LONG SEASON

For many, obscurity and popularity are two things that never cross paths. For them, it's either you never heard of them, or you've heard everything from them. I would like to break this process away from the status quo, since I fully believe that an album can be both obscure and very popular, as long as you know where to go. In online music communities, people can find and hear albums they never knew existed before, and that is generally how I discover most of my music. Music circles share albums from one hand to the next like two cars passing by each day. In that sharing of two separate, but equally musical things, people grow attachments and love for some albums, some of which they never heard of before. There are communities built up from the groundwork for finding new and interesting music, such as Rate Your Music, Album Of The Year, a lot of music-focused Discord communities, and even my little darling that is ProgArchives. The internet, while being a bit of a dumpster fire in most places, helped a lot in terms of finding new joys in life that no one in the history of time could comprehend. So in that context, it is safe to say that without the internet, not many people would know about the Japanese band, Fishmans, and their album, Long Season.

Formed in 1987 in Minato, Tokyo, Fishmans was formed by the founding members of the late Shinji Sato (Vocals, Guitar, Trumpet), Kin-Ichi Motegi (Drums, Sampler), and Kensuke Ojima (Guitar, Vocals). Kensuke would leave the band in 1994. Two more members joined the group in the later years of 1988 and 1990, that being Yuzuru Kashiwabara (Bass), and Hakase-Sun (Keyboards). Their music often falls in the same boat as The Flaming Lips, being a blend of dreamy pop music with Neo Psychedelic Rock, however, they have done more ambient pop, and progressive pop music as well, especially found on this album. In recent decades, they have gotten a good following over the years, especially on sites like Rate Your Music, where this album is considered the #1 album of all time in 1996 with a rating of 4.19/5.0 from over 20 thousand ratings. It is clear that this album or more accurately song is one that many people fell in love with, and to be honest, I really do get the hype and care surrounding this entire album, because it is really good, however, I would be remiss to not point on something I do not particularly find that great on this album.

This album is one big 35-minute epic that goes through this abstract valley of sound and noise. Sometimes you get flavors of very dreamy keyboard and drum playing skills, mixed in with a wide array of varying instruments, from violins, to sound effects, bells, and some tribal beats as well. This whole song feels very much like waking up from a dream and having that dazed confusion while hearing your alarm clock blaring in your ears. Everything here feels very abstracted, and I think in some, mostly good areas, it works. I think the best thing about this song is that I always come out of it fairly good, and while that goes for most epics I listen to, hearing this more surreal type of music being pushed to half an hour in length and getting out of it does surprise me a lot. Usually, I would only ever truly love it if it was something like Tangerine Dream or Jean Michel Jarre where you can get very loose and experimental forms of longer music, but here in a more rock/pop context, it makes me surprised to see it come through so well. Every bit and part of this song is very airy, and I think the band was aware of the space they were given for this song since you get a ton out of it while still keeping up with what the intended sound should be. Everything is consistent in its direction, so props have been given. Oh, and also the singing is very well done. I do dig how soft the vocals here are, they feel very in line with the music being played here.

However, the song also can suffer from that abstract sound that I praised in the last paragraph. Like trying to remember a dream, some parts I have trouble trying to remember because sometimes this song can feel very boring at times, or just too Avant Garde to where it gets lost in the weirdness. It seems like a lot of times they get lost in trying to find a new but consistent direction for the song to take, and sometimes they can find their way to a new place that'd improve things, sometimes it feels as though they cannot seem to know how to get through the thicket and end up scraping and bumping into things that do not go well with this epic. Honestly, I feel like they could've made this song even better if they reworked the parts at 14:35 through 27:00, especially that part where it's tribal drumming with a weird repetitive sound effect looping a bit, and that violin part. Honestly, that violin is the worst part of the song, it is so ear-grating that when I hear it I most often than not turn my volume down to be much quieter so I cannot hear it. Honestly, this song would be one of my favorites if it didn't seem like they get lost in their direction and focus on those middle pieces.

I get why this album is very beloved, and I do enjoy a good deal of parts on here, heck I'd say most of the good elements on here outway the bad, but I cannot in good faith say this is a must-listen, or would recommend it to anyone due to those middle parts. It's still a perfectly good album, but not one that I can really adore. If you want some other more dreamy psychedelic or more atmospheric psychedelic rock music then this could be a good place, but I'd suggest being acquainted with other types of bands or projects before hearing this one.

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