TERU'S SYMPHONIA

Unlike some of their fellow contrymen (and women), "Teru's Symphonia" is not playing "ELP" music. Actually their music is rather hard to categorize. Not fully symphonic during the first songs of this album, some very nice passages are attractive. The last two songs though are turely symphonic jewels. I guess that the choice of singing into Japanese didn't help the band to reach a broader scope.

This album is very short and only two highlights can be found. "In The Town of Loneliness" is good and starts the truely "Symphonia".

At times this album sounds poppish, even naive ("A Travel To Dream Agency"). Might be due to the voice of the female lead singer Megumi Tokuhisa. She sounds as a twelve years-old girl with a very high-pitched tone which is kind of irratating for most of the times (except during "In The Town...").

The best song of this debut album is "Symphonia 1". Over ten minutes of some brilliant instrumental parts. Synthesizers are so pleasant, very spacey and almost "Floydian" (like the first part of "SOYCD"). At times, the song becomes pompous as if the "ELP" style should be featured as well. By far the most interesting song.

I strongly believe that the best of this band is produced while there are no vocals featured. At least for this album. Even if their leader, Terutsugu Hirayama who holds the guitar has a smoother voice that can be noticed on the closing number "Innocence" (also sung in Japaneese). It is also the only song which features brilliant guitar work. Passionate and emotional. Great !

The two last numbers save this album from mediocrity. Since they almost reached fifty percent of the album lenght, I will rate it with three stars. I only wish that the band is going to explore more of these territories in future releases.