Made in Japan is the third album by Japanese rock band Flower Travellin' Band, released in 1972.[1]
| Made in Japan | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | February 10, 1972 | |||
| Studio | Thunder Sound Studio (Toronto) | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 34:59 | |||
| Label | Atlantic | |||
| Producer | Yuya Uchida, Ikuzo Orita, Paul Hoffert | |||
| Flower Travellin' Band chronology | ||||
| ||||
Production
editAfter meeting Lighthouse at the Expo '70 festival in Osaka, Flower Travellin' Band were invited to visit Canada. While there, the group recorded Made in Japan with Lighthouse keyboardist Paul Hoffert helping produce. Vocalist Joe Yamanaka later stated that the process was very easy, with everything flowing well.[2]
Due to George Wada becoming ill with tuberculosis, Canadian drummer Paul DeLong plays on some tracks on this album. The lyrics were written by Yoko Nomura, the wife of the band's manager, who translated conversations she had with the group and their ideas into English. "Heaven and Hell" was written by Yamanaka in Japanese and she translated it.[2] The song "Hiroshima" is a re-imagining of "Satori Part III" from their previous album Satori.[3] The introductory first track is an advertisement for a concert at Stanley Park Stadium in Toronto by Flower Travellin' Band, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Bob Seger and Teegarden & Van Winkle, with a clip of "Lucky Man" playing in the background.
"Hiroshima", "Heaven and Hell" and "Aw Give Me Air" were covered by Cult of Personality, 9, and punk band Pulling Teeth respectively, for the 2000 Flower Travellin' Band Tribute album.[4]
Reception
edit| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    [3] |
Musician and author Julian Cope included Made in Japan at number 18 on his list of the top 50 albums of Japanese rock, as found in his 2007 non-fiction book Japrocksampler. He described the record as "proto-metal of the Amon Düül II variety, replete with acoustic Tony Iommisms and mucho Satanic raga", "Aw Give Me Air" as retaining the "proto-metal Devilish chord changes" of Satori but "more Asian than demonic", and "Heaven and Hell" as musically "pure Hendrix".[5]
Both Mason Jones of Dusted magazine and Eduardo Rivadavia of Allmusic claimed that following Satori was a difficult task and that Made in Japan was "doomed to fall short of expectations," respectively. Both reviewers also cited the same three songs, "Kamikaze", "Hiroshima" and "Spasms", as the highlights and being on par with the band's best work.[6] Although he felt it inconsistent, Rivadavia called the album "pretty darn good!" and gave it a 3.5 star rating out of 5.[3]
Track listing
editAll tracks are written by Hideki Ishima and Yoko Nomuro, except track 7, by Ishima, Nomuro and Joe Yamanaka
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Introduction" (advertisement for a concert) | 0:27 |
| 2. | "Unaware" | 5:51 |
| 3. | "Aw Give Me Air" | 3:20 |
| 4. | "Kamikaze" | 4:16 |
| 5. | "Hiroshima" | 5:13 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 6. | "Spasms" | 5:23 |
| 7. | "Heaven and Hell" | 3:50 |
| 8. | "That's All" | 6:39 |
Personnel
editFlower Travellin' Band
- Joe Yamanaka – vocals
- Hideki Ishima – guitar, sitar
- Jun Kozuki – bass
- Joji Wada – drums
Additional musicians
- Paul DeLong – drums
Production and design
- Yoko Nomura – lyrics
- Flower Travellin' Band – arrangement
- Ikuzo Orita – producer
- Paul Hoffert – producer
- Yuya Uchida – producer
- Gilbert Kong – mixing
- Kiyoshi Sunamori – artwork
- Yoshio Niwano – artwork
- David Ohashi – photography
- Toyo Nakamura – liner notes
- John & Yoko Nomura – supervision
References
edit- ^ "FLOWER TRAVELLIN' BAND // フラワー・トラヴェリン・バンド". Flowertravellingband.com. 2008-09-17. Retrieved 2012-02-29.
- ^ a b "We just stopped, took a break. It turned out to be for 36 years!". jrawk.com. Archived from the original on 2009-01-01. Retrieved 2016-02-03.
- ^ a b c "Made in Japan - The Flower Travellin' Band". Allmusic. Retrieved 2016-03-20.
- ^ "VA ／ FLOWER TRAVELLIN'BAND tribute [CD] [アルバム] - CDJournal.com". Artist.cdjournal.com. Retrieved 2012-02-29.
- ^ Cope, Julian (2007). Japrocksampler. London: Bloomsbury. p. 265. ISBN 978-0-7475-8945-7. Retrieved 2024-02-23.
- ^ "Flower Travellin' Band - Made in Japanese". Dusted. Retrieved 2016-03-20.