MILLPLAT

Just because you can does not mean you should.

Millplat, on their only album I know of, plays a strong form of heavy rock, with quite a bit of prog flourishes. Instrumentally, they are very good at this form, and from the outset of the album, they impressed me. On the first track, the instrumental Ambassador, guitarist Izumi Mutsuhiko sets us up with some beautiful soloing, with string pops and bends that reminds me of David Torn.

But on the second track, Twinkling Nasa the vocals start. I don't know if this style of singing is popular in Japan, but for me it ruins the album. Igarashi Hisakatsu sings in a grating falsetto, made worse with an overly operatic falsetto. He sounds like a cartoon version of early Geddy Lee, played to an extreme.

One track does stand out. Prism, an instrumental, of course, shows just how great the band could have been without Hisakatsu's screeching. It is an amazing piece of heavy prog.

I'm not surprised the band disappeared after this debut.

Post-Kennedy short-lived Prog band from the 90's.Millplat was yet another project by ex-Kennedy and Dada's leader Izumi Mutsuhiko (guitars, bass, synthesizer), who brought along Scheherazade's/Novela's singer Igarashi Hisakatsu.The rest of the group were Hosokawa Hiroshi on drums, Hayashi Oji on vocals/keyboards/programming and Matsuyama Naoyoshi on programming.The only self-titled album of the band, released privately in 1994, features a few guests on bass, sax and vocals, among them is Hokada Naomi, singer of Ie Rai Shan.

The links with the sound of KENNEDY and NOVELA are evident throughout the album, but Millplat were definitely walking on a more symphonic path than Mutsuhiko's previous projects, even if this could have been easily an 80's album due to the programmed drums and the digital keyboard sounds, which dominate the album.This is actually a pretty decent combination of symphonic/orchestral synthesizers, more than angular guitar leads and over-the-top vocals by Hisakatsu, which eventually produced nice tracks, deeped in electric melodies and bombastic textures.Mutsuhiko even attempts to rework ''Twinkling NASA'' from Kennedy's debut album in a surprising but questionable move.Millplat border to Prog-Metal territories at moments, maybe akin to MARGE LITCH, due to the heavy pounding bass lines and the continuously present grandiose keyboards.As expected by another Japanese band of a style balancing between Prog Rock and heavier rock lines, the tracks are mostly interesting with impressive symphonic arrangements, but they suffer from a mediocre production and some extremely pompous deliveries, which are completely hillarious.The final feeling of the listening is rather positive.Plenty of energy, dynamics, technique and melody appear in this obsure album of the 90's.

A lost oddity from Japan, which deserves some exposure, especially to those who are familiar with the lines of 80's/90's Japanese Progressive Rock.Semi-symphonic/Heavy Prog with virtuosic executions and mascular synth offerings.Recommended.