COUNT FIVE-PSYCHOTIC REACTION-JAPAN ISSUE MINI LP CD Fi83

Mercury ( August 08, 2006 ), Genre: Rock & Pop

Japanese 24-bit remastered reissue features a 10 track bonus CD.Long before they became The Band, these four Canadians and one southern rebel rocked the rooftops off Canada as The Hawks, Ronnie Hawkins's fierce back-up band. Their non-stop performing took them through nearly every bar in the region, and the group developed into a tightly wound rock unit. It is therefore interesting that, as The Band, the group was known more for its reluctance in the live arena than for its live prowess. This was in part due to leader Robbie Robertson's stage jitters, which seemed to worsen as The Band's status swelled. ROCK OF AGES provides a telling account of what glorious heights The Band was capable of when it tore loose onstage.Here the five members function as one shifting, interlocking force, summoning Americana, phantom soul, and barroom rockers with ease and freedom. Garth Hudson conjures pure organ voodoo with an impromptu instrumental, "The Genetic Method, " before the band launches into the otherworldly "Chest Fev

Toshiba (Japan)

JVC Compact Discs

Ryko Distribution ( July 19, 2005 ), Genre: Rock & Pop

Toshiba EMI (Japan) ( October 13, 2005 ), Genre: Oldies

CBS Records (Japan)

Universal Records (Japan)

Geffen Records (USA)

On its debut album, Kansas leavened its progressive rock complexity, with relatively concise hard-rock tunes. The follow-up, SONG FOR AMERICA, finds both elements still in play, but prog rock definitely dominates. Like its predecessor, SONG FOR AMERICA opens up with a simple, heavy rocker, but then wastes no time leaping into the Yes-influenced breach with the 10-minute epic title track. Aside from the anomalous "The Devil Game, " which sounds like a Bad Company outtake, the rest of the album finds Kansas headed straight for art-rock glory, as tricky syncopation, swirling synthesizers, and fiery fiddle dart in and out of willfully dense arrangements, often following classical-inspired structure. The album's final song (followed here by a couple of bonus cuts) is one of Kansas's most accomplished pieces, a strikingly complicated suite endearingly titled "Incomudro - Hymn to the Atman" that sounds pretty European for a bunch of boys from Midwestern farm country.