Zettaimu (Japan) alt plus

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From http://www.seaoftranquility.org/reviews.php?op=showcontent&id=5098

 Richard Barnes wrote:

Zettaimu: Miroque

This
is the fourth of a number of occasional album releases by a band formed
by Japanese guitar player Hisashi Furue who also contributes some bass
and piano. The album's bookends are an atmospheric piece for synth and
percussion entitled "Red Moon". In between we have seven superb songs
which mix progressive music ideas with traditional Japanese
sensibilities.

 The bass and dampened drums create an ominous undertone around the
first song, "I don't need anything else". Kanako, the band's female
singer, delivers the Japanese lyrics with a mix of delicacy and vocal
expression reminiscent of a rather less frenetic Kate Bush or Bjork.
The guitar and percussion have a crystalline clarity in production
which is very typical of the more pastoral side of Japenese prog such
as Asturias or Vermillion Sands. 

The lament which follows " Anyone is loved by someone" is in similar
vein with plaintive breathy vocals and a jazz-tinged arrangement for an
expressive bass, acoustic guitar and drums.

 The tempo is accelerated for the next track, "Time like an arrow",
the vaguely flamenco sounding percussion skipping along to a jerky
marching rhythm supported by metallic guitar chords.

 The one English song, "Jennifer", features a male and female duet
delivering the short lovelorn ballad. A beautiful weeping guitar
accompanies the distorted middle vocal section creating a dreamy
atmosphere.

 "Sharan" is a wistful, minimalist composition for guitar and solo
voice. As the song develops the faded bass becomes more powerful
raising a climactic end. "Icarus" is an agitated, intricate,
composition which switches from odd metres into standard rock formats
through verse and chorus. One of the highlights of the album.

 In the final piece, "Time perplexes time oneself", there is a
Crimsonian feel to the dark angular arrangement. A vocal alternating
between high and low registers is fed by a Fripp-like perpetual guitar
and a grungey bass. In a schizophrenic change of style, the song
changes in the middle to a light joyful guitar and vocal before
returning to its more reflective and aggressive opening motifs.

Overall, a sophisticated and well presented piece of progressive rock.

From http://www.progressor.net/review/zettaimu_2007.html

 VM wrote:

Veterans of the Japanese scene ZETTAIMU (the group has existed since
1983) present their fourth CD "Miroque" which, compared to its
predecessor "What Can I Do" from four years ago, is definitely a step
forward in terms of both composition and style. The Pink Floyd
influence is out, the flavor of the group's native tunes is in, and
although the music is still instantly accessible and is for the most
part pastoral in character, the number of proto-progressive pieces this
time around exceeds that of prog-tinged ones, only one of the disc's
nine tracks, Jennifer, having a pronounced pop feeling. This is also
the only song with English lyrics here, and I must say the band's turn
to their native language is greatly to the benefit of their overall
sound. Well, the two instrumental cuts, Red Moon Prolog and Red Moon
Epilog, are not very strong compositionally either, each drawing
atmospheric Ambient, but both are surprisingly effective: situated at
beginning and end, they finely frame the album's core material. The
highlights would be the last two songs, Icarus and Time Perplexes Time
Oneself, both of which stand out for some frenetic, sophisticated,
genuinely progressive maneuvers, at times with a good King Crimson
vibe. While still hardly a person:-) of exalted rank (meaning from a
classic progressive standpoint), Zettaimu is a group whose progress
from release to release is obvious and is much appreciated.

ProgGnosis: http://www.proggnosis.com/MUSIC_DBArtist.asp?txtArtistID=7702

http://www.babyblaue-seiten.de/index.php?content=band&left=genre&bandId=2978&genre=26

It doesn't sound that Prog to me.  It's alt rock/ pop/ psych with post rock stylings.  Not making this an kind of priority, but came across it by accident earlier and thought no harm in making this topic, and someone might get a  kick out of the music.