds really works for me. It has an ethereal, dream-like quality. I love the ethereal qualities that come into this. And the track can be so funky. Danceable. The violin is wonderful. It's the kind of music that makes me so glad to be alive although it ends on a sad note. This is a trip. It gets truly epic with an amazing crescendo, or crescendos. Crescendos are something I love. Some might find it too repetitive, but for me repetition with builds makes music magical. I love variations on themes.

This album can be likened to music by, say, The Flaming Lips and Flotation Toy Warning and various psychedelic rock, post-rock and Indie acts but while it shares qualities with other music it is also very much itself..

There is something so transcendent about the album, it is more than the sum of its parts. It provides enough significant differences from the studio material to make this utterly essential. And to me listening to it is like some deeply spiritual experience ultimately. I love the interaction with the audience, hearing the audience talk back and laugh, the joy and at the end, the utter exhaustion. And I feel a sense of humility from Sato, sincerity and vulnerability when Sato speaks which makes it all the more endearing. I have read that Sato would need oxygen after the performances It is a masterpiece, blissful, and my top live release. There is nothing that I would remove from it. There is more going on that you would likely notice without paying close attention and in the right environment, which of course could be said for many, many an album, but most albums do not open up to me this way with glorious phrases, sounds and moments. Plenty of dopamine rushes and chills to be found for me. Sufjan Stevens music often does that for me.. And it deserves six stars from me. It's a release that I have loved more and more with every spin and I would not want to skip a moment of it. Some will not appreciate the falsetto type of vocals of Sato, but I like the uniqueness that his vocals bring, and he was an essential part of Fishmans who is sadly missed by many. So I see this release as a triumph and it warms my heart, but also it is sad to think of how much, much more Fishmans could have offered as well as the ending of a young, vibrant and talented life.

"The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long - and you have burned so very, very brightly, Roy" (Tyrell, Blade Runner, 1982).