Exposé Online banner

Various Artists — Tokyo Symphonic Syndrome
(Belle Antique 9464, 1994, CD)

by Mike McLatchey, 1994-10-01:

Tokyo Symphonic Syndrome Cover art Japanese progressive compilations are always an interesting listen, and this one's no exception — a collection of groups that never made an album but performed live in Tokyo in what sounds like the early 80s. The Made in Japan Session band is up first, with their "Babylonia," a lush and rich symphonic track that immediately moves into high gear with a brilliant Kit Watkins like keys solo. Moving through upbeat and mellow phases, this is a great way to start off this collection — dynamic emotional, and compelling. Time Unit's track "The Clap" starts out with a Crimson like feel — similar in style to bands like Bi Kyo Ran, Arachnoid, or Shylock, with picked angular chords over a solid rhythm base. This long track shows Crimson influence in various ways, especially in the Larks' Tongues era, and moves in various phases from driving Ain Soph like jams to mellow atmospheric parts. This one grows on you over listens. Aquapolis' self titled suite is the compilation's gem, although unfortunately the sound quality gets a bit hissy throughout it. While it almost sounds like it was pieced together posthumously, the 15 minutes works well as a suite. This is a very picturesque track, one of the most lush and vivid I have heard. The bubbling, twittering intro is very effective, giving a very good underwater impression. The music moves from spacey to upbeat back to Vangelis like melodic synth over its course, and it works great. I'd like to hear more by this group. Green's "Miyako" is possibly a distillation of the previous three into five or six minutes, a dense web of progressive with a decidedly Italian flavor to it similar to Kenso — complex, innovative, and surprising.

by Peter Thelen, 1996-03-01:

The Japanese symphonic rock scene didn't really pick up steam until the mid-80s, at least as far as record releases were concerned. Numerous bands existed prior to that time but were generally ignored by the Japanese labels, many releasing only demo tapes or flexi-discs. A few of the uncompromising outfits (like Shingetsu, for example) were picked up by majors, but quickly dropped when their albums didn't sell well, while others, like Novela, had to moderate their albums with more commercially viable material. The CD release Tokyo Symphonic Syndrome on Belle Antique attempts to document the studio recordings of four of Tokyo's most uncompromising bands who never made it to a proper album release. The Made In Japan session band is first up, a four-piece featuring members of Outer Limits and two other bands in a special studio side-project from 1981, and the only track on this compilation featuring vocals. Next up is Time Unit, featuring Takeshi Naganuma who would later go on to Lacrymosa and Golden Avant Garde; their contribution, the heavily Crimson influenced "The Clap" was originally released on a flexi in 1982. Aquapolis offers their "Aquapolis Suite," a sixteen-minute epic from mid-1981 that has never seen release in any form until now. Likewise with Green, offering the collection's shortest track at six minutes, "Miyako" exhibits a high degree of originality, fusing intense ELP like keyboards with an almost-Magma-esque rhythm section. Since most of the material here was taken from old tapes or flexis, the sound quality tends to be a little substandard, but is more than made up for by the inspired performances.

Filed under: New releases , Issue 9 , 1994 releases

Related artist(s): Various Artists

More info

Latest news

2020-03-24
Bill Rieflin RIP – The sad news reaches us today of Bill Rieflin's death. Rieflin was best known as a drummer in bands ranging from post-punk to industrial to indie-rock to progressive rock, including work with The Blackouts, Ministry, Nine Inch Nails, Swans, Land, and King Crimson. Rieflin had been battling cancer for several years, and succumbed to it on March 24. He was 59. » Read more

2020-03-17
Cruise to the Edge and Seaprog 2020 Festivals Postponed – The worldwide outbreak of the novel coronavirus has started to produce casualties in the music world, and festivals are not immune. We've had word that both the Cruise to the Edge (originally slated for March 27 - April 1) and Seaprog (originally June 5-7) have been postponed to later dates, with those dates to be announced. » Read more

2020-03-06
McCoy Typer RIP – Word reaches us today of the passing of one of the most influential pianists in the history of jazz, McCoy Tyner. His tenure with John Coltrane in the early 60s includes some of the most treasured recordings of the era, including My Favorite Things and A Love Supreme. After leaving Coltrane's group, he had a long and successful solo career. He was 81. » Read more

2020-02-18
Jon Christensen RIP – Word reaches us today of the passing of Norwegian drummer Jon Christensen, a musician whose sensitive playing did much to help define the atmospheric sound of ECM jazz recordings. His work with Jan Garbarek, Bobo Stenson, Terje Rypdal, and many more was sensitive and varied, adapting to a wide variety of styles while maintaining a distinct identity of its own. Christensen was 76. » Read more

2020-01-21
Gong Announces UK Tour for 2020 – Having spent the last few years touring the world, including dates in Japan with psych legend Steve Hillage, multiple headline European tours and festivals, America’s Cruise to the Edge festival, a South America headline tour, and a headline performance at Tomorrow Festival in China, the band have won the hearts of both traditional and modern Gong fanbases. During this live journey, Gong has delved further into the truly psychedelic, exploratory, and mind-expanding side of the music. » Read more

More news

Previously in Exposé...

Tim Burness - Finding New Ways to Love – Tim Burness is an English neo-progressive composer who has existed under the threshold of most music consumers’ radar. The childlike toy count into the first piece, “Open Man,” is an...  (2005) » Read more

Howard Riley & Keith Tippett - Interchange – A rare live duet performance from December 1993 was captured on tape between two of the foremost jazz pianists and improvisers in the world. Riley and Tippett had collaborated twice before, taking...  (2003) » Read more

Brand X - The X-Files: A 20 Year Retrospective – The first four Brand X albums set a standard for fusion that still exists more than 20 years later. Unfortunately many of the albums that followed didn’t measure up to the band’s...  (2000) » Read more

Osada Vida - Uninvited Dreams – Poland is bursting with talented groups these days and I’d put this quartet near the top of that list. Their sound is similar to countrymen Riverside in that they can delve into heavy duty rock,...  (2011) » Read more

Julian Cope - Krautrocksampler – The British publication Krautrocksampler is here in its second edition. Running to 143 pages, it sports a few photos, and comes trimmed with sundry color reproductions of record covers from the period...  (1997) » Read more

Random review

Listen & discover

They rock in opposition of...

More recommendations
The Seventeenth Dream of Dr. Sardonicus Festival 2019

Print issues