Customer Reviews

Lama Rabi Rabi

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

 

 

Alright!! So you're looking for REAL psychedelic music,not that mundane s*@t they keep trying to tell you is "far-out". To me, this is a beautiful, melodic, and yes, mystical album from some inspired strange folks over there on the island. (By the way,it's worth your while to investigate the Japanese alternative scene if you haven't already done so. It's not Seattle, I promise.)I enjoy when other instruments are used besides the usual guitar/bass/drums lineup, and these guys do too.Gongs, jew's harp, sounds from nature, sitars, banjos - they raided their closets making this one, and as a result each song is different and dreamy. I get a kick out of how they pronounce some English words. It's not like me to play a CD continually, but this one spends a lot of time floating around my ears. The first two songs are really 8,9 minute trance-like improvisations."Into the Alley" is beautiful and oddly poignant. "Who Found A Lost Rose In The Warship?" is bizarro, Appalachian Martian music, and I'll have to agree with the previous reviewer concerning "Agate Scape", an 11 minute song that never wears out its welcome.It is as refreshing and ethereal as a mist before the sunrise. I love this album. It is a wonderful alternative to the noisy, angry, self-obsessed paint-by-numbers crap that is happening in our country right now.

The Japanese indie band Ghost are something of an enigma to me: the word is that they live as gypsies all across Japan, thus embodying the hippie spirit conveyed in their psychodelic albums. Lama Rabi Rabi is the strongest of their cds; a compelling mixture of psychodelic rock and roll, ambient world-folk balladry, and jazz-like musicality.
The opening track, "Masttillah," is an 8-minute drone that feels like a hashish den tucked away in Tangiers; then the title track cuts in with its rythmic chorus chanted repeatedly. "Into the Alley" is a gorgeous ballad with acoutic guitar echoing into the distance. The rest of the album is a blend of electric guitars that feel like they came right from Led Zeppelin I, mythic flutes blowing faintly in the distance, and ambient percussion and found sounds. "Marrakech" and "Mex Square Blue" stand out for thier very clever compositions and impeccable production. "My Hump is a Shell" serves as an interlude and uses a theremin against a gentle acoustic guitar. The album then winds down and rounds off with "Agate Scape," a lush, jazzy piece showcasing Masaki Batoh's haunting voice and melody, as well as the etherial piano playing that comes to amazing climax. Remarkably, this cd goes from point A to B with such grace that one almost forgets the shifts in style it makes!
While all of Ghost's albums are worth a listen, this one really shines as a coherent work of great songwriting and awesome production, with each song working off the others to create its own time and space.

Ghost inhabits a very special musical space where the psychadelic sounds of the 60's acid bands and the trancelike groove of 70's German bands are molded into one swirling seemingly never-ending collage of wonderous sounds.

i am not overly familiar with the back catalogue of Ghost, and i have yet to explore their most recent output; but i have owned Lama Rabi Rabi for quite awhile now and it never fails to be a captivating and enthralling listen from start to finish.

the album begins with the sound of bells and gongs and various percussion tools going off into a spacey, meditative jam that sounds loose and slightly chaotic, yet restrained to the point where it never becomes too messy. "Rabirabi" kicks in with an immediate urgency that takes the listener by the hand and pulls you along through this cosmic groove. the chanting erupts from the corners and it sounds like children..disciples of the Ghost, perhaps? the tablas ground the song in it's ryhthm and a guitar squeels soft feedback above the din. this is one of the great moments on this album and as the song winds down with a droney feel; you truly feel under the spell of this sonic magic.

as the album progresses, layer upon layer of beauty are revealed. from the fragile acoustic haunts of "Into The Alley" and the tribal appalaichan folk stomp of "Who Found A Lost Rose In The Warship?" to the ragged blues-based shuffle of "Bad Bone"; Ghost shows endless creativity in their compositions and a brilliant musical vision. Recommended!

Searing, heavily warped electric guitar weaves its way through an intricate, propulsive raga produced by a hypnotic organ riff and the crisp percussive force of fretless bass and tabla drums pursuing their own lead lead lines, to be joined, in lockstep, with the trilling of a high-pitched flute and an echo-modulated baritone voice chanting in Japanese. This is "RabiRabi", the second track from "Lama Rabi Rabi", and distills the essence of this Japanese psychedelic folk band like no other song I've heard in their subsequent three full-length, non-benefit releases. It was this song itself that turned me on and tuned me in to Ghost in November of '96, and the otherwise sound-unheard purchase of this CD that same month.

"Mastilah", the opening track, breezes in on the sound of a heavily struck, thin metallic gong banging repetitiously, the low drone of an organ, and a sparse,plaintive flute melody. Other chiming, percussive instruments blend into and build up throughout the length of the cut, and high-breathed mantric chanting creates an ethnic, meditative feel of timless, sustained ectasy that could just have easily located this song in a Buddhist shrine in a remote corner of an ancient Japanese forest. Elsewhere on the CD other non-traditional instruments such as banjo (the whimsically titled "Who Found the Lost Rose in the Warship?") and musical saw ("My Hump is A Shell") are used to great effect.

Surprisingly enough, the tracks that rely more upon acoustic instruments than traditionally amplified guitars can sound just as forceful as their electric counterparts, if not as aggressive as "RabiRabi", with "Marakechh" serving as an example of this dynamic. A wistful quality pervades many tracks, none more so than "Into the Alley", driven by a wash of keyboards, the gentle plucking of a minor scale on an acoustic guitar, and Batoh's weary, reflective voice.

Other reviewers have remarked upon the timeless, refreshing, ethereal quality of "Lama Rabi Rabi". I would also suggest that it is the most assertive of their releases, with a surprisingly, insistently aggressive presence to it as well. I still return frequently to this CD nearly 14 years later, and recommend it without reservation.

Although it is easy to hear the Amon Duul II influence in Ghost's music, Lama Rabi Rabi still sounds unique. Ghost has a knack for creating a particular ambience with their compositions and capturing the "spiritual" or "mystical" aspects of music. This is especially true for the quieter songs like "Into the Valley," "Abyssinia," "Agate Scape," and "Summer's Ashen Fable." Even the noisier pieces like "Rabirabi," "Marrakech," and "Bad Bone" develop a unique character. As with some of their other albums, Ghost blends elements of Eastern traditional music with Western folk and rock. Indeed, some of the more interesting pieces use a variety of percussion other than the standard rock kit.

The most amazing thing about this album is it's cohesiveness despite the use of a wide range of instruments from song to song (i.e. banjo in "Who Found a Lost Rose," sitar in "Abyssinia," saxophone in "Bad Bone," something that sounds like theremin in "My Hump is a Shell"...). Furthermore, there is no filler on this album, making it easy to listen to all the way through.

This particular album can act as an introduction to those not familiar with Ghost, yet I wouldn't say it is their definitive album (if there even is such a thing with Ghost). Definitely worth checking out!