yamasuki: le monde fabuleux des yamasuki

The Great Thunder present a reissue of Le Monde Fabuleux Des Yamasuki, originally released in 1971. The weirdest exploito-pop attempting to fuse western popular music with folkloristic elements of different origins came from the '60s and early-to-mid-70s. Among tons of more or less entertaining releases a few diamonds could be found and Le Monde Fabuleux Des Yamasuki, the brainchild of French composers Jean Kluger and Daniel Vangarde, is definitely a stand out production in this field. As you may have noticed, this album deals with Yamasuki, some fictional Japanese person about whom Kluger and Vangarde have created a musical concept story with a black-belt judo-master doing all the battle shouts and a female choir, the so called Yamasuki Singers taking the lead vocal duties. All in Japanese of course, with a strange grammar. At least it sounds Japanese, that is all what matters. The music itself is a simmering mixture of typical bloomy pop music of the late '60s with a psychedelic edge, elements of funk in the rhythm department, and some fuzzed-out acid rock tunes thrown in for the good measure. The Eastern flavor might just be an illusion due to the language, but all-in-all, Yamasuki is a beautiful western pop art vision of Japanese music. In fact it sounds and feels like many contemporary bands and projects that combined colorful power pop with a heavier guitar sound and regional peculiarities, which resulted in a simmering sound cocktail with fresh and exciting melodies. Fans of rich melody patterns will get their minds blown by this album. When Latin-based funk and samba rhythms flow beneath a lush vocal arrangement as witnessed in "Okawa", you will certainly jump of joy and dance through your living room like a maniac. Yamasuki is made to abduct you from reality and lead you into some exotic dreams. Well produced, well executed, and with a very original concept.