| # | Artist | Song (click to play) | Album | Year | CD label |
| 1 | Ain Soph | Natural Selection | A Story of Mysterious Forest | 1980 | Nexus / King Records |
| The album starts of almost in a heavy fusion ala Mahavishnu. But, soon, the album takes on it's more representative sound which is more akin to the melodic early Camel style. The band is basically in a Canterbury fusion style that is entirely instrumental. This is possibly my favorite of their albums, or perhaps _Hat and Field_. | |||||
| 2 | J.A. Caesar | ? (third song) | Kokkyou Junreika | 1973 | Victor / Belle Antique |
| Atmospheric trippy psych. The male vocals are sometimes purposefully rough and effective. The female vocals are beautiful and melodic. Great soaring guitar leads. I feel compelled to play this album often because of it's great atmospherics and laid back weirdness. The guitar style sometimes reminds me of early Ted Nugent, circa Amboy Dukes. | |||||
| 3 | Social Tension | Macbethia - Overture | Macbethia | 1988 | Made In Japan (LP only?) |
| Excellent key-board trio that sounds like a precursor of Ars Nova. There is a mix of classic 70's keyboard sounds and new digital synths. Almost entirely instrumental with a smattering of vocals. | |||||
| 4 | Magdalena | Anna-Magdalena | Magdalena | 1989 | Musea |
| Nice symphonic/neo-prog music with good female vocals. They only released this single album, but, members of this band went on to Pageant, Teru's Symphonia and Mugen. | |||||
| 5 | Outer Limits | The Silent Valley | A Boy Playing The Magical Bugle Horn | 1989 | Made in Japan (LP only?) |
| Good symphonic that is somewhat marred by absolutely rediculous vocals. Luckily, there is lots of instrumental music that is led by beautiful violin melodies. They appear to have 4 albums of which this is the last. | |||||
| 6 | Kimio Mizutani | Sail in the Sky | A Path Through Haze | 1971 | P-Vine |
| Instrumental psych/prog. Much of the music reminds me of Spirit, especially the album _Clear_ largely because of the hammond organ and fuzz guitar. Even though this is Kimio's band, and he is the guitarist, the keyboardist is the most talented of the bunch. The keyboardist is clearly influenced by the Canterbury sound - probably by Soft Machine, Egg, and Caravan. On one song, where the band is doing their obligatory mimic of 21st Century Schizoid Man (as nearly every prog band did at the time), the keyboardist performs some very cool Keith Tippett-like piano craziness, to throw a little Wake of Poseidon or Lizard into the mix. This is an interesting album. My only complaint is that the guitarist sounds like he was brain-dead half of the time. | |||||