Far East Family Band~1973 - Far Out

Far Out[ – a rather legendary psychedelic progressive group formed by Fumio Miyashita [Moog, acoustic guitar, harmonica, vocals; ex-Glories], with Eiichi Sayu [guitar, Hammond; ex-Brain Police, Dew], Kei Ishikawa [bass, electric sitar, vocals; ex-Fujio Dynamite – see Fujio Yamaguchi below] and Manami Arai [drums]. They recorded only one album, ‘Far Out (a.k.a. Nihonjin)’ [Denon, 1973]. (I’ve seen a previous one listed in one place, ‘Mio’ [1972], but it might just be legend or a case of confusion. They also have some stuff on the various artists ‘Rock Age Concert’ – see below) It contains only 2 lengthy tracks ranging through a variety of moods. Starting out with slow echoed percussion and some painful oscillator twitching, the album quickly establishes a serious and exploratory intent, marred only by the occasional chunks of balladic crooning with ‘mournful’ Dave Gilmour-styled guitar licks which don’t quite agree with me [it’s not the music I object to so much as the singing in these parts – though I grow to like it all more each time I hear this great album]. However the album also contains plenty of slow and chunky ominous minor key heavy riffing, exotic guitar-cum-sitar stroking, and hypnotic plodding eastern space rock - think Pink Floyd’s ‘Careful With That Axe…’/‘Set The Controls…’ Japanese style, with a pinch of Flower Travellin’ Band circa ‘Satori’, and Dave Gilmour playing with the Moody Blues for the balladic bits [apparently Miyashita was pretty into the Moody Blues]. Some famous guests also participated in the album sessions - Joe Yamanaka [Flower Travellin’ Band] and Osamu Kitajima [see below].

The album didn’t meet with its deserved success, and one by one members departed until only Miyashita remained, starting from scratch with new musicians as Far East Family Band [see above], pursuing a similar mode but with less rock and more spaciousness; Ishikawa later moved to the US and formed Chronicle [see above]. The Far Out album has been reissued on CD a number of times; the Buy Or Die reissue I own has an album’s worth of bonus tracks that consist of most of the Far East Family Band’s first album, ‘The Cave Down To The Earth’, although not credited as such.

1. Too Many People
2. Nihonjin
3. Birds Flying To The Cave
4. Saying To The Land
5. Moving, Looking, Trying, Jumping
6. Wa Wa
7. The Cave Down To The Earth
8. Four Minds
9. Transmigration

Far East Family Band~1973 - Far Out.rar (195,46 MB)
https://mega.co.nz/#!uIdzQDyZ!9EoKPTfF622UtB1JxKwialYVVZMQuMW2xCDj63YaxC0