Deja-Vu - Baroque in the Future. 1988 Japan

It all starts here for keyboard wizard Motoi Sakuraba, the famed video game composer from Japan. His debut solo album Gikyokuonsou is among the very best progressive rock albums from the fertile late 80s and early 90s Japanese scene. Deja-Vu was his rock band before going solo, and with that comes the advantages and pitfalls of a group setting. In general I'm of the mind that the synchronicity of a group usually outweighs the monolithic viewpoint of the individual. But in this case, I have to say the band is something of an encumbrance. Sakuraba is the primary songwriter, and fortunately most of the album is made up of instrumental work. And here Deja-Vu shines, though some of the synth tones are a bit too much late 80s if you know what I mean. One of the best tracks is 'Byzantium', the only song Sakuraba ported over for his debut, and is instantly recognizable. The downside of the album is when the band goes for traditional songwriting. The vocals are weak, and the songs tend to plod without much direction. They appear to be nothing more than a distraction until we can get to another cool instrumental section. So put Deja-Vu somewhere in between Social Tension, Providence, Gerard, and Outer Limits. Very much a product of the late 80s Japanese progressive rock scene. The beautiful cover cinches it as a keeper, but this isn't the best place to start either.

LP: 1988 Made in Japan

This is one I bought real time, and I probably hadn't heard it in 20 years until now (like a lot of my collection unfortunately).

July 22, 2019 update: Sold LP

Motoi Sakuraba - Gikyokuonsou. 1991 Japan

Motoi Sakuraba's career began in the Japanese 80's progressive rock renaissance as the ivory tickler for the little known group Deja-Vu. Gikyokuonsou is his debut solo album which displays his immense talent, not only technically, but as a composer as well. The all instrumental album stays interesting throughout, and there's plenty of tonal color to keep it from monotony. The rhythms tend to be jumpy and staccato oriented, while Sakuraba performs his best piano concertos, seemingly random at that. Sadly this would be his only true progressive rock album, as apparently he landed a choice gig as chief composer of soundtracks for a company specializing in anime, and subsequently released a number of albums in supporting roles to games, films, etc... Many of those albums are excellent in their own right, but have a different purpose and aren't consistent for sit-down listening. Despite this local fame, and a second pressing on Musea (France), Gikyokuonsou remains an unknown today. An excellent album that could use some more exposure.

Personal collection
CD: 1991 Made in Japan

Bought the CD not long after it was released. For most of the 90s it was incredibly difficult to find, until Musea reissued it in 1999.

Last listen: June 11, 2016

Mike's List of Criminally Out of Print CDs

OK so now the Top 30 unreissued CDs are out of the way, I think it's time to tackle some CDs that I'd like to see again. This won't be as comprehensive, as if I own some really out of print CD already I won't post it here, as that would take some research to figure out what's gone or not. This is a list of discs I'd really like to see again as I missed them or sold them or whatever. 

1. Edgar Froese - Epsilon in Malaysian Pale Edgar's got a serious penchant for adding graffiti to his old art that's extremely frustrating to his fans and to date I haven't seen a single positive review of the redos of albums like Epsilon and Aqua, which apparently have been techno-fied and modernized and well, just about everything a classic fan doesn't want. I thought I'd read this has to do with conflict with Virgin, but nonetheless I can't think of much worse than dressing up old recordings (although perhaps we'd have to put one point in the Froese column for Green Desert). Anyway unlike Aqua, Epsilon's been out of print for ages and is prohibitively rare and not only that but the Virgin CDs were utterly abysmal sounding. In fact I actually owned this once and then got rid of it for that very reason, keeping a copy of the Brain LP but as these things go, I never listen to it and would do so had I had it on a CD or CD-R. But anyway this is one I don't expect to see despite it being the top one on my list. It's one of the best mellotron and electronics albums ever created, like the soundtrack to a prehistoric vista. 

2. Hatfield & The North - Hatwise Choice This is already out of print apparently but the small boutique outlet who distributed it pushed it outside the realm of viability for overseas customers by adding exorbitant postage and insurance charges (that is it would cost about $30 in the end for one disc). I have no idea if it would have any viability via a US reissue but I'd love to see it as it's a ripping collection of a band who was extraordinary live. Of course, what I'd really like to see is the full shows (for instance the bootleg of 3 BBC sessions that nearly everyone has is really one of the finest live comps of all time), but hey we're getting to fractions of fractions. Maybe I'd be the only left buying a 6 CD anthology of live Hatfield albums but then again maybe that would make paying for insurance reasonable. 

3. Kaipa - Stockholm Symphonie Released in very small quantities in Japan this is not only the best document of Swedish prog band Kaipa but includes some of the best Allmans-inspired guitarwork from Roine Stolt, slightly stretching out some of the comps and giving it all an amazing atmosphere. Just writing about this makes me wanna hear it but I bet 90% of the owners have a boot copy of some sort. I say make it a double if there's some more unreleased live material from the band and get it out there again. This is the main argument why they were Sweden's answer to Yes. 

4. Can - The Peel Sessions I expect one day we'll see another round through the Peel Sessions vaults so this is one I'm not terribly worried about, even if it's second only to the magnificent Tago Mago in terms of great Can. Although perhaps someone would have to license it out now such as what we've seen with Soft Machine's Peel Sessions. Would like to see the Gong sessions out again as well and I'm sure there are more I can't think of off hand. 

5. Dan Ar Bras - Douar Nevez, Terre Nouvelle Perhaps the closest the French folk scene ever got to progressive rock and featuring stalwart Magma (and I think Fairport) related musicians in the back up bands, this Hexagone release was always lost in distribution outside of Europe, usually only showing up in catalogs for $25 to $30 when you could find it, in fact it was quite a bit rarer than the Malicorne CDs were. With an LP and rip in hand, it's not terribly crucial, but I like it enough to want an original. His best album by far. 

6. Gwerz - Au Dela The very best work from the short lived French folk band Gwerz, this had a really epic feel I always found that transcended what can be a painfully hard to listen to genre (bombardes aren't to everyone's tastes and certainly not mine). But there's something lyrical, majestic and almost Dylanesque about this at times and I find it mesmerizing. But once I'd heard it it was already too late to find a hard copy. Musea even reissued their first and inferior release so I was hoping this would follow, but alas good Musea releases of any sort seem far and few between these days. 

7. Steve Roach / Vidna Obmana - Circles and Artifacts When doing an ebay sweep a couple years I went one or two items too deep and this was one of them, in fact I have absolutely no idea what I was doing unloading this, I think I wanted to thin up on a massive Steve Roach collection (mostly the first few albums, the guitar releases etc). Anyway I miss it, it was certainly right in line with the drony stuff they were doing around the black box era IIRC. Perhaps too, having it as part of a photo exhibition (nicely done but not really something I ever have time to sit down with) was partly the reason for letting it go, but now it seems to go for about $40 to $50, so I hope one day it gets its own CD release without the frills. 

8. Ragnar Grippe - Sand Bought this when it was released in small quantities only to realize, perhaps later that the CD was defective and a whole spot in the middle of the CD had peeled off killing half the CD. So I suppose I could sit with the original packaging and plop a CD-R inside knowing I paid my dues, but you know that really annoying collector thing just gnaws at you. Cuz this is a really cool pingy, weird synth album that's really like no other, it just has a unique one of a kind atmosphere. But I suppose a stopgap will have to do as I was not only surprised it ever got a CD release, but would be even more so to see it get a second one. 

9. George Harrison - Wonderwall Music With Beatlemania in full fling, this early Harrison instrumental album is one I'm not particularly worried about, I've seen it go in and out of print all the time, it's just that it's always been a bit pricy. But I've always found it so charming and surprisingly good for an album that gets little chat. Who knows maybe a search on Amazon right now would turn this up for a good price, it's included here based on my last search which showed a minimum $50 for a copy. 

10. Motoi Sakuraba - Shining the Holy Ark This is a step down from the first 9 on the list but I wanted to make it an even 10 and it gives me a chance to whine about how hard it is to get Sakuraba CDs outside of Japan. In the video game industry the man's a soundtrack titan but just when you think prog rock is a niche, pair it with video game music and it's like a niche in a niche. Sure, Motoi can get a bit too epic and corny at times, just a little syrupy for my taste, but I love it when he's high energy and spitting out incredible organ riffs over mellotrons and synths (and this comes from a guy who barely can stand most ELP and generally gets bored with keyboard trios). And I think it's just amazing that even to this day his video game soundtracks are prog through and through (such as Star Ocean: The Last Hope). Seriously there's nothing like battling evil with a Hammond B3 playing. Anyway I think Shining was his second released CD and it's not the only one I'd like to see, now that his debut Gikyokuonsou is also OOP as is Beyond the Beyond and maybe a dozen I don't even know.