Title: Kirikyogen
Artiste: Kuni Kwachi and Flower Travellin' Band
Genre: Doom/Psych/Prog Rock
Familiarity: Zero, but have heard of them, mostly through “Pounding Decibels”
1. Kirikyogen: Very seventies hard rock indeed; like the organ giving it a nice touch of prog rock too. No idea what's being sung as it's all in (presumably) Japanese but it's not bad. It's a little repetitive, but that's probably because I don't know what's being sung.
2. Music composed mainly by humans: Love the title! Sort of crooned chant in the vocal, almost like a prayer. The piano work here is dark and excellent.
3. Time machine: This is quite creepy in a good way. Goes through too many changes for what it is though. Harmonica, eh? Nice. Hey, is he singing in English here? More great piano. This guy's good. This one is catchy: while making dinner I found myself singing “Time ma-shee-an!”
4. To your world: This one is great, kind of a blues ballad. Really like this one.
5. Graveyard of love: Another slow track, oddly, with I think a sitar or maybe a ****ing kazoo, and the vocal very low for most of it. Cool.
6. Classroom for women: Just conjures up the wrong (read: right) kind of images, doesn't it? Especially as this is a Japanese album. From the seventies, yeah, but still, if there's one thing Japanese love it's sexy schoolgirls. Of course, I don't know if the title is completely innocent or even allegorical because (anyone?) the only Japanese I know is “kinichi-wa” and “Sayonara”, so they could be learning how to cook rather than having hot, steamy ... where was I? Oh yeah. Um, great acoustic guitar intro anyway and I feel the harmonica may make an entrance soon. Ah, no it didn't. Boo.
7. Scientific investigation: This is a really nice ballad --- no it isn't. It just picked up in tempo. Still sweet though.
End result: Very seventies of course, but I like pretty much everything on this album. Keyswork is fantastic, vocals are great even if I don't know what the guy is singing, and yeah, really like it.
So, Love or Hate? Give this one a
Love.