dreadpirateroberts Casiopea do fairly slick fusion that can get spacey but is mostly funk-influenced. Their first album includes a horn section on several songs, and even strings at times, but the chief focus is on the guitar of leader Issei Noro and the keys of Minoru Mukaiya, both which spend as much time establishing texture, working on riffs and melody as they do soloing or digging into anything tangled. But that’s not a weakness, the accessibility and melody are nice features, and it’s also not to say there are no solos at all. ‘Swallow’ for instance has some great solos from both players, and in fact, I’m reminded of Al Di Meola at times.

I do feel like this is a good album rather than an essential release. It’s got a nice amount of punch from the bursts of lockstep playing or up-tempo numbers like ‘Black Joke’ or ‘Space Road’ and contrasts this with cruising moments, even including a nice ballad of sorts, in ‘Tears of the Stars’ where Noro brings out the acoustic guitar. Opener ‘Time Limit’ is great, but my favourite piece is probably the fantastic ‘Midnight Rendezvous.’ Not every song is as distinctive as some of those mentioned, and at times the album seems ‘safe’ and I found myself wondering what Casiopea would sound like if they approached some of the pieces in a less composed manner. (I ought to check out some live tracks and do a bit of a comparison.)

At a production level, the ultra crisp and reasonably trebly bass sound does date the album a little, it has a bit of an 1980s feel that doesn’t sit all that well with me, but this is nitpicking to some extent. Because it doesn’t truly detract from the better compositions, and probably my chief concern is with the overall slickness of the songs, both in terms of sound and composition, which is clear from first listen.

Casiopea were one of the most durable fusion bands from Japan, releasing over thirty albums in their career, and this is certainly an impressive debut, even if I don’t think it’s essential. It’s still a good album and would probably work as a fitting (and logical) introduction to the band, so slowly, I'm going to dig into the rest of their discography.