kimio mizutani: a path through haze

180 gram vinyl reissue of this ultra-rare '70s Japanese rock album. Kimio Mizutani was the guitarist in the excellent Japanese freak-out group, Love Live Life + 1 and this reissue is of his first solo album from 1971. Mizutani plays electric and "folk" guitar and leads a largish ensemble (bass, drums, organ, Moog and vocals) through what is widely-regarded as one of the true psychedelic masterpieces of the '70s Japanese scene. Sensitive interludes (accompanied by the Toyama String Quartet and the Etoh Wood Quartet), tasteful nods to progressive/fusionist extension and a lovely, hovering psych guitar from Mizutani dominate proceedings. A nice merger of hard rock conceptualization and the complexities that would evolve from it -- and, until now, almost impossible to hear within the confines of western society.