Kazumi Watanabe - Spice of Life is one of my all-time faves, lots of other good ones as well such as Kilowatt, Mobo Club, Pandora...
Kazumi Watanabe - Spice of Life is one of my all-time faves, lots of other good ones as well such as Kilowatt, Mobo Club, Pandora...
What happened to Gerard there new album Visionary Dream is the worst album I have ever heard the sound is brickwalled and there music is like a Las Vegas lounge act not progressive anymore what's the deal here?
how about Boris?
they do some killer doom/drone/stoner rock stuff.
I saw them once and they were crazy loud, even with plugs on.
huge orange amps
Motoi Sakuraba is another great Japanese keyboardist. His new album, "What's Up", is very good, as are his previous albums.
And let's not forget the awesome jazz-fusion keyboardist Hiromi.
I recently bought Motoi Sakurabas - Live Concert - Star Ocean And Valkyrie Profile, and it's a killer concert. Always liked his Prog band Deja Vu (sadly only one Album).Originally Posted by emperorken
Zonk Monk newer band with unusal line up
The Autopsy Report of a drowned Shrimp, unusal in every way
Yea I liked that^
Tom
Add: Isao Tomita, Hiromi Uehara, even though some may say they are not rock. They are talented.
maybe too obvious but also
Stomu Yamashta
&
YMO/Ryuichi Sakamoto
are good ones
I mostly agree with what's been said so far. this is not a must have but I enjoyed Starless. I've only got one "Song of Silence". the female vocals are somewhat annoying at times. I know many are on the fence about Ars Nova but I particularly liked their early stuff and I don't think too many can say they didn't perform well at their two ProgDay appearances. I've always been interested in hearing Rosalia's "Zillion Tears" w/Naomi Miura (former Ars Nova member). I've never been able to find it.
i.ain't.dead.irock
True, in the sense that Jap "symph rock" was completely to the fringe back in the day (i.e. the 70s) and only grew out as what we'd usually call "retro" during the 80s. And interestingly, this was a totally different (and highly idiomatically "self-conscious") beast to the ultra-proficient underground avant-garde-rock circuit picked up on in Tokyo/Yokohama/Osaka by people like John Zorn and Bill Laswell from the late 80s (with names like Ruins/Tatsuya Yoshida/Koenjihyakkei, Keiji Haino, Eyvind Kang, Kato Hideki, Ground Zero/Otomo Yoshihide, Hoppy Kamiyama etc.). Only after the mid-90s did the two scenes tread across mutual paths.
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
Ars Nova are very much like ELP to these ears and that is definitely Symph. Also Mr. Sirius is absolutely Symph.
Why is it whenever someone mentions an artist that was clearly progressive (yet not the Symph weenie definition of Prog) do certain people feel compelled to snort "thats not Prog" like a whiny 5th grader?
Anyone mentioned Far East Family Band yet?
I love MS's work but he has recorded something like 100 albums!!! It is hard to keep up with an artist that prolific.
Why is it whenever someone mentions an artist that was clearly progressive (yet not the Symph weenie definition of Prog) do certain people feel compelled to snort "thats not Prog" like a whiny 5th grader?
Tokyo Jihen
Mutyumu
Kacica
Presence of Soul
My son is in Tokyo this week. After seeing this thread and the recommendations, I wish I could have given him a list of what to get before he left.
Lou
Atta boy, Luther!
quick email will fix your problem...
Last edited by Progmatic; 07-15-2013 at 05:23 PM.
It’s not really worth the effort. The two instrumentals are basically solo showcases for Naomi’s flashy keyboard work and thus, sound a bit like Ars Nova-lite. The two vocal tracks are sort of Rush-meets-neo prog with typically high-pitched female vocals in Japanese. The former are, of course, far more interesting than the latter.
Someone already did. Contrary to, it seems, everyone else in the world, Parallel World is my least favourite; the tracks are just too long and draggy for my tastes. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I heard this one much later than their other albums and it just didn’t live up to my high expectations. The Cave Down to the Earth is still my favourite. While recorded as a quartet*, Tenkujin is very underrated.
Has anyone here heard Head Pop Up? One album to date (2002), which I only recently heard. Guitar, bass, drums and dual keyboards. Their sound is prog with a little fusion mixed in. I need to hear this more for it to sink in, but it struck me as quite radical for a band of this type.
Also: what about Interpose+? I’ve only heard the odd track, but I’ve heard good things about them, and what I have heard was promising. They were sort of a precursor band to TEE, which in my book is recommendation enough.
*technically as a trio, as the bass player was a guest musician.
-------------
MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")
"The world of the heterosexual is a sick and boring life." --Edith Massey
N.P.:“Magic Dragon Theater”-Utopia/RA
hey Mike, I thought that The Cave Down to the Earth was a remix of tracks from previous albums... is that anywhere near correct? It sees that I've heard the same songs on The Cave Down to the Earth on other albums... is it a rerecording in English or something?
Perhaps FEFB were like Falsini/SF in that they rehashed the same themes from album to album... I'm not sure which two albums I heard that sounded pretty much note for note alike by FEFB... anyone hear the same thing?
Last edited by MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER; 07-15-2013 at 05:56 PM.
Why is it whenever someone mentions an artist that was clearly progressive (yet not the Symph weenie definition of Prog) do certain people feel compelled to snort "thats not Prog" like a whiny 5th grader?
Eh, Ars Nova to me represent the least symph aspects of ELP; I always felt they were/are like ELP filtered through some Stradavarious type prog metal band. They are certainly more symph-y than others I suppose. I know nothing about Mr. Sirius...
I believe The Cave and Nipponjin are more or less the same album. Don't know if we're talking remix or rerecording or whatever here. Perhaps one of them was aimed at the Japanese market and one at the West?
Great band, but actually I slightly prefer the pre-FEFB Far Out
Lots of great fusion, if you dig that sort of thing....or if you consider it "prog."
Not mentioned thus far, I don't think, are:
Fragile -my fave fusion band
FazJaz-fusion versions of jazz standards
Prism
And a host of others....
Thank you... I knew that there were 2 that sounded nearly identical.
Why is it whenever someone mentions an artist that was clearly progressive (yet not the Symph weenie definition of Prog) do certain people feel compelled to snort "thats not Prog" like a whiny 5th grader?
You’re confusing it with Nipponjin, which was a re-recording/remixing of old tracks for the European market produced by Klaus Schulze. Side 1 is actually a remake of one of the sides of the Far Out album, with tons more keys/synths added to the arrangement. It’s weird, as Fumio Miyashta was the only one in Far Out to go on to play in FEFB, the rest of the Far Out members formed another band called Chronicle. The rest of Nipponjin consists of remixed tracks from The Cave... with new English vocals (but not the whole album).
Incidentally, I like the version of that side-long track on Nipponjin way more than the one on the Far Out album. All the cool kids say it’s hipper to like the “more psychedelic” version, but I like the synth-ier one.
-------------
MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")
“It doesn't get any more...like this. Than this.” --Anders Lundquist
N.P.:“Besuch aus dem Kosmos”-Witthüser & Westrupp/Der Jesuspilz
Keep
Kehell
GAOS
Space Circus
all Rock hard and are killer Prog of the Fusion style
Why is it whenever someone mentions an artist that was clearly progressive (yet not the Symph weenie definition of Prog) do certain people feel compelled to snort "thats not Prog" like a whiny 5th grader?
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks