Japanese Prog!

Check out Le Silo! Just got the CD [8.8] and it is sublime!!! [this is another Yoshida spin off FYI those who care - his other bands are such as Ruins, Koenji Hyakkei, Tipographica, KOREKYOJIN, etc etc...

http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~tolsilo/contents/lesiloeigo.html

What an incredible coincidence: while just reading the latest reactions on this thread (thanks again everybody  ), I receive a parcel from Background Magazine (Dutch progrock magazine I write for since many years) with ... two Japanese bands! The first is Walrus with two albums (their first is wonderful and a bit early Genesis inspired with Mellotron), the second is Quikion, a prog-folk band with great female vocals, virtuosic accordion play and lots of worldwide ethnic instruments like the Greek bouzouki and the Indian tampura, very interesting music if you like folk (on the Japanese Poseidon label).

          A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE JAPANESE PROGRESSIVE ROCK

      (based upon an article in the French progrock magazine Harmonie from 1987)

The history of the Japanese progressive rock  be divided into four parts.

Part I:

The roots are in in the late Sixties and early Seventies, between 1969 and 1971. It was a very experimental era, influenced by the German cosmic rock (like TANGERINE DREAM and ASHRA TEMPLE) and the Anglo-Saxon progressive rock like PINK FLOYD. Soon many bands emerged in Japan like N. Morichita, April Foot, Hiro Yanagida (a legend in Japan, the album “Milk Time” is excellent), Too Much, Tatuo Inada, Stroberry Pass, Speedgrov & Shinki, Food Brain, Love Live Life, Far Out and  J.A. Seezar.

In those days the Japanese public was not very interested in their own music and more and more musicians started to play on rock instruments like guitar, bass and drums and even typical progressive rock instruments like the Mellotron.

Part II:

This era spans the time between 1972 and 1977. Slowly we can witness the birth of the Japanese progressive rock, influenced by the UK symphonic rock dinosaurs Yes, King Crimson, Genesis and Pink Floyd. The first results are albums like “An Old Castle In Transylvania” by Cosmos Factory and “Golden Picnics” by Yonin Bayashi. Some bands even got attention from the European public like Far East Family Band, Chronicle, Kitaro, Osamu Kitajima and of course Stomu Yamashta. Despite the European recognition, most bands remain loyal in keeping traditional Japanese elements into their progrock.

Part III:

In this period (between 1978 and 1984) the Japanese progheads really started to appreciate their own progrock scene that blossomed in those years. One of the oldest and most legendary is Novela featuring keyboard wizard Toshio Egawa (who later went to splendid Gerard) and Terutsugo Hirayama. Other great bands were Gerard, Bi Kyo Ran, Shingetsu, Mandrake, Ain-Soph, Dada and Kenso.

Part IV:

This is an era (between 1985 and 1987) of maturity, influenced by the UK and Italian progrock: a rich sonority, elaborate compositions, melodic refinement and an omnipresence by vintage keyboards, especially the ubiquitous Mellotron. It delivers many outstanding and exciting bands like Outer Limits, Pageant, Mugen, Negapshere, Pale Acute Moon, Bellaphon, Mr. Sirius, Black Page, Fromage, Ataraxia, Magdalena, Kennedy and Vermillion Sands. Although it is a very prolific period, there is an almost cruel concurrence and many bands don’t survive. It seems that the abundancy, like in nature, created natural selection in the Japanese progressive rock scene too. But those that managed to survive are very interesting like Outer Limits, Gerard and Mugen.  

Great to notice that so many experts and 'Nippon progheads' has joined this thread, thanks!

Today I found a French progrock magazine (from 1987) in my collection featuring a Japanese progrock special, I will do my best to translate this into decent English. It contains a brief history, recommendations and an interview with the owner of Japanese progrock magazine Marquee, perhaps the most beautiful one in the world!

honganji wrote: i erik neuteboom: Japanese albums are notorious for its expensiveness. I wish many foreign labels would release Japanese albums. There are many masterpieces which haven't been reissued outside of Japan. So many fans must buy expensive Japanese issue.   It obstructs to inform Japanese progressive rock for world wide.

I feel de ja vu here. But for (repeated) completeness, would add:

Foodbrain: early 70's psychedelic jazzrock

Kennedy: late 80's heavy rock/jazz rock band - their live album Kennedy! includes an extended cover fo Mahavishu's Birds Of Fire

Casiopea: jazz rock group who started in the late 70's and seems to be still going!

http://www.answers.com/topic/casiopea

And probably the best Japanese jazz rock guitarist, with a very distinctive sound: Kazumi Watanabe - check out his work with Bill Bruford and Jeff Berlin as his rhythm section, i.e. the two Spice Of Life albums, also Mobo albums.

Agree up to a point wrt cost of Japanese albums. However, the French prog specialist Musea Records, has reissued a number of Japanese recordings, e.g. Bi Kyo Ran, Kennedy, at reasonable prices. And I was shocked how many and how cheap Kazumi Watanabe albums were in Singapore's main branch of HMV. The US label (amongst several) Gramavision have issued ~6 Kazumi Watanabe albums (including the one's named above). I see Spice Of Life Too is listed at 75 dollars US in Amazon.US at the moment, perhaps because the label do seem to delete their  albums from the catalogue very quickly. However, Amazon UK list it at under 18 quid............

Shop around!