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(2022) Japanese Television - Space Fruit Vineyard
Review:
Remember when Jimi Hendrix told us “You’ll never hear surf music again” back in 1967? Jimi was a genius, but he was wrong then and it’s no truer today. However, he might have been pleasantly surprised at how surf music has mutated over the course of 55 years. Japanese Television are a British quartet who start with the splashy, reverb-laden guitar sound pioneered by Dick Dale, and then meld it with a mind-expanding melange of psychedelia, prog rock, and space rock accents. Like the best surf bands, Japanese Television doesn’t bother with vocals, and they bring us ten exercises in wave-riding instrumental mind meld on their first full-length album, 2022’s Space Fruit Vineyard. Guitarist Tim David Jones is clearly a disciple of surf guitar classicism while also filling his riffing with layers of fuzz and occasional peals of feedback. Meanwhile, Ian Thorn’s keyboards effectively fill the melodic space that would usually be handed to a vocalist, Alex Lawton keeps the bottom end lively with his bass, and Al Brown’s drumming is an exemplary compromise between laying down the rhythm and using his kit to add color and texture to the music. Space Fruit Vineyard is suitably trippy, and even though nearly all their stylistic reference points come from decades passed, Japanese Television don’t stoop to cliches; this gets the feel of their surf-space hybrid just right while also creating a aural personality of their own, resulting in performances that are significantly more than the sum of their parts. And the effectiveness of the presentation is all the more impressive knowing that this music was all recorded live to tape, with each take complete and without edits. Sometimes these tracks stretch out a bit longer than they need to, and the group has a bit to learn about pacing, but if you’re looking for a dose of consciousness expansion to take to the beach and/or the spaceways, let Space Fruit Vineyard be your guide.
Track List:
1.Space Fruit Vineyard 04:38
2.Moon Invasion 03:51
3.Mosquito Dance Routine 03:27
4.Ghoul Rules 04:15
5.Bruce Willis 02:11
6.Sputnik Swimming 04:50
7.Doppelgänger Disco 04:25
8.Snake Shake 03:45
9.Freddy's Back 03:25
10.Bumble Rumble 02:13
Media Report:
Genre: psychedelic rock
Country: UK
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
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