| Satori | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | April 5, 1971 | |||
| Recorded | 1970 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 42:14 | |||
| Label | ||||
| Producer |
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| Flower Travellin' Band chronology | ||||
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Satori is the second album by Japanese rock band Flower Travellin' Band, and their first of original material. It was released in Japan by Atlantic Records in 1971 and in the US and Canada by GRT Records. [1]
Yuya Uchida formed the Flower Travellin' Band as a way to create a group with international appeal. At Expo '70, Canadian rock band Lighthouse saw Flower Travellin' Band perform, liked what they saw and suggested they go to Canada. Sensing the chance for international popularity, the group quickly recorded Satori to have something to bring with them. [2]
Tired of covering Western blues bands, the Flower Travellin' Band wanted to create their own material. The members would get together and Hideki Ishima would come up with guitar riffs while everyone tried new ideas on each other. Because Ishima was interested in Indian music, the Oriental aspect became a part of the band's sound. Joe Yamanaka revealed that there are relatively few lyrics on the album because of the band's love for improvisation. He stated that because you can not suddenly change direction with lyrics as you can with instrumentation, he consciously stepped back and trusted the other musicians. [2] The album was recorded in just two days; one day recording and one mixing. [2] [3]
The North American release differed from the Japanese original, as it contained songs from their then upcoming album Made in Japan and the bonus track "Lullaby". [4]
The original Japanese version was reissued on CD by Warner Music in 1988. [5] A re-release in 1991 contained the bonus track "Map", which was written by Kuni Kawachi and originally on his album Kirikyogen , which featured Joe Yamanaka and Hideki Ishima, under the name "Works Composed Mainly By Humans". [6] This version of the song was previously released as a single by Flower Travellin' Band. The album was digitally remastered in 1998. [7] In 2009 it was remastered on the new SHM-CD format. [8]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [9] |
| Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal | 7/10 [10] |
| Sputnikmusic | 4.8/5 [11] |
In September 2007, Rolling Stone Japan rated Satori #71 on their list of the "100 Greatest Japanese Rock Albums of All Time". [12] David Fricke of Rolling Stone declared Satori his "favorite Japanese rock album of all time." [13]
Hernan M. Campbell of Sputnikmusic said that Satori, with its traces of early heavy metal, progressive rock and psychedelia, captures "the eclecticism of the '70s rock scene, and all of the different philosophies that were steadily evolving into fully recognized genres." Giving the album a 4.8 rating out of 5, he also wrote that like Ishima and Yamanaka's previous work on Kuni Kawachi's album Kirikyogen, Satori has "the formidable and ominous sound that would become the essence of doom metal." [11]
AllMusic's Thom Jurek gave the album 4½ stars out of 5 and made it their pick as the band's top album calling it "a real classic"; "From power chords to Eastern-tinged, North African, six-string freakouts, to crashing tom toms, to basses blasting into the red zone, Satori is a journey to the center of someplace that seems familiar but has never before been visited." [9]
The Guardian 's Rob Fitzpatrick stated that the album "blends edge-of-your-seat psychedelic shamanism with hair-shaking proto-metal rifferama". [14]
"Satori Part III" was later re-imagined into Flower Travellin' Band's staple song "Hiroshima", on their next album Made in Japan . [15] The entirety of Satori was used as the music score for Takashi Miike's 2002 film Deadly Outlaw: Rekka , which features Yuya Uchida and Joe Yamanaka as actors. [16]
"Satori Part I" was covered by The Claypool Lennon Delirium, which consists of Les Claypool and Sean Lennon, for their 2017 EP Lime and Limpid Green . Lennon, whose mother Yoko Ono introduced him to the band's work and who knew the Flower Travellin' Band members, chose the song as a nod to his fellow Japanese, who he said had been suffering since the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. [17] A sample from Satori is used prominently in Cypress Hill's 2018 single "Band of Gypsies".
"Satori Part I" was also covered by Iron Age on the b-side their 2008 single "The Way Is Narrow." [18]
All tracks are written by Flower Travellin' Band
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Satori Part I" | 5:25 |
| 2. | "Satori Part II" | 7:06 |
| 3. | "Satori Part III" | 10:44 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 4. | "Satori Part IV" | 11:01 |
| 5. | "Satori Part V" | 7:58 |
Yuya Uchida was a Japanese singer, record producer, and actor. With a career spanning six decades, he was a major figure in Japanese popular music.
Flower Travellin' Band was a Japanese rock band that was formed in 1967. They were connected to Japan's counterculture movement and noted for their mixture of early heavy metal with psychedelic and progressive rock. They received wide acclaim from critics but failed to achieve commercial success and separated in 1973 to pursue individual careers. The band reunited in late 2007, but permanently disbanded after the 2011 death of vocalist Joe Yamanaka.
The Sadistic Mika Band was a Japanese rock band formed in November 1971 by husband and wife duo Kazuhiko Katō and Mika Katō. In a time when it was still rare for women to sing in rock bands in Japan, the fact that the Katōs were a married couple was even more unusual. This, combined with their glam rock-influenced fashion, has been cited as groundbreaking for defying gender norms in the country. After releasing three studio albums and becoming the first Japanese rock band to tour the United Kingdom, the Sadistic Mika Band disbanded in November 1975 when the Katōs divorced.
Kenichi Hagiwara was a Japanese singer and actor.
Deadly Outlaw: Rekka, also known as Violent Fire, is a 2002 Japanese yakuza film directed by Takashi Miike starring Riki Takeuchi and Sonny Chiba. Known in Japan as Jitsuroku: Andō Noboru Kyōdō-den - Rekka, it is loosely based on actor Noboru Ando's former life as a yakuza.
We Are Here is the fifth and final album by Japanese rock band Flower Travellin' Band, released in September 2008 by Pony Canyon Records. It is their only album after reuniting in November 2007 and the only one to feature keyboardist Nobuhiko Shinohara as a full member. We Are Here peaked at number 299 on the Oricon chart.
Kirikyogen is a 1970 album by Japanese musician Kuni Kawachi and the Flower Travellin' Band. It was originally credited to "Kuni Kawachi and his Friends" when initially released. The album showcases Kuni Kawachi's progressive rock influences, as well as the growing heavy metal sound that the Flower Travellin' Band were honing.
Challenge! is the debut studio album by Japanese rock band Flower Travellin' Band, then called Yuya Uchida & The Flowers, released in 1969. It features mainly cover songs, and was a means for Yuya Uchida to explore the emerging psychedelic rock movement outside his own career, and to introduce the work of upcoming Western bands such as Cream, Big Brother and the Holding Company, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Jefferson Airplane to a Japanese audience. It was named number 34 on Bounce's 2009 list of 54 Standard Japanese Rock Albums.
Anywhere is a 1970 album by Japanese rock band Flower Travellin' Band. It was their first release under the Flower Travellin' Band name and the first to feature the classic line-up of Joe Yamanaka, Hideki Ishima, Jun Kozuki and Joji Wada. AllMusic rated the album 3 out of 5 stars, describing the music as a "unique mixture of progressive daring, psychedelic eccentricity, and muscular, heavy rock austerity".
Made In Japan is the third album by Japanese rock band Flower Travellin' Band, released in 1972.
Make Up is the fourth album by Japanese rock band Flower Travellin' Band, released in 1973. It is a double album, featuring both live and studio recordings.
Akira Yamanaka, better known as Joe Yamanaka (ジョー山中), was a Japanese singer and actor. He is known for both his work with Flower Travellin' Band and as a solo musician; singing at a vocal range of three octaves. As an actor, he appeared in many television shows and movies, such as Takashi Miike's Deadly Outlaw: Rekka and the 1989 version of Zatoichi.
Hideki Ishima is a Japanese musician, known primarily for his work with Flower Travellin' Band and for creating the sitarla instrument. A guitarist and sitar player for nearly forty years, he now exclusively plays the sitarla, an instrument he invented in 2000 that combines aspects of a sitar with an electric guitar. Guitarists Akira Takasaki, Rolly, and Mikael Åkerfeldt have cited him as an influence.
Satori is an album released by Flower Travellin' Band in Canada. It featured tracks from the original Japanese release of Satori, Made In Japan, and an additional track only available on the Canadian single release of Satori. The songs featured from Satori were remixed and edited considerably. The album was produced by Paul Hoffert of Lighthouse.
Resurrection is a 2008 live DVD released only in Japan by Flower Travellin' Band. It commemorates their reunion in the 21st century, and features two discs. The first disc features an entire concert, while the second features interviews and other special features. It was recorded at the Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall.
Japanese metal is heavy metal music from Japan. The country's first metal bands formed in the mid-to-late 1970s. The number of acts increased significantly in the next decade, but only a few saw their material released internationally, including Europe and North America with their pre-established metal bases. Domestic metal saw its commercial peak in Japan in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with the top acts selling millions of records. Many metal bands from the visual kei scene toured and gained recognition in the West in the 2000s. The 2010s saw a boom of all-female metal bands form and gain mainstream attention.
Japanese rock, sometimes abbreviated to J-rock, is rock music from Japan. Influenced by American and British rock of the 1960s, the first rock bands in Japan performed what is called Group Sounds, with lyrics almost exclusively in English. Folk rock band Happy End in the early 1970s are credited as the first to sing rock music in the Japanese language. Punk rock bands Boøwy and The Blue Hearts and hard rock/heavy metal groups X Japan and B'z led Japanese rock in the late 1980s and early 1990s by achieving major mainstream success.
Lime And Limpid Green is a 2017 EP of covers released by the Claypool Lennon Delirium. The album comprises four covers of songs originally by Pink Floyd, the Who, King Crimson and Flower Travellin’ Band. Lennon, whose mother Yoko Ono introduced him to the Flower Travellin’ Band’s work and who knew its members, chose their song as a nod to his fellow Japanese, who he said had been suffering since the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. It was originally released for Record Store Day in 2017, but it was eventually made available streaming.
The Claypool Lennon Delirium is an American rock band, currently composed of bassist/vocalist Les Claypool, known for his work in Primus, guitarist/vocalist Sean Ono Lennon from The Ghost Of A Saber Tooth Tiger, keyboardist/vocalist João Nogueira from Stone Giant, and drummer Paulo Baldi of Cake. Lennon classified the group's music as "progadelic".
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