Customer Reviews

Hundred Sights of Koenji (Dlx)

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Koenjihyakkei is the brainchild of one of the most driven and talented drummers, bandleaders, and all around musical geniuses of this century and last: Yoshida Tatsuya. Better known for his drum bass duo Ruins, Koenjihyakkei may be his most amazing achievement yet, combining jazz, prog, punk, traditional music, classical, and more in such a fashion as to create something so unique and amazing as to be indefinable. Think Magma but don't get all worked up expecting dense walls of long, droning obscurity. While Koenjihyakkei is most certainly avant garde, what they are not is boring or terribly difficult to "get". Most of the tracks on this first album not only rock, they're catchy - yet everything else I've said before, as well. I repeat: "unique ... amazing ... indefinable."

A note for those of you who already have the God Mountain version:

Koenjihyakkei's eponymously titled album "Hundred Sights of Koenji" is one of my all time favorite albums. Having been out of print and darned difficult to locate for years, I was thrilled to hear that Skin Graft was rereleasing it stateside. When I read that Yoshida Tatsuya was not only remastering the album but rerecording the drums I was intrigued. While I am not usually a fan of revisionist history, the job that has been done on this album is amazing. It was not so much remastered as completely remixed - and I mean completely. Couple this with the new drum tracks and what you have is not Koenjihyakkei's "Hundred Sights of Koenji" but an almost entirely different album: Koenjihyakkei's "Hundred Sights of Koenji v2", as valid a stand alone from the original album as if it were a live release.

If you already have the God Mountain version of this album, do yourself a favor and pick up Skin Graft's. If you haven't either, pick up Skin Graft's ... then get to work tracking down the original Japanese release. Either way, it'll blow your mind.

Excellent early Koenji. A little Boredoms mixed with OOIOO and perhaps a pinch of Prog Rock for good measure. Sehr gut.

My first listen was enthralling, capitivating, intense...

Been into Magma and Ruins for close to 10 years and this blew me away!