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Adachi Kyodai (Japan) - 2003 - "Adachi Kyodai" (51 min, Musea & Poseidon) TRACK LIST: 1. Back Track 4:54 2. Mother Goose 3:21 3. Push Me into Tornado 3:45 4. I Talk to the Devil 4:04 5. All Shades of Blues 4:24 6. Cheap Day Return 2:51 7. Erewhon 6:34 8. Unknown Troops 3:56 9. Spring Silky Shower Landscape 4:06 10. Lemming 5:40 11. When That I Was a Little Tiny Boy 2:12 12. Guilt 5:52 LINE-UP: Source Adachi - lead acoustic guitar; vocals Ryusuke Adachi - rhythm acoustic guitar Produced by S. Adachi. Engineered by Dani at "D-S". Prolusion. The eponymous Adachi Kyodai album is the Adachi brothers' debut. And although the brothers look like oldsters rather than youngsters, it doesn't matter at all, of course. Synopsis. These Japanese men are real contemporary minstrels or the acoustic guitar heroes, which should be more precise due to the fact that there are only four songs on their first album. Source Adachi, who plays most of the soloing parts here, is a rare (just fantastic!) virtuoso, and his compositional talents are also outstanding. The album contains twelve tracks, eight of which are instrumental pieces composed by Source, and the others represent renditions of the songs from repertoires of early Jethro Tull and King Crimson. Surprisingly, Source's singing on them is almost not unlike that of Ian Anderson and Greg Lake respectively! These are probably the most unusual renditions of classic Progressive Rock works I've ever heard. All of the original compositions on the album however, are much more complex and interesting than renditions, and the stylistics of most of them is in my view somewhat of a mixed Classic Progressive Rock / Classical Music concerto for two acoustic guitars. Precisely half of the tracks on the album: Back Track, Push Me into Tornado, Erewhon, Unknown Troops, Lemming, and Guilt (1, 3, 7, 8, 10, & 12) consist of incredibly diverse and fast, effectively contrasting, and constantly developing interplay between brothers and are simply mind-blowing. Both of the remaining pieces: All Shades of Blue and Spring Silky Shower Landscape (5 & 9) are practically as diverse and virtuosi as any of the aforementioned compositions, but unlike them, these are lacking in originality and sound like tributes (rather dedications, though) to the apparently favorite guitarists of the brothers. The first of these tracks features a lot of 'chattering' solos invented by Robert Fripp and widely used by him on "Show of Hands" (1991), for instance, and all the contents of the latter very much resemble Steve Howe's style of playing an acoustic guitar. Conclusion. "Adachi Kyodai" is a must have for all the lovers of classic 'acoustically driven' guitar Art-Rock, at least, and if there were a bit lesser of tributary pieces on this album, I would have certainly rated it as a masterpiece. VM: July 29, 2003 Related Links: Musea Records Poseidon Records

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