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Hiro Yanagida - Hiro Yanagida & His Group (1971)

Track listing:
  1. The Butcher 2:56
  2. The Murder In The Midnight 8:07
  3. Fantasia 4:58
  4. Good Morning People 3:03
  5. Always 2:43
  6. The Skyscraper 42ndf 3:56
  7. My Dear Mary 2:10
  8. Melancholy 4:25

Notes

Japan 24-Bit Remaster

Keyboard player and prime mover Hiro Yanagida began his musical life in Ground Sounds outfit The Floral, before founding the considerably cooler Apryl Fool in 1968. However, Yanagida is best known for his contributions to the so-called ‘Super Session’ period of 1970-72, during which time he made a couple of flawed-but-interesting solo LPs and contributed to a whole slew of experimental Japanese albums, including Foodbrain’s A SOCIAL GATHERING project, Shinki Chen’s solo LP SHINKI CHEN & HIS FRIENDS, Masahiko Satoh’s marvellous AMALGAMATION album, and the stupendous and original free soul of LOVE WILL MAKE A BETTER YOU, by Love Live Life +1.

The keyboardist also found time to contribute a couple of tunes to some Tokyo Kid Brothers plays, and MATIHEDEYOU SYOWOSUTEYO by J.A. Caesar. Nowadays, Yanagida’s debut solo LP MILK TIME suffers mightily in comparison to its obvious inspirational blueprint, Frank Zappa’s HOT RATS. But there are still some excellent excessive Jean Luc Ponty violin moments from guest Hiroki Tamaki, especially on the weighty title track. His second self-titled album was considerably less interesting, though, even containing a daft doowop sung by Joey Smith of Speed, Glue & Shinki.