Japanese Progressive Rock presented by DamoX

Mitsuru’s solo work has screwed him into more of Krautrock I believe.


Mitsuru TABATA (guitar, voices)

Mitsuru TABATA was born upon October 31, 1965 in Kyoto, Japan. He started playing guitar in 1982 upon stages around Kyoto and joined some projects - an avantgarde-pop one named Noizunzuri with Jun Togawa (voices; see Guernica) or Boredoms with Yamatsuka EYE. After leaving Boredoms, he founded Leningrad Blues Machine in 1987. In 1990s he’d migrated from Kyoto to Tokyo and played almost in Zeni Geva with Kazuyuki Kishino. Since millennium he’s launched a bundle of albums via various projects including Zeni Geva, Leningrad Blues Machine, Acid mothers Temple & The cosmic Inferno, and so on. In 2010, he released his solo work titled "Lucifer" in Japan.


Lucifer (2010) - Mitsuru TABATA

Guess he might have completed what he wants to do.

Firstly, let me recommend the second track "Moon Stone (Tsuki No Ishi)", that can be thought as the least progressive one in this album I’m afraid. However, trust me, this is another important stuff for his own psychedelia, different from his usual psychedelic progressive projects. Absolutely this song should be acid folk leaning toward Folk Crusaders or Daisaku Yoshino, each of whom is thought as one of pioneers in Japanese acid folk scene (especially his soundscape shown in this song reminds me Daisaku Yoshino’s Rampu Seizo Kojo). With a comfort melody, his sticky voices, and cynical lyrics (about a pest looking for a moon stone carried off by a wind, under a crash barrier or all around the sea ... ), he pushed ahead his acoustic psychedelia. A very interesting track.

On the other side, "To Be Drowned At Ocean (Umi No Mokuzu)" might be his special pleasure in this album I always feel. Mitsuru’s easygoing guitar solo in the vein of Jerry Garcia’s play is not only of mainstream but also jacuzzish and slimy, by fuzzy, trailed sounds. Imagine Mitsuru’s appearance be filled with addiction to this flexible ensemble. And in the first "Lucifer (Sekai Saiko No Yakuza; The Oldest Yakuza All Over The World)", he used mischievous whacked-out guitar fuzz riffs and tries to kick us into his psychedelic inferno. Of course you can be thrown into his inferno directly from the beginning.


Upon the stage of Enban in Kouenji January 13, 2011

Anyway, in this album are plenty of experimental approaches, like "Feel Like A Polio (Kibun Wa Shouni)" or "Ah Huh", along with Krautrock-ish dry-fruity improvisational / experimental elements. "Kill All French", with a terrible title upon the track, is a very weird but delightful garagey German psychedelia seasoned with something like Neu! or Siloah ... we can see what he meant to do really. The last track "Ten Years Of High Flying (Genesis)" is a bit persistent and boring for us but he might have played Genesis eccentrically digested by his stomach, methinks.

I’m sure he should do his own Krautrock approach a bit different from his previous works. Also interesting for us to imagine his appearance (maybe relaxed) upon recording this creation.


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Not really progressive but sometimes we need fresh / optimistic jazz music?


TAKE TAKE (Left to right; Tsutomu TAKEI, Takeshi SHIMIZU)

TAKE TAKE are a Japanese (Osakan) jazz duo founded by Takeshi SHIMIZU (piano, keyboards) and Tsutomu TAKEI (saxophone).

Takeshi started playing jazz piano and keyboards in his junior high school days. He formed his jazz rock band E.D.F. with a "killa" drummer Baker DOI in 1992, and has played in various projects or units. Tsutomu has taken a tenor saxophone in hand at first in his junior high school days, and started playing professionally whilst a student in Kobe University. In 1992, Takeshi recruited Tsutomu to his project E.D.F., and this was a fateful encounter for the two.

TAKE TAKE released their first eponymous album via a Japanese independent label Follow Club Record in August, 2011.


TAKE TAKE (2011) - TAKE TAKE

The two jazz artists should hit it off perfectly and naturally, let me say. They've played for two dozen years indeed, but their soundscape reminds us something of nature, regardless of their career, I guess.

Sorry for my less familiarity with jazz but I can feel their comfort, pleasure for daily life in their play or creation. Their easygoing, optimistic ambiance under such a steady play, especially in the first track "Hitorigoto (Mutter To Oneself)" or second "Nekosampo (Cat Walk)", can notify us how important is easy life for human. Guess lots of listeners cannot help smiling whilst feeling their motivation. "Hey Doctor" has comical touches, as if innocent children would ask him / her something difficult with sincere appearance. Fantastic texture we can feel there.

Contrary to above, "Film" is a sepia-coloured tragic one, with Tsutomu’s crying saxophone and Takeshi’s quiet and modest piano solo. Oh well, in "But For You, I Couldn't Live Any Longer" they play a bit plaintively, but with something smart like words of a professional lover (in a sense, very cool and dangerous). As for the word "dangerous", dunno the actual meaning of "Baby Scrapper" but they can let us listen to this track smoothly and comfortably ... want to let me know more about this song indeed.



"Komorebi (Sunshine Between Trees)" or "Hoshizora (Starlit Sky)" is Takeshi’s artistic piano power of expression itself (fresh, gentle, quiet but cool, enthusiastic) with Tsutomu’s energetic saxophone supplement. Anyway in "Haru No Kizashi (Signs Of Spring)" the two encourage each other with their lightly touched but uptempo sound bullets. Their representation of natural landscapes or views can give us spiritual elevation, for a brilliant future.

And let me say, I love "interlude" as honestly I say. Such a avantgarde / progressive air (especially Tsutomu’s sharp-edged "breath"!) I can feel, in this fantasy creation. So that, this album is "Fine weather almost all day, sometimes coolly stormy” I imagine? Recommended.


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Andyman1125 wrote: Very peaceful stuff. Nice find!

Thanks Andy!
I'm so happy if they can be approved in JMA (not PA).

colorofmoney91 wrote: Wow, this is beautiful. I really like the sax player's simple but effective melodies.

Thanks Alan.

Anyway, the saxophone player Tsutomu TAKEI is one of the university friends of my highschool mate.
He's been suggested to me by my mate just before their debut album released ... my pleasure!

that for sure is some nice stuff.......JMA inclusion should not be a problem

Anyone can comment on these?:

The Folk Crusaders, the pioneers in Japanese Acid Folk scene

The FOLK CRUSADERS were founded in Kyoto, Japan, as mainly a three-piece folk project by Kazuhiko KATOH (guitar, voices) and Osamu KITAYAMA (guitar, double bass, voices) in 1965. They played as an amateur band in underground folk scene in Kansai (Western Japan) and finally made a decision to disband themselves in 1967. Their self-released memorial album named "Harenchi" (300 copies only) had been launched just before their disbandment, but luckily or unluckily, regardless of their decision, "Imjin River" and "Kaettekita Yopparai" could be so power-played on the radio in Kansai enough to let them play as a professional band for only a year.

Kazuhiko, Osamu, and Norihiko HASHIDA (voices, guitar), recruited upon their debut by the former two, released "Kigen Nisen Nen (2000 A.D.)" in 1968 and played their last concert in Osaka upon October 17, 1968. "Kaettekita Yopparai", their second single, got to be the bestseller in 1968 in Japan.

Now Osamu works as a psychiatrist (and sometimes a lyricist), and Kazuhiko had played as a founder of Sadistic Mika Band or so, and sadly killed himself upon October 17, 2009 (he'd suffered from depression for a long time) ... oddly enough, just 41 years after "the last concert".


Kigen Nisen Nen (2000 A.D.) (1968) - The FOLK CRUSADERS

It’s thought that The FOLK CRUSADERS could blast a bulky hole in late-60s Japanese childish pop scene with this (formal) debut sunbeam. Their experimentalism, lyricism, and cynicism can be heard entirely in this one, created in 1968, over 40 years ago (whoomp).

Not only the second track (and their mega-hit single) "Kaettekita Yopparai (A boozer's back from the Heaven)", with tape effects and funny tales about a boozer. This old-fashioned album is filled with novelty, especially the primary essence of Japanese Acid Folk (anyway, this is the reason I call them progressive). The third "Kanashikute Yarikirenai (Cannot help feeling sad)" or the eighth "Hana No Kaori Ni (See my girlfriend in the flavourful flower)" was one of pioneers in Japanese Acid Folk scene (and another one was "Imjin River", that was not featured in this album). The melody line is pop and mellow indeed, but the atmosphere is drone and sticky, and the lyrics are very cool and plaintive. Quite novel even these days, I feel. And in the last "Nan No Tame Ni (What do you try that for?)", they introduced orchestration adventurously to their "folk song", that almost none of Japanese folk artists in those days could not imagine at all.



On the other hand, the first titled track "Kigen Nisen Nen (2000 A.D.)" is completely overflowed with cynicism that human beings, babies of God, are terribly optimistic and childish against such a seriously tough world. They played the song with easygoing country-and- western flavour and delightful chorus, but the content is pretty serious and admonitory for "us". "Kobu No Nai Rakuda (Camel with no hump)" is another cynic, that let us know that we should try to think about it from a different point of view. A camel with no hump is actually a horse, an elephant with a short nose is actually a hippopotamus, and a pig walking on her knees is actually a human being ... that is, I guess they might have tried to mention that things we call common sense are sometimes uncommon and things we call uncommon sense are sometimes common, and that we usually need to change our point of view. Makes sense indeed.

Often they shoot comical songs with cynical lyrics. "Mizumishi No Uta (A song of athlete's foot)" is a good example. This is a song that a lonely guy always remembers his previous lover, who had given athlete's foot to him ... by the athlete's foot eventually annoying him, his old hearty days flash across his mind, the song says. What a fun, and what an itch. "Sasurai No Yopparai (A wandering boozer)" is the sequel to "Kaettekita Yoppai", and I'm afraid this song would be one of strategies by Toshiba label, but bravo, they squeezed some cynical caricatures into this song.

In conclusion, we can hear in this album their brilliant foresight and serious social action. A fascinating stuff, even now.




Thank you for reading this blog, and a happy new year! ٩(̾●̮̮̃̾•̃̾)۶

That Folk Crusaders song was beautiful, I'll definitely have to check out more of their music. Thanks!

Edited by colorofmoney91 - January 08 2012 at 21:47

Mr James wrote: Anyone can comment on these?:   OHKOKU VYAGYU -  genso suikoden (??)   ROCK JOINT BIWA (FULKUKOTOFUMI)   SHINSAKAI - ALIVE THRU LOOKING

Following a Japanese Acid Folk pioneer The FOLK CRUSADERS, please let me recommend a Japanese heavy rock adventurer HAPPY END, founded by fragments of APRYL FOOL.


HAPPY END (the back sleeve of their debut album)

After APRYL FOOL disbanded, Haruomi HOSONO (bass, keyboards, voices) and Takashi MATSUMOTO (drums) had groped for a new project they could express their rock spirits in late 1960s. The two rock adventurers finally met the other two, named Eiichi OHTAKI (voices, guitars) and Shigeru SUZUKI (guitars, voices). In 1969, a new project VALENTINE BLUE (later the band name changed to HAPPY END) were formed by these four clear-sighted men.

HAPPY END had released three albums - "Happy End (aka Yudemen)" (1970), "Kazemachi Roman" (1971), and "HAPPY END" (1973) - before disbanded, which were pretty influenced by Western rock / hard rock / folk scene, and Japanese poets / storytellers (especially Takashi the songwriter has been much influenced by a Japanese psychedelic progressive rock pioneer JACKS.


Happy End (aka Yudemen) (1970) - HAPPY END

It's funny, that this album "Happy End (aka Yudemen)" was my second Japanese rock album in those days I'd been immersed in British and American rock scene. And you can understand why I, a Japanese rock hater in my adolescence bought this album, released in 1970.

From the very beginning, this dark and heavy guitar fuzz is too cool for me to ignore. Yes in my younger days there were a bunch of cheap. cheesy pop artists in Japan, that I could never listen to ... I'd assumed Western music scene should be seriously cool, and this should be true as honestly I say. However, this kick-off of them broke my assumption in pieces. According to the liner notes in their album sleeve, they gave thanks to lots of Western rock artists (e.g. The Grateful Dead, Buffalo Springfield, Moby Grape, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young or so) and 'lots of Japanese musicians and poets'. Haruomi HOSONO had already created their original psychedelia by merging Japanese inner poetic inspiration into British / American rock, and the talented quartet had finished their 'Japanese Rock (as a proper noun)' finally in this album, I guess.



HAPPY END told us about their mental / physical development with rebellion / confusion against adult world. They played not simple pop nor Adult Oriented Rock, but heavy bluesy hard rock blended with acid (sometimes traditional) folk, as if they should have narrated their life carefully. In Japanese music scene 40 years ago ... despite of their strict and quite-skilled composition and playing, they could not be appreciated enough (except by well-understanding reviewers), I'm afraid. Not progressive really their sound structure in this stuff is, but like The Beatles, it should called as progressive that they dared launch such a heavy / bluesy / dark / severe soundscape, let me say. Nowadays HAPPY END are considered as one of pioneers in Japanese Rock world, that has continued ceaselessly. Worth listening for every progressive rock fan.




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