When hearing Lupus, the two terms that came to mind were New Age and psychedelic freakout. Now there's something you probably hadn't thought of before. Of course the former is something of a response to radicalism in music. But in its earliest days, before it had become strictly the music of bored housewives at the spa, New Age promised a cultural and generational mix of sounds. And you get that with Minoru Muraoka almost by default. But what of this freakout aspect? Well consider that most of the instruments here are wired up to some sort of wah wah pedal, and the music takes on a trance like status. There's only the electric bass that represents the West, but it's a key performer driving the music in multiple exciting ways. A very unique blend, one that I hadn't heard prior to this album.
The second side more or less drops any kind of rock elements, though still is quite fascinating. The opening track with the theatrical female voice recalls J. A. Seazer, whereas the other 2 settle things down with some meditative classical Japanese music.
Muraoka was already 50 years old at the time of this release, meaning he was already a suffering young man during the terrors of World War II. Clearly an enlightened soul, though it's not likely he was into rock so much as he enjoyed the sounds that were emanating from his beloved instruments of old.
So there you have it, a New Age psych freakout for side 1, and a more traditional side 2. Perhaps most interesting is that it was recorded live in front of what is likely to have been an older crowd, who responded quite enthusiastically to the entire affair. Historically speaking, Lupus was way ahead of its time. Worth checking out.
Like most Japanese music from the early 70s that mixed with rock and jazz, Lupus is painfully obscure and rare. These are albums that are still being discovered even within Japan itself. No reissues exist. This would be one worth pursuing, as even though it's not a stone classic, it is entirely unique and satisfying.
This was from the last batch sent in from The AC back in early 2015. His original notes to us were: "Shakuhachi master and band leader Muraoka recorded scores of records over the years, covering all kinds of ground, with a focus on integrating the traditional Japanese shakuchachi flute into modern western-style music. His most interesting period (from a rock/jazz listener's perspective) unsurprisingly coincided with the experimental New Rock boom in Japan circa the early/mid 70s. His most well-known works are from earlier on in this timeframe, when he released albums like "Osorezan" and "Bamboo", which have long been popular with the rare groove/DJ crowd. But after this he developed a darker, more experimental streak, releasing a string of albums with his New Dimension Group where he started to twist and mutate traditional Japanese music to his own ends, leading to fascinating efforts such as "Jigen" (1972) and "So" (1973). However, these were still probably too traditional to catch the ear of many prog/psych listeners. This all changed in 1974, when he unleashed "Lupus", a live concert hall recording (as many of his works were) that takes his earlier concepts and finally goes off the deep end with them. The eponymous side-long first track is an immense piece of hybrid far eastern psych/prog/jazz-rock which, aside from the hypnotically pulsing electric bass, amazingly consists of nothing but traditional Japanese instruments and drums, although you'd scarcely know it. Everything is put through the fuzz/wah blender, creating sounds and textures more reminiscent of electric organ and fuzzed out guitars. It starts out tranquilly, but then builds and builds in intensity, climaxing in a totally frenzied freakout conclusion that will leave your brain in a puddle-like state. Awe inspiring. The second side is unfortunately much more traditional, consisting of three shorter pieces, although the quality is still high. But that first side... Wow. Deserves to be much more well known."
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