Why Unicorn are so cool.
Because I say so fool!
:D
Actually I was among the last to know, but in a way that makes it all so much more fun. I have had lots of catching up to do. I have been listening to the albums continuously recently, since being totally mind blown by the reunion dvd, and they are all spectacular. What is most stunning about this band is their originality, versatility and their musical skill. I cannot find anyone to compare them to East or West. Unique Unicorn. If anyone deserves world wide fame it is them, or maybe looking at it from the other direction, we all need their soul medicine most urgently in these end times. Whether or not the world is capable of comprehending them is another question. Perhaps having never experienced good music they are no longer capable of recognizing it.
The whole phenomena of the Eighties band boom in Japan is quite unique. There was no such creative flowering in the West at that time. Of course there were buds, but mostly these ended up shriveled on the bush due to the fact that the corporate swill machine had taken effective control of popular rock and pop. Any original successful musicians around in the Eighties had usually already become established in the Seventies. Of course the Eighties now seem almost interesting in comparison with the oceans of bland shite that have followed in the last two decades, but the fact remains music was dead and buried in the West.
Strange then that Japan should have not one great band but a dozen, and probably many more I am as yet unaware of. Strange and very delightful, from the point of view of someone just discovering it all. It's almost like someone rewrote the Eighties, and made it cool. XDD
It has to be said, I was at first blinded by the Tamio. I guess it's to be expected, as I am particularly interested in vocals, and he is the best. I have heard his singing described as Rococco or maybe you could even say Baroque. Whatever it is its way beyond the skill level of any other rock musician. He is not just technically skilled either but fully connected heart and soul and beyond. Totally spectacular really. And his solo is an epic sonic adventure that I am still half way through.
But all of them together is something else again. It's a very powerful magic, and you only really understand how it beautifully it works when you see them live. Now I think the others are all just as cool as Tamio, and I love all of their songs and personalities and I love the chemistry they all have together. Every member of this band can and does do everything brilliantly. They swap roles and instruments continually. This makes for an amazing show, a collective experience that demonstrates the ultimate truth that we are all stars. I guess that's why they have always been so empowering and powerful. Though of course there is probably a great deal I am missing out on. The feeling coming from the vast crowd was amazing. It was a really potent love helix they had going down. You could feel all the happy memories awakened by familiar songs, peoples life times coming around again, all the emotion of it. They generated so much warmth and affection. They are basically a happiness machine, which in these times is a very good thing to have handy. It's a funny thing just how truly world changing something like that can be.
And I have to admit, I was totally starstruck by Abe Yoshiharu. For his electric charisma on stage, and also for the gorgeous songs he wrote for the reunion. He is the Fire Starter. Unicorn are two snake trees grown wild and profuse in the earth of Nishikawa Koichi, and the water of the fluid fingered Tessy, then set on fire by the mad pyromaniac Professor Abe. Ebi is the Yin snake and Tamio the Yang, so they make a very pretty spectacle especially when all lit up. What is most cool about Abe B though, are his transformations. He hovers behind his wall of keyboards looking all sultry and boffinish and then suddenly he explodes out into crazy karate Elvis pastiches! ADORABLE! XD
