Kitajima, Osamu
The Early Years (5cd Box)
5CD box by Osamu Kitajima. 'Shin Chugoku' (1972) is a beautiful early 1970s psychedelic folk rock effort, on which Osamu Kitajima cooperated with Fumio Miyashita (aka Far Out) and members of the very popular Far East Family Band, to create a bunch of mind altering colorful tunes with a mellow, yet intense approach. 'Benzaiten' (1976) is an album which is called his masterpiece by many aficionadoes of 1970s progressive rock, with its mixture of haunting Japanese folk elements and skillfully played spacey rock music that takes you on a spiritual journey to the center of your mind. 'Osamu' (1977) is his third album which marks another change in direction. Still Japanese elements and some haunting melodic space rock elements flow gently into another, but by incorporating jazz, funk and even reggae, Osamu broadens the whole musical colour palette by far. On 'Masterless Samurai' (1980) Osamu completely abandons the space rock aspects here and takes a turn into jazz rock with a progressive edge, that he still combines with these totally exotical sounding Japanese folk elements. 'Dragon King' (1981): The step from 'Masterless Samurai' to 'Dragon King' has not been such a big one as it has been with the albums before. We experience a softer version of Osamu's jazz rock/Japanese folk fusion, that often even shows soul pop aspects, typical for it's time. Highest quality digipaks in coated, embossed, hotfoil printed box with magnetic lock.