I've mentioned this before and as usual no one heeded me :-( Johnny, Dave etc etc are you listening? This is a fabulous, fabulous album and sounds even fresher everytime I give it a spin...They actually reformed on the strength of Julian's recommendation - see review below; unfortunately they couldn't really cut it anymore but dig that guitar :) Have a look on YouTube
BTW it's still available on cd and vinyl and in a beautiful gatefold sleeve too for the vinyl version
This review is from: Satori (Audio CD)
Flower Travellin' Band's 1971 album Satori gets a deserved UK reissue, possibly in the wake of it coming joint top in Julian Cope's academic music history lesson Japrocksampler. Originally released on Atlantic in 1971, this finds FTC (Joe, Hideki Ishima, Joji Wada, & Jhun Kowzuki) advancing on the territory laid out on their great debut LP 'Anywhere' (which might be a better primer for FTC).
Satori is the full FTC trip, sounding a little like bands you might know (Cream, Sabbath, Yardbirds), but going out there - Cope states in Japrocksampler that "so out on a limb was SATORI that it still defies true comparison with other records. They just haven't been recorded yet." Its presence at the top of the list of Cope's Top 50 faves of Japrock suggests you should probably buy it, since the Arch Drude has always had great taste and his mighty Head Heritage site has alerted many to joys previously unknown. Prior to Cope's Krautrocksampler, only a knowing few (musicians, producers) really knew some of those acts - nowadays you get Kasabian talking about Faust and Neu! on Tarantino soundtracks. Who will be citing Satori in years to come?
The last few years have found me listening to what I may have written off as heavy metal, but is more another breed of rock music - it's strange but bands that have tapped into sources like Hawkwind and Sabbath (& others) have really gone out there and it's great that such extreme and forward thinking music is fleshing onto the bones of In Search of Space, Master of Reality, the second side of My War, or Metal Machine Music. Think of acts like Comets on Fire, Dead Meadow, Earth, Khanate, Melvins, Sunn O))) or Thrones and you have examples of people who took what was already there (Cream, Sabbath etc) and went out there...just like Flower Travellin' Band did with Satori (& Anywhere).
SATORI is a trip, parts 1 to 5...sometimes Joe vanishes and the band power on. Sometimes there are many songs in one song and they all sound the same and all sound different. Sometimes the album shifts completely, such as the beginning of Part 3 which sounds like Floyd at Pompei relocating to the debris of Nagasaki and sometimes I play this album all the way through and press play once again. SATORI sounds as fresh as ever and should appeal to anyone who digs the 'head' side of rock music - I still think there is great music made these days, but do realise that I buy more cds of what we know as 'back catalogue.' & it's records like these - an album that sounds fresh to me and something that people should hear...maybe get inspired? Anyway, a wonderful reissue of a great, great album and one that people should buy, regardless of Japrocksampler.
