MADE IN JAPAN

There are few interesting live rock albums. There are even fewer that I would rate above 3 stars but this is an exception and probably everybody's favourite live album.

Deep Purple are high and mighty here, sole rulers of the expanding hard rock universe that they created. This live set collects some of their strongest tracks and the inspired performance shakes and pushes them to their boundaries. Some of the soloing and improvisations might seem indulgent and tedious to some but I think Deep Purple managed to maintain a good balance. The ultimate example would be Space Trucking, extended from a good 4 minutes to a full 20 minute length and I wouldn't want to miss a second of it. Make sure not to miss the surging Black Night that was included on the remastered edition. Classic. 4.5 stars