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Far East Family Band - Nipponjin CD (album) cover

NIPPONJIN

Far East Family Band

 

Psychedelic/Space Rock

3.68 | 92 ratings

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octopus-4
Special Collaborator
RIO/Avant/Zeuhl,Neo & Post/Math Teams
4 stars This is my second taste of FEFB and was a surprise.

There are not the krautrock athmospheres of parallel words. The album opens with a long song whose introduction is folky (in the Japanese sense) but later turns to Floydian when the singing arrives. The 3rd part of this quite epic song has a good even if not exceptional guitar riff. I think "not exceptional" is because Gilmour would have been perfect on this base. Good because it is psychedelic/bluesy enough, at least for my tastes. Some gimmicks "a la Vangelis" contribute to the track's mood. Acoustic string instruments (a sitar? a japanese folk instrument?) take the place of the guitar and this is another section. The "folky" part proceeds until singing is back. This part makes me think to Uriah Heep or to early Eloy, even if the tempo is, of course, slower. All this is NIPPONJIN.

THE CAVE starts with "winds" and keyboard. I was expecting to hear the bass of Set the controls of the heart of the sun...well, it's not that song, but should FEFB perform it in Pompeii nobody will say it's a scandal. The keyboard parts, in particular, are very close to Richard Wright's sounds. The second part of the song is driven by bass and drums. it's a completely different song. A descendant sequence of bass notes reminds clearly to Astronomy domine, even if the guitar part could have been used as soundtrack for a western movie. The last two minutes are again different. They are now very close to Eloy, also in the sound.

The B side of the vynil starts with 3 minutes of Krautrock. You can stil hear Japanese melodies (the flute), but if you told me that this was a Tangerine Dream's song I would have believed. This is called UNDISCOVERED NORTHERN LAND. Effectively, if you think to the track's title, it gives you the idea. This fades into FATELESS. Also this appears to be Floydian, but I hear some reminds to Italian prog. Probably just a coincidence even if RPI is quite appreciated in Japan.

THE GOD OF WATER is a short interlude followed by RIVER OF SOUL. This is a typical Kitaro song. I like Kitaro also in his newage most recent shape, so I really like this relaxing track.

Another two minutes interlude, THE GOD OF WIND, then MOVIN LOOKIN and YAMATO.Very short tracks but withsomething to say. They are short because they have to be so. There's a touch of Canterbury here (Caravan).

Finally MISTERY OF NORTHERN SPACE is another very enjoyable Floydian track. Please note that when I say Floydian, I don't mean that they are copying. They are probably inspired and influenced, but their music is original. 4.5 stars really.

octopus-4 | 4/5 |

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