Published on http://www.recordheaven.net/japan.htm :

"While being spoiled with good booksWhile being spoiled with good books (bibels) 
like The Magic Land, Fuzz Acid & Flowers and Scented Gardens of the mind, Asia 
remains the only unexplored territory for the psych, progg & hardrock 
connousieurs, and was quite exciting one day when a good customer of ours, Chris 
McLean, out of Australia, mentioned he had done some work with the Japanese 
discography. As it turned out that Chris did not have in mind to do a book for 
out of this, I proposed to atleast put it on the web, and here you have it ! 
Please do not hesitate to contact Chris for corrections, additionals etc.
You can contact Chris here."
All the best, Johnny / Record Heaven.


Japanese psychedelic, progressive, experimental & heavy rock by Chris McLean, 
August 2005.
 
The Japanese psychedelic rock scene beginning in the late 1960's grew, as it did 
in many countries, from the influence of beat/r&b/psych-pop from leading UK 
groups, particularly The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. The result of this 
influence was what was known as the 'Group Sounds' movement - basically 
involving lots of young folks seeking to emulate their idols by forming their 
own groups to play the new sounds. As the years passed most of these groups 
didn't move with the times very well, remaining a pale psych-pop imitation of 
their UK and SF heroes. [It should be said that some Japanese music from this 
era does have a lot of strange charm due to the ways in which foreign musical 
influences were remoulded.] This slowness in changing is comparable to the 
similar situations in Australia, New Zealand, and many South American and Asian 
countries at the same time.
However, as 1970 was ticking around some groups began to emerge who were making 
more credible and 'progressive' music. Many of the best Japanese bands from this 
time were already showing the over-the-top enthusiasm with which the Japanese 
have become endearingly associated with in other countries. This, combined with 
the willingness to experiment and incorporate Japanese musical influences, adds 
up to give Japanese psychedelic and progressive music a special something which 
aficionados of such music should appreciate. Unfortunately, not many of these 
albums gained an international release, making the original LP's from the 60's 
and 70's very rare indeed for the rest of the world. Even in Japan, I presume 
such albums would now be very hard to find after the countries record shops have 
been scoured by international collectors with money to burn. Also, hardly any of 
the vintage stuff has been reissued on CD - and those that have tend to go out 
of print quickly [and are often not re-licensed], and/or are usually hard to 
obtain for a reasonable price outside of Japan. So, my advice is, if you see one 
of these in a shop or on-line and you know you want to buy it, don't delay 
thinking you'll be able to get it any time, because chances are you won't! Even 
a lot of the newer Japanese music of interest seems to come and go pretty 
quickly, as Japanese experimental music is now very popular [at least in 
Australia].
In case it helps to know, the main labels that have been reissuing a lot of the 
70's stuff are P-Vine, Showboat, Belle Antique, Coca/Nippon Columbia, Hagakure, 
and to a lesser extent PSF [Psychedelic Speed Freaks] and Captain Trip.
With the 80's, 90's and beyond there has been a huge amount of supposedly 
'experimental' and/or 'psychedelic' and/or 'avant-garde' music coming out of 
Japan, much of which is probably too basic, noisy and unpleasant to interest 
many readers of this article - or stuff that's pure 'noise music'. For this 
stuff I've tried to only discuss bands from these later periods that have 
something novel and interesting going on, in other words, the stuff that is 
still progressive in some way, or at least has a sense of aesthetics and art in 
music. For example, Acid Mothers Temple clearly fit into that scheme, but bands 
like Mainliner, Musica Transonica and High Rise are too straight-forward. If 
they were doing the same thing in the 60's or early 70's I would have listed 
them for interest's sake, but for the 90's and beyond they're basically just 
very loud, over-the-top Blue Cheer-inspired rock bands without the sense of 
imagination, variety, dynamics and feeling that made Blue Cheer more than just a 
very loud acid rock band. When Blue Cheer overloaded their recording equipment, 
they did it with finesse; when Mainliner et al. do it, it comes across to me as 
a sloppy horrid mess with no restraint or sense of aesthetic. Originally I was 
going to leave out lots of neo-prog stuff from the 80's and beyond, due to a lot 
of it being pretty unoriginal and unappealing to me, but to consider a wider 
audience I have put many of them in, although knowing less about them I haven't 
gone into as much detail as with some groups or solo artists.
There'll no doubt be a lot of stuff that I've missed on the radar, but I'm 
considering this as a work in progress, as should the reader. Simply put, since 
the 80's a huge number of progressive rock and experimental groups have sprung 
up in Japan. It's quite a task to keep track of them all!
Some details were gleaned from 'The Primer - Japanese psychedelia' by Alan 
Cummings [appeared in The Wire - issue?], Hans Pokora's 'Record Collector's 
Dreams' books [showing record covers and release info, with very limited and 
sometimes misleading genre assignations], and a lot from extensive web-crawling; 
the rest is based on my own limited knowledge and opinions of groups or solo 
artists I'm more familiar with. Please bear in mind that not being able to read 
or speak Japanese has made it very difficult to find accurate information on 
many of these bands or musicians - it's only since I had nearly completed this 
that Google started offering to translate Japanese web pages, and even then the 
process isn't anywhere near perfect. And, Google can't translate my many 
Japanese CD liner notes! To Japanese readers, therefore, this article may seem 
to be hopelessly inadequate and full of inaccuracies. I have tried to do my best 
piecing together fragments of information, and listening to whatever I can. I 
look forward to the publication of a comprehensive book on this subject written 
in English by someone who is also Japanese-literate and has broad tastes.
 

Late 1960's-mid 1970's
 
Acid Seven/Acid 7 - an obscure psychedelic group who I know nothing about. Their 
only recorded legacy seems to be one side of the rare 2-LP 'Oz Days' live 
compilation [Oz, 1973; see below].

Morio Agata - a hippy folk musician and singer/songwriter. According to the 
biography on his web-site, he "created a thoroughly original musical world which 
evoked the romantic popular culture of Taisho and Showa era-Japan." His first 
album was the privately-produced 'Chiku on Ban' [1970], made with Keiichi Suzuki 
and Haruomi Hosono. He first attracted major attention with his single 
'Sekishoku Elegy' [1972] and shortly after released his second album, 'Otome no 
Roman' [King, 1972]. Following albums include the soundtrack 'Boku wa Tenshi ja 
Naiyo' [King, 1973], 'Aa Mujou (Les Miserables)' [King, 1973], 'Nihon Shonen 
(Jipangu Boy)' [Philips, 1976], 'Kimi no Koto Sukinanda' [Philips, 1977] and 
'Shonen Youga Eien no Enkoku (Ausland am Eveit Railrod)' [1978]. 'Norimono 
Zukan' [Vanity, 1980] featured Phew of Aunt Sally [see below]. In 1981 he formed 
the group Virgin VS and went on to release many more albums. In the late 80's he 
started to take on world music influences, and in the early 90's he formed the 
group Raizo. He now also makes films. [see below; ex-Apryl Fool, also in Happy 
End and Yellow Magic Orchestra].

Apryl Fool - a hard psychedelic rock group, playing in a west coast style with 
swelling organ and great gnarly lead guitar. They recorded one album, 'Apryl 
Fool' [Columbia, 1969]. Some of it's pretty trippy, with one track sounding a 
little like C.A. Quintet at their weirdest, but arguably better! Keyboardist 
Hiro Yanagida later went on to Foodbrain and a solo career [see below]; drummer 
Takashi Matsumoto and bassist Harumi Hosono went on to Happy End [see below]. 

Blues Creation - a great heavy band who started out with the LP 'Blues Creation' 
[Polydor, 1969], containing hard blues rock with a garage band hangover. It was 
a good album but didn't really stand out from the crowd, lacking originality. 
These guys really shone, however, on their 2nd album 'Demon & Eleven Children' 
[Denon, 1971], by which time they had become considerably hairier than 2 years 
previous [both in sound and appearance!]. It's a wild ride of early heavy 
progressive rock, in a raw and bluesy early Black Sabbath-influenced mode - and, 
by extension, comparable to other similar heavies of the era such as Incredible 
Hog. Their next album saw them hook up with the already well-known [in Japan] 
vocalist Carmen Maki - 'Carmen Maki & Blues Creation' [Denon, 1972]. For fans of 
the previous album, this is often a bit of a disappointment, as there are only a 
few tunes that are heavy or rock much at all, the remainder being fairly generic 
slow blues and ballads to make room for Maki's Joplin-wannabe wailings. Well, 
maybe that's unfair - Maki does have more restraint and a purer tone of voice 
than Joplin, and isn't really a copyist. The heavier tracks are uniformly great, 
a tighter and more confident [but more compact] evolution from the previous 
album's style, though there's not enough of them to make this a very rewarding 
album, except for Carmen Maki fans. She also did some albums under her own name, 
most of which I haven't heard [see below].
After this the band shortened their name to Creation [not to be confused with 
the earlier UK mod-pop group], for which see below. All of the above albums have 
been reissued on CD by Coca/Nippon Columbia. There's a live album that has been 
issued on CD by Black Rose, but I don't know if it was released back then or 
not; I think it dates from shortly after their 2nd album, with Carmen Maki on 
some tracks.

Brain Police (Zunou Keisatsu) - an obscure slightly folky group formed in 1970 
by vocalist/writer Panta [real name Haruo Nakamura], previously of Peanut 
Butter, MOJO & Spartacus Bunt. From what I've heard [from one of the earlier 
albums], they basically played fairly raw and rudimentary guitar and 
vocals-based songs with drums and an angry political bent, kind of punk folk. 
The appeal is probably limited for those who don't understand the lyrics, which 
are all sung/shouted in Japanese and tend to dominate proceedings. They released 
6 albums [all live, I think], but I've found it tricky to locate any listings in 
English. They broke up at the end of 1975, but reformed briefly in 1990. All 
that time Panta remained active with a solo career. After Brain Police, 
guitarist Hiroshi Narazaki [a.k.a. Hiroshi Nar, previously in Datetenryu - see 
below] played bass with Les Rallizes Denudes, and later collaborated 
occasionally with Acid Mothers Temple [see below]. Drummer Toshi Ishizuka also 
collaborated with Kan Mikami and Kazuki Tomokawa [see below]. Not to be confused 
with the late-60's US group Brain Police.

Brush - bassist Masayoshi Takanaka formed this group and recorded a sole album 
in a limited private pressing, 'Brush' [TPR, 1971]. It's reputedly west coast 
oriented hard psych rock with a progressive touch. The album has recently been 
reissued on LP by Shadoks. Takanaka went on to Flied Egg after this.

J.A. Caesar [a.k.a. J.A. Seazer] - this guy was a graphic design student, who 
adopted the name J.A. [Julius Arnold] Caesar, often also found spelled Seazer 
and even Ceazar [just to confuse internet searches even further!], and was known 
by the late 60's as one of the few 'true hippies' on the local scene. He 
apparently won a competition for hair length! He gravitated to Shuji Terayama's 
Tenjo Sajiki underground experimental theatre company [see below] and despite 
lack of any previously evident musical talent quickly became the musical 
director, composing and performing the music for most of Tenjo Sajiki's films 
and plays. Alongside this, he also staged his own musical 'recitals'. His music 
often featured elements of Japanese percussion, 'sekkyobushi narrative music', 
progressive and psychedelic rock, raw heavy rock, and other influences as 
diverse as Carl Orff and Pierre Henry [so says Alan Cummings, anyway, on those 
last two].
The first album I'm aware of released under his own name [or pseudonym] is 
'Jasoumon' ('Heresy') [Victor, 1972], sometimes listed as 'Jashumon', or 
'Tenjousajiki - Jasoumon'. It's reputedly one of the best, an album to induce 
'shamanic meltdown' according to Julian Cope. It was reissued on CD with a book 
by P-Vine years back but is now out of print and very tricky to find. The 
following album was 'Recital - Kokkyo Junreika' [Victor, 1973], sometimes listed 
as 'Kokkyo Junreika' by J.A. Caesar Recital. This has great psychedelic 
'cartoon' cover art [which looks really ahead of its time, for an early 70's LP 
cover], and ranges from heavy progressive rock-outs, to sedate almost Magma-like 
grooves, to deep spacey stuff. It was reissued on CD by Belle Antique in 1995, 
but is now hard to find; there is also an LP reissue by P-Vine. 'Den-en Ni 
Shisu' ('Death in the Country') [RCA Sony, 1974] is also often listed as a Tenjo 
Sajiki release, and is the soundtrack to Tenjo Sajiki's 1974 film of the same 
name. It was reissued on CD fairly recently by Showboat. It's a lot more 
conventional than the other J.A. Caesar albums I've heard, in a kind of 'folky' 
song-based vein with hardly anything of progressive or psychedelic interest. 
It's still okay, but not one of the better ones.
'Sealbreaking' [Ain't Group Sounds] was issued on CD as by J.A. Seazer. The 
packaging contains no information except track titles, and is pretty lo-fi. I 
have to guess that it's either crudely recorded from a film soundtrack, or 
consists of demo or bootleg live recordings. Julian Cope's Head Heritage web 
site says that it's live in Shibuya, Tokyo. Musically though, it's great, with 
lots of heavy rock outs and progressive rock typical of their best early 70's 
style. The opening track even sounds like a raw, heavy Magma for several 
minutes.
'Shintokumaru' [Victor, 1978] is another live recording in a mellower mood, and 
has been reissued on LP by P-Vine. 'Matihedeyou Syowosuteyo' [year?] had some 
well-known musicians involved such as Hiro Yanagida [see below], Hideki Ishima 
from Flower Travellin' Band [see below] and Eiichi Sayu from Far Out [see 
below]; it was reissued on LP by P-Vine. For all I know, these guys may well 
play on numerous J.A. Caesar albums.
'Saraba Hakobune' ('Farewell to the Ark') [1984] was a film soundtrack, and has 
been reissued on CD by Showboat. 'Pilgrimage Of Blood' [P-Vine, 2002] is a 
soundtrack to a film by Hiromichi Tannai, and is a very diverse offering, with 
tracks recorded in 2001, 1981, 1979, 1977 and 1972. The music is hard to 
describe, with a uniquely Japanese feel, and is mostly sedate, moody and 
unusual, sometimes with subtle electronics and gorgeous mixing, and always 
sounding distinctly Japanese. One track reminds me of the German group Cozmic 
Corridors; some of it wouldn't sound out of place in a mid-70's Dario Argento 
film [no funky Goblin grooves though]!
Tenjo Sajiki's 'Aho Bune' [see below] can be considered a J.A. Caesar album, as 
might some of the Tokyo Kid Brothers albums [see below], which Caesar was 
sometimes involved in. Given that the text on these albums is mostly in Japanese 
print, and that they are collaborations between more than one entity, it can be 
hard to tell how to list these albums correctly or even to find agreement 
regarding the spelling - and as mentioned above, this makes internet searches 
considerably difficult.
Other albums I know nothing about are 'Ookami Syonen', 'Tenshi Souzou Sunawachi 
Hikari' [1998], and 'Kiyoko Ito' or 'Tenjo Sajiki - Baramon' [which is credited 
to J.A. Caesar and numerous others].
J.A. Caesar is still active in composing and performing music for stage 
productions and soundtracks; he inherited Tenjo Sajiki following the death of 
Terayama. Also recently, Caesar composed the music for the TV anime 'Shoujo 
Kakumei Utena'.

Shinki Chen - after Foodbrain [see below], guitarist Chen collaborated again 
with Hiro Yanagida and others, including George Yanagi - vocalist from 
Strawberry Path and briefly Flied Egg [see below; he also plays bass on this 
album] - to record a great solo album, 'Shinki Chen & His Friends' [Polydor, 
1971]. Musically, it hints at the bluesy heavy acid rock of his next band, 
Speed, Glue & Shinki [the bassist of that group also played on one track here], 
with some experimental bits here and there reminiscent of his tenure with 
Foodbrain; it is considered a classic album by fans of the genre. It's been 
reissued on CD by Hagakure.

Cosmos Factory - a progressive group formed in Nogoya, 1970. They moved to Tokyo 
the next year, acquired a manager [who was also a well-known rock critic] and 
got to work. The band are now perhaps best known for their first album, 'Cosmos 
Factory' (a.k.a. 'An Old Castle of Transylvania') [Columbia, 1973], which has 
long been the easiest to obtain on CD. In the Ultima Thule shop catalogue it's 
compared to Far East Family Band; I find this very misleading, as the only 
similarities I can hear are in their worst moments, ie. when they get into their 
cod-emotive sappy balladic crooning. Other than those bits, which take up a lot 
of space, it's a pretty good to great album, with heavier bits as well as spacey 
and slightly ominous progressive rock reminiscent of a blend of The Nice, 
Arzachel and early Pulsar, with cool use of the Moog. Anyway, this album brought 
them a lot of recognition and they began playing support for big western bands 
of the era such as Humble Pie and The Moody Blues, both then well past their 
prime and probably overshadowed by their unique support act!
The next album, 'A Journey With The Cosmos Factory' [Toshiba EMI/Express, 1975], 
reputedly enters weirder realms and was well-received. 'Blackhole' [Toshiba 
EMI/Express, 1976] is reputedly comparable to complex King Crimson in some ways. 
Around this time, the band also began making music for film soundtracks and TV 
themes. Their last album, 'Metal Reflection' [Toshiba EMI/Express, 1977], has a 
reputation for being more of a metal/hard rock thing, but it's actually a lot 
more varied than that. It's a pretty good album containing proggy hard rock, 
proggy metal, spacey prog, cosmic funk, a ballad, and almost omnipresent 
synthesisers. Some bits are reminiscent of some Magical Power Mako circa 'Jump' 
[see below]. The production is excellent. They also released a number of rare 
EP's - 'Fantastic Mirror' [1975], 'The Infinite Universe Of Our Mind' (a promo 
release) [1975] and 'Days In The Past' [1975]. The first album has been reissued 
on CD by Coca/Nippon Columbia; the next 3 by Toshiba EMI [possibly out of 
print].

Creation - this group [not to be confused with the UK group] was previously 
known as Blues Creation, and changed their name after their involvement with 
Carmen Maki. I'm not sure if they actually broke up and then got back together 
as Creation, or if they simply didn't record anything in the intervening years. 
Perhaps there's another explanation; or perhaps, the band is totally unrelated. 
I know nothing of their line-up, so I can't comment further yet. They released 
two albums that I know of - 'Creation' [EMI, 1975] and 'Pure Electric Soul' 
[EMI, 1977]. There is a CD release with both albums on one disc.

Datetenryu - an underground band formed in 1971. They apparently played a kind 
of psychedelic progressive rock with blues touches. Guitarist Hiroshi Narazaki 
was also in Brain Police [see above] and Les Rallizes Denudes [see below]. There 
are numerous CDs available covering recordings from 1971-1981, but I don't think 
they released any albums at the time. The only CDs I have titles for are 
'Datetenryu' [rec. 1971], 'Unto' [Belle Antique, 1978/1997?; out of print] and 
'Red Afternoon Blues' [Walking Press Records, 2004]. They broke up in 1983, but 
reformed again more recently.

Dema - I don't know anything about this group except that they released one 
album, 'Dema' [CBS, 1972], which has a pretty cool cover and has been described 
as being a psychedelic/progressive offering.

DK Mushroom & Son - this was a group featuring Filipino Joey Smith from Speed, 
Glue & Shinki [see below] and Juan De La Cruz Band with two Japanese musicians, 
playing drums, bass, guitar and Moog. They recorded an album's worth of material 
in 1972 that wasn't released at the time. It was supposed to be released some 
time recently as 'Hit' [Victor, 200?], according to Julian Cope, but I've been 
unable to find any trace of its existence except for his say-so. It reputedly 
features "slow, squelchy farts over Stoogean teen riffs", according to Cope! 
Smith joined the new lineup of Juan De La Cruz in the Philippines after this.

East - this band were based in the US, and reputedly played 'eastern influenced 
psych'. They recorded three discs that I know of - 'East' [Capitol, 1972], 
'Beautiful Morning' (an EP) [1972] and 'Coronado Moonbeams' (an EP) [1973].

Epos - I know nothing about this group except that they made at least one album, 
'Eternity?' [Polydor, 1972], which has been described as experimental.

Far East Family Band - a space rock group formed out of the ashes of Far Out 
[see below], with synth players Masanori Takahashi [a.k.a. Kitaro], Fumio 
Miyashita [also played guitar] and Akira Ito, all later to achieve some fame as 
solo artists [see below]. Their style was very much influenced by early/mid-70's 
Pink Floyd and perhaps Eloy, with a gentle [and almost proto-New Agey] oriental 
touch. In my opinion they're at their best when doing lengthy hypnotic space 
treks - their mellow crooning song style does not appeal to me much at all, and 
is in a similar vein to that of Far Out [see below]. Their first album was 'The 
Cave Down To The Earth' [Mu Land, 1974], which featured lots of mellow, spacious 
material and a fair bit of the crooning mentioned above. Other members on this 
album were Akira Fukakusa [bass], Hirohito Fukushima [guitar, vocals] and Shizuo 
Takasaki [drums].
By the time of 'Nipponjin - Join Our Mental Phase Sound' [Nippon 
Columbia/Vertigo, 1975] they were assisted in recording in the UK by Klaus 
Schulze. This was a better album than its predecessor, with some great lengthy 
space treks [especially 'Nipponjin', a reworked version of Far Out's 
'Nihonjin'], and partly contained reworked material from the first album.
Their real masterpiece [also made with Schulze's assistance, as well as that of 
Gunther Schickert] was 'Parallel World' [Columbia, 1976], a lengthy album with 
[in my opinion] only 1 partly-dud track, and lots of excellent space rock. The 
sound is very digitally-processed and cutting-edge for the time, the music 
ranging from barely audible spacey ambience to full-flight oriental space rock 
hinting at some Ozric Tentacles. The lengthy track covering side 2 is a totally 
spaced-out piece of mostly free-form synthesizer and computer music adventures. 
Their last album was 'Tenkujin' [All Ears Records, 1977], by which time they had 
recruited drummer Yujin Harada [ex-Samurai - see below], and Kitaro, Ito and 
Takasaki had left. I haven't heard it, but it is reputedly dominated by their 
earlier balladic style and is low on space music content. It was reissued some 
time ago by Coca. I've also seen another one listed, 'Tom Hatano' [1977], but I 
don't know anything further.

Far Out - a rather legendary psychedelic progressive group formed by Fumio 
Miyashita [Moog, acoustic guitar, harmonica, vocals], with Eiichi Sayu [guitar, 
Hammond], Kei Ishikawa [bass, electric sitar, vocals] and Manami Arai [drums]. 
They recorded only one album, 'Far Out (a.k.a. Nihonjin)' [Denon, 1973]. (I've 
seen a previous one listed in one place, 'Mio' [1972], but it might just be 
legend or a case of confusion.) It contains only 2 lengthy tracks ranging 
through a variety of moods. Starting out with slow echoed percussion and some 
painful oscillator twitching, the album quickly establishes a serious and 
exploratory intent, marred only by the occasional chunks of balladic crooning 
with 'mournful' Dave Gilmour-styled guitar licks which don't really agree with 
me [it's not the music I object to so much as the singing in these parts]. 
However it quickly moves into some slow and chunky ominous minor key heavy 
riffing with exotic guitar-cum-sitar stroking, hypnotic plodding Floydian space 
rock [think 'Careful With That Axe...'/'Set The Controls...' Japanese style; it also 
reminds me of some Flower Travellin' Band circa 'Satori']. After this, the group 
transformed into Far East Family Band [see above], pursuing a similar mode but 
with less rock and more spaciousness; Ishikawa later moved to the US and formed 
Chronicle [see below]. The Far Out album has been reissued on CD a number of 
times; the Buy Or Die reissue I own has an album's worth of bonus tracks that 
seem to be the Far East Family Band's first album, 'The Cave Down To The Earth'.

Flied Egg - a popular group who released 2 albums in their short lifespan - 'Dr. 
Siegel's Fried Egg Shooting Machine' [Vertigo, 1972] and 'Good Bye' [Vertigo, 
1972]. The debut featured a mix of accessible psych-pop-prog, hard-riffing heavy 
rock [with some moves directly lifted from early Uriah Heep], and early 
progressive tendencies. The last album was mostly live [from their farewell 
concert, apparently] and leant more towards their heavy rock side, notably 
influenced by Grand Funk circa 'Live Album' and numerous Black 
Sabbath-meets-Mountain wannabes, and including a couple of old Strawberry Path 
songs. The studio material was in a similar vein to the range of styles on their 
first album. Drummer Hiro Tsunoda had previously been in The Jacks, Foodbrain 
and Strawberry Path, and was also in Sadistic Mika Band at some point [see below 
for all]. Bassist Masayoshi Takanaka had previously been in Brush [see above].

[Yuya Uchida & The] Flowers - formed in the mid-60's, this septet played a lot 
in Tokyo and were reputedly a bit comparable to Big Brother & The Holding Co. 
They eventually released a sole album, 'Challenge!' [Columbia, 1969], which was 
perhaps most challenging in that it showed the whole band standing naked in a 
field on the front cover! It contained cover versions from the likes of Hendrix, 
Cream and Jefferson Airplane, and only one original composition [which is an 
excellent piece of west coast styled hard psych jamming]. Soon after this, 
Uchida left the group as a member, got rid of the other vocalists, formed the 
remainder of the group into the Flower Travellin' Band [see below] and became 
their producer.
 
Flower Travellin' Band - a legendary group formed out of the remnants of The 
Flowers. One early album seems to predate their debut proper, 'Kuni Kawachi & 
Flower Travellin' Band' [London, 1970], a collaboration with the keyboardist 
from Happenings Four. However, the Shadoks CD 'Love, Peace & Poetry - Japanese 
Psychedelic Music' states in the liner notes that the album was actually called 
'Kuni Kawachi & His Friends' and only features 2 members of the Flower 
Travellin' Band [the vocalist Akira 'Joe' Yamanaka and the guitarist Hideki 
Ishema, ex-Beavers]. I've heard some of this, and it's great oriental acid rock 
with some pop and early progressive touches. There's also a FTB CD available 
called 'Music Composed Mainly By Humans - Demonstration 1970' [Ain't Group 
Sounds], possibly a bootleg. It contains a near half-hour jam comprising 
freeform improvising and composed acid rock song sections, with great searing 
fuzz guitar leads [which appears to be the same as the Flowers contribution to 
the Toshi Ichiyanagi album - see below], as well as shorter tracks [which 
comprises much of the 'Kuni Kawachi' album dubbed from vinyl]. The personnel 
listed for this CD includes all the FTB members [Joe and Ishema, as well as 
drummer Joji 'George' Wada and bassist Jun Kosuki] as well as Kuni Kawachi on 
keyboards, also listing Yuya Uchida [ex-Flowers] as producer. This may collate 
the players on all tracks, so I'm still uncertain how many FTB members played on 
the Kuni Kawachi album. If anyone finds a track listing for the Kuni Kawachi 
album, please let me know so I can figure this out!
Their first album proper was 'Anywhere' [Philips, 1970], which had surely one of 
the coolest rock album covers ever - a gatefold photo of the band speeding down 
the road, naked, on motorcycles! Musically, it was good but only of passing 
interest, as it contains nearly all cover versions [such as '21st Century 
Schizoid Man', 'Black Sabbath' and 'House of the Rising Sun'], the only 
'original' compositions being a heavy progressive blues track and a very short 
harmonica piece. Perhaps for hardcore fans and completists only, although some 
people might want to own a copy just for the cover!
Their second album, 'Satori' [Atlantic, 1971], was a huge leap forward in 
strength and originality, and is arguably their masterpiece. It contains 
lengthy, and usually very loud, hypnotic psychedelic heavy progressive rock, 
with pummeling riffs and a great stoned, mystical feel. The next album, 'Made in 
Japan' [Atlantic, 1972], was better distributed internationally and even 
featured a sound-bite from a radio ad for a rock festival at which they played 
with numerous big names of the day, including ELP. Musically it was in a similar 
vein to the preceding album but more song-oriented and varied overall - an 
excellent album, and one friend even likes this one better than 'Satori'. Their 
last album, 'Make Up' [Atlantic, 1973] was a double LP, and had Yuya Uchida 
guesting on vocals. The album featured studio and live material, including a 
20-minute version of 'Hiroshima' from the previous album [with bass solo] and a 
live-in-studio version of 'Satori Part 2'. Of the studio material, some is in a 
heavy progressive vein [though leaning more towards an oriental King Crimson in 
parts than their older style], some is in a more commercial softer style. Some 
of the live material is rather throwaway, including a bluesy rock'n'roll number 
and a soppy ballad. Overall it's patchy but with plenty of good to great stuff - 
it could have been edited down to a single great LP in my opinion. All of these 
have been reissued on CD by Coca but they are generally expensive to import [the 
main reason I haven't heard the pricey double-CD reissue of 'Make Up']. There 
was also a single-CD version of 'Make Up' which left out some of the most 
desirable live material. Supposedly there are 2 more obscure albums, 'The Times' 
[1975; a compilation?] and 'Futarino Don' [1989], but I don't know what the 
story is with these.

Foodbrain - this legendary band released only one album, 'Social Gathering' 
[Polydor, 1970], the cover of which stands out due to the large elephant 
approaching the viewer. It contains a great, diverse mix of stuff delivered with 
over-the-top gusto, from stabbing high speed hard acid rock, to rollicking 
progressive psych jamming with crazed piano, to loud distorted bass experiments, 
etc. etc. Not a ballad in sight, very enjoyable from beginning to end. Julian 
Cope says it's legendary only because it's so rare, but I can't understand why 
he thinks it sucks, and everyone I've played it to liked it a lot. Guitarist 
Shinki Chen [ex-Golden Cups - see below, and Powerhouse (a covers band)] later 
went on to record a solo album and to form the group Speed, Glue & Shinki with 
Foodbrain bassist Masayoshi Kabe [a.k.a. M. Glue, also ex-Golden Cups]; 
keyboardist Hiro Yanagida [ex-Apryl Fool - see above] later went on to play with 
Love Live Life + One, Masahiko Sato & Sound Brakers and to a solo career [see 
below]; drummer Hiro Tsunoda [ex-Jacks - see below] went on to Strawberry Path, 
Flied Egg and Sadistic Mika Band [see below]. The album has been reissued on CD 
by P-Vine.

Friends - they made one album that I know of, 'Tetsu Yamauchi, Haruo Chikada 
(and others)' [Victor, 1971]. I'm not sure if Friends is the name of the album 
or the group. I believe it was a one-off studio project, but I have no idea what 
the music was like. Bassist Tetsu Yamauchi had previously been in Samurai [see 
below], and after this went on to the British groups Free and The Faces. This 
was reissued on CD by P-Vine, but is now out of print.

Fulukotofumi - this very obscure group recorded at least one album, 
'Fulukotofumi' [RCA, 1972], reputedly progressive.

Fumanzoku - this very obscure group recorded at least one album, 'Fumanzoku' 
[Private, 1974], reputedly containing psychedelic rock.

Fumio & Osamu - I can't find any info on these folks, but their album 
'Shinchugoko' [1972] was listed as a progressive album.

Gedo - I've also seen this spelled as Gedou. Their first album as far as I can 
tell was 'Gedo' [Show Boat, 1974], which is reputedly in a hard psychedelic rock 
style. It was reissued on CD by P-Vine [PCD-1579] with 4 bonus tracks, but is 
now out of print. There was also a Showboat limited edition reissue in paper 
sleeves which may still be available. There seem to be numerous other Gedo 
albums - 'Just Gedo' [year?; reiss. by Showboat], 'In Sounds of Hawaii Studios' 
[year?; reiss. by Showboat], 'Power Cut' [year?; reiss. by Chop], 'Mooning', 'I 
Can Shout, I Can Fight' and others with non-English titles.

Golden Cups - a garage psych band which at one point contained future Foodbrain 
and Speed, Glue & Shinki members Shinki Chen & Masayoshi Kabe. Their debut was 
'Album' [Capitol, 1968], which featured a great deal of cover versions. This was 
followed by 'Album No. 2' [Capitol, 1968], 'Album No. 3 - Blues Message' 
[Capitol, 1969] and 'Recital' [Capitol, 1969]. 'Super Live Session' [Capitol, 
1969] was mostly hard bluesy garage rock with an obvious Cream influence and a 
loose jazziness; it's reasonably good, with extended jamming, but nothing really 
original or different. Most tracks are covers. It's been reissued on CD by 
EMI/Capitol Japan. Over the last few albums - 'All About' [Capitol, 1970], 'Live 
Album' [Capitol, 1971] and 'Return of the Golden Cups Volume 8' [Capitol, 1971] 
- the band reputedly got a little more progressive and psychedelic.

Goulois Asterix - a very obscure group who made at least one album, 'Inochi' 
[Tengu, 1970], which has been described as 'progressive underground'.

Gypsy Blood - a very obscure group who reputedly played a kind of psychedelic 
rock. They released two albums that I know of, 'Blue Roses For the Gypsy - in 
Wishbone' [Private pressing, 1971] and 'Rokko Oroshi' (also seen listed as 
'Rokkourishi') [Vertigo, 1971]. The latter was reissued on CD by P-Vine in 1998, 
with 4 bonus tracks, but is now out of print.

Keiji Haino - a seemingly permanently black-clad guitarist/vocalist/harmonica 
player who was in a late-60's Doors covers group before forming Lost Aaraaff 
[see below]. Around this time he befriended the similarly black-clad Mizutani 
Takashi of Les Rallizes Denudes [see below]. He released an early solo album, 
'Ama No Gawa' ('Milky Way') [label? 1973], reputedly containing droney 
electronic music which Alan Cummings described as "an enduring favourite for its 
evocative, spiritually charged atmosphere". It's been reissued on CD by 
Mom'N'Dad. Haino went on to form Fushitsusha [see below] and release numerous 
other solo albums in various styles - too much to go into here, and much of it 
is probably of limited interest to readers of this article.

Happenings Four - a pretty light and commercial psych-pop group, who released 
their debut 'Touemi Ningen' [Capitol, 1968], which has been compared to early 
Procol Harum. The next was obviously Beatles-influenced - 'Magical Happenings 
Tour' [Capitol, 1968]. The cover had a slightly amusing picture of the 
be-costumed band, with hair up in erect top-knots, laid into a ¥10,000 bill. 
I've only heard a couple of tracks from it, which are far inferior to, and quite 
unlike, the Beatles. As Happenings Four + 1 they released another album, 'The 
Long Trip' [Capitol, 1971], which is reputedly much more on the early 
progressive side of things. Keyboardist Kuni Kawachi would go on to work with 
Tenjo Sajiki, J.A. Caesar and Flower Travellin' Band [see above & below].

Happy End - formed in 1969; a band that blended west coast US psychedelic rock 
styles with modern Japanese folk and soft progressive rock. They featured 
drummer Takashi Matsumoto and bassisst Haruomi Hosono [see below], both ex-Apryl 
Fool [see above]. They released a few albums that I know of, none of which I've 
heard - 'Happy End' (a.k.a. Yudemen) [URC, 1970], 'Kaze Machi Roman' ('Windy 
Roman City') [1971], 'Happy End' [King, 1973 - different to the first album, and 
produced by Van Dyke Parks] and 'Live Happy End' [1974, but rec. 1972 - I 
presume a posthumous release]. There have also been numerous compilations, and 
stuff from an 80's reformation. Hosono went on to a solo career of sorts, and 
Yellow Magic Orchestra [see below].

Harumi - 'Harumi' [Verve Forecast, 1968] was a 2-LP set. Harumi was a Japanese 
guy residing in the US where he recorded and released this. It's reputedly 
'psych with many native instruments' and vocals in both Japanese and English. 
The first LP is apparently more poppy, but the second contains only a lengthy 
track per side, reputedly "heavily introverted mystical Eastern hippie rambling" 
according to Fuzz, Acid & Flowers.

The Helpful Soul - by the look of the cover of their album 'A Thousand & One 
Night' [Victor, 1969] and the vague description 'instrumental - psychedelic' 
from Hans Pokora, I would guess it's some kind of possibly cheesy orient-tinged 
psych-jazz soundtrack or exploitation album. However they did at least one other 
album, 'First Album' [label? 196?], which reputedly contains hard bluesy acid 
rock, with some Cream and Hendrix covers. This has been reissued on both LP and 
CD by Black Rose.

Hill Andon - an obscure psychedelic folk group who made at least one album, 
'Page One' [Fish, 1975].

Toshi Ichiyanagi - an avant-garde composer who composed, and performed [some 
of], the music in 1969 for 'Opera From the Works of Tadanori Yokoo' [The End, 
1970], a double-LP [with picture discs, no less!]. It's a very varied and 
experimental album, featuring lots of avant-garde collage work and musique 
concrete that's hard to describe, odd Japanese theatre and pop, Japanese 
ballads, and a side-and-a-bit of The Flowers [when they were about to become 
Flower Travellin' Band - see above] jamming in a free and freaked style. This 
rare album has recently been reissued on Bridge as a deluxe 4-CD set [1 LP side 
per CD - no bonus material - especially irritating because it could all have 
fitted on one CD], complete with postcards of Yokoo's paintings, a small 
Japanese-text hardcover book of interviews and other information, and prints of 
Ichiyanagi from the era of the recording, all in a lavish hard box designed by 
Yokoo. Unfortunately the CD's have been taken directly from vinyl [not mint 
either, by the sound of it] and have not been cleaned up. And, it's terribly 
expensive - all of these things adding up to the impression that this is only a 
worthwhile purchase if you're a fanatical collector, who can read Japanese and 
has money to burn. Fortunately I was able to hear it due to knowing someone who 
fits that description! In Hans Pokora's '4001 Record Collector Dreams', this 
album is listed as by Flowers & Others.
Ichiyanagi later collaborated with Takehisa Kosugi [see below], but I have no 
idea what he did musically apart from that. 

Yasuo Inada - I don't know anything about this person or their music, but 
'Kankaku-Shiko' [1974] was listed as being progressive rock of some kind.

The Jacks - this well-known group had their roots in a folk trio formed in 1966, 
Nightingale. By 1967 this had stabilized into a 4-piece group called The Jacks. 
They provided some music for an avant garde theatre troupe before landing a 
record deal with Takt. They put out 2 singles in 1968, which have more recently 
been reissued together as an EP - 'Karappo No Sekai: Takt Days' [Coca/Nippon 
Columbia]. I haven't heard this but the music is reputedly pretty good, in a 
mournful, meditative and psychedelic mode. One song from this ['Marianne', also 
on the debut album] was much later covered by Painkiller as well as Fushitsusha.
After this came their debut album, 'Vacant World' [Toshiba/Express, 1968]. This 
is often spoken of as a great uniquely Japanese psych album, but to me much of 
it still sounds like a slightly unhinged Japanese take on early west coast US 
psych, in particular Quicksilver Messenger Service. I find the vocals a bit 
irritating in places, but a fair bit of the music is quite good, though I'd 
hesitate to say great. The highlight is probably the first track, 'Marianne'. 
After this album guitarist Haruo Mizuhashi left. With the drummer switching to 
other instruments, and drummer Hiro Tsunoda joining, the band continued to 
record one last album, 'Super Session' [Toshiba, 1969], which is reputedly not 
as good as their earlier work. There's also a posthumous release, 'Live '68' 
[H.A.F., 1973] which I also haven't heard. Tsunoda went on to Foodbrain, 
Strawberry Path, Flied Egg and Sadistic Mika Band [see above and below].

Jun Kamikubo - an obscure musician who released one record in small quantity, 
'Nothingness' [Express, 1972]. It's a pretty good album of bluesy acid rock with 
good guitar playing, with a few tracks featuring great heavy riffing. The album 
has been reissued on LP by Shadoks, and more recently on CD by Toshiba-EMI.

Kuni Kawachi - see Flowers and Flower Travellin' Band, above.

Nagira Kenichi - 'Machi no Kaze' [1974] reputedly contains melodic west 
coast-styled psychedelic rock, comparable to early Happy End [see above]. This 
album has been reissued on CD by Prime Direction.

Takehisa Kosugi - Kosugi might be considered the father of what some would call 
'Japanese krautrock'. He was early on associated with the Fluxus experimental 
music movement, and in 1958 formed Group Ongaku, with Shukou Mizuno and some 
members of Tokyo University's Musicology Programme. The group reputedly made 
full-on musique concrete, and recorded an album, 'Music Of Group Ongaku' [1960]. 
The group lasted until 1969, with Kosugi making music for the Expo '70 at Osaka 
before forming Taj Mahal Travellers [see below], for which he is perhaps best 
known. After the demise of TMT [or perhaps during it], he resumed a solo career, 
beginning with 'Catch Wave' [CBS, 1975, but recorded 1974]. This was a wonderful 
album, in a similar vein to Taj Mahal Travellers, but more stripped-back and 
mesmerizing. It featured 2 lengthy tracks using heavily electronically-treated 
electric violin and voice. Some people prefer this album to TMT, perhaps due to 
the presence of less jarring moments! This was followed by the collaboration 
'Improvisation (with Michael Ranta and Toshi Ichiyanagi)' [1975], featuring 
ring-modulated violin and bass piano alongside percussion. His 'Violin Solo 1980 
N.Y.C.' [P-Vine, 1998] is reputedly rather unpleasant listening. Another 
collaboration album exists, 'Distant Voices' (with Steve Lacy and Yuji 
Takahashi) [Columbia, 1981], which I know nothing about. He made numerous 
obscure commissioned solo works, including 'S.E. Wave/E.W. Song' [1976], 
'Interspersion' [1979], 'Cycles' [1981], 'Spacings' [1984], 'Assemblage' [1986], 
'Rhapsody' [1987] and 'Spectra' [1989]. I don't know if any of these have been 
released separately as albums. There is also the album 'Violin Improvisations: 
New York, September 1989' [Lovely Music, 1990]. As far as I know, he is still 
performing and innovating.

Lost Aaraaff - a free-jazz-rock group formed in the early 70's by Keiji Haino, 
later to record solo albums [see above for one of them] and form Fushitsusha 
[see below]. No albums released at the time that I know of. Some 1971 recordings 
have been issued as 'Lost Aaraaff' [PSF, 1991], containing 3 apparently Albert 
Ayler-influenced 'improvised acid jams' featuring piano, drums, vocals and what 
sounds like occasional cello. It's pretty demented stuff; at times they sound 
like no-talents attempting free jazz, at other times they get some really 
interesting things going, though not easy to describe. There is also the 1971 
live 'Concert From the Genyasai Festival' [Purple Trap, 1995], presumably in a 
similar vein.

Love Live Life + One - a great group who recorded only one album that I know of 
for certain, 'Love Will Make A Better You' [King, 1971]. As well as some searing 
fuzzed-out psych rockers and more orchestrated progressive psych-pop, the 
highlight of the album is the side-long piece 'The Question Mark'. This begins 
as a kind of free-form freakout, developing into manic psychedelic/progressive 
jazzy jamming, with proficient playing from all musicians. Guitarist Kimio 
Mizutani shortly after went on to play on the People album and record an 
excellent solo album [see below for both]. Keyboardist Hiro Yanagida [previously 
with Apryl Fool & Foodbrain - see above] resumed his solo career [see below]. 
There are reputedly two more Love Live Life albums [without the '+ One'], '10 
Chapters of Murder' aka 'Satsujin Jissho' [1974] and 'Rock in Bacharach' [1975].

The M - an obscure band whom, for all I know, were quite well-known in Japan. 
Their first album, 'M' [MCA, 1972], reputedly contained progressive rock of some 
kind. I'm yet to hear a copy, but judging by the parts of the track-listing 
which are in English [thanks to the internet], it seems they did a fair few 
cover versions. The album has been reissued on CD by Hagakure. There is also a 
CD available called '1971 Live' [Hagakure], which may not have been released 
until recently.

Magical Power Mako - real name Makoto Kurita, he made his first album aged 18 - 
'Magical Power' a.k.a. 'Polydor ¥2,200' [Polydor, 1973]. An extraordinary debut, 
it featured highly original experimental music with psychedelic rock, folk and 
traditional Japanese music elements, a patchwork comparable in parts to Faust 
and Franco Battiato. This was followed up by the aptly-titled 'Super Record' 
[Polydor, 1975], a more exotic and esoteric album, and 'Jump' [Polydor, 1977], 
featuring more rock elements in a weird avant-psychedelic mish-mash of styles. 
Some of it sounds like what The Boredoms [see below] would be doing nearly 20 
years later! All of these have been reissued on CD a few times, but I have been 
told older versions were rather shoddily mastered and didn't sound that great; 
the currently available Hagakure reissues, however, have great sound.
Fairly recently, recordings largely pre-dating the debut have been issued as a 
5-CD set by MIO, 'Hapmoniym 1972-1975'. In my opinion this could have been 
edited down to a more digestible 2- or 3-CD set, though completists would 
disagree. While a lot of it is quite good, some tracks go on for too long 
without really going anywhere and are begging for a chop. Also, each CD is 
presented as containing one long track, whereas in reality they each consist of 
shorter tracks with clear gaps between them. The indexing for each disc shows 
more than one track, but the first one/s are simply short tracks of silence, so 
that all the music on each CD is actually only playable as a single very long 
track. Also, in the gaps between pieces there are loud click defects which could 
easily have been removed if MIO had paid more attention to this project. These 
were definitely not a CD player fault, but a fault somewhere in the production 
or manufacturing process. To make this set enjoyable I had to make CD-R copies 
with the pieces cut up into the shorter tracks they should be, and with the 
clicks cut out. It's a shame and a mystery, as other MIO reissues I have 
encountered are done with a lot more care.
Mako went on to release numerous other albums, such as 'Welcome to Earth' [East 
World, 1979], 'Music From Heaven' [Marquee Moon, 1981], 'Magical Computer Music' 
[1985], 'Happy Earth' [1993], 'Next Millennium Vibrations' [1993], 'Blue Dot' 
[1994], 'Trance Resonance' [1994], 'Cosmo Vision' [1994], 'Human! Get Out From 
the Earth Quickly' [1995], 'Kero Jetter No. 1' [1995], 'Lo Pop Diamonds' [1996], 
'No Government After Revolution' [1997], 'Erotic Elohim' [1998], 'Magic' [1998] 
and 'Cozmo Grosso' [2004]. I haven't heard any of these except 'Music From 
Heaven', but at least most of them are reputedly more on the pop side of things. 
'Music From Heaven' is a delightful psychedelic trip, sometimes hinting at Achim 
Reichel and Lula Cortes e ze Ramalho, as well as Mako's own earlier work. For 
some reason the 1997 CD reissue on Atavistic features the whole album playable 
only as one long track, whereas the track listing indicates many shorter tracks.

Carmen Maki - a vocalist who had previously worked with Blues Creation for one 
album [see above]. She further dabbled in vaguely progressive territory with the 
group Oz, beginning with 'Carmen Maki & Oz' [1975], which has been reissued on 
CD by Hagakure. Overall it's a pretty commercial affair, but with a few good 
heavy progressive moments. Anyway, I'm not a big fan of vocalists as band 
leaders unless they have something really great to offer, which Maki doesn't in 
my opinion. She's a good enough singer, but has a style that seems to demand a 
fairly commercial musical leaning. Further albums included 'Live' [year?], 
reputedly veering between folky stuff and heavier rock; 'Tozasareta Mati' 
[1976]; 'III' [1977]; 'Last Live' [1977]; and 'Nightstalker' [1979]. Carmen 
Maki's 5X formed in 1981 with guitarist George Azuma from her late-70's band, 
Laff. 5X apparently played some kind of melodic metal, and released these albums 
- 'Human Target', 'Live X' and 'Carmen Maki's 5X' [Eastworld, 1983]. She 
recently got together with Oz again for a live album, 'One Night Legend' [1997].

Martha - an obscure psychedelic group who released one album, 'Martha' [Private 
pressing, 1971].

OD (Maru Sankaku Shikaku) - an underground performance group from Tokyo, formed 
by Sakuro 'Kant' Watanabe, existing from 1970-73. The group featured members of 
Murahachibu [see below] and Friction. They self-produced a self-titled 3-LP 
album set [197?], of which I believe only a few acetates ever saw the light of 
day - or alternately, they released 5 albums in 1973, depending on who you 
believe. Their recordings have been reissued as a 3-CD set by Captain Trip, and 
reputedly sound like bands such as Third Ear Band and Taj Mahal Travellers [see 
below], though more chaotic. Julian Cope has described it as "indoor stoned 
parrot torture cutlery & crockery grooves"!? Much later, having reformed, they 
collaborated with Tokyo heavy psych group Marble Sheep [see below], for the 
album 'Marble Sheep Meets OD' [Captain Trip, 2003], the music of which is 
described on the Captain Trip website as 'spacy trip sessions'.

Melting Glass Box (Tokedashita Garasubako) - formed from ex-members of The 
Jacks, Blues Creation and Apryl Fool [see above], they released one album of 
psychedelic rock, 'Melting Glass Box' [URG, 1971]. Based on the little I've 
heard it's a tad commercial and poppy but also a bit weird in places.

K. Miho & Jazz Eleven - K. Miho's full name was Kei Miho. His combo released one 
album that I know of, 'Kokezaru Kumikyoku' [MCA/Nippon Victor, 1971], which 
features Masahiko Satoh [see below] on electric piano. The album is reputedly 
progressive jazz rock of some kind.

Kan Mikami - an underground radical protest folk singer/shouter and actor who 
was involved in the Tenjo Sajiki and Tokyo Kid Brothers troupes [see below], and 
by extension, with J.A. Caesar [see above]. His first album, 'Mikami Kan No 
Sekai' ('The World of Kan Mikami') [label? 1971] apparently contained a kind of 
folk rock with intense presence and dark, harrowing, 'real' lyrical subject 
matter. I'm not sure if there were any albums between this and the next one I'm 
aware of, 'BANG!' [label? 1974]. It features Yosuke Yamashita's group and other 
jazz musicians as his backing, and is reputedly a weirder, more progressive 
affair, mainly for the title track. This has been described as "a bewildering 
psychedelic collage of free jazz blasts, musique concrete, tapes and Mikami's 
unique voice, silky and caressing one moment, soaring and screaming in agony the 
next".
Mikami apparently didn't do much again until the late 80's, collaborating with 
Keiji Haino [see above] of Fushitsusha [see below] for the group Vajra.

Minami Masato - a 'folk rock star' somewhat well known in Japan. His first album 
was released in 1969, though I have no details for it. His best known album, 
'Kaikisen' [label? 1971], is referred to on the Captain Trip web-site as "the 
monumental work of Japanese rock in 1971". I've been unable to find any more 
information except that he recently got busted for marijuana possession!

Kimio Mizutani - a renowned electric guitarist who, along with Hiro Yanagida 
[see below], played in lots of classic ensembles in the late 60's/early 70's - 
such as Love Live Life + One, People, Masahiko Satoh & Sound Brakers, and Hiro 
Yanagida's solo album backings. He recorded one great solo album, 'A Path 
Through Haze' [Polydor, 1971], which contains a variety of unique styles broadly 
akin to some of the music on the other albums he played on around the same time. 
That is, Japanese-tinged progressive psych with jazzy touches and plenty of 
variety and evocative moods. The album also featured keyboardist Masahiko Satoh 
[see below]. This has been reissued on both CD and LP.

Mops - this was one of Japan's best-known garage-beat-psych groups, playing [at 
least at first] a fairly mainstream kind of Stones/Yardbirds-inspired music on 
their first couple of albums - 'Psychedelic Sounds' [Victor, 1968] and 
'Rock'n'Roll '70' [Liberty, 1970]. By 'Iijanaika' [Liberty, 1971] they had 
apparently gained more of a wild progressive hard psych edge, later reverting to 
bluesy garage rock on 'Live' [Liberty, 1971] and 'Rain' [Liberty, 1972].

Tokihiko Morishita - a keyboardist who made some obscure albums. The only ones 
I'm aware of are 'Toccata' [Dharma, 1972], reputedly containing progressive 
rock, and 'Yokai Gensou - Mizuki Shigeru' [label? 1978]. I'm not sure if this 
2nd one is the title itself or if these are people with whom Morishita 
collaborated to make the album. It reputedly contains 'abstract electronic 
soundscapes'. It was reissued by P-Vine on CD in 1999, but is now out of print. 
Morishita later played keyboards with Geinoh Yamashirogumi [see below] on the 
Akira soundtrack.

Murahachibu ('Ostracism') - formed by guitarist Fujio Yamaguchi [ex-Dynamites, 
Les Rallizes Denudes] and vocalist Kazushi Shibata [ex-Les Rallizes Denudes]. 
They only released one album, 'Live' [Elec, 1973], which was recorded at a gig 
at Kyoto University. The music is fairly basic hard-ish garagey rock and 
rock'n'roll, sometimes a bit bluesy and mostly sounding a lot like the Rolling 
Stones but with less finesse. Even the posturing of the singer on the 
live-on-stage cover photos betrays an obvious Jagger fixation! Later, previously 
unreleased material was issued on CD - 'Underground Tapes - 1972' [Hagakure], 
'Underground Tapes - 1973' [Hagakure] and 'Underground Tapes - 1978' [Hagakure].

Niningashi - an obscure group who released at least one album of folk rock, 
'Heavy Way' [Yes, 1974], which might be of interest.

Oz Days - 'Live' [Oz, 1973]. A very rare 2-LP set not by a group called Oz Days, 
but compiling performances at the 'Oz live space'. It featured a side each for 4 
different artists - Taj Mahal Travellers [as a trio], Les Rallizes Denudes [see 
below], Acid Seven and Minami Masato [see above].

People - I'm not sure if these guys actually existed as a performing band, or if 
they were only a studio super-session project. Guitarist Kimio Mizutani had 
previously [or simultaneously, or shortly after?] played with Love Live Life + 
One [see above] and Masahiko Satoh's Sound Brakers [see below]. At any rate, 
their sole album, the concept piece 'Ceremony - Buddha Meet Rock' [Teichiku, 
1971], is an absolute classic. The album came with extensive liner notes 
elaborating on the intended meaning for each track - the whole album flowing 
more or less as a conceptual whole. As the title would suggest, it was an 
attempt to fuse a Buddhist-influenced spiritual vibe into an innovative oriental 
form of hypnotic psychedelic progressive rock. It's all quite unique and doesn't 
sound like any preceding groups that I'm aware of, though some bits are like a 
much less-heavy Flower Travellin' Band circa 'Satori'. It's a bit jazzy in 
places, hinting at some of Stomu Yamash'ta's work with Come to the Edge [see 
below]. There's lots of nice fuzz guitar leads and overall, a very sanctified 
vibe that makes this a deep but groovy experience. The album has been reissued 
on both CD and LP. Following this [or around the same time], Mizutani recorded 
his equally great solo album [see above].

Pyg! - these guys were reputedly some kind of 'progressive' band, which could 
mean almost anything. The only album that I know of had a distinctive cartoon of 
a pig on the front - 'Original First Album' [Polydor, 1972]. It was reissued on 
CD some years back [not sure who by] and may be out of print now - at least, I'm 
finding it very hard to locate a copy for sale! The original LP is now very 
expensive when encountered. All I have to go by is some singles tracks on a 
Japanese Polydor compilation I mistakenly ordered from P-Vine thinking it was 
the Pyg album. Judging by these, Pyg seemed to lean towards slightly hard, 
commercial rock with perhaps slight progressive and freakbeat touches - but, 
singles are always tricky to gauge a band from, as by their very nature they are 
usually the most commercial things a band ever does.

Les Rallizes Dénudés [Hadaka No Rallizes] - formed in Kyoto, 1967 by the 
black-clad Mizutani Takashi, partly as a 'fuck you' reaction against the 'Group 
Sounds' movement. The group name apparently means 'Fucked Up and Naked' 
according to some, which well describes the music! However no-one seems to be 
able to agree on a correct translation. Early on they hooked up with the Kyoto 
'radical avant-garde theatre group' Gendai Gekijo, providing musical backing for 
their performances. The band's music stayed essentially similar over the years - 
high volume, raw, lo-fi rock stretched out into repetitive guitar 
feedback/psychedelic noise-fests, with hints of noisy Velvet Underground, Pärson 
Sound, and even Acid Mothers Temple without all the electronics. Some of the 
studio recordings, however, sound much tamer. Since 1971, Takashi has chosen a 
route of total obscurity, shunning official recordings, interviews, publicity 
etc. As a result of this, I'm not sure which releases were official and which 
were bootlegs from live gigs or sneaked out of Takashi's tape collection. These 
are the albums that have been released, according to Julian Cope - '67-69 Studio 
et Live' [Sixe, 1969], a mix of hideous noisy 'free rock', crappy beat-psych and 
good beat-psych; 'Mizutani' [1973]; 'Live 1973' [1973; repackaged and reissued 
in 2001 as 'Field of Artificial Flowers']; 'Wild Party' [1975]; the double-LP 
''77 Live' [1977; repackaged and reissued as 2-LP 'Fucked Up and Naked', 2-CD 
'Le 12 Mars 1977 à Tachikawa']; the similar 'Heavier Than A Death In The Family' 
[Ain't Group Sounds, 1995]; and 'Five Colour Coded CDs' [1999]. Apart from 
'67-69 Studio et Live', I've only heard ''77 Live', and judging from that I 
think these guys take a while to get things moving beyond repetitive and [very] 
rudimentary 60's rock/pop structures [poorly played, perhaps on purpose?], but 
once they get things rolling they sound like a force to be reckoned with! For 
example, on the first disc I can do without the first and last tracks, but the 
middle two are wicked indeed. By the way, don't expect clean sound on the CD 
reissue, it is after all a bootleg taken from a vinyl bootleg of a presumably 
bootlegged live recording, but the fucked-up sound suits the kind of music they 
play, so it doesn't really matter in the end.

Ranmadou - I don't know anything about these guys. I saw a recommendation by 
Alan Cummings on the internet, but he didn't say anything about their music, and 
on one of their album covers they look like they could be the Japanese 
equivalent of The Faces, so I'm a bit scared to buy it to find out! They 
released 2 albums that I know of, '1971 Summer' [URC, 1971] and 'Ranmadou' 
[Polydor, 1972]. The first is reputedly blues rock, the second psychedelic rock. 
Both have been reissued on CD.

Rotten Peach - an obscure folk rock group who released at least one album, 
'Rotten Peach' [TPL, 1975].

Sadistic Mika Band - one of the better known Japanese bands of the era, largely 
due to international distribution. I'm yet to hear any of their records, as 
shameful as that may seem! Their first album, 'Sadistic Mika Band' [1973], was 
reputedly 'uncompromising heavy rock with a pervasive Oriental underlay'. An NME 
review at the time said that it made "Iggy and the Stooges sound like the 
Amadeus String Quartet"! However I've also seen reviews saying that much of it 
is "straight-ahead pop with country, reggae and rock'n'roll influences here and 
there." I'm not sure if this is a confusion with a later album. Their next album 
was made with UK producer Chris Thomas - 'Black Ship' [1974], reputedly another 
great album but with more progressive stuff amidst the pop. The only other 
albums I'm aware of [not including reformations] are 'Hot! Menu' [1975], which 
more suits the NME description from above, and 'Mika Band Live in London' 
[1976].

Hideakira Sakurai - a multi-instrumentalist and composer who had worked with 
Stomu Yamash'ta & The Horizon [see below]. Sakurai is perhaps best known for 
creating the soundtrack music for many of the cult classic Lone Wolf and 
Cub/Baby Cart films [Kozure Ookami] based on the earlier mangas. Kunihiko Murai 
was responsible for those not done by Sakurai. Both have also worked on other 
soundtracks. I'm not sure who actually played the music with Sakurai - I'd be 
surprised if he played everything. The soundtracks I've heard range from 
evocative Japanese music to various kinds of progressive rock, electronic music 
and other weird sounds. I suppose Sakurai was to the Lone Wolf and Cub films 
what Goblin were to the films of Dario Argento! There is at least one 
compilation CD available, 'The Best Of Lone Wolf and Cub' [La La Land, 2004].

Samurai - a Japanese group led by vocalist/flautist Miki Curtis. They went to 
Europe in late 1967, picking up some European members and thus becoming 
half-Japanese. In London they recorded a single and their debut album, the 
double-LP [so I'm told] 'Samurai' a.k.a. 'Miki Curtis & Samurai' [German 
Metronome, 1970], as well as a single only released in Italy. They should not be 
confused with the UK group of the same name, who released a self-titled LP on 
Greenwich in 1971.
Their second album, 'Green Tea' [Philips, 1970], is as far as I can tell simply 
a single-LP repackaging of the debut only released in Japan, to where the band 
had returned. The last album that I know of is 'Kappa' [Philips, 1971]. The band 
played a varied kind of psychedelic progressive rock, occasionally a bit 
hard-rocking, with jazzy and exotic Asian touches. They've been compared by 
Vernon Joyson to Andwella's Dream and early Traffic. The music on their first 
album [the only one I've heard] is fairly accessible, but without at all 
sacrificing quality or creativity. On 'Kappa' they reputedly played lengthier 
tracks with more of a heavy progressive leaning. 'Samurai'/'Green Tea' [single 
LP version] was reissued on CD by P-Vine. The bass player, Tetsu Yamauchi, was 
later in Friends [see above], Free and The Faces, as well as pursuing a brief 
solo career. Drummer Yujin Harada was later in the last incarnation of Far East 
Family Band [see above]. Graham Smith, credited on harmonica on the first 2 
albums, is probably the same person who later played violin in String Driven 
Thing and Van Der Graaf.

Masahiko Satoh & Sound Brakers - Satoh is a composer/arranger/keyboardist from 
Tokyo. After leaving music school he played in various jazz combos in Japan [and 
later, Europe and the US], and recorded his first album as the Masahiko Satoh 
Trio, 'Palladium' [Express/Toshiba, 1969], which won the Japan Jazz Award. In 
1970 and 1972 he also won awards of excellence for two compositions. Numerous 
jazz albums followed, including one with Jean-Luc Ponty, one with Wolfgang 
Dauner and some with Stomu Yamash'ta [see below], but Satoh is perhaps best 
known amongst Japanese progressive collectors for the excellent album as 
Masahiko Satoh & Sound Brakers, 'Amalgamation' aka 'Kokotsu no Showa Genroku' 
[Liberty/Toshiba, 1971], with Hiro Yanagida [see below; ex-Apryl Fool, 
Foodbrain] and Kimio Mizutani [see above; around the same time also playing with 
Love Live Life + One and People]. I've only heard one track, which is crazy 
psych-jazz rock jamming. Satoh also played keyboards and Moog on Mizutani's solo 
album. Satoh's following album consisted of electronic music, composed and 
performed on synthesizer - 'Switched On East/Electronic Japan' [Columbia, 1971]; 
I presume it's Japanese traditional music played on Moog!
Satoh has continued his career in jazz and composing/arranging to the present 
day, and formed his own label BAJ Records in 1997.

Smoky Medicine - a psychedelic group formed by teen guitarist Char; they were 
apparently very popular in the underground scene but never got to record 
anything. Char went on to bigger local success as a solo musician, before 
temporarily retiring from music near the end of the 70's. In 1979 he re-emerged 
with a trio, JL&C, apparently recapturing a focus on musical content over 
commercial appeal. In 1982 they changed their name to Pink Cloud and went on to 
release numerous albums, as well as Char's solo albums. Char later formed 
another band, Psychedelix, in 1991; they went on to release several albums as 
well. I have no idea what any of the music is like!

Speed, Glue & Shinki - guitarist Shinki Chen had previously been in Foodbrain 
and recorded a solo album [see above]; bassist M. Glue [Masayoshi Kabe] had 
previously been in Foodbrain; drummer and vocalist Joey 'Pepe' Smith was a 
Filipino Vietnam veteran with a large speed habit! They recorded two great 
albums, 'Eve' [Atlantic, 1971] and the 2-LP 'Speed, Glue & Shinki' [Atlantic, 
1972]. The main musical style on both albums is a mix of bluesy, rough & ready 
heavy rock and psych/acid rock, ballads, and occasional experimental blasts. 
Some people think these guys were pretty unique and amazing; in my opinion 
they're pretty good overall but there's a lot of stuff like this from the same 
period the world over. I suspect some people get a bit 'wowed' by the open drug 
references and kind of punky attitude, and let their judgement become clouded 
when rating this band so highly over others. What sets the second album apart 
from the first is that much of the last quarter of it consisted of fairly 
minimal and rudimentary synthesizer explorations from Smith, who had apparently 
just bought a synth and wanted to try it out on record. They were also joined on 
this album by Philippine guitarist Mike Hanopol, from Juan De La Cruz Band and 
later a solo artist. Not sure what happened to Chen and Glue afterwards, though 
Joey Smith recorded with DK Mushroom & Son [see above] and went on to the second 
line-up of Juan De La Cruz in the Philippines. Hanopol went with Smith to Juan 
de la Cruz at the same time, and with them they carried some of the flavour of 
Speed Glue & Shinki to that revamped group. Hanopol also released some solo 
albums later on.

Strawberry Path - these guys made only one album that I'm aware of, 'When the 
Raven Has Come To The Earth' [Philips, 1971]. It's a great slab of bluesy heavy 
psychedelic rock in a slight early progressive vein. Some of it sounds a bit 
like funky Hendrix as filtered through New Zealand's Human Instinct. Drummer 
Hiro Tsunoda was previously in The Jacks and Foodbrain, and went on to Flied Egg 
and Sadistic Mika Band [see above]. The album has been reissued on CD by 
Hagakure. There's also a CD of demo recordings, 'Smokin' Drug, Demo & Hotcake' 
[Ain't Group Sounds], which I haven't heard.

Taj Mahal Travellers - an experimental group formed in 1969 by Takehisha Kosugi 
[see above]. They were a large combo playing free-form organic electro-acoustic 
improvisations, using diverse instrumentation such as electric violin, electric 
double bass, harmonica, percussion, timpani, vibraphone, castanet, trumpet, bass 
tuba, electronics, voice and 'suntool'. All of this was heavily treated with 
effects during live performances by Kinji Hayashi. They excelled in creating 
oozing, and sometimes jarring, trippy soundscapes with a deep mystical Japanese 
feel, a step on from groups such as AMM, Anima, Kluster, Dream Syndicate and 
perhaps some of the more spacious early Tangerine Dream [circa Zeit & Atem]. 
They performed anywhere they could, from coffee houses and art galleries to 
beaches and other outdoor settings, providing electricity was available. Their 
first official album was the excellent 'July 15, 1972' [CBS Japan, 1972], 
featuring 3 lengthy excerpts from the one performance; it was recorded in Tokyo 
on a stopover in the midst of a tour of Europe and England. This has been 
reissued on CD by Showboat. Their second and final album, 'August 1974' [CBS 
Japan, 1975] was a double LP set recorded in the studio, featuring a lengthy 
track per side. It was less varied and perhaps slightly more jarring in parts 
than the debut, but still a fine album. It's been reissued as a 2-CD set by 
P-Vine. By late 1975 the group had broken up, with Kosugi resuming his solo 
career. A recording predating their debut, 'Live Stockholm July 1971' [Drone 
Syndicate, 1998], has recently been issued for the first time on CD, and some 
prefer it over the official releases; reputedly it's a lot more varied and 
chaotic. Other info I've found suggests that the Taj Mahal Travellers didn't 
stay apart for long, and continued playing for a while without Kosugi, but with 
Kazuo Imai [see East Bionic Symphonia, below] filling his shoes.

Nishiokai Takashi - a singer/songwriter who made at least one album - 'Manin no 
Ki' [1973]. It's reputedly melancholic folk with some experimental tendencies, 
and has been reissued on CD by Prime Direction.

Tenjo Sajiki aka Tenjousajiki (The Top Floor Gallery) - an underground 
experimental theatre company that used progressive forms of music in their 
performances, formed by Shuji Terayama with Yutaka Higashi. In 1968, Higashi 
parted to form the Tokyo Kid Brothers [see below]. In 1969, J.A. Caesar [see 
above] became the company's musical director. In 1970, a soundtrack to one of 
Terayama's projects, 'Throw Away The Books Let's Go Into the Streets', was 
released on their own label, and later re-done in a different form by the Tokyo 
Kid Brothers. It featured keyboardist Kuni Kawachi as musical arranger 
[ex-Happenings Four, also worked with Flower Travellin' Band - see above], and 
J.A. Caesar performed on one track. It has some similarity to the Tokyo Kid 
Brothers version, but is very different overall. The musicianship and quality of 
recording is a bit sloppy in parts, but it is an entertaining and unique album 
all the same.
Over the next few years other albums of Tenjo Sajiki productions were released 
as J.A. Caesar albums [see above]. The only other album that I know of that 
seems to have been released as solely by Tenjo Sajiki is 'Aho Bune' [I've also 
seen it listed as 'Ahousen'] ('The Ship Of Fools') [1976], which was sponsored 
by the Shah of Iran's daughter, and premiered at the 10th Persepolis Arts 
Festival in Shiraz, Iran, in 1976. The ensemble performed alongside other avant 
garde artists such as Stockhausen and Xenakis. The music is apparently what you 
would expect from the J.A. Caesar albums, though this one has a reputation as 
one of the best of the bunch. I can't really describe it for you because I 
haven't heard it. This was reissued on CD with a book by P-Vine, but it now 
appears to be out of print, or at least very difficult for non-Japanese seekers 
to track down.
When Terayama died in 1983, J.A. Caesar took over the reigns of Tenjo Sajiki. 
You can read an account of an early Tenjo Sajiki extravaganza here: 
http://www.randomhouse.com/vintage/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=0375705376&view=excerpt

Saitoh Tetsuo - 'Kimi wa Eiyuu Nankajya Nai' [1972] reputedly contains 
progressive folk, with prominent guitar and howling vocals. It has been reissued 
on CD by Prime Direction.

3/3 - how do you search for information on a band name like that? They released 
one album that I know of, the helpfully-titled '3/3' [LLX, 1975], reputedly 
containing hard psychedelic rock.

Tokyo Kid Brothers - formed in 1968 by Yutaka Higashi, a founding member of 
Tenjo Sajiki [see above], as his own splinter underground/experimental theatre 
troupe [though still sometimes working in association with Tenjo Sajiki]. In 
1970 they made an impact abroad with some performances at New York's La Mama 
Experimental Theatre Club. Their first album was 'Golden Bat' [Polydor, 1971], 
with musical arrangements by Hiro Yanagida [see below]. Their classic album 
'Throw Away The Books Let's Go Into The Streets' [Victor, 1971] is different to 
the earlier Tenjo Sajiki version, but like it, is without many obvious parallels 
in western music and has a strange uniquely Japanese feel. It features an odd 
mix of rough & raw psychedelic rock [at times midway between High Tide, 
Foodbrain & Amon Düül], rousing anthemic bursts, mournful psychedelic funeral 
marches, theatrical moments, bits that could be from a late-60's film 
soundtrack, ballads, and a fair bit of spoken [and angrily shouted] stuff in 
Japanese. Some parts are reworked versions of themes from the Tenjo Sajiki 
version. Due to the all-Japanese liner notes of the P-Vine CD reissue, I've 
found it hard to figure out who was on this album, but I've read elsewhere that 
it included guitarist Hideki Ishima from Flower Travellin' Band, and 
singer/shouter Kan Mikami [see above], who was with the troupe for a while. It's 
pretty likely J.A. Caesar [see above] was involved in this album, as it is quite 
reminiscent of some of his early albums. These first 2 albums were reputedly 
their best.
My knowledge of the rest of the TKB discography is patchy, but there was a 6-CD 
box set released by P-Vine, a description of which tells us that as well as the 
works already mentioned there are Polydor recordings for a play called 'The Lost 
Colour Blue', King recordings from albums called 'One and the Same Door' and 
'Golden Bat Returns', Victor recordings from a 1977 revived version of 'Golden 
Bat', Warner Pioneer recordings for an unreleased 1975 album called 'October is 
the Golden Country', a self-released EP called 'Love & Banana', and other 
previously unreleased material. It came with generously-sized liner notes, but 
they're all in Japanese. The afore-mentioned description I've been going from 
[from the Forced Exposure website] also hints that Tokyo Kid Brothers were not 
involved in all of the recordings on 'Throw Away Your Books...'. Tokyo Kid 
Brothers performed for some 30 years, until Higashi died in 2000.

Tomita - a well-known and award-winning synthesizer player and composer, full 
name Isao Tomita. In the 50's he was already pursuing his interest in electronic 
music; in 1956 he composed the theme music for the Japanese Olympic gymnastics 
team, and also made music for films and television [including the anime 'Kimba 
The White Lion']. In 1973 he formed an electronic music group, Plasma Music, 
with Kinji Kitashoji and Mitsuo Miyamoto. The bulk of his work, with which he 
has been quite successful, consists of all-synthesiser adaptations of classical 
works. The best I've heard is one of his earliest albums [perhaps his first], 
'Snowflakes Are Dancing' [RCA, 1974], which features Debussy adaptations and is 
really quite beautiful listening if you enjoy both electronic music and 
classical music. It's certainly no Moog-meets-Bach type cheesiness! When I 
listen to parts of this I can practically see snowflakes falling outside on a 
dark, clear night. Lovely! Apparently this was also released in a different 
cover as a Plasma Music release, and also as 'Clair de Lune' by Tomita. Tomita 
went on to release many other albums, many reinterpreting classical works, 
including 'Pictures at an Exhibition' [RCA, 1975], 'Firebird' [RCA, 1975], 'The 
Planets' [RCA, 1977], 'Cosmos' [RCA, 1978; included the Star Wars theme!], 'The 
Bermuda Triangle' [RCA, 1978], 'Daphnis et Chloe' [RCA, 1979], 'Grand Canyon 
Suite' [RCA, 1982], 'Dawn Chorus' [RCA, 1984] and 'Storm From the East' [RCA, 
1992].

Kazuki Tomokawa - coming from a similar position as Kan Mikami [see above], this 
singer/poet/actor etc. didn't get an album out until 1975, though I don't know 
what it was called. He continued to release albums, with 'Sakura No Kuni No 
Chiru Naka O' ('Within the Country of Falling Cherry Blossoms') [King, 1980] 
arranged by J.A. Caesar [see above]. It has been described by Alan Cummings as 
'intense prog-folk' with "the final track a 15 minute masterpiece that explodes 
from a wind-blown beginning into a maelstrom of chanting choirs, full-on guitar 
and Tomokawa's deranged howling"! Also recommended is 'Hitori Bodonori' ('A Solo 
Dance of the Dead') [PSF, 1995], reputedly containing great free psychedelic 
rock with a backing band including famed bassist Motoharu Yoshizawa [see below].

Too Much - an obscure group who made only one album I'm aware of, 'Too Much' 
[Atlantic, 1971]. It's nothing very original, containing a fairly generic mix of 
heavy rock [notably influenced by Black Sabbath], slow blues [one song sounds 
like a thinly-disguised re-make of Led Zeppelin's 'Since I've Been Loving 
You'!], dodgy ballads and soft progressive rock. I find a bit over half the 
album is fairly good, and the opening track is a great heavy riff monster. 
Nothing to write home about, overall. The album has been reissued as a bootleg 
CD by Black Rose.

VSOP - an obscure group I'm yet to hear. All I know is that they released an 
album, 'VSOP' [London, 1973], which is reputedly hard rock in style and has very 
modern-looking cover artwork, as though they were a recent electronic group. Not 
to be confused with Herbie Hancock's late-70's jazz group of the same name, who 
were incidentally popular live in Japan.

Fujio Yamaguchi - a guitarist who had previously been in 'group sounds' band The 
Dynamites, and Murahachibu [see above]. He released a solo album, 'Himatsubushi' 
[Elec, 1974], reputedly containing psychedelic rock; it's been reissued on CD by 
Good Lovin' [GoodLov 009, to help you through the Japanese titles on their web 
site].

Stomu Yamash'ta - a renowned avant-garde percussionist, whose first album 'Red 
Buddha' [Barclay, 1971] featured lengthy and exotic percussion performances. 
It's a very absorbing and sanctified album, and has been reissued on CD by 
Spalax. Another album of exotic experimental percussive music was recorded in 
the UK shortly after, 'Henze/Takemitsu/Maxwell/Davies' [Decca?, 1972]. Next he 
came into the fore as a composer and band leader, releasing numerous albums of 
slightly experimental progressive rock through the 70's [see below]. Here, I'll 
just mention the other albums released under only his own name; the others are 
listed below by band name.
I haven't heard 'Contemporary Works' [1972] or 'Takemitsu Ishi' [EMI, 1973]. 
'Rain Dog' [Island, 1975] was born from another multi-media stage production 
[see the album 'The Man From The East' below]. Musically it was a little 
reminiscent of the last album with East Wind, 'One By One' [see below], and like 
that album it featured another ill-considered mug shot of Yamash'ta on the 
cover, making him look like a real wanker! As well as Yamash'ta, it featured 
Boyle, Gasgoine and Hisako Yamash'ta from East Wind, in addition to Tsuneo 
Matsumoto [guitar], Daito Fujita [bass], Hozumi Tanaka [drums], and two guest 
vocalists.
'Go' [Island, 1976] is rated highly by many Yamash'ta fans, but I fail to see 
why, as I think as a whole album it's among his worst and most commercial 
[exceeded only by 'Go Too' - see below]. It was intended as a supergroup kind of 
thing, and perhaps vaguely a concept album. The booklet accompanying the LP 
certainly made it all sound much more exciting and innovative than what it 
actually was - Yamash'ta's most mainstream move yet. It featured Steve Winwood 
prominently. Along with Yamash'ta's sudden dive in taste, Winwood largely shares 
the blame for ruining what this album could have been - apologies to Winwood 
fans but I just can't stand him when he's singing. Other musicians on the album 
include Michael Shrieve [ex-Santana], Klaus Schulze, Al DiMeola [Return To 
Forever], Rosko Gee and others; Yamash'ta plays synthesizers as well as 
percussion. The dreadful lyrics are by Michael Quartermain and Winwood. I find 
the best bits of the album are those when Yamash'ta and Schulze are going all 
cosmic and weird with their synthesizers. Apart from that, the main styles of 
the album veer between slightly funky stuff that is okay in parts but fairly 
forgettable, and cheesy loungy lite-funk-crooning AM sleaze with Winwood in 
control, that takes itself far too seriously. These latter bits set my teeth on 
edge and are what make me reluctant to listen to the whole album very much. 
Unfortunately many tracks segue together seamlessly making it hard to skip 
tracks on the LP. 'Go Live From Paris' [Island, 1976] was a live version of the 
'Go' album which I've been told is not much different. 'Go Too' [Arista, 1977] 
in my opinion seemed to take all the worst, most commercial moves from the 'Go' 
album and distilled them into most of the album, leaving only a few slightly 
interesting moments - again, generally those comprising mostly of synthesizer 
work. Winwood had left before this album, but his legacy remained. All three 
albums have recently been reissued together by Raven, good news for the many 
people who love these albums [and who probably all hate me now!].
In 1980 Yamash'ta retired temporarily to a Buddhist temple, before re-emerging 
in the music world with a more minimal, cosmic and experimental direction. 
'Iroha' [RVC, 1981] was a double album, featuring music for some kind of ritual 
theatre performance. The music was a really radical turn for Yamash'ta, being a 
varied high quality tapestry of experimental electronic music, percussion and 
ritualistic chanting from the serene to the weird. I'm not sure what Yamash'ta 
actually performed on this, as the LP notes credit Yamash'ta for production 
only, with the sole instrumental credit going to Sen Izumi for playing the 
synths, and there is clearly more than synths to be heard here [unless there's a 
skilful use of samplers]. I've also seen a single-LP version of this album, with 
a different cover. Following albums I haven't heard include 'Iroha-sui' [RVC, 
1982], 'Tempest' [soundtrack, 1982], 'Iroha-ka' [RVC, 1983], 'Sea and Sky' 
[1983], 'Solar Dream Vol. 2: Fantasy of Sanukit' [Kosei, 1990] and 'Solar Dream 
Vol. 1: The Eternal Present' [Kosei, 1993].

Stomu Yamash'ta & Come To The Edge - there was only one album with this 
ensemble, the excellent 'Floating Music' [Island, 1972]. It was made in England 
with British musicians, the second side of the album recorded live at Queen 
Elizabeth Hall. At this time Yamash'ta was attracting rave reviews in the UK 
press. All instrumental, it's hard to describe the different areas this album 
inhabits. Broadly it can be said to be a Japanese-tinged progressive rock with 
jazz rock leanings spread across 4 long tracks. There's no guitar, but I hardly 
notice! Shortly after, Come To The Edge broke up, and drummer Morris Pert 
assembled a new [unnamed] trio including bassist Alyn Ross and Come To The Edge 
pianist Peter Robinson. Next, Yamash'ta made an album with this new group, plus 
other musicians and Red Buddha Theatre [see below].

Stomu Yamash'ta's East Wind - one of Stomu's best groups, notably featuring 
ex-Soft Machine bassist Hugh Hopper. Yamash'ta played drums and percussion, 
Hisako Yamash'ta played violin, Gary Boyle played guitar [and had played on 1 
track on 'The Man From the East' - see below] and Brian Gasgoine played 
keyboards. Their first album, 'Freedom is Frightening' [Island, 1973], is a 
great slab of progressive rock with Canterbury jazz and psychedelic influences - 
it could perhaps be said to reside somewhere between King Crimson and Soft 
Machine. Shortly after they recorded a very different album, 'Soundtrack to the 
Film One By One' [Island, 1974]. This featured the same members as the previous 
album, but with the addition of Nigel Morris and Mike Travis on drums, Sammi Abu 
on vocals, congas and flute, and Frank Tankowski and Bernie Holland on guitar. I 
believe the film was in some way about racing car drivers. Musically it's pretty 
diverse, ranging from bass-heavy progressive jazz rock grooves approaching 
Isotope, a bit of Vivaldi, and some queasy crooning [hinting at the Steve 
Winwood-influenced days to come, with the Go band] to more experimental sound 
bites.

Stomu Yamash'ta's Red Buddha Theatre - Red Buddha Theatre were a Japanese 
theatre company formed in 1971; Yamash'ta was their producer, director and 
composer. In 1972 Yamash'ta brought them to Europe to perform. During this time 
he had been performing and recording with Come To The Edge in London [see 
above], and when the Red Buddha Theatre came to town in 1973 there was a 
collaboration between Yamash'ta, the theatre, some new musicians, and a new 
group including remnants of Come To The Edge. As well as performing the theatre 
piece 'The Man From The East', a partly live album was recorded, 'The Soundtrack 
From "The Man From The East"' [Island, 1973]. The 2 longest tracks [live in 
Paris] were done by a lineup including Pert and bassist Phil Plant from Come To 
The Edge, plus organist Maggie Newlands and 7 Japanese musicians [not including 
Yamash'ta]. Saxophonist Robin Thompson from Come To The Edge played on one 
track; the other tracks used Pert's post-CTTE trio plus Yamash'ta. There's also 
a guitarist, Gary Boyle, who only plays on one track but later played with East 
Wind [see above]. It's a very varied album, and hard to describe [as with many 
of Yamash'ta's better albums]. The music is a bit like that from the Come To The 
Edge album, but in my opinion not as consistently great. It ranges from sedate, 
eastern-tinged progressive, to more upbeat stuff, jazzy touches, accessible 
stuff hinting at what would come with his later Steve Winwood collaborations, 
and even some slightly symphonic prog reminiscent of some of Pink Floyd's 'Atom 
Heart Mother'. After this, Yamash'ta grouped up with some more musicians [some 
new, some the same] for the band 'East Wind' [see above].

Stomu Yamash'ta & The Horizon - this combo made one album that I know of, 
'Sunrise From West Sea Live' [London, 1971]. As well as Yamash'ta on percussion, 
it features Masahiko Satoh on electric organ, Takehisa Kosugi on electric violin 
and Hideakira Sakurai [see above for all] on koto, shamisen & percussion.

Stomu Yamash'ta & Masahiko Satoh - the music on 'Metempsychosis' [Columbia, 
1971] was composed by Satoh, and recorded with Satoh on piano, Yamash'ta on 
percussion and Miyama Toshiyuki & New Herd Orchestra on everything else.

Yamasuki - not really a Japanese thing, but mentioned here because it appears to 
be. Intended as a French/Japanese cross-cultural choreography project, Yamasuki 
was conceived by two French pop composers who went to the trouble to learn 
Japanese for it. They collaborated with a children's choir and some conductors 
to produce the album 'Le Monde Fabuleux des Yamasuki' [Biram, 1971]. Although it 
sounds Japanese, with authentic Japanese language vocals and styles [to 
non-Japanese ears, at least], I don't think any Japanese people were actually 
involved. The album is enjoyable but nothing amazing - largely orchestrated 
progressive pop rock with a cool/kitschy blend of cultural styles and innocent 
approach. It sounds kind of like a much more accessible version of Tokyo Kid 
Brothers circa 'Throw Away the Books'. The album was recently reissued on CD by 
Finders Keepers. The Yamasuki, incidentally, was a dance briefly popular in 
France at the time.

Hiro Yanagida - this keyboardist really got around! He was in Apryl Fool, 
Foodbrain, Masahiko Satoh & Sound Brakers, Love Live Life + One, and also played 
on Shinki Chen's solo album. Throughout this time he was putting out solo albums 
with some of the same musicians, such as Kimio Mizutani [see above]. His debut 
was 'Milk Time' [Liberty, 1970], which has a cool photo of a stern-looking 
gorilla on the cover, done by the same artist who did the Foodbrain album cover. 
The backing band included Hiro Tsunoda from Foodbrain, Strawberry Path and Flied 
Egg [see above], guitarist Kimio Mizutani and electric violinist Hiroki Tamaki 
[see below], as well as flautist Nozumu Nakatani and bassist Keiju Ishikawa [who 
later played with Akira Ito - see below]. The music is in part similar to 
Foodbrain, but more varied, with lighter, jaunty short tracks and some tripped 
out sounds.
This was followed by 'Hiro Yanagida' [Atlantic, 1971], with great cartoon 
psychedelic artwork. He's again joined by Kimio Mizutani, and Joey Smith from 
Speed, Glue & Shinki [see above] sings on one track, a silly doo-wop ballad! The 
album as a whole covers slightly similar territory to that of 'Milk Time', 
though more accomplished, and some of the mellower keyboard-oriented stuff here 
is a bit more experimental and progressive. One track reminds me of Supersister 
and oddly, Stereolab from more than 20 years later! His 3rd album, 'Hiro' [URC, 
1972], seems to be obscure and I can't find any information about it. 
'Hirocosmos' [CBS, 1973] was reputedly another great album, in a more 
progressive vein. There are a few more album which I know nothing about - 'UFO' 
[CBS, 1978], 'Shichi Sai No Rojin Tengoku' [label? year?] and 'Ma-Ya' 
[Substance, 2003]. I've seen another album listed, 'Planets in Rock Age [1971], 
but I don't know how that fits in or if it's just rumour. 'Milk Time' was 
reissued on CD by P-Vine, but appears to be out of print; 'Hiro Yanagida' and 
'Hirocosmos' have been reissued on CD by Showboat and are tricky to track down 
outside of Japanese retailers.
Yanagida played on J.A. Caesar's 'Matihedeyou Syowosuteyo' [and probably other 
Caesar albums - see above], and also recorded some material with Tokyo Kid 
Brothers [see above].

Yasumi No Kuni - an obscure group who made at least one album, 'Yasumi No Kuni' 
[URG, 1971]. Their music was reputedly a mix of folk, west coast rock and wild 
psychedelic rock styles. This album has been reissued on CD by Prime.

Toshiaki Yokota & The Beat Generation - this group reputedly played some kind of 
psychedelic progressive rock. Their album 'Elevation' [Express/Toshiba, 1970] 
was arranged by Masahiko Satoh [see above]; they made at least one other, 'Flute 
Adventure' [London, 1971].

Yonin Bayashi - a progressive rock band who are highly regarded by some. Their 
first album was 'Hatachi No Genten' [Toho, 1973], a soundtrack, followed by 
'Ishoku-Sokuhatsu' ('Explosive Situation') [Tam, 1974]. In the Ultima Thule shop 
catalogue this 2nd album is compared favorably to Flower Travellin' Band and Far 
East Family Band. Repeated listens have revealed traces of stuff that sound like 
only the worst side of FEFB [see my comments above for what I mean by that], and 
no trace of anything that reminds me of FTB. On the whole I find this album an 
uneasy mix of icky mainstream soft rock [hinting at yawn/cringe-inducing AOR] 
and occasionally an excellent blend of heavy progressive styles. These good bits 
remind me perhaps of Deep Purple for want of a better comparison, but much 
proggier, sometimes approaching Yes, and there's also some brief trippy moments 
with synthesizers as well [not enough of it though]. On the downside there are 
no songs that I thought were great all the way through - many of the tracks have 
great bits diluted with lots of stuff I would call embarrassing. The album 
artwork is cute, the front showing a sloth with glassy red orbs of eyes smoking 
a pipe! This album has been reissued on CD by Hagakure.
These guys released some more albums which I know nothing about - 'Golden 
Picnics' [CBS, 1976], 'Painted Jelly' [Canyon, 1977], 'Live '73' [Toho, 1978], 
'Pao' - which I've also seen listed as 'Bao' [Canyon, 1978], 'Neo-N' [Canyon, 
1979], 'Dance' [BGM/Victor, 1989], 'Live Full House Matinee' [BGM/Victor, 1990] 
and Live 2002, which would seem to make it clear that this band is still active 
despite the break during the 80's. There is a bootleg CD from Black Rose 
containing 'Ishoku-Sokuhatsu' and 'Live '73' on one disc. The Ultima Thule 
catalogue review of this disc makes comparisons to Cosmos Factory and Food 
Brain. Regarding 'Ishoku-Sokuhatsu' [see above] I can only detect comparisons to 
the worst side of Cosmos Factory [although I've only heard one album of theirs 
and the others are apparently fairly different], in other words like the worst 
of FEFB, and no comparison at all to Food Brain; perhaps the live set reveals 
another side to this group that would justify the Foodbrain mention. There's 
also a P-Vine CD called 'Early Days' which features the first album plus 
previously unreleased early live stuff.

Motoharu Yoshizawa - a respected bass player who made his own 5-string stand-up 
electric bass, and was renowned as a freeform player. He was apparently a 
leading figure in Japanese free jazz in the late 60's and early 70's.  He made 
many albums until his death, including numerous collaborations with others. 
Early albums include 'Inland Fish' [1974], 'Outfit' [1975] and 'Cracked Mirrors' 
[?/PSF, 1975]. The latter is a solo album with some collaborators in fellow 
freeform bassist Barre Phillips & Steve Lacy, and is reputedly great "bowed, 
flowing higher-key music for the spheres". Amongst numerous collaborations, he 
played on the 2-LP 'Epiphany' album by Company, along with a variety of folks 
such as Keith Tippetts, Julie Tippetts, Derek Bailey and Fred Frith.
'From the Faraway Nearby' [Modern Music/PSF, 1991] is a solo recording with 
bass, electronics and 'quadriplex' multitracking. 'Angels Have Passed' [PSF, 
1992] contains live improvisations by Yoshizawa, Takehisa Kosugi [see above] on 
violin, and Haruna Miyake on piano. It's interesting, and sometimes entrancing, 
free improvisation but a bit too 'free' overall for my liking - albums like this 
just make me wish they'd settle into some kind of groove or melody for a change. 
Yoshizawa provided prominent backing on a 1995 album by Kazuki Tomokawa [see 
above]. 'Uzu' [PSF, 1996] is a collaboration credited to Barre Phillips and 
Motoharu Yoshizawa. The Forced Exposure website entry says of this album 
"Yoshizawa's otherworldly circling electric soundscapes collide and fuse with 
Phillips' mastery of acoustic human textures in an orgy of sensitivity, pure 
inventiveness". 'Okidoki' [Chap Chap Records, 1998] was recorded between 
1993-94, and contains 2 lengthy live jams with guests Barre Phillips on double 
bass and Kim Dae Hwan on percussion.
In the last few years of his life, he joined the group Gyaatees [see below].
 
Yuigonka - an obscure psychedelic progressive group who made at least one album, 
'Endless Endless' [Philips, 1971].
 

      FLOWER TRAVELLIN BAND AnywhereACID MOTHERS
      Does the cosmic shepherdKUNI KAWACHI
      Flower Travellin BandHELPFUL SOUL
      First albumMAGICAL POWER MAKO Super recordSAGITTARIAN
      Sagittarian

 
 
Late 1970's-1980's
 
After Dinner - formed in 1982 by vocalist Haco, After Dinner were an avant-garde 
progressive group inspired by Art Bears, and Haco's vocals have been compared to 
those of Art Bears' Dagmar Krause. They released three albums that I know of, 
'After Dinner' [ReR, 1984], 'Paradise of Replica' [ReR, 1989] and 'Tribalism' 
[label? 1994]. I've heard only the first of these, which does have some broad 
similarities to Art Bears, but is more diverse and experimental, often downright 
odd! It has been reissued on CD by ReR with an album's worth of live bonus 
material recorded between 1986-1990 ['Live Editions'].

Ain Soph - a Canterbury-styled progressive group, formed in 1970 as Heaven and 
Earth Creation; they changed their name to Ain Soph in 1977. They are not to be 
confused with the Italian 'avant-rock' group of the same name. Their first album 
was 'A Story of Mysterious Forest' [King Nexus, 1980]. Numerous other albums 
have followed - 'Hat and Field' [King Nexus, 1986], 'Marine Menagerie' [Made in 
Japan, 1991], 'Ride on a Camel - Special Live' [Belle Antique, 1991; rec. 
1976-78], 'Five Evolved From Nine' [Made in Japan, 1993], 'Mysterious Triangle - 
Special Live Vol. 2' [Belle Antique, 1993] and 'Quicksand - Special Live Vol. 3' 
[Belle Antique, 1994].

Ankoku Kakumei Kyodotai (Dark Revolutionary Collective) - formed by guitarist 
Kawabata Makoto [then 13] with friends, who were all non-musicians at the time 
and thus taught themselves by improvising from scratch, even making some of 
their own instruments at first out of necessity. The intent at the beginning was 
to fuse hard rock with electronics - eg. Makoto's idea was Deep Purple + 
Stockhausen. Add to this that their music was improvised but groping towards 
form, we can only guess what they sounded like, although they were unpopular 
perhaps due to clashing with current trends. They played together and did gigs 
between Nara and Osaka for numerous years, in the process starting their own 
cassette label R.E.P. [Revolutionary Extrication Project] on which they released 
their own recordings. Their debut tape 'Ankoku Kakumei Kyodotai' [R.E.P., 198?] 
was recorded in Makoto's high school lab store room, using beakers and pots as 
percussion along with electronics; it's reputedly a bit like early Nurse With 
Wound meets Amon Düül. This has only been reissued as part of the limited 
edition Makoto 10-CD box set 'Learning From the Past' [label? year?] and as an 
LP picture disc on the Italian Qbico label. Makoto has also made solo releases 
as well as with his famed group Acid Mothers Temple and other projects [see 
below].

Astral Temple - some kind of electronic progressive group involving Hiro 
Kawahara from Osiris & Heretic [see below]. They released three albums on 
cassette only - 'Shadow Illusion' [1981], 'Vista Under Arc Light' [1982] and 
'100% Odd Lots Session' [1982].

Asturias - a progressive group inspired by Camel and Mike Oldfield. They 
released two albums, 'Circle in the Forest' [King, 1988] and 'Brilliant Streams' 
[King, 1990], before breaking up. They reformed recently as more of a chamber 
music ensemble, and released another album, 'Bird Eyes View' [Musea/Poseidon, 
2005], which is unfortunately only 25 minutes long.

Aunt Sally - these guys were apparently some kind of rockin', freaked-out 'No 
Wave' band, fronted by Phew. She later recorded some solo albums, the first of 
which - 'Phew' [Pass Records, 1981] was made with the assistance of Conny Plank, 
Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit. Their only album released at the time was 
'Aunt Sally' [Vanity Records, 1978], which was largely ignored due to poor 
distribution. It has been reissued by Undo. Recently, a CD of live recordings 
has surfaced, 'Live 1978-1979' [P-Vine].

Azoth - a symphonic progressive jazz rock group who have been making demos since 
the late 80's, but only recently released an album - 'The Awkward Age's End' 
[2004]. Guitarist Masahiro Noda had also been in Interface [see below].

Back Ground Music - this group released an album 'B.G.M.' [Vanity, 1980] on the 
experimental Vanity label, and by extension may well be of interest. It's been 
described as 'minimal experimental techno pop'. However, there's a Yellow Magic 
Orchestra [see below] album of the same title that I've seen dated as from 1981, 
and I'm forced to wonder if this is the same thing but with the date of release 
gotten wrong.

Bellaphon - a symphonic prog band inspired largely by Camel, featuring bassist 
Masahiro Torigaki from Ain Soph [see above]. They only have two albums that I 
know of, 'Firefly' [Made in Japan, 1987; reissued Musea, 1996] and 'Delphi' 
[Belle Antique, 1995].

Benikarin - a progressive rock band formed in 1984, featuring the drummer of 
Interface [see below]. I've got no idea what they sound like. They've made 
numerous albums - 'Tekkin Omnibus I' [1987, cassette], 'Yellow Sky/Long For Lan' 
[1988, cassette], 'Melodies Park II' [BBM, 1989], 'Yellow Sky' [1989, cassette, 
remixed instrumental], 'Benikarin' [1990, cassette; reissued on CD - Horen, 
2001] and 'Long Into the Edge' [Long-In, 1991].

Bi Kyo Ran - an excellent progressive rock group very much influenced by 
mid-70's King Crimson, focusing on guitar/bass/drums dynamics. They've released 
numerous albums, including 'Madoromi Live' [1977], 'Bi Kyo Ran' [Nexus, 1982], 
'Parallax' [Nexus, 1983], 'Fairy Tale' [1987], 'Who Ma Live Vol. 2' [Belle 
Antique, 1988], 'Go-Un' [1995], 'Ran Live Vol. 3' [1995] and 'Deep Live' [1995].

Blood [Bludd?] Sucker - Hans Pokora listed this in one of his 'Record Collectors 
Dreams' books as Bludd Sucker, but looking at the cover he reproduced it looks 
like he just misread it due to the way it was written - it looks like Blood 
Sucker to me. They released one album that I know of, 'Blood Sucker' [ALM, 
1978], reputedly some kind of hard rock.

The Boredoms - a legendary group formed in 1986, including 2 ex-Hanataresh 
members, Yamatsuka/Yamantaka/Yamataka Eye and Ikuo Taketani, as well as 
guitarist Tabara Mata [who soon left to join Zeni Geva - see below] and bassist 
Hosoi. Numerous line-up changes have taken place over the years, with Eye 
remaining constant, and these days the group is very percussion-heavy. Over the 
years they've mutated constantly, from avant-punk to disjointed psychedelic 
avant-punk-prog-rock to enlightened inner-space rock for the new era. Not 
counting cassettes, singles and EP's, these are their albums - 'Osorezan no 
Stooges Kyo' [Selfish, 1988]; 'Soul Discharge '99' [Selfish, 1989]; 'Pop Tatari' 
[WEA Japan, 1992]; 'Wow 2' [Avant, 1993] (live in studio, supervised by John 
Zorn); 'Onanie Bomb Meets the Sexpistols' [numerous labels, 1994]; 'Chocolate 
Synthesizer' [100%/WEA, 1994]; 'Super æ' [WEA, 1998] clearly hints at the 
masterwork to follow, with lots of pure-vibed harmonious psychedelic stuff, as 
well as lots of cut-up and fucked-up weirdness reminiscent of their older stuff; 
'Vision Creation Newsun' [WEA, 1999] (2-CD limited edition box set version); 
'Vision Creation Newsun' [WEA, 2000] was the group's masterwork in the opinion 
of many [although alienating some fans of the earlier stuff]. I kind of got the 
impression from listening to it on mushrooms that the group had collectively 
reached a state of enlightenment! It flows more or less as a unified thematic 
whole, very organic yet high-tech at the same time. It's a pure-vibed white 
light psychedelic epic, largely undescribable but with occasional reference 
points [or perhaps tributes] to bands such as Hawkwind and Neu! Music for a new 
age [not a New Age!].
There are numerous 'EPs' in the 'Super Roots' series dating from 1993-1999, some 
of which are very short, others full-length releases which shouldn't be called 
EP's. There are also several remix albums of recent material, 'Rebore Vol. 1' 
[WEA, 2000] (remixed by DJ Unkle), 'Rebore Vol. 2' [WEA, 2000] (remixed by DJ 
Ken Ishii), 'Rebore Vol. 3' [Warner Japan, 2001] (remixed by DJ Krush) and 
'Rebore Vol. 0: Vision Recreation by Eye' [Warner Japan, 2001] (remixed by Eye).
These days the group is known as V¥rdoms, and they apparently plan not to make 
albums but just play live. However, they recently released a new album as The 
Boredoms - 'Seadrum/House Of Sun' [Warner Bros, 2004], which I have been told 
was recorded a few years earlier. It features just two long tracks, the titles 
of which are found in the album title. Seadrum was partly recorded literally in 
the ocean[!], with the accent on percussion and whole-earth vibes, all treated 
and mixed in the more recent hallucinogenic Boredoms fashion. House Of Sun is 
more relaxed, meditative and cosmic - simply beautiful, like the very mellow 
side of early Ash Ra Tempel and Achim Reichel perhaps.
There are also countless Boredoms offshoots and side projects, sometimes 
venturing into radically different styles, of which only a few are mentioned 
elsewhere here.

Brast Burn - an obscure underground avant-garde psychedelic outfit who made one 
album, 'Debon' [Voice, 1976]. It featured 2 lengthy tracks of largely 
repetitive, mantric, stoned folk grooves with percussion, keyboards, guitar, 
bass and plenty of sound effects and trippy mixing. Some of it's like some 
Magical Power Mako; a lot of it is reminiscent of numerous of the more 
interesting progressive psych-folk and 'krautrock' bands [such as Amon Düül I & 
II, Lula Cortes e ze Ramalho]. The album attracted the attention of Nurse With 
Wound due to its weirdness, and is name-dropped on the famous 'NWW list'. It was 
reissued on CD in a limited edition by Paradigm Discs in 1998. This group was 
apparently associated in some way with Karuna Khyal [see below], and may be the 
same people.

Chakra - a keyboard-dominated progressive rock band with few vocals, who have 
been compared to ELP and 'Relayer'-era Yes. Not to be confused with the US prog 
band of the same name. Their first album was 'Chakra' [Victor, 1980], produced 
by Makoto Yano from Moonriders [see below]. On 'Satekoso' [Victor, 1981] they 
were joined by Hideki Matsutake and Haruomi Hosono from Yellow Magic Orchestra 
[see below]; this album was reputedly more experimental. Their last album 'Nanyo 
de Yoisho' [VAP, 1983] was a mini-album, and the group was now only two people, 
using guest musicians to complete the recordings. By this time they were much 
more pop-oriented, and the group soon fell apart

Chronicle - an offshoot of Far Out [see above]. After that group broke 
up/changed into Far East Family Band [see above], Chronicle was formed by 
bassist/vocalist Kei Ishikawa and drummer/vocalist Osamu Takeda [and 2 other 
fellow countrymen], who had moved to California, frustrated with record company 
disinterest at home. They played electronic space rock in a similar vein to Far 
East Family Band, although with their own sound, and more song-based. They also 
shared the uneasy blending of soppy/cheesy commercially oriented balladry and 
really cool spacey stuff. The liner notes to their 3rd album claims that 
Ishikawa and Takeda had both been in Far Out and FEFB, but Takeda was not 
credited on the Far Out album, nor on any FEFB albums that I know of.
Chronicle released at least three albums - 'Live at Whisky A Go-Go' [Express, 
1975], 'Imawa Tokino Subete' [1975] and 'Like a Message From the Stars' [All 
Ears Records, 1977].

Condition Green - a hard rock group. I've seen their [first?] album 'Life of 
Change' [See Saw, 1978] referred to as 'psychedelic' or 'heavy progressive'; 
hard rock/metal reviewer Martin Popoff, who sometimes has confounding tastes and 
opinions even to some other metal heads let alone stuff with progressive or 
psychedelic edges [so it's hard to know what to make of this], described it as 
"a sour mix of past due date power trio styles like a bad boogie ride on the 
Zeppelin. Add to that a predilection for jazzy Hendrix chording, a busy drummer 
and a lead singer who plays congas, and you've got a Santana album as 
interpreted by Robin Trower", and rated it poorly, all of which may be good news 
or bad news, depending on where you stand. The next album 'Mixed Up' [label?, 
1978] has been compared to Grand Funk and Ted Nugent. It's been reissued on CD 
by Pony Can.

Crosswind - formed by guitarist Ginji Ogawa in 1976. They played progressive 
rock of some kind and made at least three albums - 'Crosswind' [1978], 'II' 
[1979] and 'Sosite Yumuno Kunie' [1982]. Ogawa also performed in Carmen Maki's 
band [see above]. After Crosswind broke up in 1984, Ogawa formed several other 
bands and began a solo career. In 2001 he re-emerged with Ginji Ogawa Band, 
playing prog apparently comparable to Camel, Yes, Focus, Rush & Jethro Tull.

Dada - an electronic group who have been described as 'a Japanese Fripp & Eno', 
and have also been compared to Ashra and Pôle. From what I've heard so far, the 
Fripp & Eno comparison only stands up as far as that the band was a synth/guitar 
duo - Kenji Konishi on synths and Mutsuhiko Izumi on guitar. Their debut, 'Jyo' 
[Vanity, 1978], was the first release on the Vanity label. This was followed by 
'Dada' [Vanity, 1978], the live 'Joheki' (cassette) [Belle Antique, 1979], 
'Dada' [King-Nexus, 1981; not sure if this is a reissue of the '78 s/t album] 
and 'Castle Wall' [Belle Antique, 1984], a collection of previously unreleased 
material produced by H. Tamaki [see below]. This was reissued on CD in 1994. 
While some of it is pretty cheesy with icky early 80's synth tones and melodies 
predominant, most of 'Castle Wall' is pretty top-notch spaced-out stuff, though 
with a few slight tape flaws here & there. Some of it reminded me a bit of some 
Pôle, Vangelis, late-70's Tangerine Dream and Spacecraft, some of it perhaps 
like Carpe Diem stripped back to just the keyboards & guitar. Konishi later 
joined P-Model and Shifukudan; Izumi later joined After Dinner [see above] and 
Kennedy [see below].

Deja-vu - symphonic prog band formed in 1984 by university students; they had 
previously been called Clashed Ice, as a part of the university's progressive 
music club. Deja-vu made one album, 'Baroque in the Future' [Made in Japan, 
1988; reissued Musea, 1998]. They broke up in 1989 while making a second album. 
Keyboardist Motoi Sakuraba [see below] went on to a solo career. Ken Ishita 
[bassist on some tracks] also played with Ars Nova. Keyboardist Tomoki Ueno also 
played with Outer Limits, Gerard and Marge Litch. Drummer Genta Kudo also played 
drums and acoustic guitar with Due, Eiko Plus, Vermillion Sands and Kirche.

Dr. Jeckyl & Mr. Hyde - some kind of electronic progressive group involving Hiro 
Kawahara from Osiris [see below]. They released four cassette-only albums - the 
imaginatively-titled '1' [1981], '2' [1982], '3' [1982] and '4' [1982].

The East Bionic Symphonia - not really a proper band, but a temporary musical 
presentation staged for the graduation of Kazuo Imai and fellow students from 
the art school workshops of Takehisa Kosugi [see above]. These concerts of 
collective free-improvisation were called East Bionic Symphonia. They made a 
live recording, 'Recorded Live' [ALM, 1976], featuring 10 members playing all 
manner of instruments and objects over 2 lengthy jams. This sounds very much 
like a largely mellow Taj Mahal Travellers [see above]. After this, the group 
seems to have dissolved, with Imai playing with the Kosugi-less Taj Mahal 
Travellers and later with a variety of other avant-garde musicians. Another EBS 
member, Chie Mukai, went on to form her own 'folk-psych' group Che-SHIZU.

Flying Teacup - a progressive band of some kind who made at least one album, 
'Flying Teacup' [Private, 1981]; I would guess from the name that they were 
inspired by Gong, and I hope so, too! More Gong-inspired bands can't be a bad 
thing.

Fromage - a melodic symphonic prog band with lots of vocals and solos, and a 
slightly poppy touch; they've been compared to numerous UK neo-prog bands of the 
same period. Formed in the late 70's, they initially featured guitarist Ikkou 
Nakajima [later in Pageant - see below] and keyboardist Toshio Egawa [Gerard, 
Novela, Scheherezade], though both had left before the first album. Fromage made 
three albums - 'Ondine' [Belle Antique, 1984], 'Ophelia' [Belle Antique, 1988] 
and 'Tsukini-Hoeru' [1990]. They broke up around 1993, and some members went on 
to Cinema [see below].

Jun Fukamachi & 21st Century Band - Fukamachi is a keyboardist with jazz roots. 
I think his first album was 'Introducing Jun Fukamachi' [Toshiba, 1975], which 
reputedly contained 'instrumental progressive jazz rock with great guitar work'. 
This was followed by 'Rokuyu' [1975], 'Introducing Ponta Nuramachi' [1976] - a 
duo with a drummer, Fukamachi playing Hammond, Moog and other synths, reputedly 
progressive jazz rock in style - 'Second Phase' [1977] and 'Crossover' [Kitty 
Records, 1977], which features Tony Levin on bass (on some tracks), as well as 
many other American musicians. Around this point he seems to have moved to the 
US and he went on to record numerous albums of funky fusion with noted US 
musicians [such as the Brecker brothers]. 'Quark' [1980] reputedly contained 
synth music and no fusion.

Fushitsusha - a noisy free 'psychedelic' rock group formed in 1978 by 
permanently black-bedecked guitarist Keiji Haino [ex-Lost Aaraaff, see above]. 
What I've heard has been largely, to my ears, pretty much unlistenable [beyond a 
point] feedback-laden sheets of guitar noise, with barely a cohesive groove of 
any kind audible from beneath it all. Les Rallizes Denudes did that sort of 
thing much better, I think. However, Haino fans insist that there's more to it 
than that but I can't see why anyone would want to own more than one of these 
albums, and I find it hard to want to even listen to a whole Fushitsusha album 
all the way through before getting bored with the noisy monotony of it all. This 
group has released many albums, and all of the ones I've seen are almost [or 
entirely] all-black. Alan Cummings recommended their 2nd 'Live' 2-CD set 
released on PSF [year?] as a good starting point.

G.A.O.S. - an instrumental progressive fusion band with two guitarists and no 
keyboards; they've been compared to Brand X, Side Steps and Kenso [see below]. 
They made at least one album, 'G.A.O.S.' [1987; reissued by Musea Parallele, 
2001].

Geinoh Yamashirogumi (Yamashiro Art Group) - originally an experimental/avant 
garde musical collective formed in the mid-1950's, intending to 'destroy 
accepted values in the world of choral music'. [I've put them here because it 
took them a while to release anything, as far as I know]. In 1966 Shoji 
Yamashiro took over as composer, arranger, producer and 'sound architect' of the 
collective. In 1974 they changed their name to Geino Yamashirogumi, though I 
don't know what they were called before; by this time they had absorbed many 
diverse vocal influences, such as from Bali and Bulgaria. The group consists of 
hundreds of people 'from all walks of life', many of them professionals in 
fields of science. Most of these people work in the vocal performances. They 
have become known for their 'skilful fusion of traditional music with high 
technology'. The collective is also home to 2 organisations, Festival Arts 
Research Institute and Civilization Sciences Research Institute.
The first album has come to be regarded as a bit of a classic - 'Osorezan/Do No 
Kenbai' [Invitation, 1976]. It contains only 2 lengthy tracks of weird 
experimental music with creative mixing, exotic instrumentation and strange 
ritual vocals. The first track 'Osorezan' ('Mt. Fear') is utterly weird, 
beginning with an anguished scream and moving through various shorter sections 
from there. Some of it is really eerie and full-on, like a bad trip, other parts 
feature soft synthesizer tones and tripped-out guitars, some parts hint slightly 
at New Age world fusion but weird-ass, and there's even some relaxed and funky 
jazz-fusion backing in one place. The sounds here and there remind us that we 
are nearing the 80's, but it never gets cheesy. This is perhaps one of the most 
intense pieces of music I've ever heard, and I've heard a lot of intense stuff 
of all styles. The second track is group vocal work with a ritual/shamanic feel; 
the back art work shows them sitting in a circle with arms raised in the air, 
wearing only pants and headbands - I presume this is how they look when 
performing something like this.
Numerous other albums followed which I know little or nothing about, such as 
'Live' [Invitation, 1978], 'Shonentachi Eno Chikyu Sanka' [Invitation, 1979], 
'Reverberation of Earth' [Invitation, year?] and 'Yamato Gensho' [Invitation, 
year?]. 'Rinne Kohkyogaku' (Reincarnated Orchestra) [Invitation, 1986] is a 
concept piece about the eternal cycles of birth, death and rebirth. 'Ecophony 
Gaia' [Invitation, 1990] is a 70-minute 'macrosymphony homage to the Earth's 
ecosystem'. In 1988, Geinoh Yamashirogumi made the great music for the 
soundtrack to the popular anime film, 'Akira', one of the few soundtracks that 
stands up well on its own as an album. There is a regular soundtrack version, 
including some dialogue and sound effects from the film, and the 'Akira 
Symphonic Suite' version, which is longer and features only the full, original 
versions of the music from the soundtrack. All of these albums have been 
reissued on CD by Victor.

Gerard - a symphonic progressive rock group formed in the early 80's by 
keyboardist Toshio Egawa, who had just left Novela. They've been compared to 
Rick Wakeman, Keith Emerson and Genesis. They've released quite a few albums - 
'Gerard' [1984], 'Empty Lie, Empty Dream' [1985], 'Irony of Fate' [1991], 'Save 
Knight By The Knight' [1994], 'Evidence of True Love' [1994; a mini-CD], 'The 
Pendulum' [1996], 'Pandora's Box' [1997], 'Meridian' [1998], 'Live at Marseille' 
[1998], 'The Ruins of a Glass Fortress' [Musea, 2000], 'Sighs of the Water' 
[2002] and 'Power of Infinity' [Musea, 2005].

Heretic - sometimes referred to as Japan's Heldon, and admired by Heldon's 
Richard Pinhas. Heretic were a highly regarded Kyoto progressive electronic rock 
band formed by Hiro Kawahara, ex-Osiris [see below], and influenced by Heldon, 
King Crimson & Ashra. They've put out numerous albums which I haven't heard - 
'Interface' [Sound of Poppy, 1985], 'Escape Sequence' [Belle Antique, 1988], 
'1984-88' [Belle Antique, 1994 - compilation of previous 2 LP's plus an extra 
track], 'Past In Future' [CDR, 1996], 'Yayoi Dream' [Belle Antique, 1996] and 
'Drugging For M' [Belle Antique, 1997].

Haruomi Hosono - starting out as bassist for Apryl Fool, then Happy End [see 
above], Hosono later helped form Yellow Magic Orchestra [see below] and became 
well known as a successful and innovative electronic musician and producer. His 
first solo album was 'Hosono House' [King, 1973], but it reputedly contains 
commercial vocal r&b. He formed a group, Tin Pan Alley, with whom he released a 
few albums of 'tropical' music - 'Caramel Mama' [Panam, 1974?], '2' [Panam, 
1975?], 'Izumi Yukimura Super Generation' [1974?], 'Norio Maeda and Tin Pan 
Alley' [197?] and 'Yellow Magic Carnival' [1975]. During the same period he made 
another solo album in a similar vein to the Tin Pan Alley stuff - 'Tropical 
Dandy' [Panam/Crown, 1975]. This was followed by 'Taian Yoko' [Crown, 1976?], as 
Bon Voyage Co., and 'Paraiso' [Alfa, 1978], as Harry Hosono and the Yellow Magic 
Band. The latter features soon-to-be Yellow Magic Orchestra members on one 
track, and finally introduces some synth, but reputedly doesn't sound much like 
YMO.
'Pacific' [CBS, 1978] came out as by Haruomi Hosono, Shigeru Suzuki and Tatsuro 
Yamashita, all of whom had been in Tin Pan Alley. The music is 'exotica' with 
each musician doing their own tracks, and with YMO's Ryuichi Sakamoto [see 
below] on synths as a session muso. Hosono's first masterpiece is often 
considered to be 'Cochin Moon' [King, 1978], which came out as by Hosono & 
Yokoo. In actuality, [Tadanori] Yokoo [see Toshi Ichiyanagi above] only did the 
cover art, and does not contribute to the music. Sakamoto, Hideki Matsutake 
[YMO, Logic System] and Shuka Nishihara also play on the album. It's a  very 
inventive and exotic electronic work that is highly regarded, and for good 
reason! As tripped-out synth albums go, this is a glittering jewel. Some parts 
are a kind of proto-trance-techno, others hint at Bruce Haack and Kraftwerk with 
their playful cheesiness, and it's thoroughly enjoyable throughout. It has 
recently been reissued on CD by King.
'The Aegean Sea' [CBS, 1979] came out as by Hosono, Takahiko Ishikawa and 
Masataka Matsutohya; it was similar to 'Pacific' conceptually, but sounding a 
bit different again. By this point Hosono was playing with YMO; it was a few 
years until he released another solo album, 'Philharmony' [Alfa/Yen, 1982]. It 
reputedly contains electronic ambient music and 'quirky' songs. Hosono went on 
to release many albums, also making music for anime, TV, movies, video games 
etc. He also started a funky 'technopop'/hip-hop group, Friends of Earth a.k.a. 
F.O.E.#1.

Interface - a heavy progressive band formed in the mid-80's; guitar synth player 
Masahiro Noda had previously been bassist in Azoth [see above]. At first they 
played punky new wave and heavy rock, but soon they incorporated a strong King 
Crimson influence. Noda and stick player Kouji Ishii played on the Heretic album 
'Drugging For M'. Drummer Katsuyori Aihara is also in progressive rock band 
Benikarin. They've released at least 3 albums including 'Interface' [199?], 'II' 
[199?] and 'III' [Mellow, 2000].

Akira Ito - a former member of the Far East Family Band [see above], who 
embarked on a solo career making what has been described as 'floating 
electronics' using analogue synths, and sometimes guitar, bass, drums and choral 
vocals. 'Inner Light Of Life' [1978], 'Akira Ito' [1981] and 'Hiisurutokoro No 
Tenshi' [1982; soundtrack] were followed by 'Mugenko' [Nippon Columbia, 1982], 
which includes piano, violin, guitar, bass [from Keiju Ishikawa, who played on 
Hiro Yanagida's debut album - see above] and synth. Other albums include 'Mind 
Music' [King, 1983], 'Bosatu' [King, 1984] and 'Japanesque' [King, 1984]. I've 
also seen his name spelled Akira Itoh.

Karuna Khyal - an obscure underground avant garde psychedelic outfit, apparently 
associated in some way with Brast Burn [see above], and perhaps the same people. 
They released one album, 'Alomoni 1985' [Voice, 1976], which was musically in a 
broadly similar vein to Brast Burn's album, but more repetitive and with less 
folky references and sometimes hinting at weirder Faust. In some respects it 
lacks the exotic layered depth of Brast Burn, but is also a bit stranger and in 
places, more seriously shamanic. It was reissued on CD in a limited edition by 
Paradigm Discs in 1998.

Kennedy - a progressive rock group consisting of guitarist Mitsuhiko Izumi 
[ex-Dada, After Dinner - see above], keyboardist Juju Kitaoka, saxophonist Kohji 
Itoh and drummer Takashi Yasuda. They released only two albums that I know of. 
Their debut was 'Twinkling Nasa' [King-Nexus, 1986], reputedly 'spacey with 
mellotron'. 'Kennedy!' [Monolith, 1987; reissued by Musea, 1999] is live, and is 
mostly pretty driving stuff, obviously influenced by King Crimson and Mahavishnu 
Orchestra, though with [sometimes cheesy] 80's new wave edges. They even cover a 
Mahavishnu song ['Birds of Fire'], as well as an old Dada track ['The Flying 
Ship']. The album has a great cover, showing a network of golden radiant 
Buddhas!

Kenso - a progressive rock group who are still around now, I think. I haven't 
heard any of their music but it is reputedly a blend of jazz-rock-fusion and 
symphonic prog. Their first album was 'Kenso' [Pam, 1980], followed by 'II' 
[1983], 'III' [1985], 'Music For Five Unknown Musicians' [1986], 'Self Portrait' 
[1987], 'Sparta' [1989], 'Yume No Oka' [1991], 'Sora Ni Hikaru' [1992], 'Live 
92' [1993], 'Inei No Fue (Early Live 2)' [1994], 'Early Live' [1995] and 'In The 
West' [1997 - live].

Kitaro - real name Masanori Takahashi, he was previously in the Far East Family 
Band. After that group broke up, he began a long and successful solo career. In 
general his music could be said to fall squarely in the New Age category - 
however, some of his music is quite enjoyable for fans of mellow ambient cosmic 
synthesizer music, and it sometimes has a distinctly Japanese touch to the 
sound. His first album was 'Astral Voyage' [1978], followed by 'Oasis' [1979], 
one of his better albums. A string of other albums followed, such as 'Full Moon 
Story' [1979], 'Silk Road Vol. 1 & 2' [1980], 'Silk Road Suite' [1980], 'In 
Person Digital' [1980], 'Tunhuang/Tonko' [1981], 'Ki' [1981] and many more up to 
the present day. I believe he has also worked on soundtracks.

Kousokuya - a 'psychedelic inner-space rock' group formed in the late 70's. They 
took a while to record an album, '1st' [PSF, 1990]. I don't know of any other 
albums except a collaboration with Masayoshi Urabe [who's known for doing pretty 
full-on noisy stuff with saxophone and objects] - 'The Dark Spot' [PSF, year?]. 
I've heard one track by them from the 'Tokyo Flashback 2' PSF sampler, which was 
basically trudging, chaotic downer acid rock with fuzz bass and guitar all over 
the place, although mellower and spacier at the beginning. I imagine Terry 
Brooks & Strange might have sounded like this after 10 bong hits too many!

Lacrymosa - these guys played a mostly sedate form of RIO that leans towards 
chamber music, but with a bit of an avant-garde edge. They're often compared to 
Univers Zero. They released several albums that I know of, 'Lacrymosa' [1984], 
'Budbear' [1984], 'Gishin Onki' [1985] and 'Joy Of The Wrecked Ship' [1994].

Madorami - a pre-Bi Kyo Ran group [see above]. Their album 'The Hardest Live 
'76' [label? year?] is apparently mostly King Crimson covers with a few 
originals.

Magdalena - a song-based progressive rock group influenced by UK symphonic prog; 
not to be confused with the Basque group of the same name. They made one album, 
'Magdalena' [Musea, 1987]. They broke up in 1988, and vocalist Megumi Tokuhisa 
joined Teru's Symphonia [see below].

Maher Shalal Hash Baz - a cult 'avant-psychedelic' underground band centered 
around guitarist/vocalist Tori Kudo. From the little I've heard they sound 
pretty sloppy, half-baked and uninspired, with the occasional shimmer of 
something beautiful. Their style has all kinds of elements to it and can't be 
easily summed up. Some people attribute genius to this group - I think such 
people would probably attribute genius to a child's crayon scrawls if they were 
passed off as the work of an adult avant-garde artist. Maybe I'm being too 
unkind - but I wouldn't hesitate to make the same comments about supposed genius 
when referring to ultra-crap group Reynols. According to PSF, "call Maher inept 
and you miss the point entirely". Well, so be it...
Their releases include 'M.S.H.B. Vol. 1' [cassette; D's Label, 1985], 'Pass Over 
Musings' [cassette; D's Label, 1985], 'January 14th, 1989 Maher Goes to Gothic 
Country' [Org Records, 1991], 'Return Visit To Rockmass' [3-LP/3-CD; Org 
Records, 1997] and 'From a Summer to Another Summer (An Egypt to Another Egypt' 
[Geographic, 2000]

Mahoujin - this all-instrumental progressive rock group made one album, 
'Babylonia Suite' [1978]. It's apparently a bit like ELP, and features a similar 
[or identical] instrumental line-up.

Kawabata Makoto - guitarist/vocalist from Ankoku Kakumei Kyodotai [see above] 
and later Acid Mothers Temple [see below] and other groups. In 1978 he made his 
first solo album 'Psychedelic Noise Freak' on cassette, reputedly containing 
synthesizer and voice as well as a cover of Kiss's 'Love Gun'! It was made 
available as part of the limited edition 10-CD Makoto