Very nice. Some other Japanese bands I was into from the 70s/80s are Sadistic Mika Band and Cassiopia (Jazz funk rather than Prog). Another interesting Japanese band is Sokoninaru.
This is am amazing band and a wonderful album incorporating their stylistically imaginative chord progressions combined with very melodic & intricate arrangements. I first heard about them in 2000 after a mindblowing YES concert and receiving a free CD compilation of ProgFest that included the first song from this LP. The entire album is perfect which blends many elements reminiscent of more popular artist. It was the perfect intro for the ride home coming off of YES LIve!!!! Been a huge fan ever since.
Coincidentally i've been listening to a lot of Japanese fusion from the 70s and 80s, too. Some others to check out: Hiromasa Suzuki, Jiro Inagaki, Masayoshi Takanaka, Ryo Kawasaki
I've been getting into this band for a month or so (partly because of a friend who can't stop shilling it *cough cough*) and I can say it's pretty good. I'm not much of a prog fan (though that doesn't mean I don't like it; I've been getting into a few other Japanese bands that are technically considered prog [?] a bit more lately), but I can safely say that Sparta is one of their best albums. Way to pick the song that goes hard lmao (and apparently, that friend also said that "Bifuka" was actually a more chill song live, because the drummer wasn't going as hard...) Personally, "The Shadow over Innsmouth" is my favorite song of theirs, when it comes to Sparta. Besides that and "Bifuka", "Good Days, Bad Days", "Miskatonic", and "PM" are also a few, but the whole album doesn't really have any low points for me. If you want to check them out more, I'd recommend Yume no Oka or Kenso II (Yume no Oka was actually the first album of theirs I checked out, so maybe I'm biased for that one lol. II is good also, though)
Nice that you liked Kenso, Dean. Their scales are often pentatonic, very Japanese, which I like a lot. Building from your own native soundscapes tends to give satisfactory and interesting results rather than trying just to copy the big names of prog. And their sound is very symphonic, all the instruments support the composition not trying to stand out separately. There's a lot to explore with Kenso but maybe their best known piece Sora Ni Hikaru, the opening track of their second album (1982) is a good starting point. You can also watch it live from this great 2003 performance ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Hm1YZtcvzRM.html starting from 1:12:46. The band leader Yoshihisa Shimizu performs always in doctor's oufit because he (still) is a practicing dentist and does this great music just for the love for it.
Thank you for requesting KENSO. Check out another Japanese fusion progressive rock band Cross wind. Song name is “Soshite Yume no Kuni e” from same name album. You can hear the animal barking by guitar.
Glad to see someone else point this out! Ponty and Kenso are my two favorite bands/artists, Jean Luc really also knows how to write haunting melodies, as do kenso!
![Kenso "Bifuka" [Japanese Fusion Band] (reaction episode 450)](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
