Customer Reviews

Yamasuki Singers

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

 

 

This album sounds like Serge Gainsbourg conducting the Langley Schools Music Project through a rendition of the Mikado. While such a pairing may sound like a supremely bad idea (especially if there were any cute girls at the Langley School and Gainsbourg just broke up with Jane Birkin), the sound on this album is really diggable.

So here's how it went down, a 70s French pop duo creates a song/dance called the Yamasuki that's a mix of the smooth funk/pop elements of the time with Japanese choruses singing the melodies, a Toshiro Mifune screaming along to the freakout bits, and hints of oriental percussion (woodblock anyone?), the kids go crazy for the single, so the duo figures why not make an album? While the kitsch of it all wears thin by the end of its 12 tracks, each song on here deserves at least one good listen.

Put this in and watch your friends' expressions at the sheer coolness of "Kono Samouri" with its matched wails of some Tatsuya Nakadai-aping Japanese cat and the funky wa-wa pedal. Odds are their faces will show a mixture of confusion, awe, and a struggle with the urge to dance. Give it a shot, see what you think!

I'm a great admirer of odd music, and seek it out as often as possible, and if you describe yourself in similar terms, you must definitely buy this CD.

It's worth the price alone for the songs "Yamasuki" and "Abana Bakana." "Yamasuki" has to be the weirdest song I've ever heard. While what sounds like Japanese schoolkids sing beautifully, a karate dude screeches in the background like he's killing multiple enemies. Bizarre. "Abana Bakana" sounds like nothing else on the album, but it's alive with energy.

Inside the CD's booklet, this album is called "educational-bubblegum-multi-cultural-psycho-rock-opera," but I'd just call it an offbeat gem.

My gratitude is extended to Finders Keepers for reissuing this.

Feel like some hip hop? Na. Ok, some Blue Cheer. Ahhhh, not in the mood. How about a Japanese rock opera from 1971.

Well, its Yamasuki, another nutty release by that wonderful nut among nuts, Andy Votel.

A bunch of kids sing over some open chords, a funky bass, and under a male singing who sounds like a samuri on seteroids. Sounds like pure cheese, but it actually works beautifully.

In an age of Hair and Godspell and Tommy, Yamasuki provides something truely unique. Why the five star rating. I simply have not heard anything like it.

Wow! This is one of the best records I have bought this year (perhaps ever). In my book this is a perfect album. Each and every song is good and the best ones are extremly good, so no need to hesitate - buy it.