Notes

---

Size: 119 MB
Bitrate: 256
mp3
Ripped by: ChrisGoesRock
Artwork Included
Source: Japan 24-Bit Remaster

This is without a doubt the best album FAR EAST FAMILY BAND has ever done. Unlike other albums where the band focused mainly on ballads influenced by PINK FLOYD, on "Parallel World" they decided to merge the prog rock style of the time with electronic music in the vein of Klaus SCHULZE. And just like their previous album, "Nipponjin", this album was also produced by SCHULZE, and you could swear he actually played on the album (he didn't). All the synth duties here are Fumio Miya[&*!#]a (who also played guitar and sang), Akira Ito, and Masanori Takasaki (who we all know as the future New Age star of the '80s and '90s, that is KITARO).

For "Parallel World", the band went to England to record at Richard Branson's Manor Studios to strike a deal with Virgin Records. Unfortunately Virgin rejected the album (their loss), so it was left released only in Japan (with two different album covers, depending what you got, mines is the lesser known one with the peering eyes cover). About these two different album covers, I am unable to determine if what I own is a reissue, but probably is. Let's say this new electronic direction for the band was an excellent move as they produced their ultimate masterpiece. Here you get "Metempsychosis" which shows the band in a more experimental setting, complete with synth drones and percussion. "Entering" and "Times" will fool you for SCHULZE's own works, Shizuo Takasaki's drumming often reminds me of Harald Großkopf (WALLENSTEIN member who was often found playing on SCHULZE's albums), and it's packed with same kind of space electronic effects found on a SCHULZE album. It's the presence of guitar (from Fumio Miya[&*!#]a and Hirohito Fukushima) that separates this from a SCHULZE album. Then you have "Kokoro", which harkens back to their earlier works. This is basically a slow ballad, sung in Japanese that could easily fit on "The Cave: Down to the Earth". This is the only song like this on "Parallel World".

And then you get the 30 minute title track that is just so amazing that it totally justifies the five star rating I give this album! Here the band goes on a lengthy jam, with the Akira Fukakusa's bass dominating with tons of killer synths, lots of great spacy string synths and Moog. After about halfway through this piece, the bass and drums gives away to straigh-up synth experiments. Somewhere you hear some chanting and references to Zen Buddhism. There are some truly mindblowing use of Mellotron that pop up on occasions, and this one synth solo I am pretty sure none other than KITARO is responsible for. I can't believe this album, it's hard to believe that a guy whose later music is often dismissed as New Age fluff (KITARO, that is) is on this album. Truly a wonderful album and if the description of this album sounds good to you, find a copy.

Please deliberate on what I've mentioned above for listening to Japanese psychedelic rock. This Parallel World was released in 1976, just the same year (or a year later) BRAST BURN's Debon was released. Nobody knows if Debon could influence on this work or not, but Parallel World produced and mixed by Klaus Schulze (a Krautrocker) is one of the pioneers of Japanese Krautrock genre without any suspicion. Around this work, on the basis, there are dry electronic wind, chorus and voices with hoarseness, plaintive and melancholic melodies - that can remind us OKURASHOTEN (Ege Bamyasi by CAN) - shot by Fumio Miyasita or Masanori Takahashi, two multi-players.

(Anyway, they've got to be famous Japanese musical healers and I consider their origin should be here.) Of course there is an exceptional song like Kokoro, with typical Japanese pop or enka flavour plus slight electronic psychedelia. However basically Metempsychosis has exotic percussive sounds with spacey electronic noises, and in the next Entering / Times, spiritual space riffs with heavy keyboard and rhythm section, following over four minute stardust chandelier. These sounds and styles should be, in my opinion, not occasional products. (For example, those by SHINKI CHEN can be called as junkie products and therefore they should be lazy and slack - ah, no doubt I feel good as well.) FAR EAST FAMILY BAND did construct them with their rigid intention and purpose...I always feel. The last suite Parallel World is absolutely suitable for the signboard of Japanese Krautrock. Strict, rhythmical and palpable sounds produced with electric guitars, keyboards, and percussion can push us into far east psychedelic scene. [progarchives.com]

01. Metempsychosis (4:47)
02. Entering / Times (15:54)
03. Kokoro (9:11)
04. Parallel World (30:08)
I. Amanezcan
II. Origin
III. Zen
IV. Reality
V. New Lights
VI. In The Year 2000