Search - Far East Family Band :: Far Out

Psych/prog pre-Far East Family Band

BENJAMIN MILER | Veneta, Oregon | 08/04/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Far Out was actually the pre-cursor to Far East Family Band, much like Organisation was to Kraftwerk. But many would file Organisation's Tone Float under Kraftwerk like Far Out under Far East Family Band so these titles wouldn't get lost.



OK, so Far Out isn't Far East Family Band, aside from vocalist/guitarst Fumio Miyashta. Kitaro is not present, for one thing. Aside from Fumio, the group consisted of guitarist Eiichi Sayu, bassist Kei Ishikawa, and drummer Manami Arai (both Ishikawa and Arai later moved to Los Angeles, and recruited a couple of other Japanese musicians to form Chronicle, which, from the album I heard from them, 1977's Like a Message From the Stars, is good, but not as good as Far East Family Band).



Far Out only managed one album, released in 1973, but we all know what happened after this album, Fumio simply recruited some new musicians (including Kitaro) and Far East Family Band was born.



Just imagine the Far East Family Band sound without the synthesizers and this is what you get. The album consists of just two side-length cuts, that is "Too Many People" and "Nihonjin". "Too Many People" starts off with a bunch of bizarre electronic effects, before the music starts. A lot of it is in ballad form, of the type Far East Family Band does. You can tell English isn't the band's strong point. For me, the album's real crowning glory is "Nihonjin". Many of you already know this piece from Far East Family Band's Nipponjin. That version had plenty of synthesizer and Mellotron treatment, although I suspect the band simply used the original Far Out recording and had Kitaro, Akira Ito, and Fumio lay on the synths and tron. This original version is very much the same, except the abscence of electronics. It starts off in ballad form, but then the band gets jamming, and at the end is some excellent chanting in Japanese.



The CD reissue also includes a whole bunch of bonus cuts, all taken from Far East Family Band's The Cave - Down to the Earth (1975). If you're familiar with the Nipponjin album, then you'll discover that Nipponjin was mainly an English language remake of The Cave (with "Four Minds" and "Transmigration" removed to make place of the title track, the synth and Mellotron-add ons of Far Out's "Nihonjin"). These originals were sung entirely in Japanese, meaning the band would obviously not be able to break out of the Japanese market if they continued this way (although they obviously tried breaking the international market with their following albums, like recording in English, one album recorded in England in an attempt to sign with Virgin Records, and one album released in America on the short-lived All Ears label). "Four Minds" is one ballad I can live without, really cheesy, but then the band rebounded nicely with "Transmigration". But remember: these bonus cuts are not the entire album of The Cave, but more or less the highlights (if you want the entire album, you'll have to buy that one).



This stuff might not reach the hights of the mighty Parallel World, but the music is still great and worth having."