#casiopea band
CASIOPEA
Minoru Mukaiya (keyboard); Issei Noro (guitar); Akira Jimbo (drums); Tetsuo Sakurai (bass)
Fell inlove with this 70s-80s jazz fusion band. One of the greatest musicians to ever live, each member a master of their own instrument. I have never felt greater joy in music until discovering theirs! owo
ok i absolutely have to express this, i have no friend to infodump this on, im gonna go insane. excuse my limited musical terminology, also sorry in advance for the word redundancy (‘good’, ‘amazing’ and ‘love’ LMAO)
Galactic Funk by Casiopea, specifically the 1985 live, is one of the BEST songs and performance I have ever heard. Hyperfixating on this song for days, re-listening about thrice a day - it’s THAT good. I want to know the science behind why it makes me so happy everytime, my mood just improves everytime I listen to it like I can’t help but smile and dance along.
The sound quality of the drums sounds so good, very tasty reverb. I don’t know if it’s because of its tuning, or if it’s the mics, or something else, but the quality is SO GOOD (Also props to whoever their audio engineers were! Audio balance is superb, I can hear all instruments distinctly). And then there’s Akira Jimbo’s amazing skills. I especially LOVE the way the drums accompany the synth solo, getting along the groove really accentuated the synth.
I cannot comprehend how that guitar solo was written, and hgns hgj just how, how do you even start writing a sick fricking solo. When Issei Noro put the pick away and stepped forward on the stage, I was like oh snap he’s about go DOWN. And that slap technique on the guitar? had me on the edge, I’m wondering how the strings didn’t break.
AND THE BASS, I love the tone quality. The bass riffs of this song is stellar, I cannot believe Tetsuo Sakurai is self-taught, like?? king???? I love how the bass counterpoints too. My favorite part about the bass are the sections just before the guitar and synth solos, the part where the bass does octaves (I love the synth on that part too, that may be my most favorite parts of the song).
(derailing for a bit: Sakurai’s entrance solo in Misty Lady (1986) and end solo in Looking Up (1985) live performances are so hot; the latter song has one of the best bass drops and funk I have ever heard, and the one in Misty Lady good god the combination of a sexy bass solo and blues rock-ish beat on the drums w/ such good reverb - hot)
And of course the spotlight stealer of that performance: the synth. The synth riffs are so addicting. Minoru Mukaiya is literally one of the best keyboardists in this planet, actually. I have never looked at synths as a main character type of way until I heard Minoru play. Even as the accompanying rhythm for other instruments, it never faded in the background but to be fair, I have never seen any of the band members fade in the background - they all have a shining moment and I really appreciate that. And the whole 2 minutes of the synth solo, starrt to end, is PHENOMENAL. aaksjdj I can’t explain, I wish I could explain in a musical way but since im a normie, here’s timestamps:
- [2:33] I LOVE THIS PART i am feeling shapes, i have no other way of explaining this.
- [3:40-3:50] very smooth scaling to chord build-up, god I love the progression of those little chord build-ups.
- [3:52] I love this part too!! so beautiful.
- And [4:05-4:19] esp when the drums joined with the double notes or whatever you call it, it does WONDERS for the chemicals in my brain. Akira Jimbo’s beautiful drumming helped create a full sound with the synth solo.
The chords of this song are very addicting, I want to eat it i want to eat this whole song i love it so much. And the energy of the band extends to their playing, really adds fun and the joy and it really brings life to the song. Begging to see an analysis for this, the whole song or just the synth solo i dont care i want to know why it’s so good from a professional musician’s point of view.
But anyways, so glad I got that out of my system. If you like jazz fusion, funk, city-pop, retro video game music or any of the like, Casiopea is a gem. And like I said earlier, no one in Casiopea fades in the background. Each of them are masters of their own instruments, they give way for each other’s solos and interact with each other musically. They give life to music and I really REALLY love that.
