It was a very hot and humid day, typical for the Japanese summer, and it was also a memorable day for the Japanese Zeuhl music lovers.
In spite of the lack of promotion, over three hundred and fifty people gathered to see the two-hour long performance by three great Zeuhl bands, which was surprising to me. The concert took place at the public hall of the Hosei University in Tokyo, and at only 500 Yen for a ticket (less than US$5.00) the entrance price was unbelievable too.
The show started at 16:00 hrs with the performance by KOUENJI HYAKKEI as the opening act. There are four members in the group, Tatsuya Yoshida (drums) is the leader and he is supported by Aki Kubota (keyboards), Shigekazu Kuwahara (bass) and Ryuichi Masuda (guitar) (who also plays bass with RUINS). At the same time, they sang (or shouted, roared, screamed...) with all their hearts. In particular Aki's voice deserves to be mentioned. You might already know that Yoshida's vocal work is incredible, but her (Aki's) voice was almost as good as his. All the songs are their own original compositions, very powerful but complicated, and using perfect Kobaïan words! It is sad to reflect that they don't play so often (just a few times each year), but they should be counted as one of the worlds top Zeuhl groups.
After this thirty minute set, HAPPY FAMILY appeared on the stage. They are not so famous, but are one of the great Zeuhl instrumental groups in Japan at present. Happy Family are; Kenichi Morimoto (keyboards), Shigeru Makino (guitar), Tatsuya Miyano (bass) and Kenichi Nagase (drums). Sometimes they play "cover versions" of their favourite music on stage, like 'Cometa Rossa' or 'Europa Minor'.
Today, their opening number was 'Final d'Urantia' with very powerful and speedy drums. Unfortunately, due to the mixing desk staff mishandling the volume controls, we could not hear the keyboard sound except for the last few minutes. They played two more original songs, 'Rock and Young' and 'Ningen-Gyorai "Kaiten" exhibiting their approach to the hard-rock field. Happy Family's set also lasted half an hour.
After the two support acts, MEKANÏK KOMMANDÖH (the name of Yoshida's special project) appeared on the stage. They began with 'De Futura', roughly the same as the original version. The introductory part started with bass drum beating, which was very impressive. Two bassists played as good as Magma's great players. In the middle section, Yoshida shouted, "Kobaïa, Kobaïa, KOBAÏA!", which gave us a deep ETERNAL feeling. Their beat slows down, and rises again, finally ending up dramatically. Since we were unable to see a real Magma performing in Japan, this was the memorable moment that a Magma tune was played live on stage...
Before starting 'Mekanïk Destruktïw Kommandöh' (the highlight of the concert), Yoshida announced the names of the songs. Then the chorus started (same as the 'Retrospektï?' arrangement). Then he started to speak the Kobaïan narration, it was exactly the same as the original studio version. NULL's roaring voice manifested the song title; it was as if a heavy metal wheel groaned.
Until the 'Mekanïk Zaïn' section, they followed the 'Retrospektï?' version.
At the beginning of it, one of the twin bass guitar players, Shigekazu Kuwahara
took the role that Bernard Paganotti demonstrated on 02-03-76. Adding the bass
phrase of 'De Futura', it was bloody great! But I was anxious about the middle
section, what could they do without a violin solo with which Didier Lockwood
had dominated the live Retrospektï? shows? But Yoshida was very clever; he introduced
his Noise music at that point. The guitarist and the bassist (Miyano) played
alternately. Then the other players rejoined again, they brought us to the dramatic
climax.
The closing part again followed closely to the studio version, we felt pure
emotional feeling in the melody, which was faded out....
I dare to say their performance was not perfect. The technique of one of the
keyboard players was poor, and its volume level was set much too high. One of
female chorus (not Aki) did not sing well. NULL's vocal was very powerful, but
the PA. balance was not good, so that we could not hear his voice well. The
guitarist played very well, but his style is not suitable for a Magma sound.
For the next live performance by MEKANÏK Kommandöh some members might be changed...
In any case, Tatsuya Yoshida, who is the main instigator of the project, expressed
his strong zeuhl spirit.
Though I speak candidly about their faults, still I think these performances
were epochal for the Zeuhl scene in Japan. I must emphasise that all of you
should take notice of them!