Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra – PIONEERS
welcome back to the Skaject folks! our next 1993 record is a return to Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra with PIONEERS!
BUZZ SAW is a nice, mellow, gentle intro into the record. Burning Scale (1993 Mix) has a fun rolling energy powered by the drums and saxes that rumbles under the song – a lotta fun. マライの號 (Malay no Sakebi, or Curse of Malay) is pretty neat. it feels like theyre going for a sort of spy theme vibe, which i respect. A Piece of Peace reminds me of a song i cant place – this one feels like an older, jazzy track that theyre putting a fun spin on. i dunno why but i really really like this song – its fun and peppy and does a fun job of shifting the focus around the whole band. Goo-Gung-Gung is fine. it feels like theyre evoking a very stereotypically Russian style here. ラッパと娘 (Rappa to Masume or A Horn and a Girl), which is a song originally composed by Ryoichi Hattori, has some soft filtering on the vocals which isnt on the rest of the track and im really not fond of that fuzziness only on the vocals. otherwise its a v solid song. 山 (Yama, or Mountain) is really nice, and gets pretty wild near the end. The Look of Love is a cover of a track originally sung by Dusty Springfield. nice grooves on this one. every once in a while i encounter a song i find extremely pleasant to listen to but i seems to fly by me every album listen, and for this record it’s absolutely Dawn Song. i like the way they constructed the rhythm core of this one by pairing the piano with the drums, and the horns are extremely buttery smooth. サーチライト・コーナー (Searchlight Corner) is nice. it feels very in line with some of their other work like this, but its still a good listen. いつか どこかで (Itsuka Dokoka de or Someday Somewhere) is a very thoughtful and airy track here as we close in on the end of the record. Sweet Peach Queen is a really interesting track to close on, haha. has a lot of the same vibes as the older 60s ska tracks.
faves – A Piece of Peace, 山
dislikes –
man this was a really nice record but not one i felt like i had anything super noteworthy to say about. at this point in listening to the band, i have a pretty high expectation on performance and instrumentation that is very rarely not met, and while i can quibble a bit on their choice of vocalists i cant complain at all about this record musically. very solid, even if it doesnt blow me away.
PIONEERS – 6/10
next week, we’ll look at Rancid’s debut record, which is self-titled the same way their EP was.
previous: Ska-Core, the Devil and More| next: Rancid (LP)
previous Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra album: World Famous | next: Fantasia
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