Far East Family Band - Parallel World. 1976 Japan

While Germany is most known for being at the forefront of electronic psychedelic music, Japan certainly had its share of cosmic travelers. One of the best of these groups was Far East Family Band, a band who would gain some stature throughout the world during the latter part of the 1970s. 

Klaus Schulze was one such luminary to be attracted by this large Japanese ensemble. Helping produce their early albums (the first two albums are very similar, the latter of which was re-recorded and sung in English, and other slight variations), Schulze saw an opportunity to promote cosmic rock all over the globe. However, I always felt the debut album/successor tried too hard to be the next Dark Side of the Moon. The instrumental bits are great only to be ruined by sensitive pop ballads - not Far East Family Band's strong suit I'm afraid.

But it all came together on Parallel World. Focusing on their instrumental cosmic sound and pretty much foregoing the pop commercial-oriented songs, the six-piece Far East Family Band unleashed a gem that easily could have found itself on the Kosmische Kouriers label. In fact, the recording comes closest to sounding like the first Cosmic Jokers album with more focus given to the whooshing synthesizers than the guitars (Schulze's influence?). As one can guess, the two keyboard players are featured most prominently, and it's hard to imagine that Far East Family Band actually had two guitarists as well!

The album opens with 'Metempsychosis' (Arzachel anyone?) which is a tribal drum and synthesizer atmospheric backdrop piece that sets the stage for 'Entering' which contains some intense fuzz bass and a ripping guitar sequence among the 12 minutes of keyboard ecstasy. Brilliant, and this is the finest track Far East Family Band has ever recorded! 'Kokoro', thankfully, is a short psych ballad. This is the sort of piece their first albums featured, so one can get a brief whiff of this style. The side long closing title track sounds like a long-lost Galactic Supermarket recording and aptly finishes a masterwork of cosmic progressive space rock.

Ownership: CD: 2009 Super Fuji. Purchased new online upon release. Fine mini-LP with the first press cover and original poster. One has to be very careful when looking for reissues of this title. There are only 2 legitimate presses that exist, as I write this. There are numerous pirate editions, so be careful!

3/3/01 (Gnosis) 

Far East Family Band - Tenkujin. 1977 Japan

There were a handful of record labels from America in the 1970s who tried desperately to bring what was happening over in Europe over to these shores. All without exception were met with apathy and commercial failure. Peters International probably had the best go at it via their thriving import business, but even they didn't really do all that well here. While there's always been a dedicated fan base on our shores, and especially a large following for the bigger name British groups, progressive rock / Krautrock - or what was once known as Euro Rock (you'll still see this term used by the older generation of US record dealers) - is just not something that captured the nation at large. Why this is, I really cannot say. As I - of course - am one that was most enamored, even at a young age. But the masses can be pretty dumb'd down sad to say. Enter the All Ears label, a California based concern, that may have been indeed the last great hope during the original LP era. Unfortunately for Tony Harrington and team, their arrival came at the tail end of the progressive rock movement, and many of the marquee names they signed, were indeed well past their prime. And All Ears met the same fate as the others: Boarded up and remembered only by a loyal few.

That paragraph sets us up for Tenkujin. Far East Family Band had just released their best album - by far in this author's opinion - with Parallel World, only to disappoint with Tenkujin. As you will often read from others, just because it's disappointing, doesn't mean it isn't any good. In fact, if you like earlier Far East Family Band albums, then Tenkujin might sound quite comfortable. They have reverted back to this sort of dazy Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon sound, and since I consider that album dull (I'm not alone here), then certainly a copycat isn't going to delight either. Still there's plenty of wonderful phased guitar, synthesizers, and even mellotron to enjoy. The vocals parts are where the music drags. And on the title track, it gets a bit late 70s lounge like, where one expects a hairy chested Paul Anka to take over the microphone.

Ownership: LP: 1979 All Ears (USA). Single sleeve. Light blue vinyl purchased many years ago (from a local record show I think). The original was pressed in both Japan and also here in the States in 1977. Album comes with a lyric insert, with the flip side containing a letter from label owner Tony Harrington detailing his experience with Far East Family Band. All good stuff. The images you see are this exact copy as we just added the entry to Discogs.

new entry; 1/19/22