LOVE WILL MAKE A BETTER YOU

The first half of the 70's will always be the favourite period of fans of adventerous music and it's not close, in part because the record labels went along with it. Sure they wanted that single but other than that do what you want. I mention this because a project like Japan's LOVE LIVE LIFE + ONE doesn't happen except during this time frame. Imagine eight highly regarded session musicians and a well known singer who croons pop ballads getting together in February of 1971 and creating an album that Discogs describes as that bridge between the beat music of the 60's and that experimental style of the 70's. Julian Cope ranks this as the sixth best Japanese psychedelic album of the 50 in his list. Some respect here.

I can only imagine the shock of those who are fans of the singer Akira Fuse checking out this album and hearing him like they never have before(haha). The man can sing and he lets his hair down here sort of speak. Passionate and innovative like the music. He is the + ONE. The album was written and arranged by sax/flute player Kosuke Ichihara. And we have two sax/flute players, two percussionists, bass, two lead guitarists, keyboards and vocals. The keyboardist Hiro Yanagida released some solo albums including "Milk Time" which I recently reviewed and he was in FOOD BRAIN.

One of the guitarists released "A Path through Haze" which I'm a big fan of in 1971, that's Kimio Mizutani who also played on "Milk Time". Quite a few connections here which I love to talk about. LOVE LIVE LIFE + ONE released a few albums including one with Toshiyuki Miyamas' THE NEW HERD band. That band released an amazing experimental Big Band record called "Yamataifu". Maybe this is why I love Canterbury so much, very inbred. And there are more connections with these Japanese musicians including the bass player here being on "A Path Through Haze" by Kimio and more.

So we get a side long suite called "The Question Mark" at 18 minutes where it is established that is this a far out album to say the least. A real free jazz vibe at times, I mean I love that these are incredible musicians and while I'm not a big fan of this style, so much respect and I did enjoy this. The sax and flute are adventerous here and the guitar lights it up half way through followed by organ runs.

The other track that is like-minded is the second longest "Shadows Of The Mind" at almost 9 minutes where again we get a free jazz thing happening and some vocal gymnastics during the first half before it becomes more normal sounding. I like when both guitarists are doing their thing at the same time. Even the drums sound avant here and it ends experimentally. The other three tracks are between 3 and 4 1/2 minutes and are more bluesy like "Runnin' Free" dominated by flute and the title track with passionate bluesy vocals and the closer "Facts About It All" with the organ runs, jazzy guitar and horns.

While I'm far from in love with the music here I have so much respect for the adventerous spirit that is here is spades. Another must have from japan.