Dragon King (1981)
Picked this one up at an estate sale last week, and it's the first Kitajima album for me to hear outside of Benzaiten which is reviewed below.
A1 starts off with some disco strings and Japanese instruments. Closer to a novelty act than the seriousness of Benzaiten. The track improves though with some world fusion sounds. A2 is a highlight featuring some excellent Shakuhachi (Japanese flute).
Then it's time to pay the bills lol. The next two tracks sound more like Peaches & Herb with Japanese traditional instruments sometimes used to supplement. There's the difference between 1976 and 1981 right there. No bueno.
B1 is a return to form and, like A2, is a highlight mixing jazz fusion with Japanese culture. Then the poppy vocals reappear for the rest. I think what Kitajima was trying to achieve was a noble pursuit. However, the mix and match of styles is hokey at best. It's way too commercially oriented for fusion fans to take seriously. And it certainly wasn't going to find its way onto FM radio either. A failed experiment.
Source: 1981 Arista (LP)
5/21/26 (review)
Benzaiten (1976)
For the CDRWL I featured some extremely rare albums by Toshiaki Yokota (Primitive Community) and Rock Joint Biwa (Fulukotofumi). Kitajima's debut album fits squarely in the same mold. This is truly a world fusion - a melting pot of Western rock and Japanese indigenous music. Very few have pulled it off so well as Kitajima does here. Either they fall prey to new age sappiness, or worse, move towards amateurish exploitation. This is a serious work, and the type of rock influenced world music that still hasn't been explored much at all. I for one would like to hear more.
Ownership: 1976 Antilles (LP). Acquired in 1990.
1990; 2/23/11 (review)
5/21/26 (new entry)
No comments:
Post a Comment