OFFICIAL BOOTLEG - LIVE IN JAPAN

Anekdoten

Heavy Prog

4.29 | 86 ratings

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Bonnek
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator

Live In Japan is a competent live album that deserves your attention because of a number of instrumental tracks that were not included or only appeared in a much shorter form on the official albums.

The album tracks are all played with passion and focused energy but don't seem to differ much from their originals. On top of that, some of the vocals are far below the studio recordings, Slow Fire for instance, which was never one of their best tracks, is sung completely out of tune and rather painful to the ears. Clearly, the whole point of this release are the instrumental treats Out Of Nowhere, Tabatah and Rubank.

Out Of Nowhere has a powerful bass groove, excellent percussion, big mellotron chords and an apt guitar improvisation. The combination of melancholic atmosphere and the bass-dominated sound reminds me as much of the King Crimson 1974 sound as of the dark rock of Joy Division.

Tabatah is similar, this time mixing King Crimson guitar wizardry with a touch of Zeuhl, heralding the sound of later bands like Nebelnest and Guapo. It's really an intense piece of music. Anekdoten may not be the most original band out there but they write and perform their music with great competence and with a big love and conviction for what they do. The track ends in a disturbing chaos of interwoven riffs and rhythms.

Rubank already featured on Nucleus but the 3 minutes original can not be compared to the 11 minutes of dark atmospheric rock here. It's been largely extended with a long and dramatic crescendo with heavy distorted bass and spacious mellotron chords.

Overall, this is a mostly competent 3 star live album with a 25 minute bonus of essential instrumental modern prog. Sounds like 4 stars altogether.

Bonnek | 4/5 | 2010-1-19

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