FROGFLAVOR: Space Of Magic

Cover	Release	Style
	2006-03-21	prog rock/fusion
	Label
	Musea / Intermusic
	Website
	Frogflavor
	Contact
	-
	Playing Time	Cat. N°
	42:54	MP 3050.AR / IM-006
	Review by	Rating
	Edwin	6,5/10
nederlands	Review
Recently, we’ve been overflooded with releases by Japanese progressive rock bands. Really, there’s enough material here to fill a complete webpage. Maybe time for a new sister site for our regular ‘prog-nose’ and ‘metal-nose’? On second thought, ‘jap-nose’ might sound a bit silly… Anyway, colleague Christoph has written an excellent little essay on the state of Japanese progressive rock, which exposes the real problem: there’s far too much quantity, and a lack of real quality. Having said that, Frogflavor’s debut album ‘Space Of Magic’ is pretty good, despite the ridiculous name, the godawful cover art and the simplistic song titles. Fact is that the trio of Hiroyuki Sekine (bass) Toru Kubota (drums) and Issei Takami (guitar) produce some fine instrumental progressive rock/fusion, with a lot of diversity in sounds. I’m not too fond of the nervy fusion tracks like ‘Five’ and ‘D-Freak’ and some of the other songs don’t do too much for me either. But then there are quite a few tracks I do like. Songs like ‘0-320’ and ‘Expresso’ are clearly influenced by King Crimson and show some real creativity. ‘The Last Stream’ is an excellent slow, bluesy tune. The funky ‘Changeable’ is also pretty good. Nothing to get really excited about, but after the string of poor Japanese releases I’ve heard lately, this is quite a refreshment. There might still be hope for Japanese prog after all…
Musicians
Hiroyuki Sekine: Bass Toru Kubota: Drums Issei Takami: Guitar
Tracklist
Frog Time 0-320 Expresso Miss Sunny Funky Machine Midnight Of Metropolis The Last Stream Five Changeable D-Freak The Second Man 50:50


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