| The
Flower Travellin' Band - Make Up |
| There's
a lot of confusion surrounding The Flower Travellin' Band's "final"
album (final, that is, until "We Are Here's" release in 2008.) It was
supposed to be live. It was always supposed to be a mix of live and
studio. The master tapes for the live show were screwed up. The master
tapes turned out exactly the way they were supposed to. You get the
idea. The confusion doesn't end there. Some say it bombed, or that people only bought it for it's stupendous packaging (which IS pretty impressive: a double album in a bound leather pouch, reproduced with vinyl in place of leather for this year's reissue.) If nothing else, one thing can be laid to rest: "Make Up" wasn't just a hit, it spawned two of the band's biggest and most enduring songs. Both "Shadows Of Lost Days" (also sometimes called simply "Woman") and the title track were enormous, scoring the band the opening slot on The Rolling Stones' "Goat's Head Soup" Japan tour, as well as finding permanent homes in vocalist Joe Yamamaka's enormously successful post-FTB solo career. (Unfortunately, the Stones gig fell through when Mick Jagger's visa was denied, a disappointment that discouraged the band to the point that they went on a hiatus that ended up lasting 35 years.) To be fair, "Make Up" does show signs that The Flower Travellin' Band had, if not peaked, moved into less rarefied territory. The original material was more traditionally structured, for one: the first album sees the band embracing typical rock beats and riffs that had previously been conspicuous by their absence. The title track is downright Deep Purple-esque, and "Shadows Of Lost Days" is the kind of bombastic soul Led Zeppelin had been working towards. Of the new material, only opener "All My Days" and "Slowly But Surely" display the compositional oddities that made the band's previous albums so startling. All that rock critic talk might sound nice, but it overlooks the quality of the material in and of itself. "Make Up" is a Deep Purple cop, but it's a damned good one, chugging along with a cocky menace that renders all complaints of originality meaningless. There's also the singular lurch of "All The Days," a swampy, lumbering beast that is more typically FTB in its structure and attack. Without overanalyzing the song's constituent elements, its still a marvel how the band can create something so definably rock from rhythms and tones that are so removed from rock's standard parts. "Shadows Of Lost Days" may share quite a bit of DNA with Led Zep, but it's sharing the best parts. Yamamaka gives far and away his most powerful performance in a career that has no shortage of power, and the relative simplicity of the song lets the band lock on to a devastating, doom laden crunch that remains awe inspiring, even after countless replays. All hyperbole aside, there is no moment in rock history that is more all consumingly apocalyptic as "Shadow's" climax. That's just the first album. The second disc is usually the focal point when "Make Up" is criticized, and it's not difficult to understand why, as it embodies a few examples of stereotypically 70s overkill. Side three consists entirely of a super extended live version of "Hiroshima," mega drum solo and all, and side four kicks off with the oft maligned cover of "Blue Suede Shoes," featuring a perplexingly ill fitting vocal by FTB manager/guru Yuya Uchida. These aren't deal breakers, though, as "Hiroshima" is pretty great, over extension and all, and the two final tracks are prime FTB, especially closer "After The Concert." And there's also no denying a ten minute version of "Satori, Pt. II," repeat or no. All told, maybe it was best for The Flower Travellin' Band to hang it up here. They had already proven their point, reaching success both at home and in Canada, leaving a short but sweet catalog that, misfires on "Make Up" notwithstanding, was startlingly consistent in its inventiveness and dark power. "Make Up" is a strong album, but it still showed that some cracks were forming. They showed they could be just as powerful with more "normal" rock songs, but for how long? It's an interesting point that, when reuniting in 2008 to write the material for "We Are Here," they dropped the doom and nurtured their quirkier tendencies, choosing to preserve what made them unique over trying to match the rage of their younger years. In a recent interview with Jrawk, Yamanaka and guitarist Hideki Ishima revealed plans for another album some time in the near future. It remains to be seen if they continue on their singular path, or whether, like "Make Up," they see what they can do with more traditional tunes. Time will tell. |