Customer Reviews

Asia Enso Kai (Live in Tokyo)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I rated the Asia live Moscow disk I lamented that it was the best ASIA live album only because ASIA had not released THIS show, featuring Greg Lake in front of the band at the Budokan in Japan. My, how times have changed! There are dozens of live ASIA albums out now. Some good and some...well, I'll be kind. Enso Kai is THE premier Asia live disk for several reasons.
1. Anyone who was an Asia fan in the early 80's recalls the MTV show this was drawn from...it was an event for the fan; and every ASIA fan from that period has dreamed of its release. Now we have it.
2. The guys are in top form. The untitled acoustic number is "Sketches in the Sunset". Its available on GTR's studio album, but the definitive version of this song is here on the Enso Kai disk.
3. The show displays how wonderfully incestuous the British Progressive movement was, with Lake stepping into Wetton's shoes just as effortlessly as Wetton had stepped into Lake's shoes in King Crimson a decade earlier.

So why only 4 stars? It's missing four songs from the show, nearly 20 minutes of material, including the exquisite "cutting it fine". The exclusion of this material is unforgivable. There was room enough for the material on the disk, and its inclusion would round out the show.

That being said it remains a gem of a disk...will get lots of airplay from me. Certainly more than the Moscow and Nottingham disks from 1990 and more than the horrific "Hallowed Halls" disk (also from the Alpha tour), and the schmaltzy post-Wetton (93+) live disks.

I would recommend purchasing Enso Kai, getting a copy of the bootleg version of the show (good luck) and pasting the missing tracks onto a new CD with the Enso Kai stuff. THEN, you'd have a 5-Star disk to be sure.

This is a live album from Asia's MTV gig in Japan. The thing was, John Wetton left the band a week before the concert, so Greg Lake was brought it. Hearing his amazing voice singing Asia classics here is great. Steve Howe's guitar shines in this performance as well. Not to mention Carl Palmer, the guy is just an amazing drummer. Geoff Downes also adds a great keyboard solo, and overall his keyboards really add to the mix of the album. The entire performance sounds great with the remastering. It only gets four stars as the editing between songs isnt that good, and Greg Lake's voice isnt as good as Wetton's in certain parts. But overall, this is an amazing concert. Recomended to Asia fans.

A live Asia concert broadcast in 12/1983 on MTV and radio in which Greg Lake flat-out couldn't replace John Wetton. This is an old CD, of a big show ... but these 3 to 4 star ratings are ridiculous. People {ELP fans}, on this CD can you not hear on the end chorus of "Wildest Dreams" Lake sounds like he's in a state of severe constipation? Forget music transfer or sound quality issues ... this ISN'T Asia. And the management and everybody tried to pull it off as if it was, at the time. The concert itself and the build up, up to it was one of the biggest scams the American music business had ever perpetrated on the public, particularly the people of Tokyo, who loved the band Asia so much they took it in whatever form they could get it. The last release, ASIA Fanstasia: Live in Tokyo ... is the 'real deal', has John Wetton at the microphone and on bass. (Btw I am a big fan of Greg Lake, and have his double CD Retrospective)

This disc is essentially a watered-down version of the MTV "Asia-in-Asia" event (from the December 1983 concert) featuring Greg Lake on vocals.

The performance is sorely lacking intensity...with Lake's weak vocals and the music unsettling to his range.

However, contrary to popular belief, Asia performed two shows with Lake during this brief tour of Japan.

Search the internet for a copy of the second show at the Budokan...the sound quality is vastly superior to this disc.

To have Greg Lake sing Asia's songs is absolute heaven. I am a huge fan of Emerson, Lake and Palmer and of Asia. This is a must for any fan of both groups. The live recording from Japan is very good.

Seventeen years after it first debuted on home video, the band's much-bootlegged MTV "ASIA In Asia" concert gets a proper CD release. Purists will miss John Wetton's sterling vocals, but Greg Lake makes the best of his temporary role. Some songs were shortened to fit the alloted TV time, but what's here is quite good. Song selection is a mix of tracks from "Asia" and "Alpha." Those who don't mind Lake's stylistic differences will find this to be a nice document of the almost-original lineup.

Asia In Asia, as it is usually referred to, was the only professionally-released live document of Asia's early days for a very long time. Over twenty years, in fact. The fact that John Wetton had decided to (temporarily) leave just months before the show is highly unfortunate, as this could have really blown the doors open for the band much more than they had in '83. Alpha's sales of a mere 2 million (Ha...) were seen as a failure, and with the rise of make-up heavy Euro-pop groups, Asia was living in hard times.

There's better recordings of the "Asia In Asia" mini-tour of Japan in '83, and they sound way better than this. Not only is the audio on this straight from the video, but whenever Howe or Lake would mention Westwood One or MTV, they'd edit it out of their between-song dialogue, rather abruptly too. However, musically-speaking, everything sounds fine.

Geoff Downes/Yes fans will enjoy his Oriental-style Fairlight keyboard solo (never heard this piece again on later recordings, solo or otherwise), as well as an early version of Steve Howe's "Sketches in the Sun", which later popped up in studio form on GTR's self-titled disc. Carl Palmer sounds good, although his solo was the same one he'd been doing since 1973. And still is. Greg Lake was no John Wetton. That much was clear. Lake's timbre doesn't exactly fit some of the songs, but on a few, namely "Here Comes The Feeling", he really brings a genuine passion and wistfulness to the words he's singing. Oddly enough, this marked lineup change is probably what confused fans tuning in, and when it was a different singer, they likely bailed and reached for their Duran Duran albums.

Sadly, to get the full effect of this concert, you still need to seek out bootlegs. Not only that, but they had additional songs in "Cutting It Fine/Bolero", "Time Again", and "Daylight". Some bootlegs also have "Don't Cry". The original TV broadcast began with "Time Again", but I have no idea why it was cut from the video, as the band plays with a lot of passion and sounds awesome playing it.

Packaging for Enso Kai is okay. Some nice CG images in the booklet, but the text under the CD tray is a bit odd. No band photos, which is a shame. Pop the disc into your CD-ROM drive and you get a text interview with Geoff Downes done in the late 90's.

All in all, this is a case of mixed results. I'd recommend that only dedicated Asia fans purchase it (better yet, seek out a bootleg called Your Eyes Will Tell...); curious Yes/Crimson/ELP fans are better off staying away from this slight misstep.

The edition I have is simply titled "Live at Budokan", which is a Deutsche/UK budget import on Superior/Digimode. Of course, this stands out because of Greg Lake's brief stint here, and you have two-thirds of ELP (yet around the same time Emerson and Lake did an album with the late Cozy Powell instead of Carl Palmer, and then there was 3 with Emerson and Palmer but not Lake). I liked Lake in King Crimson on their first album, but I couldn't take to ELP. It's almost unusual to hear him on these songs. It would've made a little sense to throw in "Lucky Man" and maybe even "Pictures at an Exhibition" for good measure, if you're an ELP fan, but what would the Yes half think?. I was too young to remember the concert, yet it was a watershed event. Asia have had almost as many lineup changes as Crimson, Yes, and Destiny's Child! This is a rare gem to have, even if you only like one previous band or the other.

In 1983 the tension between Steve Howe and John Wetton, ended when the bassist was sacked from the band. He was replaced by Greg Lake(Still in Top Form!) to play a MTV's show for Japanese Television. This short lived incarnation of Asia: Howe,Wetton,Downes and Lake, played one gig only and short after Lake leave the band because "it was too poppy for him".
This Tokyo's gig was released on Video as "Asia in Asia " , and here for the first time is release on CD format. Sadly the shine quality of the performance (Showing the versatility of Lake's voice to sing a Wetton's songs) is obscured by a poor quality recording adding the almost inexistent information in the record's booklet. It is a lost great opportunity to make a descent job on one of the most interesting piece of Asia's history.

I'm a HUGE fan of John Wetton, but I really must commend Greg Lake on his performances on this CD. His vocals are so close to Wetton's that it's hard to believe that it's not Wetton.

There's a good reason that Wetton "replaced" Greg Lake in King Crimson and it's with much similar reason that Lake briefly "replaced" Wetton in Asia... their voices are so eerily similar it's amazing. Lake's British accent shows a little bit more in his singing voice but only if you're really listening for it.

Carl Palmer's drumming is fantastic as always, Downes keyboard playing is exceptional and Steve Howe... well it's Steve Howe... what more needs to be said?

The sound quality on this disc is supposedly superior to the "Live In Hallowed Halls" CD with Wetton on vocals, but I don't have that CD so I have no room for comparison.

Good song selection but I miss "Daylight" and where's "Don't Cry?" I have an mp3 of Lake singing "Daylight" that's absolutely fantastic... Why it didn't make this CD release is beyond me. This disc would get 5 stars if not for the omission of those 2 tracks. Still a solid performance.