HOPPY KAMIYAMA

Those who'll only find some Zappa imitation on this CD/DVD have only listened with one ear or while washing up in the kitchen. The music presented here both on CD and on the DVD is indeed a patchwork or a collage of many influences and this is actually done on purpose. So Zappa is there but so are flashes of Zeuhl, Tipographica, Koenji and so many other; all bribes are gathered at lightning speed into a new entity and it all makes sense! I personally recommend newcomers to watch the DVD first; again, a collage of the music presented on the CD has been selected, destructured and reassociated to fit a cartoon and gosh ... is this brilliant! speedy, urban, energetic like hell, everything moves fast, pictures, music, thoughts and you're experiencing a flashy trip that will leave traces in your brain hours after. When you're cooled down, move to your player and give the CD a spin; here you'll get the totality of the music and will be more in mental control of the sonic assaults; you may even start to feel an addiction growing because this package is a hate/love thing! You can't stay untouched! To me, this is one of the best releases in the long discography of the mighty Hoppy! Give it a try, you'll get a serious ear washing ... and things will never feel the same thereafter!

— First review of this album —

Bizarre albums seem to be the norm from the Japanese prog scene these days. This one is no exception to that. From what I can tell, it's supposed to be the music to a play (whether it's a real play or an imaginary one I don't know), but it's a pretty crazy one if so. The music on this one is all over the place; touches of free jazz, hints of marching band type stuff, some carnival music, avant rock...you get the idea. Along with Hoppy himself, we get some other high-caliber musicians on this one, including Natsuki Kido on guitar, Junji Hirose on sax, and Yuji Katsui on violins. Those are the only musicians I recognize on the album, though I almost mistook the drummer here for Tatsuya Yoshida (no, it's not him, their names are just similar). It's another album which is tough to compare to anything else. Though on occasion, I can catch hints of some of the tamer Japanese Zeuhl groups (for example, I notice hints of Bondage Fruit's music here and there).

If you're interested in the Japanese avant-garde scene, then Hoppy's music is basically a required stop on your journey. It's not an album I listen to regularly though, because I prefer other groups. Still, it's a good one, if a bit uneven. 3.5 stars, really.