| # | Artist | Song (click to play) | Album | Year | CD label |
| 1 | Cosmos Factory | Maybe | An Old Castle of Transylvania | 1973 | Nippon Columbia |
| Great psych prog with soaring guitar leads over a lethatgic trippy backdrop. Some things about this album remind me of Cream's Disraeli Gears, like the vocals which sometimes are reminiscent of Jack Bruce's mellower side, and also the highly reverberated guitars. | |||||
| 2 | Ain Soph | The Swan Lake | Quicksand - Special Live - volume 3 | 1994 | Marquee/Belle Antique |
| This album is live recordings from 1986-1989. The band is instrumental prog/fusion with Canterbury influences. I am not sure how much of this material might be non-album material, but, this CD is well worth having if you like this style. Comparable to Kenso. The sound quality of this live album is excellent. | |||||
| 3 | After Dinner | Glass Tube | After Dinner | 1984 | ReR - Recommended Records |
| Unusual folky avant-progressive which is centered around the cute little girl vocals of Haco. Most of the instrumentation is acoustic with dozens of percussive instruments. The CD of this album is called _Editions_ and also contains more than 35 minutes of additional live concert material. It is nice to listen to something like this every once in a while. Quirky but not abrasive. | |||||
| 4 | Marble Sheep and the Run-down Sun's Children | Melted Moon | Marble Sheep and the Run-down Sun's Children | 1989 | Alchemy |
| Somewhat simplistic and repetitive psych that is sometimes a little punkish on the heavier tunes. About half or more of the album is nice laid back meditative psych jams with flute and guitar, like this song, while the rest is more garage/punk oriented. This album is extremely limited having only had a 500 CD issue many years ago. It has recently been re-issued on LP - but, they only made 100 of these ! | |||||
| 5 | Kazumi Watanabe | Melancho | Spice of Life | 1987 | Gramavision |
| Kazumi is closer to straight fusion than prog, but, he is an important figure in the circle of progressive musicians. This album is in a trio format with Bill Bruford on drums and Jeff Berlin (from the legendary Bruford albums of the late 70's) on bass. I find Kazumi's style akin to the American jazz/fusion styles of guitarist like Larry Carlton, Steve Khan, and Pat Metheny. | |||||
| 6 | Outer Limits | The Scene of Pale Blue (excerpt) | The Scene of Pale Blue | 1987 | Made in Japan / Musea |
| Very good Crimson and Genesis inspired symphonic with lots of violin. This album is much better than "A Boy Playing...". The vocals still leave much to be desired, though. The album cover is very beautiful and intricate. | |||||