3 out of 5

Produced by: Susumu Hirasawa

Label: Teslakite

The first half of Susumu’s heretofore unreleased Mandrake material.

As with the other set – and considering that these songs are like 20 minutes apiece, meaning it’s really only split across two volumes due to space constraints – the compositions here likely were never considered as a whole and so bundling them as such creates a natural ‘flow’ limitation.  Similar praises and criticisms apply to both volumes, then, though divvied up differently across the tracks.  For example, the Wow factor, here – the disbelief that rock this wild and varied and complex existed at this time – applies 100% to the first track, which is the only composition across both volumes to achieve a sense of unity throughout its sprawlingness from start to finish.  Track two continues positively, although if track 1 combined rock and pop and prog, 2 is surely in Yes and Hawkwind territory – that is, it’s more “typical” of the genre, though still a great track.

Tracks 3 and 4, then, get the brunt of the negativity on this set, being either very uneven – track 3 almost seems like a series of unconnected demos – or fairly unremarkable, with track 4 plying an interesting nigh-minimalism, but not building to anything, feeling especially unpolished.  Buffered with the two amazing openers, still totally worth the price of admission, but the latter half of the disc – while a bonus to those of us just interested to hear this stuff – doesn’t warrant much revisiting.