Poil Ueda – S/T CD

Today we have another excellent release on our pages that will unquestionably appeal to those listeners who love challenging their listening apparatuses. It’s a collaborative piece between Junko Ueda, an eminent figure of Japanese medieval epic storytelling, and a French progressive rock group PoiL. At first, this material might sound challenging to your ears. However, after several listens, it will gradually appeal to you and become one of your favorite progressive rock recordings. This collaboration carries only five compositions, but you’ll quickly realize that’s more than enough since each number represents longevous pieces that offer many sonic delicacies.

Perhaps I mentioned progressive rock at the beginning, but that’s not the only music genre you’ll stumble upon while listening to these tracks. Quite the contrary, you’ll notice some other complementary music genres lurking around from scratch to finish. PoiL incorporated some of the finest properties of space rock, psychedelic rock, avant-rock, noise rock, cinematic, ambient, experimental, and other regular or avant-garde music genres. All these elements shape the virtuosities, melodies, harmonies, leads, themes, ambiances, segments, enhancements, accentuations, decorations, or any other vital part that define only the best progressive rock albums. However, PoiL left enough room in these compositions, so Junko Ueda’s medieval chants and tremendous vocal virtuosities are still the centerpieces of this material. Everything works together harmoniously without spoiling the initial sonic direction.

It’s nearly mindblowing how each instrument bursts with excellent technicalities, progressive sequences, and incredible leads, but also with many experimentations and explorations into avant-garde music. PoiL is a fine example of how progressive rock could still sound exciting without becoming repetitious, similar, or boring. The way these musicians change tempo, time signatures and jump from one segment to another is jaw-dropping, by all means. Junko Ueda also contributes to each moment included in this album, with skillfully performed vocal parts that instantly resemble Japanese medieval and traditional music. It’s a world-music-inspired progressive rock material you need to check out if you’re even remotely into the mentioned music genres. This collaborative album is available on PoiL’s Bandcamp page but also on all other streaming platforms.