Love Live Life (& related) ~ Japan

Kosuke Ichihara & Love Live Life - Datsu Nippon Minyou - Now Sound '75. 1975 Victor

UMR reviews

Satsujin Jissho [Ten Chapters of Murder]. 1974 CBS/Sony

I've known about Love Live Life + 1 for many years, but wasn't aware the group had a second album until recently. It's a concept album about various incidents of nefarious killings (anything from the St. Valentine's Massacre to the Holocaust). Musically the mood doesn't really fit the concept, as it's a real hodge podge of sounds. Anything from instrumental funky wah wah cop show themes, to avant garde indigenous music, to ragtime jazz is featured here. Whatever it is, it's definitely underground 1970's Japan - where anything goes! Honestly it doesn't remind me of the other LLL+1 album at all, and should be strictly considered on its own. Plenty of psychedelic guitar to keep an underground rock fan interested - but be prepared for many changes in style. 

Priority: 2

According to a comment from an anonymous reader, Satsujin Jissho has been reissued (1997 Super Fuji). 

The AC has countered the above comment: "This CD doesn't actually exist. It was supposed to come out in 2007 (not 1997), but Sony (who own the rights) killed it off at the last minute. The "Super Fuji Discs" mentioned is a subsidiary of the Japanese record store Disk Union, who sell tons of rare LPs throughout Japan. They were involved in the mastering of the CD, but the whole thing had to be shelved after a while. "

As of 3/4/25, Discogs shows no mention of a CD, so the AC was correct in his retort.

The AC's notes for Kosuke Ichihara & Love Live Life : "The common misconception of Kosuke Ichihara's group seems to be that Love Live Life were a regular, comprehensive band in the Japanese rock scene, a la Flower Travellin' Band and the like, but that's not really the case. Ichihara came from a jazz background, and even the seminal "Love Will Make A Better You" was really more along the lines of the typical "band leader and revolving cast of studio hired guns" scenario that for the most part dominated the output of Japan's New Rock explosion. So it should come as no surprise then that their trail afterwards becomes more diverse and obscure. Most well known in the west is obviously the quirky "Satsujin Jissho", but around the same time there were also entertainingly silly exploitation cash-ins like "Rock In Bacharach", "Rock In X'Mas" and other less notable studio sessions and collaborations. But perhaps the most interesting of this little known latter-day output is "Now Sound '75", an attempt to cross traditional Japanese "minyou" folk songs with the then-rising genre of jazz-rock fusion. This concept had already been done umpteen times by this point in other styles, some of which have been covered on this very blog (Toshio Tanioka, Dosojin, etc.). However, as the title indicates, the difference here is that the "sound"  was very "now", as in funky mid 70s instrumental fusion. The traditional themes are woven in smoothly to create atmosphere in a well-produced set of tunes that would have made a good soundtrack for a classic Japanese cop/detective show. Oddly enough, I'm also reminded a bit of the contemporaneous French fusion sound. Smooth and funky, but with enough atmosphere and instrumental acumen to hold your interest. Recommended to fusion fans, and I'd wager it would also go down a storm with the rare groove crowd. Unfortunately, one of their harder titles to find."

9/30/10 (new entry); 11/7/15 (update)