Made in Japan (Flower Travellin' Band album)
Introduction '''''Made in Japan''''' is the third album by Japanese rock band Flower Travellin' Band, released in 1972.
Production After meeting Lighthouse at the Expo '70 festival in Osaka, Flower Travellin' Band were invited to visit Canada. While there, the group recorded ''Made in Japan'' with Lighthouse keyboardist Paul Hoffert helping produce. Vocalist Joe Yamanaka later stated that the process was very easy, with everything flowing well.Due to George Wada becoming ill with tuberculosis, Canadian drummer Paul DeLong plays on some tracks on this album. The lyrics were written by Yoko Nomura, the wife of the band's manager, who translated conversations she had with the group and their ideas into English. "Heaven and Hell" was written by Yamanaka in Japanese and she translated it. The song "Hiroshima" is a re-imagining of "Satori Part III" from their previous album ''Satori''. The introductory first track is an advertisement for a concert at Stanley Park Stadium in Toronto by Flower Travellin' Band, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Bob Seger and Teegarden & Van Winkle, with a clip of "Lucky Man" playing in the background. "Hiroshima", "Heaven and Hell" and "Aw Give Me Air" were covered by Cult of Personality, 9, and punk band Pulling Teeth respectively, for the 2000 ''Flower Travellin' Band Tribute'' album.
Reception Both Mason Jones of ''Dusted'' magazine and Eduardo Rivadavia of Allmusic claimed that following ''Satori'' was a difficult task and that ''Made in Japan'' was "doomed to fall short of expectations," respectively. Both reviewers also cited the same three songs, "Kamikaze", "Hiroshima" and "Spasms", as the highlights and being on par with the band's best work. Although he felt it inconsistent, Rivadavia called the album "pretty darn good!" and gave it a 3.5 star rating out of 5.
Track listing
Personnel '''Flower Travellin' Band'''*Joe Yamanaka – vocals* Hideki Ishima – guitar, sitar* Jun Kozuki – bass* Joji Wada – drums'''Additional musicians'''* Paul DeLong – drums'''Production and design'''* Yoko Nomura – lyrics* Flower Travellin' Band – arrangement* Ikuzo Orita – producer* Paul Hoffert – producer* Yuya Uchida – producer* Gilbert Kong – mixing* Kiyoshi Sunamori – artwork* Yoshio Niwano – artwork* David Ohashi – photography* Toyo Nakamura – liner notes* John & Yoko Nomura – supervision
References