Fusion & Graphics

Japanese ProgRock: "AiN SOPH"

2006-07-13T06:51:00.000-07:00

In the 70's there was a Progressive Rock / Fusion band in Japan called "Tenchi Sozo" (which means "The Creation"). They recorded "Ride on a Camel" in the late 70s as a demo tape. Later, Tenchi Sozo musicians (Yozox Yamamoto, Kikuo Fujikawa, Masahiro Torigaki and Hiroshi Natori) changed their name to "AIN SOPH"; Masey Hattori replaced Hiroshi in the keyboards, and in 1980 AIN SOPH published its first official release: "A Story of Mysterious Forest".

Some years later Hiroshi, the original keyboard player, came back, as well as a new drummer, Taiqui Tomiie (ex- Bellaphon), and in 1986 this new line up published "Hat and Field".

In 1991 came the official release of "Ride on a Camel"; I've read some negative reviews about this '91 release, and I must state I disagree with most of what they say. "Ride on a Camel" is basically a tribute, homage to the Canterbury scene in general, to "Camel" in particular, and should be heard as such. Listen "Ride on a Camel" keeping this in mind, and you'll find a collection of clean, nicely played “Canterburian” songs that show a very strong Camel influence. This influence is especially noticeable in the guitars & keyboards, and in the way AIN SOPH structures the songs. Another thing you should keep in mind: the sound of this 1970 recording is quite poor, with many technical problems. If you can ignore this fact you’ll probably find “Ride on a Camel” an enjoyable piece of work.

Ain Soph - Ride on a Camel [1978] [1991] [No Covers]
MP3 256 Kbs VBR 44100 Hz ~125 MBs
OxyShare, no password

Track Listing:
01 - Ride On A Camel.mp3 [11:33]
02 - Intro-Metronome 7/8-Peacock's Feather Metronome 7/8 [Reprise][12:28]
03 - Oddessa.mp3 [12:17]
04 - Aria.mp3 [11:11]
05 - Turkey's March.mp3 [03:54]
06 - A Story Of Mysterious Forest Original Version.mp3 [24:24]

Line-up
- Yozox Yamamoto / guitars
- Kikuo Fujikawa / keyboards
- Masahiro Torigaki / bass
- Hiroshi Natori / drums

Ain Soph - Ride on a Camel, Part 1 of 7 [20 MBs]
Ain Soph - Ride on a Camel, Part 2 of 7 [20 MBs]
Ain Soph - Ride on a Camel, Part 3 of 7 [20 MBs]
Ain Soph - Ride on a Camel, Part 4 of 7 [20 MBs]
Ain Soph - Ride on a Camel, Part 5 of 7 [20 MBs]
Ain Soph - Ride on a Camel, Part 6 of 7 [20 MBs]
Ain Soph - Ride on a Camel, Part 7 of 7 [11.5 MBs]

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Ain Soph - A Story of Mysterious Forest: [1980] [w/covers]
MP3 192 Kbs CBR 44100 Hz ~60 MBs
OxyShare, no password

Track List:
01 - Crossfire.mp3 [02:53]
02 - Interlude I.mp3 [01:28]
03 - Natural Selection.mp3 [08:11]
04 - Variations On A Theme By Brian Smith.mp3 [09:40]
05 - A Story Of Mysterious Forest.mp3 [18:45]
06 - Interlude II.mp3 [00:32]

Part 1 of 4
Part 2 of 4
Part 3 of 4
Part 4 of 4

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Ain Soph - Hat And Field [1986] [No Covers]
MP3 192 Kbs CBR 44100 Hz ~60 MBs
OxyShare, no password

Track List:
01 - The Swan Lake.mp3 [05:46]
02 - Little Pieces Part 1.mp3 [01:37]
03 - Suite.mp3 [10:02]
04 - Mizzle.mp3 [03:44]
05 - Canterbury Tale.mp3 [03:00]
06 - Magic Carpet.mp3 [06:58]
07 - Little Pieces Part 2.mp3 [02:33]
08 - Pipe Dream.mp3 [07:54]

Part 1 of 4 [~20 MBs]
Part 2 of 4 [~20 MBs]
Part 3 of 4 [~20 MBs]
Part 4 of 4 [ ~ 1 MBs]

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Well, my first real post at last. I'll update the music as often as my crappy 70 Kbps (that's 7.0 KB/s) upload speed allows me. If you have problems with any of the files, post a comment... I keep a backup of the uploaded philes. Enjoy.

-S-

Mr. Holdsworth

2006-07-11T15:47:00.000-07:00

Well, the friends @ QPRock are posting material at a speed that makes it quite hard to keep up with them. In the mean time, I'm still trying to figure out how to make changes in my blog template's colours! I have a couple of ideas for the design I want, but I still don’t know how to code it. I guess I should have defined a design first, then create the blog, but I’m loyal to my traditional style of doing everything backwards. Man, being a n00b does suck!. Oh, what the hell…

I haven’t uploaded any music of my own collection yet, so I'll write a couple of thoughts about one of my favorite musicians, now posted @ QPRock: Mr. Allan Holdsworth.

I’ll bet you’ve heard phrases like “one of the most influential player ever”. In most cases, it’s cliché. When you’re talking about Holdsworth, it’s 100% true. From fluid, smooth –almost liquid- sounds to blazing fast runs over that fret, he’s got one of the most distinctive sounds in the world of music. His 1985’s “Metal Fatigue” is a nice sample of Allan’s skills with a guitar; next year (1986) he released “Atavachron”, and in this album he played an instrument called the “SynthAxe” for the first time. A friend of mine (a guitar player) explained that the SynthAxe was a guitar-synthesizer. It allowed a guitarist to produce sounds never heard on a guitar before; but there was a slight problem: a slight delay between the moment the player plucks a string and the moment the “synthesized” sound comes out. This small delay seemed insignificant for the average Joe (measured in tenths of a second, if memory serves well) but for a professional player, this was a serious problem. So, the SynthAxe player had to develop a special technique, playing his instrument slightly ahead of the band, so his notes would come out at the right moment. If what my friend told me is truth, then Mr. Holdsworth became a master at this technique.

If you feel like giving Holdsworth a try (and every ProgRock / Fusion lover should) then pay a visit to QPRock. You’ll find a few beauties there (try the “archives” as well.

P.S.: Please excuse all the errors you’ll find in anything I write… English is not my native tongue.

-S-

Fusion and Graphics

2006-07-07T19:45:00.000-07:00

Today I found an incredible place: http://qprock.blogspot.com/ (Progressive Rock Archives). It contains some obscure, hard-to-find pieces of the most beautiful music I've heard: Progressive Rock.

Here I read a name I had not seen before: Simon Phillips. I got one of his CDs, "Symbiosis", and what a pleasant surprise! This guy has some great music!

Note: This is my first attempt at Blogging... a lame excuse, I know, but this Blog should improve once I get to know my way around a bit better.

Until then