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- CLASSIC ALBUM OF THE
WEEK
- Taj Mahal Travellers "August 1974" 1974 (Japan)
In
the first decade of the 21st century, a microgenre subculture movement
was labeled "free folk" (or as I sometimes like to call it, "commune
rock") -- groups like NoNeck Blues Band, Sunburned Hand of the Man,
Davenport, Second Family Band and Racoo-oo-oon. However, free-form freakout
music has been around for a couple generations, having begun in the
sixties no doubt, and recorded on vinyl by such early groups as Germans
Amon Duul (the original group before adding "II" to their name), Brits
Hapshash & The Coloured Coat, New Yorkers The Godz and Japan's Taj
Mahal Travellers, who were perhaps the ultimate proponents of the
aleatoric improvisatory epic approach. Led by Takehisa Kosugi (a
leading light of the 1960's fluxus movement in Japan which also
produced Yoko Ono), and including about a dozen members (one of whose
only musical contribution was shaking a tree branch!), the Travellers
really did travel the world in a bus playing galleries and happenings
all across Asia and Europe during the 1970's. They even made a
tour docmentary about it, which you can watch here. August 1974
was the group's second release, a double album consisting of four
untitled tracks. Their limited-yet-epic discography also includes
the debut album July 15, 1972 and double CD (two 60-minute tracks) Live Stockholm July 1971
(which was released 30 years after it was recorded), and for
completists there is also a sidelong untitled concert performance on
the 1973 Oz Days Live
compilation. Other Kosugi-related projects of note include the
early 1960's performance-noise approach of Group Ongaku, and his later
1970's outfit East Bionic Symphonia (who only released one album) as
well as his acclaimed avant-garde solo violin album Catch-Wave.
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