BONDAGE FRUIT III - R?CIT

"Récit" is Bondage Fruit's third album and the first oen without a permanent position in the vocal department. Guitarist-keyboardist-main writer Kido Natsuki persistently provides bizarre ideas for the ensemble to perform in a most defying manner. These guys really can show off their taste for Rio tradition and Zheul ideology without sounding dated, on the contrary, bringing a renewed neurosis and particular spirit to the standards of radical avnt-garde prog. "Récit" is a catalogue of various ideas powerfully adorned and expanded by the robust use of skilfull improvisation. The opener 'Odd-job' starts as a muscular exhibition of psychedelic rock in which the essence of KC, the energy of classic Led Zeppelin and the eerie dementia of Hendrix are fruitfully combined. Then comes a more restratined mid section in which the concise touches of vibes and violin seem to float above the jazzy rhythm section, while the guitar provides weird Frippian atmospheres. At minute 8, the final sections brings a red hot climax, very much in the vein of exotic post-punk (it might remind the average listener of Hoyry-Kone), that culminates in a brief reprise of the initial motif. 'Kagee ka Hieru' sets a more languid pace based on the minimal sounds of vibraphone, upon which the guitar and violin provide nuances effectively counterpointed by normal and programmed drums. Some emotional guitar leads that appear afterwards complete the picture in an amazing way. The final result is like a mixture of Philip Glass and GYBE! - go figure. The less tha 3 minutes long 'Shortwaves from Outer Space' consists of monologues and electronic effects (very sci-fi b-movie, indeed), eventually joined by bizarre percussive storms during the last 45 seconds. The end of this track serves as a prelude to the following one, 'Frost and Fire'. This one retakes and amplifies the full frotnal energy of the opener, with Natsuki's guitar and Youichi's drum kit serving as parellel cornerstones for the whole ensemble's sound. The powerfully demented jam is momentarily interrupted by an industrial-oriented middle section, in which the Rio thing is replaced by the krautrock's walls of pulsation (a-la Can). The namesake track is the losngest one: it lasts 28+ minutes. Its incendiary edge equals that of tracks 1 and 4, albeit with a more pronunced jazz-rock vibe. The inclusion of free jazz elements and alleatory avant-garde (a-la Zappa) enriches the whole thing, in this way taking things to an even more disturbing level of sonic experimentation. The sense of energy provided by the percussive duo of Youichi and Kumiko has to be heard to be believed: these guys manage to become the leading actors in this theater on fire for the first 10 minutes. Their precision and strength are simply ultrahuman!! For this number's calmer passages, the atmosphere shifts to one of unscrutable introspection. Gradually, a tension of war is slowly yet consistently building up under the guidance of the lead guitar, until hell breaks loose toward the exulting, nerve-wrecking reprise of the opening motif. The closing explosion is an evident tribute to King Crimson's 'Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part II'. Finally, the album is closed down by a live rendition of a track from the band's debut, this time in an instrumental format. Being very similar to the predominant violent vibe of most of the srudio material, it is a very coherent closure, indeed. Zheul is not dead, it is still alive and with infinite fire in store for all friendly listeners to discover and enjoy! Check Bondage Fruit, especially this amazing album - "Récit" is a true 4.5 star-gem of contemporary avant-rock.

I was an instant fan of Bondage Fruit at first listen. Each subsequent album I hear makes me a bigger fan. Even if I enjoy the album a bit less than a previous album, the appreciation for this bands truly Progressive nature grows with each release. They have no two albums that sound alike. Recit finds the band drifting away from the vocal sounds and Eastern slant of the first 2 albums. The band also begins to explore more spacey themes in their compositions. As a matter of fact, it can be said that this album marks a wide bend in the exploration of influences for the band. 'odd-job' contains a blues element not heard in earlier work. The band includes a very fun live version 'Kinzoku no taiji' from their first album.

Not my favorite BF work, but an outstanding album none the less.

4.2 stars.

The thing that seemed to jump out to me the most about this album is the jamming. The female vocalist is gone making this pretty much an all instrumental record. That Zeuhl flavour from the first two albums is also gone. The drumming is incredible, as is the guitar, violin and bass. The vibes are a really nice touch as well.

"Odd-Job" opens with 2 minutes of heavy drums as they rock out really good. It all stops as guitar, vibes, drums, violin and bass sounds all come and go rather leisurely. It all starts to build 8 1/2 minutes in with tribal-like drumming and violin to a great finish. "Kagee Ga Kieru" is a cool song as we get guitar sounds, vibes, synths and violin all adding to the atmosphere. The Gilmour- like guitar then comes in, and I really like the vibes that remind me of MOONGARDEN. "Shortwave From Outer Space" is an experimental tune with electronics, spoken words and assorted sounds. "Frost And Fire" is an uptempo track with relentless pounding drums as the guitar fills the soundscape with various metalic sounds. Impressive. Violin after 7 1/2 minutes, and the guitar comes flying back in 3 minutes later eventually ending the song with scorching and screeching sounds that are not for the faint of heart.

"Recit" is a 28 minute monster. The guitar melodies to open are fantastic and they appear to be giving a nod to YES here and later. Violin after a minute, while the guitar lays down some blistering solos 2 minutes in as the drums come pounding in. The drummer is out of this world, or out of his mind. Not sure which. Probably both. The bass is throbbing heavily. The song does calm down for an extended period before rebuilding in anger 20 minutes in, with the drums and guitar leading the way as it builds to a powerful conclusion. When it settles back to end it they give a nod to YES once again. Nice. "Kinzoku No Taiji" is a song off of their debut record, only here it is done live and without vocals.This is a fast paced song with violin, vibes, guitar and of course drums rounding out the sound. The drums are killer ! Scorching violin 4 minutes in followed by some incredible guitar. This is great ! The bass is prominant as well.

What a find this band has been for me. Thanks again Avestin ! Their first three records have all been outstanding, but this is the one where their musical style has changed the most dramatically. I would rate the first two just ahead of this one, I think.

This live album sees Bondage Fruit moving even further away from the zeuhl heartland they originated in - in fact, for much of the album they resemble an even more noisy and harder-rocking version of King Crimson circa Larks' Tongues In Aspic, with a few heavy doses of jazz fusion and a slide order of plain old rock and roll to spice things up. It's a high-energy mix which doesn't seem quite as original as their brilliant second album - at points the resemblance to mid-1970s King Crimson approaches the uncanny - but they visit an impressive enough range of styles that the album will be worth a listen for all zeuhl, RIO, fusion and eclectic prog fans at some point in their exploration of the band's works, even if I don't personally put it in the top tier of their work.

I don't get Japanese Zeuhl. I get French Zeuhl, Belgian Avant Garde, UK Rock-in-Opposition, Scandanavian Symphonic and Death Metal, Dutch Neo Prog, Krautrock and Berlin School Electronic, Polish Heavy Prog. I even think I get Rock Progressive Italiano, but I don't get Japanese Zeuhl. I understand that the Japanese are masters of imitation--that they are even capable of taking previously defined forms and elevating them in terms of precision with their virtuoso mastery of their instruments. But I don't get how Japanese bands like Happy Family, Koenji Hyakkei, Ruins, and these guys, Bondage Fruit, fit into the Zeuhl scene. I mean, is there a Japanese translation of Kobaïan? a blood/DNA connection to Egyptian king Ëmëhntëhtt-Ré? a notorized endorsement from Camp Vander?

1. "Odd-job" (11:40) opens like a ROLLING STONES sound check, sounds, pacing, rhythms, and even riffs sound as if they come straight from some Stones song(s). (It turns out that the song may have been recorded in front of a live audience anyway!) When things breakdown into quietude in the third minute, even the vibes seem to remind us that this is a "déjà vu" type of moment as he plays the famous "Twilight Zone" theme riff--which is later picked up and carried by the violinist. As far as I can tell, this is the strongest link to a structural thread that the song has (aside from the drummer's fairly faithful attention to carrying forward a beat on the "ride" or "swish" cymbal). More old 60s early blues-rock riffs are introduced and toyed with over the second half of the song with little effect in inspiring a whole-band ethic until, finally, at the end of the ninth minute, something clicks (sparked by Katsui vocalise?) and everyone starts to really jam--coherently and cohesively. It's truly magical, but really? Nine minutes of [&*!#] to get to this point? Have you ever heard of "practice"? or editing? Can't the drummer and bass player fly all-out like that all the time? (15/20)

2. "Kagee Ga Kieru" (8:18) opens with some very sensitive, melodic, and careful play from vibes, violin, electric guitar, and the occasional bass note. It's beautiful even if it does sound like a ROY BUCHANAN or JEFF BECK piece. And all band members are on the same page--playing what constitutes a loose, contrived weave. Even when drummer Okabe Youichi enters in the fifth minute he is restrained and delicate. (14/15)

3. "Shortwave From Outer Space" (2:52) is a contrived construct to fabricate exactly what the title says it is. Keys, electronics, percussives. I have to admit: it's pretty good. (5/5)

4. Frost And Fire (12:32) opens at a gallop (the drumming literally sounds/feels like a horse's hoofbeats at a running gallop). In the third minute Kido Natsuki's guitar and Katsui Yuji's violin synchronize (bass is mixed way in the background) and mirror one another in trampsing through some Fripp-McLaughlin-like scales of chromatic dissonance. In the third minute the duet becomes a duel as violin drops out and searing guitar surges forward. Very Mahavishnu-like until he starts playing chords, but mostly he's playing single-note runs at breakneck speeds. Six minutes into the song, the guitar solo stops, Kido pairs up again with the violin, until Katsui breaks free to solo over the bare-bones help of Okabe Youichi and Takara Kuimiko's percussion play. Starting out slow, even melodically, Katsui builds and shifts gears as the crazy guitar strumming and percussion play provide the impetus for what becomes an almost deranged solo. Pretty cool. (I still don't get how or why this is "Zeuhl.") The two come back together at the very end to punch and drop dead. (Crowd clapping at the end! WTF?) (8.5/10)

5. "Récit" (28:19) opens with some guitar riffs from YES's song, "Close to the Edge," played over electronic chirping bird sounds. Violin then takes the next shot, playing some Mahavishnu Orchestra-like riffs before the whole band engages in the third minute. As the title suggests, perhaps this song is merely a clever merging of the recitation of many of the most famous or impressive riffs and motifs from the "classic era" of progressive rock music. I cannot name them all, but each individual melodic riff put before the drums and Zeuhlish bass by the guitar, vibes, and/or violin seem so familiar that I feel guilty for not being able to name them immediately. The drum work, once it has begun, remains fairly constant in its breakneck, KEITH MOON-like pace and busy- ness. The other instrumentalists have merely to play whatever they wish--and they do, now mixing separate riffs as if standing alone with the drummer, oblivious to the other band members. I suppose some might find this entertaining, even an exciting intellectual challenge (to solve the "name that tune" mystery puzzle pieces), but I am not of this group. The test for me would be to see the band "recite" this song in full replication in a live setting. (Much of it seems as if it could have been improvised and would, therefore, be quite difficult to replicate. Ever.) Somewhere in the twelfth minute the sound engineer is suddenly called out of the sound booth. Seeing no reason to continue, the band drop their instruments and head off to the lunch room, Thus, around the 13:00 mark we, the listener, are treated to a spacious reprieve as all band members walk out of the studio for their lunch break leaving only vibes player Takara Kuimiko alone with the admonishment, "You need to practice!" After their bento boxes have been emptied, guitarist Kido Natsuki and violinist Katsui Yuji return to tune their instruments while bassist Ohtsubo Hirohiko takes extra time to get out his double bass--which he, likewise, has to tune. All of this, of course, is still being recorded as the sound engineer had to go get take out and forgot to push "pause" on the console. Drummer Okabe Youichi has to eat twice as much as the others as he is expending many more calories than the others, but eventually, in the eighteenth minute, he, too, returns and begins tuning and adjusting his instrument. Somewhere in the twenty-first minute the engineer returns so the band members start to jam just to let him thing that they've been working hard. The odd thing is--and this really surprises the band--is this time it really works! The whole "Close to the Edge" riff jam thing finally comes together into an interactive, full-band explosion. But, then, after about five minutes of that, the band has had enough and try to shut it down, but, as most musicians are rather hard-headed, they can't decide who gets to have the last word so they're all left there standing as the feedback from the amps and monitors slowly decay and fade. (45/60)

6. Kinzoku No Taiji (Live *) (8:39) opens as the whole band, Takara Kuimiko on vibes, bursts into form and function. Bass lines from Ohtsubo Hirohiko are flowing like machine gun fire, the violin sounds as if it's going to start smoking, while Kido Natsuki restrains himself (as long as he can) to wild flailing chord play. After five minutes of "holding space" for others, he can no longer restrain himself, joins the fray of soloists, gradually pushing Katsui Yuji out of the soundscape (he tries to re-approach several times but is thwarted each time--the third time by the vibes!) Now, this, might qualify as Zeuhl--though Mahavishnu Jazz Fusion is more like how I'd describe it. Special shout out: Well done, drummer Okabe Youichi! (20/20)

3.5 stars; an unusual album of Mahavishnu Orchestra-like jazz fusion. The songs often have trouble coming together--seemed improvised--as might give reason to doubt the truth that this was released under the auspices of being a studio album when all but two of the songs have audience clapping at the end. I rate it up for the high amusement factor.