UTSUROI YUKU MONO

Yayy. I had my precautions on this album but after a few spins I just fell into the music. The new uphill which started in 1999 Esoptron and continued through Fabulis Mirabilibus De Bombycosi Scriptis continued in Utsuroi Yuku Mono. While Esoptron offered only 3 songs of equal level to the 80/90 Kensos level, Fabulis Mirabilibus was already much better and innovative, not trying to recapture the 20 year-old spark but use the Kenso trademark-style and form it forwards. In Utsuroi Yuku Mono the hard-rock sound that was quite prominent in Esoptron and Fabulis Mirabilibus has fallen off. This album brings mostly Yume No Oka to mind, it also has more acoustic guitar and Keiko Kawashima clapping and singing (best example, the three part Codon). The new drummer Keisuke Komori proves to be an excellent choice, his drumming brings the Kenso I/II/III/Sparta drummer Yamamoto to mind. Kind of quirky fusion-like but cautios not the Bruford-like drumming. Utsuroi Yuku Mono has seventeen tracks from which seven tracks are under 3 minutes long. All of them have the energy and innovativity of a prog-epic squished into three minutes. The rest are 3-5 minute long pieces and then the best piece on the album "GOS" an eight-minute long piece showing the best that the modern Kenso can achieve. Anyways this is for me the best Kenso album since Yume No Oka and that's pretty good for a prog-band so old as Kenso. 4.5 stars

I just hope that Kenso can make a new album now that they still are in so good shape.