カルメン・マキ＆Oz (Carmen Maki & Oz) "III" 1977***

 

Another album from a recent J-rock batch I ordered on a whim. I already had a few Japanese rock albums in my collection (and have reviewed some here), mostly relating to garage/psychedelia: stuff by The Mops, Flower Travelling Band and certain CD reissues of rare psychedelic/prog albums. But I realize that these latter ones were just cult artists valued by collectors, not really the face of popular Japanese rock. So I found a discogs seller with relatively good shipping prices and a large J-rock selection, and I semi-randomly ordered a few LP's. While browsing on the subject, I saw Carmen Maki mentioned in sites as either the "Japanese Grace Slick" or "Japanese Joplin", so when I saw this album for sale I decided to get it. Looking into her bio, I was surprised to find that Maki (full name: Maki Annette Lovelace) wasn't originally a Japanese national - she only became one in 1993. She was an American, the daughter of an American father and Japanese mother. Because of her mixed race, her facial features looked equally exotic to Westerners and Japanese alike, which I couldn't have guessed. Furthermore -for whatever reason- she got a Korean education, in a strict Korean private school for girls which she dropped out of to follow her artistic muse. Her very first single made her a big pop star at the age of 18, but she turned her style around after being introduced to rock -and Janis Joplin in particular- in 1970. She made a heavy blues album with Blues Creation, before forming Oz in 1972 with some talented rock musicians including 18-year old guitar prodigy Hirofumi Kasuga. This is their 3rd and last studio LP together, and as I found out later it's considered their "ugly duckling", or at least the least popular one. Certainly the opener "Nankai kōro" (南海航路) is a pleasant but unimpressive mid-tempo tune. I do like the instrumental bridge with its nice organ and guitar solos, as well as the ending coda. Blues ballad "Rabu Song O Utau Mae Ni" (Love Song を唄う前に) is a good showcase of Maki's mellower style, while wild rocker "Toriaezu" (とりあえずロックンロール) is where she deploys the full power of her voice, Joplin comparisons making sense for the first time. "26 No toki" (26の時) is another perfunctory effort, only saved by the fiery guitar solo at the end. Side 2 opens with excellent hard rocker "Sora e" (空へ, "To The Sky"), followed by acoustic ballad "Machikado" (街角). I couldn't get into the latter one because of the following problem: If Japanese-language hard rock takes some getting used to, it isn't much different in this respect than Spanish, Russian, or any other non-English rock. But ballads, especially by female singers, sound a bit too exotic to me. They conjure images of smoke-filled nightclubs full of American GI's killing time between assignments in Korea or Vietnam. Am I alone in this? Well yes, I suppose I have seen too many war movies. At almost 14 minutes, "Mukashi" (昔) is arguably the album's centerpiece. A progressive piece with heavy and atmospheric melodic passages, it blew my mind during its last minutes with Maki vocalizing wordlessly over the band's psychedelic rock improvisations. I don't know whether they were trying to emulate Pink Floyd's "The Great Gig In The Sky", but I did get a similar vibe. After all this, the album ends anticlimactically with a baby crying and a short lullaby called "Age". The album cover is a rather un-rock'n'roll black & white photo of the band dressed in their Sunday best (or whatever is the equivalent in Japan), while my LP also contains a nice 8-page booklet with song lyrics (in untranslated Japanese) and photos, including what appears to be baby Maki's family photo. Apparently the girl got her good looks from her mother! Ultimately, even if this LP isn't a truly great one, it's certainly worth having: it's consistently listenable, contains excellent musicianship and some really cool moments scattered throughout the record. Now I need to find Maki's other, better acclaimed, albums and prepare my next order from Japan...

**** for 空へ (Sora e), 昔 (Mukashi)

*** for 南海航路 (Nankai kōro), Love Song を唄う前に (Rabu Song O Utau Mae Ni), とりあえずロックンロール (Toriaezu), 26の時 (26 No toki), 

** for 街角 (Machikado), Age