弌 (TWO) [AKA: VIVA KOENJI !]

Koenjihyakkei are far from the most accessible prog, and their second outing is definitely among the least accessible of the lot. Very aggressive and relentless compared to most zeuhl, the album shifts schizophrenically from chaotic breakdowns to weird, alien soundscapes of multi-layered vocals and operatic, epic instruments, which then immediately evolves into middle-eastern sounding jams, and then back to the chaos. It's very varied (mildly schizophrenic, though not necessarily in a bad way), and it's certainly an experience no serious zeuhl fan should go without.

Opener Grembo Zavia sets the mood for the rest of the album, with energetic female vocals and Tatsuya Yoshida's trademark octopus-like drumming, it's a very nicely arranged 10-minute epic. If you only heard the first and last minutes of it, you wouldn't have been able to guess it was the same song. The rest of the album follows nicely along in the same groove, but getting weirder and weirder the farther you go. I won't give a track-by-track breakdown, because there are plenty of those already, but trust me. 2 (ni) really is something, and you'd be mad to miss it.