MAGICAL POWER

This album is one of the greatest gems of all around Japanese progressive rock world. In 1974...Mako was still 18 years old...an eccentric Japanese adolescent could make a terrific stuff without stopping. Only a few Japanese music industry in those days could approve and appreciate his work, but I'm sure he could realize. What could he realize? Of course, he could get to be famous and conquer the CURRENT space-rock world. This Magical Power was his first step I consider.

What I must say about his music characteristic is complexity and eccentricity of the tune and sound. He could play over hundreds of instruments (including his handmade ones) gracefully and madly, and even typical one could be played an unexpected sound by him...how amazing! The collection of these unexpected sounds is the song Cha Cha. Scattered piano sound, percussive stuffs, voices with anger, more and more pop and jump up from the song. (Mako said that you could know even there was a song-like stuff with scattered sounds. LOL) Yea, so wonderful is the experimental tune In A Stalactite Cavern Astronaus recorded in a real cavern!

To our regret, he was too young to kick his music style off completely. Namely, we should sometimes wonder why there is such a peculiar part on his work and can't understand how we can evaluate it. For example, Tsugaru (No autumn, Agine) has very fantastic sound of Tsugaru-Jamisen (a Japanese instrument), but I can't help feeling no need of the song here on this album. And, though he feels angry, voice of Butch, Mako's wife, in Open The Morning Window, The Sunshine Comes In, The Hope Of Today Is Small Bird Singing is no good... Feel there's mixture of his progressism and conservatism. Forgive me but I wanna say this.

Anyway, in my honest opinion, we have no suspicion about the greatness and progressiveness of his first album.