Prog4you.com - Rock Review

: : Review : :

From the land of the rising sun and the kind folks at Poseidon Records comes this odd release from master bassist Hideyuki Shima, who in addition to delivering a convincing showcase of his fretboard skills has taken upon himself to conduct Takumi Seino and Shiju Odajima on guitar and Gori Matsuda and Futoshi Okano on drums.

The album consists of edited excerpts from what must have been a wild night of musical improvisation at the Big Apple Club in Kobe, Japan, and the results are, unfortunately, very mixed. I mean, the opening track Metamorphosis Of The Budderfly is just one of those chaotic ramblings that really just goes nowhere, and stays meandering about for way too long. However, just as I was getting ready to throw the disc out the window, Essential talk kicks in to soothe the nerves and show that these guys aren't actually allergic to melody amid the flurries of atonal scales and their own weird discipline. The distortion on the second part of the bass solo is cool, but it gets a bit milked.

And so it goes, flitting and charging along, mostly cacophony with occasional flashes of real brilliance and melody. There is ample proof that Shima has solid bass chops, but his compositions or improvisations really didn't do much for me. The guitarists in particular really grated on my nerves. I wonder if Shima was on a beer break from conducting duties during large chunks of this album.

What gives Mr. Shima??!!! In a world full of so many interesting releases, this one is, put simply, a MUST PASS. Then again, if total noise and cacophony punctuated by small bursts of order and harmony is what it takes to give you wood, then by all means grab a copy.

Rating; 3 keyboards (30% of the disc is great).
Reviewer: Luis Nasser

: : Visit the artist website's : :
http://www.music.ne.jp/~sixnorth/budderfly.html

: : related links : :
Six North
Musea Records
http://www.musicterm.jp/poseidon/

: : Credits : :
Produced by Shima.
Performed & recorded 'live' at "Big Apple Club" in Kobe. Mixed & mastered by Seino & Shima.