FLOATING WORLD

The aptly titled Floating World was the fourth album by Jade Warrior overall and their first for Island Records. While it is fair to say that this album constituted the start of a whole new sound and approach for the band, there are still traces here of their early sound. To that extent one might see both the previous Last Autumn's Dream and the present album as somewhat transitional albums between the old and the new, and it is also these two albums that best capture the essence of Jade Warrior. Everyone might perhaps not be overly impressed by this music, but it is indeed hard to deny that Floating World is a one-of-a-kind album; whatever else one might think of it, it is hard to deny that the group had developed a unique and distinctive sound at this point. Is it still Rock music? Is it New-Age? Is it World-Music? Or maybe Jazz? Obviously no such descriptions will ever fit Floating World, unless maybe all of them at once. This album really takes the listener on a journey and it may take many attempts before one is willing to follow them all the way. It sure was like that for me as it took many listens over a long period of time before I could get into this. But now, I must say that it was certainly worth it.

One major difference between this and earlier Jade Warrior albums is the total absence of vocals here (ok, there are some occasional wordless vocals, or chants more like it). The vocal numbers had never been the group's strongest feat, so maybe that was a wise move. Another difference is that the sonic quality of Floating World is much improved over previous releases. Indeed, the difference is enormous in this respect. But the fundamental differences are deeper than that, of course. As might be expected, this music is a lot more mellow and relaxing. But even this is by far not the whole story. There are some very melodic parts as well as some surprisingly heavy parts too. Red Lotus, for example, reminds of King Crimson in their Red and Lark's Tongues In Aspic era! This is an interesting album that is one of Jade Warrior's very best ones.

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