A reissue of the second FLOWER TRAVELLIN’ BAND album, originally issued by Atlantic Records in Japan in 1971. Satori is a conceptual hard rock/psych album driven by furious guitar licks which erupt and explode over the harmonic heart beat of the drums and bass. YAMANAKA’s banshee-like vocal style turned him into an occidental Iggy Pop or Robert Plant while the band itself was rapidly becoming Japan's answer to Led Zeppelin. Satori is a huge album in every way. From power chords to Eastern-tinged North African six-string freak-outs and crashing tom-toms, the band flexes its collective muscle from start to finish. In short, this is a real rock classic of the type they simply don't make any more.
LP $28.25
02/17/2023
***Life Goes On Records present a reissue of the third album by Japanese rock band Flower Travellin' Band, Made In Japan, originally released in 1972. After meeting Lighthouse at the Expo '70 festival in Osaka, Flower Travellin' Band were invited to visit Canada. While there, the group recorded Made In Japan with Lighthouse keyboardist Paul Hoffert helping produce. Due to George Wada becoming ill with tuberculosis, Canadian drummer Paul DeLong plays on some tracks on this album. The lyrics were written by Yoko Nomura , the wife of the band's manager, who translated conversations she had with the group and their ideas into English. "Heaven and Hell" was written by Yamanaka in Japanese and she translated it. The song "Hiroshima" is a re-imagining of "Satori Part III" from their previous album Satori (1971). The introductory first track is an advertisement for a concert at Stanley Park Stadium by Flower Travellin' Band, Emerson, Lake & Palmer , Bob Seger, and Teegarden & Van Winkle, with a clip of "Lucky Man" playing in the background.
LP $31.25
08/12/2022
***This record is a nice summary of some of the band's earlier work—when infamous bassist Moriaki Wakabayashi was still playing before he went and hijacked a plane (he was a member of the "Yodogō Group" of the radical New Left Japan Communist League's "Red Army Faction" that carried out the hijacking of Japan Airlines Flight 351 in 1970, ultimately forcing the plane to fly to North Korea, where Wakabayashi currently resides). A seemingly endless sonic flame-throwers of phased white noise streak across your inner landscape, as stupidly loud and overly-backlit lead guitar emissions perpetrated by a perpetually be-shaded longhair pummel the similarly be-shaded but barely adequate musical backing that sags and creaks under the wattage. Contemporary groups like the Wooden Shjips would have killed for it. Occasionally, lead vocals of a singular variety are provided by said be-shaded mad axeman, whose paranoid personality ensures all songs are delivered in a voice of querulous subterranean gargling from beyond the valley of Alan Vega. A great collection of LRD tracks with a good level of cohesiveness that brings everything you would expect from this band to the table.
LP $29.25
TBD