*. Morio Agata .* (Reissue)

Album: Otome no Roman (1972)(Reissue 1995)
Genre: Prog Folk (Contemporary Folk)  /  Japan

Agata is usually known as a singer song writer of folk/folk rock/folk pop field so he is generally not treated as progressive musician even in Japanese fans. Probably progressive rock fans outside of Japan may disregard him and with regards to his overall discography this may be reasonable. Fanatic progressive rock fans who know his releases Otome no Roman and Ah Mujo often say these two albums must be acclaimed by progressive listeners. Otome no Roman is a conceptual album penetrated by the atmosphere of Taisho era (1912-1926) roman. Perhaps almost of readers could not understand what 'Taisho roman' means and unfortunately, it is hard for Japanese to explain. I suppose what must be said is that Japan became rapidly influenced by western culture since the opening to foreign countries in the middle of 19th century. but even so, Japanese also maintained it's tradtions and tradtional style since the era of closed country in the Edo era. The Taisho era existed between modernization and ancient nationality and there bloomed strange but interesting culture. Otome no Roman is not directly related to Taisho era. All the songs were composed in Showa era (1926-1989). The oldest song Onna no Yujo was originally composed in 1934 however the Taisho flavor smells through the work. You may ask if it come from words or arrangement - and for this I must tell you that it is hard to explain. Agata's music is entirely different from brutal rock. It must be the opposition. In another word, it might be effeminate.And 'Otome' means 'pure girl '. I cannot find suitable words for this album. Probably when you listen to this music, you could not remember any resemblant works. If I say some examples close to this album, I want to list up the Mauro Pelosi/Al Mercato release Degli Uomini Piccoli or the Peter Hammill Over album. They may be counted as favorable albums. But Agata's song style must apparently make listeners separate to 'hate/like' groups while asking themselves whether he is sobbing or singing. They say next album Ah Mujo is masterpiece for progressive rock fans but I cannot comment on this since I don't own it. If you are pleased with Otome no Roman, you might want to try it. More to say about Agata, he has released a lot of albums since early 1970s. You may be interested in noting that there is some Kanjis on cover.This writting is read by right to left ! Yes, old Japanese were written by this manner as well as Arabic [or Hebrew]. Of course, modern Japanese are written by left to right as in the style of western languages such as English. Also Japanese another manner is up to down. Review by "Hideki" (www.proggnosis.com).

RATING:  7.5 / 10

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