KITES

The third Virgin album of this band might had been described by Frank Zappa as "Almost Chinese?" according his "Lumpy Gravy" record. The gongs open the music from the silence creating huge hallways of sounds, being quite characteristic for this production era of the band. Strings and human voices bring up an association of cinematic movie soundtrack. Soon a rhythm done with several percussions and voices slowly build up the tension, and lead into "The Emperor Kite", having more militaristic Asian sound in the melodies and rhythms. "Wind Borne" is a calmer ambient like number, and in the middle of the song the new-age sounds are again rising its head. The monotonic drumming makes this sound like some more modern chill-out music. The flute solos are pretty, but somehow this calm jazzy piece was a little boring for me to listen. "Kite Song" is an air-fairy flute number closing the LP side A.

"Land of The Warrior" is then quieter face of the vinyl, starting very slowly from silence (I guess this reasonable effect can also grow boring sometimes). There are some nice sounds and violent pipes in the distance, later revealing the warrior theme. Then we move to ambient phase for a sometime, the rhythmic form is born only in the end of the track. Then there is a thematic scene progression of short dialogues; "Arrival of The Emperor: "What does the venerable sir do?" is a quiet soundscape for wind like sounds and flow of chimes; "Teh Ch'eng: "Do you understand this?" and the question is revealed in celestial sound motives; "Arrival of Chia Shan: discourse and liberation" is a very quiet aural space; "Towards The Mountains" a beautiful resolution to this in Japanese melodies; And finally "The Last Question" draws together the musical elements of the album. I think this album is one of the most oriental-themed records done by this band. If you like Japanese / Chinese music influences, here are such elements in a ambient and new age prog rock context for you. The album is interesting, but I think it would work out better with an actual movie composed over it, as the overall listening experience was a bit dull for me. Well, I like the early records of Jade Warrior anyway more, and this is not a bad album.