4 out of 5

Label: Teslakite

Produced by: Susumu Hirawasa

As this is called ‘unreleased material’ – i.e. these tracks were presumably never intended to be necessarily bundled together as such – that the main criticism for this second collection of Susumu Hirawasa’s initial foray into music as a prog-rock band is that it doesn’t flow as a holistic listening experience is… fitting.  Though I could extend this to internally per track as well, with the 10+ minute compositions technically impressive as hell, but constructed more out of pieces than considered as start-to-finish songs.

But, like, whatever.

The musical wizardry here – and how far Susumu was able to push the sounds of guitars and electronics – are jaw-dropping, the aforementioned pieces fully formed in and of themselves (and calculatedly fitting well with whatever directly precedes or succeeds) and displaying an early sense of quirk that would later show up in P-Model, particularly on the more electronic track 4.  Guitar / bass / drum instrumentation is otherwise the name of the game.  Though, with intense extended plays calling to mind Gentle Giant harmonies or Hawkwind note noodle virtuosity.

The poor recording is a shame, but it feels like we’re lucky to have this stuff; this isn’t the wankfest of a talent without songwriting chops – it’s the first inklings of decades-spanning genius trying out a genre and finding it limiting.