This is the fourth solo set from
Tokyo’s psychedelic master.
Japanese psyc-folk artist Masaki Batoh has a potent relationship
with tradition: his writing is deeply informed by it, but never beholden to the
infexibilities of tradition’s gatekeepers.
During his time in Ghost and The Silence, he perfected a
labile sound touching upon folk, rock, psychedelia, raga and early music.
Nowhere, in
comparison, is denuded, a set of one-take, fragile musings, predominantly for
acoustic guitar and voice, though “Sundown” is sketched out with bass, drums, organ
and harmonica, giving it a Band-like rock heft, and the closing “Boi-Taull”
unwinds a dazzling lisle of six-string, a pure guitar soli fantasia.
(Jon Dale)
