Ghost--Hypnotic Underworld---Japanese Psychedelic Prog Jazz Folk?

Hypnotic Underworld is a very interesting recording issued on the Drag City label in North America.

They are a Japanese improvisational group under the leadership of Masaki Batoh (6 & 12 string acoustic guitar,vocals). Takuyuki Moriya performs on electric bass, contra bass and cello. Junzo Tateiwa plays drums tabla and percussion and Kazuo Ogino is on piano, mellotron, korg ms-20 synth, organ, lute, recorder and Celtic harp. Michio Kurihara is on electric guitar and Taishi Takizawa plays theremin, saxophone, tin whistle, bouzouki, and etc). With such a great variety of instrumentation on this album, the number of musical possibilities could make your head spin. And on Hypnotic Underworld this Tokyo sextet's possibilities are fulfilled by virtuoistic musicianship.You could say that they are a psychedelic band, but their music zig zags through numerous genres. Folk, Japanese Traditional, Acid Rock, Devotional Music, German Electronic--Ghost make it all seem simple. With some of these instruments I wouldn't be surprised if these guys could break into a set of Pogues song if they wanted to.

But it is not all an easy listen. But with some patience you will appreciate this album in all its diversity. The first track, the eponymous Hypnotic Underworld, is a four part suite. God Took A Picture Of His Illness On This Ground is 13 minutes plus of quiet reflective feedback tinged wind chime drone. But there is a sort of jazz bass underpinning it all. I honestly couldn't tell you what anyone is playing on this. Almost Moroccan Joujouka sounding. If I was directing a movie I would love to use these guys for my soundtrack. Escaped And Lost Down In Medina is a middle eastern drone over a jazz accompaniment. Pretty brilliant. Aramaic Barbarous Dawn? Electronic musik, acid rock, demon choirs. You know, same old, same old. It's cool to listen to an album when you have know idea what is about to happen. The suite ends with the hyper kinetic percussion of the brief snippet Leave The World! There is definitely a crazy kind of sanity at work here, but it all works.

Then Ghost does a cover of Hazy Paradise, which was originally by a Dutch psych band Earth and Fire, which I know little about. Kind of mellow west coast psychedelia with Michio Kurihura's guitar pyrotechnics reminiscent of Nels Cline's leads in Wilco. Kiseichukan Nite is an ambient spoken sung piece with Japanese instrumentation, including reflecting pool drip percussion. In our modern world of short attention spans these songs take a while to get a payoff. I don't know if this is for everyone, but I find this music fascinating, a visit to new and different musical philosophies.

Piper begins bucolically with tin whistle and cello and transforms into a blazing acid prog mutation. Blue Cheer meets Yes? I'm grasping at straws here. The hypnotic Ganagmanag is one of my favorite tracks, which starts with a flute playing atop a measured German electronic beat. The best part is after being mesmerized by the beat, at about halfway through you are jarred out of the trance by a shift into lute ostinatos. At the conclusion the tempo speeds up into a rhythmic piano pounding conclusion. Feed is pastoral dreamy psychedelia that morphs into a proggish synth and mellotron driven Yes workout. Holy High despite the heavy renaissance style piping passages, reminds me a little bit of an Ennio Morricone soundtrack or even Calexico.



The last song is a combo number, first a soft introspective version of Syd Barrett's Dominoes. Then it changes into Celebration For The Gray Days, an minor key organ number with heavy majestic guitar chords.
A strong finish to an always interesting, ambitious, and creatively arranged album. Some people who listen to this album might be dismissive--if music does not fit into the framework of one's preconceptions, there is an innate impulse to shut it out or turn it off. The best thing is to take off your ideological shutters for a few minutes and judge the music on its own terms, and exercise a little patience. The rewards will be revealed before you realize what happened. I have to say that I haven't heard anything quite like this before. Hypnotic Underworld is a extremely well crafted sonic journey that is a perfect  reflective tonic for your musical complacency.