Ubar Tmar - 永劫回帰 (Eigou Kaiki)

[Penzoline]

Ubar Tmar - 永劫回帰 (Eigou Kaiki)
Panorama Records
2002

1. Cosmo Drome 8:32
2. Souran-Bushi 5:56
3. Spinol 8:16
4. Monkey Magic 8:30
5. I Feel Love 6:41
6. Free Fall Boogie 8:06
7. Yellow Yoga 9:50
8. Eigou Kaiki 10:46
9. Breath 7:41


This is the 3rd full length album, with the exception of Live, from Ubar Tmar aka Uvantam.com Aka Takeshi Isogai, a genius in psychedelia. Fusion has been hailed as one of the most experimental goa/psy albums released in the old days and for good reasons, it did have a lot of moments that just made you go "what the..", but also did have ton of melodies to set it in the goa scale. The 2nd album was less melody heavy and much, much more experimental. Eigou Kaiki is a departure of the 2nd album's experiments and it's more melody heavy like Fusion was. It consists of some older tracks from 96 as well. I don't know the details how many were newer (i.e. 1999-2002) but the style is very consistent. The album artwork on the other hand is just nonsensically funny and awesome and when translated the backcover says "Grade Recommendation: Aimed at 1st and 2nd Year Psychedelic Elementary School Students". I found it hard to write this review but I did my best, I was sad to see no-one reviewed this masterpiece before.

You should find these tracks for preview on youtube.

Cosmo Drome
I always read this as Cosmo Drone. This track starts of the album with Tibetan chanting and very sparkly metallic synths that reek evil and darkness. Dim bouncing bassline, chants, lovely acid lead up till 2:38 where the the melody explodes into this really evil, twisted atmosphere. 3:56 graces the track with a more uplifting melody that keeps flowing towards a break at 4:52 where the journey starts to float away, metallic acid comes back after you and then at 5:48 the evil melody is again there to suck you in. This is such evil goa atmosphere. This is nothing like Fusion, this is a very serious melodic goa track traveling in the halls of doom.

Souran-Bushi
Starts soft-mixed, the mood is suddenly much more uplifting. We hear lyrics from a famous traditional Japanese song called, you know it(most probably not), Soran Bushi. I guess this is a tribute/homage to it in psytrance form. Epic synth that leads up to a 1:17 this fun melody that disappears and the bouncing bassline and really cool organic hihats and whatnot take us forward. The sweetest melody comes at 1:52 that is just so uplifting and playful. Track stars to spiral towards the heavens. More uplifting melody work ensues. Keeping you entertained till 3:30 where we get a heavenly break and then 3:39 you couldn't want anything else. PHAT acid lead! It disappears and comes back at 4:41. This is such amazing use of the good old 303 acid. This sound never gets tiring when it's correctly used, especially with such pretty melodies. Brilliant.

Spinol
Echoing mysterious crystalic atmosphere is greeted, melody floats in smoothly, bassline is flowing. Pretty, soft melody arrives. Experiementing with the echoing background. Clapping arrives, melodies continue to float onwards. 2:32 some darker acid starts floating, sparkly synths for a brief moment. 3:20 just heavenly crystallic melodies. 4:15 break time, melody continues to move. 5:33 some twisted acid invades the space and continues to grow into a soft melodic climax. This is definitely Takeshi showing his serious side, very emotion-filled track with tons of out there atmosphere.

Monkey Magic
But that can't obviously last too long, monkey magic, the trackname alone indicates this is where the trip starts again. Again soft mixed from last track making the album thus far a nonstop journey. Acid, really pumping real huge goa bassline. SuperB hihats. Acid in the background starts creeping. 2:02 A twisted melody starts that evolves bit by bit. Giving some experiemental moments. 4:07 the track gets to a break, beautiful melody arrives and then some Indian samples. 4:54 dark playful melody which turns into a very India ethnic melody at 5:26. Track climaxes has a little break and then just pure psychedelia power in your ear canal at 6:59. Track rolls of smooth towards..

I Feel Love
The track starts with very uplifting, as title would say, a little carnival like melodies, bombs and then we're off 0:52. This is a sweet soft rollercoaster that shows no sign of stopping. 2:05 darker acid takes over, echoing heavenly female voice comes back and takes the pitch lower and then 3:04; Ok, these are sounds straight out of a carnival. Then the track just starts experiementing - Trippy! At 4:04 we get the nicest synth just blasting right on. This is more of the experimental Ubar Tmar. Playful fun uplifting style that also tells some story and has good aural imaginary.

Free Fall Boogie
Hah that title! What to expect? Japanese wackyness? But of course! Playful sounds, melody and sweet hihats start off and then explode into screaming synths which transforms into a psychedelic melody accompanied by more twisted and sounds. 1:35 those metallic synths from Cosmo Drome are kind of back setting up some atmosphere. A cool acid lead arrives and then gives us small powerful climaxes throughout. 3:20 Here we go again with the evil Japanese psychedelia. Track keeps distorting the reality we are in. Just trippy and evil!

Yellow Yoga
"without compassion ... present and future ... an ocean of measureless qualities ... karma ... in an ocean of joy" Dark sinister atmospheric intro with woman talking spiritual wisdom that leads up to a synth explosion at 0:56. Epic synths, pumping bassline, quirky hihats. Constant beeping melody in the background, some cartoon-like sounds. Acid melody at 1:46 and it just keeps on giving, turning, twisting the soundscape. Lots of psychedelic layers and crazy epic darkly twisted moments and it even turns into hardcore mode at the end where the tempo keeps upping by the second. Awesome uptempo piece with several injections of grade-A psychedelia.

Eigou Kaiki
Well here's an epic. Just listen to that 2001: A space Odyssey opening music (Richard Strauss - Also Sprach Zarathustra). Dirty guitar right after that as if you were listening some 80's punk rock. Electronic sweeping keeps increasing - break - and then some shouting. It's as if this were no longer goatrance! Guitar is back, big drums, some crowd cheer samples. The track goes through several different type of psychedelic segments, some harsh and fast and some laid back and hypnotic. After each one of them, the track comes back to the guitar and shouting and the general main melody with those metallic hits as heard before. Simply put I find this track utterly WACK in the good sense. It does something I have not heard before and probably many of you have not either. Super experiemental, crazy, blasting and fun. I can see people saying this track is cheesy but I would disagree. Psychedelic masterpiece of sorts more-so - well, actually, this is more of a modernized (soundwise) remix of a psychedelic masterpiece, Eternal Return, found on the debut album of Ubar Tmar. The layout is the same but the segments differ, but fact is, there is no other track like it.

Breath.
A chillax ender? Hell yeah! Ultra floating morning sunshine atmosphere from the get-go. Bouncing hard but smoothly textured bassline. Echoing sounds fill the smooth space-scape. The pitch of the melody goes up and down and has some changes throughout and it sounds quite hypnotic, even addicting. This is absolutely a wonderful downtempo piece. Heavenly morning atmosphere. Superb ender and makes this whole journey feel so magnificent.

So Ubar Tmar actually became serious for a change and made a damn fine journey for us all to witness. The style is Takeshi Isogai, no doubt, but this is the most serious work he's made. There's no random breaks, glitches, sounds. It's all coherent. There are journey albums that are obvious, like for example Dimension 5 - Transdimensional, then there are those that feel like several tracks put together on album form, but the flow is lacking. But there are also albums that have tracks that differ quite a bit from each others, but manage to come together as one big piece and this album is one of those. Amazing journey through the mind of a japanese psychedelic genius. If you really look into these tracks you can find stories in each one of them. IMHO this is an essential in psychedelic trance collections, just like 1997 Ubar Tmar - Fusion and 2005 Uvantam.com - Guri & Guru. If you haven't heard it and you're a fan of goatrance then I definitely advice you to check it out in one way or another. One of my favourite journey albums.

[draeke]

One of his best albums, and half of the tracks on this one are pre 2k, so pure mindblowing goa, not to mention the awesome cover,

Great review, you said everything already!

[Penzoline]

More clear sounding remaster of this can be found on bandcamp. For all those who haven't, do check it out!

https://ubartmar.bandcamp.com/album/eigou-kaiki-remaster-edition

 

It's not cheap but this is a typical price for a japanese music release.

[Manuser]

Yellow Yoga, one of the craziest tracks I have ever heard, reaches high skies of psychedelia.

[XoArK]

Yellow Yoga, one of the craziest tracks I have ever heard, reaches high skies of psychedelia.

Yellow Yoga is a killer indeed!

[Starkraver]

One more fan of Yellow Yoga here.

 

One more favourite is cosmo drone! I love that track

Remastered album does sound nice and clear and different.

 

+ I loved the artwork on the digipack when I had it.

 

Lol @that price (it sure is worth it though!)