Viva Koenji

Koenji Hyakkei

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 12, 2006)
• Original Release Date: September 12, 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Skin Graft Records
• ASIN: B000H5TUSG
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #162,674 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
"Koenjihyakkei towers over most modern progressive rock because of an attention to detail and an overwhelming force of conviction. No irony here: this rocks with the teeth and heart to cut through the `scenes' and the `overground' like a knife ... Koenjihyakkei may go down as Tatsuya Yoshida's greatest achievement: the most perfect fusion of straight prog, the avant-garde, and hardcore punk. Amen." - PITCHFORK

"I'm probably going out on a limb here, but from my vantage point, this is not only the most brilliant of all of contemporary Japanese bands, but perhaps the greatest group currently operating in the world." - ALTERNATIVE PRESS

"Start here. That is, put down all your worn out copies of Magma Hhai, King Crimson Red, and Univers Zero Ceux du Dehors and start all over again with Viva Koenji!! ... has it all - spastic tempo, coat hanger meter, vocals that would make the cokehead Magma fan proud, and a creepy zeuhl mosh at the end. How is it that the Japanese answer to `western' music styles is to always do one better?" - GROUND AND SKY

Following the release of 2005's Angherr Shisspa, Skin Graft proudly presents Koenjihyakkei's second album, Viva Koenji!! to western listeners. With the original issue on Japan's God Mountain label largely unheard and fetching enormous prices on the collector's market, Viva Koenji!!, generally considered the band's heaviest album, returns to print in a deluxe remastered edition. Headed by vocalist/composer/drummer extraordinaire Yoshida Tatsuya (of the bass and drum duo Ruins), Koenjihyakkei boasts a fan base comprised of zuehl prog fans, no-wavers, and adventurous music enthusiasts - and has proven itself the most exciting contemporary progressive rock act on the planet.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Japan's answer to Magma, October 3, 2006

By	Aquarius Records (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

It's about time! The Skin Graft label does all fans of crazed prog and (to be specific) Japanese band the Ruins a big favor by reissuing this long out of print album by Ruins side-project Koenjihyakkei. Not only is it available again, but it's at a domestic, cheaper price! Yay!

Originally released on Hoppy Kamiyama's God Mountain label in 1996, Viva Koenji!! (also known as II) was the second album from drummer Tatsuya Yoshida's Koenjihakkei unit (aka Hundred Sights Of Koenji, Koenji being the district of Tokyo wherein Yoshida lives). Yoshida, if Allan hasn't yet already indoctrinated you on this truth, is Japan's answer to Christian Vander (French drummer/musical mastermind behind the '70s prog band Magma). Yoshida's well-known main band Ruins is a drum and bass duo heavily influenced by Vander's band, but those influences become even more apparent with this project. Keyboards, operatic male and female vocals, guitar, bass, and drums expand the Ruins palette into a realm of almost symphonic "death progressive" madness. Crazed instrumental prowess, mindboggling changes, utterly heavy and amazing. Pretty much essential to all fans of Ruins or Magma, surpassing both both in some select ways! Those who've only heard this band's later albums, Nivraym and Angherr Shisspa, will be bowled over by how much more HEAVY and intense this disc is even than those (and those records aren't exactly mellow or wimpy!). Seriously.
So if you missed this before, give thanks to Skin Graft! Let's hope that they'll also be adding the first, also now impossible to find, Hundred Sights Of Koenji album to their catalog someday soon too...