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Happy Family — 4037
(Cuneiform Rune 4037, 2025, DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2025-08-06

4037 Cover art

Yes, it’s been more than ten years since Happy Family released Minimal Gods, which featured the band regrouping after a sixteen-year hiatus to produce their best work to date. But that renewed activity was short-lived, and the members burned out and split up — given the intensity of their music, it’s easy to see how carrying on could seem like an insurmountable burden. But a little prodding from Cuneiform Records enticed the quartet back into the rehearsal studio, and we’re fortunate to get this four-song EP as a result. Each of the four members contributed one composition, but there’s a remarkable continuity between the pieces, showing four musicians totally on compatible wavelengths. Takahiro Izutani (guitar) gives us “Pygmalion,” with a keyboard motif that repeats insistently while the rest of the band executes an impressive array of rhythmic twists and turns around it. Instrumental progressive rock just doesn’t get much better than this. Bassist Hidemi Ichikawa is next up with “Hypocracy,” an intense tune with a metal-like chugging guitar riff, heavy organ, and plenty of rhythmic complexity. Another winner. “The Flying Man” was written by keyboardist Kenichi Morimoto, and is built around a piano part full of rhythmic chords and unexpected accents, with a moody middle section of quiet intensity and a fiery finale reprising the opening section. It finishes off with “Itchu,” credited to drummer Keiichi Nagase. For this one, the musicians each recorded their parts separately rather than working in the studio together, and it does have a somewhat looser feel, more improvisational, but still possessing that Happy Family magic. It’s only four tracks and 21 minutes, but it’s a welcome return for a great band. I hope they can find a balance of their musical endeavors that works so that they can create more music — maybe even before the end of the decade!

Filed under: New releases, 2025 releases

Related artist(s): Happy Family

More info
http://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.com/album/4037

 

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