We Are Here (Flower Travellin' Band album)

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We Are Here
Ftbishere.jpg
Studio album by Flower Travellin' Band
Released September 17, 2008
Recorded May – June, 2008
Studio Chlaet Studio, Ontario, Canada
Genre Acid rock
Length50:15
Label Pony Canyon
Producer Ben Kobayashi
Flower Travellin' Band chronology
Make Up
(1973)		We Are Here
(2008)

We Are Here is the fifth and final album by Japanese rock band Flower Travellin' Band, released in September 2008 by Pony Canyon Records. [1] 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. [2]

Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as "rock and roll" in the United States in the early 1950s, and developed into a range of different styles in the 1960s and later, particularly in the United Kingdom and in the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, a style which drew heavily on the genres of blues, rhythm and blues, and from country music. Rock music also drew strongly on a number of other genres such as electric blues and folk, and incorporated influences from jazz, classical and other musical styles. Musically, rock has centered on the electric guitar, usually as part of a rock group with electric bass, drums, and one or more singers. Usually, rock is song-based music usually with a 4/4 time signature using a verse–chorus form, but the genre has become extremely diverse. Like pop music, lyrics often stress romantic love but also address a wide variety of other themes that are frequently social or political.

Flower Travellin Band Japanese band

Flower Travellin' Band were 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.

Oricon Inc., established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics and information on music and the music industry in Japan. It started as Original Confidence Inc., which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc. was originally set up as a subsidiary of Original Confidence and took over the latter’s Oricon record charts in April 2002.

Contents

Production

Writing new material was one of the catalysts that brought about the group's reunion after 35 years, especially for Hideki Ishima. [3] Ishima also remarked that even though Jun Kobayashi and George Wada had not played in years, they were eager and pushed him into doing it. [4]

Hideki Ishima Japanese musician

Hideki Ishima is a Japanese musician, known primarily for his work with Flower Travellin' Band. 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.

The album was recorded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and produced by Jun's son Ben, [5] with both Ishima and Joe Yamanaka stating that it was immediately as if they had never stopped playing together. When an interviewer suggested that their newer material was more positive than their darker, older music, Yamanaka said that although We Are Here still has the Oriental musical element of their 1970s work, it is in a more pop context. [6]

Joe Yamanaka Japanese singer

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.

Orient term for the Eastern world

The Orient is a historical term for the East, traditionally comprising anything that belongs to the Eastern world, in relation to Europe. In English, it is largely a metonym for, and coterminous with, the continent of Asia, loosely classified into the Near East, Middle East and Far East: the directional regions now known today as western Asia, southern Asia, eastern Asia, and southeast Asia. Originally, the term Orient was used to designate the Near East, and later its meaning evolved and expanded, designating also the Middle East or the Far East.

Track listing

All lyrics written by Suzie Kim; all music composed by Flower Travellin' Band.

No.TitleLength
1."What Will You Say"5:24
2."We Are Here"5:25
3."dYE-jobe"5:57
4."Don't Touch My Dreadlocks"5:17
5."Love Is..."9:12
6."Over & Over"6:07
7."The Sleeping Giant (Resurrection)"6:57
8."Will It"5:56

Personnel

The band

Singing act of producing musical sounds with the voice

Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice and augments regular speech by the use of sustained tonality, rhythm, and a variety of vocal techniques. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music that can be sung with or without accompaniment by musical instruments. Singing is often done in an ensemble of musicians, such as a choir of singers or a band of instrumentalists. Singers may perform as soloists or accompanied by anything from a single instrument up to a symphony orchestra or big band. Different singing styles include art music such as opera and Chinese opera, Indian music and religious music styles such as gospel, traditional music styles, world music, jazz, blues, gazal and popular music styles such as pop, rock, electronic dance music and filmi.

Sitarla

The sitarla is an instrument invented in 2000 by Japanese musician Hideki Ishima that combines aspects of the sitar with the solid body electric guitar. It is a hollow-bodied instrument, 3 1/2 tones lower than a guitar, with only three existing in the world as of 2008.

Bass guitar Electric bass instrument

The bass guitar is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric guitar, except with a longer neck and scale length, and four to six strings or courses.

Technical staff

Record producer Individual who oversees and manages the recording of an artists music

A record producer or music producer oversees and manages the sound recording and production of a band or performer's music, which may range from recording one song to recording a lengthy concept album. A producer has many, varying roles during the recording process. They may gather musical ideas for the project, collaborate with the artists to select cover tunes or original songs by the artist/group, work with artists and help them to improve their songs, lyrics or arrangements.

Arrangement musical composition in altered form

In music, an arrangement is a musical reconceptualization of a previously composed work. It may differ from the original work by means of reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or development of the formal structure. Arranging differs from orchestration in that the latter process is limited to the assignment of notes to instruments for performance by an orchestra, concert band, or other musical ensemble. Arranging "involves adding compositional techniques, such as new thematic material for introductions, transitions, or modulations, and endings... Arranging is the art of giving an existing melody musical variety".

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References

  1. ↑ "FLOWER TRAVELLIN' BAND // フラワー・トラヴェリン・バンド". Flowertravellingband.com. 2008-09-17. Retrieved 2012-03-14.
  2. ↑ "フラワー・トラベリン・バンドのアルバム売上ランキング". Oricon . Retrieved 2016-03-17.
  3. ↑ "Sex, drugs and sitars". The Japan Times . 2008-05-02. Retrieved 2016-02-02.
  4. ↑ "First I had the idea, nobody cared. They said 'you're crazy!'". jrawk.com. Archived from the original on 2009-05-20. Retrieved 2011-11-02.
  5. ↑ "48 Bands That Took 20 Or More Years Between Albums". Stereogum . 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2016-03-20.
  6. ↑ "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.
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