SHINSEKAI

Shinsekai was the moniker displayed by Japanese artist Yu Shimoda for his personal music, who mainly works as a sound creator for video games and TV series.Shimoda though was also a fan of 70's British Progressive Rock and for this reason he settled this Shinsekai project.His first self-titled album was released in 2005 on both the Japanese labels Fragile and Poseidon, helped by Masaru Teramae on guitars/flutes, Tadashi Teramae on drums and Akinobu Kajimoto on bass.

Easily enough one could limit Shimoda's love for Progressive Rock to the whole range of the different KING CRIMSON works during the 70's, borrowing elements from their first symphonic- inclined albums to the later more complex and chaotic works.Moreover his music draws obvious comparisons with early BI KYO RYAN, being a mix of powerful and complicated guitar- based Heavy Rock with Mellotron-drenched Progressive Rock.The result is a short album (about 37 minutes long) filled with eight very dynamic compositions, characterized mostly by the torture of Shimoda's Mellotron and the frenetic guitar exercises of Masaru Teramae and his evident ROBER FRIPP influence.The music remains highly adventurous throughout with maybe an excess of complexity regarding the compositions with chaotic guitar parts and complete Mellotron themes next to a very strong and effective rhythm section.Sometimes the atmosphere is very haunting and muddy, especially when the Shimoda's Mellotron takes over, but he also threw in a couple of more symphonic tracks with a less intricate sound and an overall elegant atmosphere with acoustic textures, Mellotron and flutes.

Interesting yet a bit unoriginal debut by Shinsekai, blending contemporary and vintage sounds in an often very attractive mix.Recommended.