LOST AND FOUND

This was my first KBB experience, early in this year 2006. Since KBB is one of the most celebrated current prog acts nowadays, I harbored high expectations in my mind regarding this experience, and it certainly was most rewarding. My friends,. what a beautiful album is "Lost and Found"! With a patently modern sound, yet miles away from the standards of mainstream rock, this instrumental quartet creates a progressive space of its own, cleverly led by virtuoso violinist Akihisa Tsuboy albeit giving room for each individual's exposure within the well-defined frames of every track's melodic basis. This band's sound is certainly bombastic, but never getting even close to futile showing- off or needless saturation. The main influences come from a stylized jazz-rock fusion a- la 70s Ponty, Di Meola-era Return to Forever and 90s Holdsworth, plus added touches of the vintage splendor of symphonic prog (ELP, solo Wakeman, perhaps a bit of Camel with a bigger dose of stamina). The fluidity in the integration of all musical ingredients is as awesome as the individuals' technical skills, and also the musical ideas are quite impressive. With the opening track 'Hatenaki Shoudou' the band makes a big entry and a clear statement: it is one of those instant classics that catch the listener's attention with its hook and their heart with its melodic flavors - indeed, it's a habitual opener in KBB's concerts. 'Catastrophe' is a bit more energetic and patently more oriented toward the jazz factor. The interaction and alternation of the synth and violin leads is really incendiary, which is surely helped by the precision that the rhythm section constantly uses throughout the mood shifts and prolonged jams. 9 minutes of pure musical explosion, only surpassed by the fierier 'Nesso no Kioku' some time later. For this one, the violin is highlighted again like a kaleidoscope of power and sonic magic. On the other verge of the KBB world, 'Anctartica' displays an evocative ambience more related to symphonic prog, something like a bombastic display of eerie nuances that would perfectly fit as a documentary's soundtrack during its opening and closing sections. The exposure of power comes in the middle, evidently strong but without going over the top. 'The Desert of Desires' pretty much combines the spirits of tracks 1 & 3, with the band somewhat approaching the patterns of hard rock - a notable presence of guitar in this one. 'Another Episode' keeps the jazz thing predominant, with a series of extra ELP- ish touches during the stronger passages. By the time 'Divine Design' closes down the album, there really is nothing new coming, but it is pleasing and exciting all the same. With its cleverly ordained combinations of symphonic bombast and jazz-rock sophistication, it provides a coherent fulfillment of the album as a unitary whole. Personally, I would have preferred that 'Nessa no Kioku' would have been chosen as the closing track, due to its amazing climax, but again, things are just fine as they are. Fine?, just fine? Excellent, indeed! KBB are masters of contemporary progressive jazz, and their debut album is close to masterpiece perfection. Their following album, with a more enriched sound, will deliver that position a few years later, but that's a matter of another review. As for "Lost and Found", it is a highly recommended item in any good prog collection: a 4 to 4.5 star mark for it!!