SHINGETSU

And right off the hop that beauty is heard early on the opener "Oni" which might be my favourite track. The beauty is in the form of acoustic guitar here and those vocals arrive after a minute and are fragile. I like the contrasts on display during this 9 1/2minute track. "The Other Side Of Morning" continues the contrasts of mellow and fuller sections. The vocals and acoustic guitar again are gorgeous.

And how about the vocals on "Influential Street" where Bryan Ferry came to mind the way he vibrates almost. Not as big on this one but I am on the next one "Afternoon After The Rain" with the guest sax adding a lot. Organ here too and some majesty with the mellotron and more. "Fragments Of The Dawn" needs a mention for the mellotron flutes. Some multi-vocals or double tracked ones here as well makes this different. "Freeze" is awesome because it's dark and intense, a serious instrumental. More beauty on the closer "Return Of The Night".

This was an absolute pleasure to listen to and GENESIS are clearly their biggest influence although they were in no way a clone of their sound. Just some keyboard and guitar sounds brought them to mind once in a while. Easily 4 stars.

The opening track is an eastern infused track unlike other Shingetsu songs, very nice adds welcome variety to the album.

Mirror is a beautiful song with great Japanese vocals, classic Shingetsu. Tasteful synths and melodic guitar fill in the rest of the song, nice.

The Voyage For Killing Part One is a pretty ballad serving as a prelude to part 2.

The Voyage For Killing Part Two is a re-recording of Kaiki off the night collector, an amazing song. It has everything you could want powerful vocals, superlative twelve string guitar, ethereal keys and its epic! My only issue is it doesn't have some of the groans(?) found on the other version, although there are things this version does have the other doesn't.

Island Homecoming is a shorter song made great by the singers emotional voice.

The final track is again a different one from Shingetsus catalog. It is more experimental/soundscape, great choice for closing a great album.

Also ye I totally f'd up this albums info? it was released 2015, recorded in 2005? Nvm dudes fixed it. Also Im reviewing off a YouTube that goes like my review says which is different then the track listing so yeah

Oni the longest track opens the album well and everything is used to great effect, from the 12 string guitar to the theatrical vocals.

To my ears the album dips after this into forgettable short tracks. There are some neat sounds here and there but it's all fleeting.

The last track, "The Night Collector" is a nice closing track with emotive electric guitar every fan of Andrew Latimer should at least hear once.

Overall this is a good debut although I would not consider Shingetsu to be anywhere near the best of classic Japanese Progressive Rock. (Check out the Floydian Yonin Bayashi or wonderful fusion of Kenso, even the Renaissance esque Mr. Sirius)

Sound quality? Not great. But not terrible. And these songs are generally fantastic, so you may tend to overlook the shortfalls on crisp sound engineering. The lead singer has often been compared to Peter Gabriel, but I suspect that it's for his stage antics more than his voice - he's got a great voice, but PG it ain't. Typical of other Nippon bands, the musicians are all very accomplished, and really cook on some of these songs.

This just missed my 4-star rating grade, but there's some great and different shtuff here for the curious and hungry prog lover. Another worthy find for sure; expand thy horizons. 3-1/2 stars.

2 stars because of the sound quality. I should have got their debut album instead.

SHINGETSU is, at least in my humble opinion, one of the most greatest Japanese symphonic rock bands, with featuring melodic keyboard player Akira Hanamoto and lyrical vocalist Makoto Kitayama. And here what I want to say strongly is that all songs in this historic album should need the musical sense of all SHINGETSU's players. Personally I love Haruhiko Tsuda's dragging and drowsy guitar...without the unusual guitar sound SHINGETSU's music style won't go well. Of course, strict but flexible rhythm section by Shizuo Suzuki's bass and Naoya Takahashi's drums is absolutely important. This Japanese pride was constructed by these talented player.

Their masterpiece, Oni is the greatest! A plaintive melody by Akira can go with clear and transparent voice and a little languid guitar. Oni, a Japanese terrible monster, seems (hears?) to be even kind and gentle, and be dancing slowly and elegantly. Pop and catchy (even in this work) is the song Asa No Muko Gawa (The Other Side Of Morning). So fresh and like we enjoy morning salad. They are attractive on pop world, too. :-) Hatsunetsu No Machikado (Influential Street) can let us amazed with its reverse play and eccentric plus fantastic tune. This song includes some styles of a march, a ballad, and a rock. Like a lunchbox with various materials LOL. I suggest this song playing be their real pleasure. On the contrary, Reito (Freeze) is a more classic piece, and extremely big Kagaku No Yoru (Night Collector) is like a theme-song of some Japanese hero TV programs... :-) Exactly, this song has a theme of a boy with some extrasensory perceptions and it's natural the song has such an atmosphere.

All the songs are written in Japanese, not English. They might have a patriotic spirit. But I'm sure this work of theirs should be accepted all over the progressive rock world.

The CD is far from perfect, but as a debut recording, it is also very promising and outstanding. I specially like the first track, Oni, a great prog epic and the last, the beautiful Return Of The Night again very Genesis-like). The remaining songs were also nice but not at the same level as those two. The lyrics are all in japanese, but the delivering is so convincing it hardly matters if you don´t know what the singer is talking about. In other words, a very poignant music that every prog lover should give it a listen.

It is only a shame this band did not have a long career. Certainly they would have outgrow their Genesis mold and delivered some real strong and original stuff. 3,5 stars.

Shingetsu does lush symphonic prog like GENESIS with some hints of CATHEDRAL, CAMEL and YES. The vocals is pretty dark and very effectful. The organs and the guitars is very GENESIS like. The flute is not too far away from FOCUS land.

The opening track Oni is excellent and very GENESIS ala their Wind & Wuthering era with plenty of time shifts and intricate bass lines. This is where I also detects hints of CATHEDRAL. The rest of the tracks are in the same vein. Very interesting with it's lush landscapes of keyboards and guitars. The songs are not that great though. Maybe ten times on the turntable is not enough to give the album enough justice. But I know for a fact that this is an album I will listen to in the coming years. This is an album worthy the inclusion in any good symphonic prog collection.

3.55 stars.

Their first, eponymously titled, album from 1979 is now a landmark of Japanese prog rock history: eight epic tracks of adventurous music, accompanied by abstract lyrics typical of the Japanese aesthetic delivered by Makoto Kitayama's beautiful, mournful, storyteller's voice. This album, which merits a dedicated review of its own, is included here in full as a remastered version. The remastering is light and very faithful to the original release - the body of the music has been brought closer to modern day loudness, and the acoustic guitars in particular have a slightly cleaner and more colourful sound compared to the previous CD issue.

Shingetsu embarked on a successful tour of their first album, and soon began work on a follow-up, 'From A Distant Star'. Unfortunately the band split before this second record could be completed, despite the warm reception of much of its material while on tour. One of the most promising chapters in prog was sadly over before it began. However, in 2005 when the band reunited to compile this anthology, they also took on the unusual task of completing the album they had started writing almost two decades earlier, and so disc two of 'Zenshi' presents Shingetsu's second album to the world at last. Having such a prolonged inception, 'From A Distant Star' bears the rare honour of sounding like a golden age album, containing all the energy and imagination of the time, but executed with today's technology. Crystal clear without sounding even remotely over-produced, this collection of tracks ranges from improvisational instrumental landscaping to full-on unclassifiable majesty, employing a diversity of keyboard and guitar sounds, and throughout there is that sense of melody being infused into every element which was so central to '70s prog. The strong stage numbers of old, 'Red Eyes On Mirror' and 'The Voyage For Killing Love' are revitalised, making up the bulk of the CD, and the latter in particular is a towering epic - Part One as gentle and grievous and aching a ballad you're ever likely to hear, and Part Two a blazing journey to oblivion, via infinity, then back again as Kitayama cries 'I will wait for you on a distant star'. Yes, this CD alone is worth the price of admission.

The remaining CDs cover the rehearsals and demos of Shingetsu as well as the bands that the members formed subsequent to the first break-up (HAL, Serenade and others) who also came up with some very interesting Shingetsu-esque material. These bands were equally short-lived, and this document allows us again to see what might have been. The final disc is a short DVD, featuring a few tracks from the original album set to footage of the band on stage (the music itself is not live) plus some encouraging scenes of the reunion rehearsals in 2005.

Naturally, some may find the Japanese lyrics an obstacle to fully enjoying Shingetsu. However, not only is the music on its own outstanding, but (as with songs in any language we don't speak) sometimes the sound of and emotion behind the words transcend their literal meaning - that is certainly the case here. But the meanings too once understood do add to the music, and as with early Yes, for example, Shingetsu's words are chosen not only for their sound but for their poetic effect. Suffice it to say, there are no love songs present here. 'Zenshi' is a testament to the flourishing of progressive rock music far away from where it was born. I can't help wondering what might have been if the band had stayed together at the end of the '70s... and wondering if we will ever hear from them again.

This lavish, unmissable set from 2005 is a limited edition, but at the time of writing there are still copies available at cdjapan.co.jp - so act fast!

Fans of 70's prog may find many of the sounds on this album somewhat familiar, reminiscent for example of Hackett and Fripp guitars, and certainly Kitayama's stage presence gives a firm nod to Peter Gabriel's performances. But, although Shingetsu themselves will admit to being fans of groups such as Genesis and King Crimson, (and how can that be a bad thing!) although they do share sonic similarities it does not prevent Shingetsu from carving out a prog niche all their own.

Although sung entirely in Japanese, and therefore ostensibly less accessible to the Western prog fan, 'Shingetsu' will reward close study, of both the lyrics and music. Quintissentially Japanese, but somehow simultaneously universal, the lyric matter of 'Shingetsu' ('New Moon' in English) is all about capturing moments in life and nature; situations and feelings that we have all encountered but perhaps never yet articulated. The beautiful 'Other Side Of Morning' captures perfectly the sensation of stillness and the almost dreamlike quality of a quiet dawn, with ethereal 12-string guitars and a melody rife with nostalgia, sadness and yet hope.

'Fragments of the dawn' is again another beauty, opening with a searing guitar and seriously funky (yes funky!) bassline, quickly segueing into a blissful vocal melody, guitars and mellotron, combining with the lyrics to capture a still moment of meditative contemplation.

But Shingetsu are by no means whimsical prog nancy-boys. They can rock out with the best of them, as proven in the first track, 'Oni', a saga named after a demon, concerning fear and confusion, and also in 'Night Collector' with its furious drumtastic energy.

Even if you can't understand the lyrics, Shingetsu's music plus Kitayama's voice seen solely as another instrument in the mix, are more than enough to highly recommend this wonderful album.