Casiopea

I’ve never been a big jazz fusion guy because a good chunk of the genre sounds the same to me, with lots of pointless noodling. That’s not the case with Casiopea and their self-titled record.

I love this. Sure, it’s got the signature trademarks of fusion, with really clean production and the noodling, but a lot of the noodling here has purpose—it goes somewhere. And yet, it all still feels wonderfully improvised. Maybe the group works off a planned melody or riff here ... read more

Some really solid Japanese Jazz Fusion. I personally really enjoy the faster tracks more than the slower ones but this whole album is a vibe with great musicianship throughout.

highkey i am totally removing two points from this score just because the racecar album cover does SO much to establish the energy and mission statement of casiopea's self titled. that's the power of a fantastic album cover, they KNEW what the album was gonna be about and stuck the landing in conveying that. this cover is awesome too but like. are we kidding ourselves the racecar goes too hard

An incredible debut from a great jazz fusion band.