Kazutoki Umezu Kiki Band “Dowser”

"Dowser"

(Zott) 2005

Umezu Kazutoki—Saxes and Bass Clarinet

Kido Natsuki—Electric Guitar

Hayakawa Takeharu—Electric Bass

Joe Trump—Drums, Percussion

The Kiki band is its own creature. Drawn from heavy metal guitar, middle-eastern melodies, four-limbed drumming and a rollicking fat bass, the quartet rocks, swings, jams, and explodes. This is cathartic music, with a constant series of unpredictable climaxes and unending curves in musical direction. Fans of past Kiki band recordings will find plenty to love here.

The opening tune "Squirrelly Dragon" moves through a series of musical episodes with energy and brashness. It's a great tune that draws you in and demands your attention with loudness, no matter what volume you have your player set at. The second tune, "Monkey Mash," takes off with a nimble guitar line and wide-open sax playing, which converge and depart and flee into interesting spaces. Drummer Trump gets in some full-on rock-style drumming in here and everyone blasts away at their chosen instruments without restraint.

"The beginning was failed" slows down for a bit, and everyone relaxes into a meditative piece that builds to anthem-like proportions. Its sparse lyricism and heartfelt minimal approach are like a beautiful break in the middle of the song list. Yet, the hanging on certain notes and care with delivery come out clearly.

"Viva Chuo-line Jazz" picks the pace back up for a full-on blast of the energy that pours out of Chuo line clubs nightly. Everyone's clearly into this tune and the pace hardly slows for a breath. "Dowser" gives moment of reprieve, before "A fort of Zanzibal" takes on a swirling Mediterranean melody by Umezu to close out the CD.

There may be no brand-new directions from the Kiki band here compared to past CDs, but there doesn't need to be. It's more of a very, very good thing.