Magical Power Mako - 1975 - Super Record

Quality: 4 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 4.5 out of 5

This is a pretty strange collection of tunes, but in comparison with Magical Power Mako's debut, Super Record is much more conventional. There's a lot of diversity with Mako trying out different world folk styles along with a few space rock freakouts. The album, however, doesn't veer off into musique concrete like the previously album does.

"Andromeda" comes across as a variant of the style of jamming that early Ash Ra Tempel employed. There are unique touches, though; especially in the way the midsection of the track seems to disintegrate and then reintegrate. I'd say that the name of the tracks is often a good pointer to the sound with "Tundra" having a positively icy sound and "Silk Road" having the sonic texture of a caravan (with an acid rock guitarist in tow) traversing the Gobi Desert. I guess "Woman in South Island" continues this mold if we consider that southern island to be part of India. It's probably worth mentioning that this album is almost entirely instrumental. There are some wordless vocals on "Pink Bitch," but that woman sounds half insane. The last four tracks of the album all have the same intro, but they don't seem to be a song suite. They do, however, continue the festival marching rhythms, with each track getting progressively stranger. The band amps up, threatening to dive into one last power freak out on the closing "Sound, Mother Earth," but they never quite get there.

Realistically, this is a far more listenable album than the debut. You can actually follow what's going on, but it doesn't make your jaw drop in disbelief quite as much. They stay pretty weird inside their more defined instrumental bounds, though. If you've exhausted your experimental kraut-rock outlets, Magical Power Mako is probably a logical next step for you.

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Magical Power Mako - 1975 - Super Record

Magical Power Mako - 1973 - Magical Power Mako

Quality: 4 out of 5
Trip-O-Meter: 5 out of 5

First off: YES, THAT IS THE REAL ALBUM COVER. I confirmed this only through years of painstaking research.

I'm at pretty much of a loss to describe this one. While a large percentage of Japanese pop music is simply tired echoes of Western sounds, a few bravely trudge on in the other direction and make some of the more extreme music that you're likely to hear. This debut from Magical Power Mako is about as weird as you're going to get for psychedelic music in 1973. While there are hints of a rock band on the album, any semblance of a recognizable framework goes flying out the window as we mix in found sound, Japanese folk tones, odd electronic noise, children singing, and more.

Let's see if we can't take a quick tour of the album. We start with a news report a little like Hendrix's "ESP," but without the screaming flying saucer guitar sounds. This plunges directly into what sounds like a Japanese summer festival at its drunken height (and probably the ingestion of the wrong kind of mountain mushrooms), interrupted by a variety of odd noises and found sounds that eventually envelop the song. It's practically indescribable and completely unclassifiable. It has the potential to actually drive you mad. The next track, "Tsugaru," manages to scale things back with a wild koto and strange muttering. In fact, nothing here is identifiable 'rock' until a bit of space jamming at the end of "Flying," which is the sixth track. "Retraint. Freedom," while still completely demented, sound positively normal in this context with its discernible drum rhythm and churning guitars. This is immediately followed by what sounds like a Japanese "You Can't Always Get What You Want" backed by a local elementary school. After a few more tracks of various flavors of oddness, "Look Up the Sky" takes twelve minutes to shift from solo piano, to something kind of Berlin school-like, to an utterly strange wall of sound.

Nothing I write is really going to capture the tone of this album. It's a completely unhinged journey into whatever trip as flowing through Mr. Magical Power at the time. I can't promise that you're going to dig it, but something here will managed to bend space-time and blow your mind; probably frighten you a bit as well.

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Magical Power Mako - 1973 - Magical Power Mako