| # | Artist | Song (click to play) | Album | Year | CD label |
| 1 | Kenso | Umi | Kenso | 1980 | Arcangelo |
| This is Kenso's first album. The CD release has 32 minutes of bonus material, which is just as excellent. The music is a refined mix of symphonic and fusion. One of the best progressive bands from Japan, IMO. Incredible virtuosity, and very beautiful compositions. Lots of very active flute playing throughout, which gives a continuous feeling of adventure and playfulness. | |||||
| 2 | Far East Family Band | Birds flying to the cave | The Cave Down to the Earth | 1974 | TRC |
| Heavily Pink Floyd inspired, but, to my ears, they are just as much influenced by the Moody Blues. The Moodies influence is most evidence in the vocals (not so much on this song, though). The lead vocals are mostly in the Mike Pinder style, with occasional vocal harmonies akin to the Moodies. A very enjoyable album. Tracks from this album and the the album "Far Out" were remixed (and/or re-recorded?) for the FEFB album _Nipponjin_. This band features Kitaro, who has since become one of the most well-known composers of new-age styled music. As far as I know, this album has not been legitimately released on CD, but, the CD bootleg on TRC seems to be readily available (but who knows for how much longer). | |||||
| 3 | Space Circus | Heavy Duty Space Dragon | Fantastic Arrival | 1979 | Made in Japan Records |
| Excellent progressive fusion inspired mostly by Jeff Beck and Jan Hammer band. There is also a strong American fusion sound that reminds me of early Steve Khan and Billy Cobham's 70's solo material- _Magic_ in particular. | |||||
| 4 | Moondancer | BA-RA-SIN-JU | Moondancer | 1979 | Alfa Music |
| Melodic rock/pop with hints of progressivity. I was not too crazy about the album near the beginning, but, found myself liking it much more by the end of the album. There is some good heavy keyboard and guitar lines. Not complex, but, a decent light symphonic album. | |||||
| 5 | Cosmos Factory | Sunday's Happening | A Journey with the Cosmos Factory | 1975 | Toshiba - EMI (LP only, I think) |
| Psych prog that has some similarities to Far East Family Band and Pink Floyd. There are a couple of bits that sound directly influenced by Dark Side of the Moon. There is lots of nice dreamy melodic spaciness with distant guitars. What is interesting too, is the mouth guitar technique used by Joe Walsh and Peter Frampton. What they do is mic the guitar amp, and send the sound through a plactic tube which the guitarist puts in his mouth so that the guitar sound can be modified by the guitarist mouth. I think that Joe Walsh may have been the one to think it up. Some of the music does sound similar to early solo Joe Walsh albums. | |||||
| 6 | Shingetsu | Oni | Shingetsu | 1978 | Marquee/Belle Antique |
| Excellent complex symphonic prog. Vocals in Japanese. There is some Genesis influence, but, the songs are very original. Some members of the band went on to become involved with Outer Limits. | |||||