Orochi
Long time ago eight-headed dragon yamatano orochi spread fear among inhabitants of Japan. His eyes were "red as boiling blood," he had eight heads and eight tails and his body covered eight valleys. Every year the dragon kidnapped a beautiful virgin until brave samurai Susanoo, thanks to his cleverness, courage and strength, defeated the beast. Samurai’s spirit became immortal and entered the bodies of four young samurais whose names are: Ushi-waka (power of the wind from the valley); Yuki-mura (smoothing with butterfly’s caress); Mitsu-hide (the one who does not sleep, under the cover of night) and Genji-hotaru (the son of lightening).
In such a fairylike way the members of Orochi band want to acquaint listeners with unusual atmosphere of their music in which alternative rock and traditional elements of Japanese culture are mixed.
One day in March four samurais appeared in a distant European country, in the Liverpool club in Wrocław as a part of the tour promoting their latest album "Soul of Prey."
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the concert of the band playing so called samurai rock – the genre I didn’t know much about, not to say nothing. Surprisingly it came out that Japanese musicians do have fans in Poland. There were a lot of young people there. Though probably most of them were too young to buy a pint of bear in a club, their outstanding and flamboyant outfit left no doubt that they came there purposely. Some of them looked almost as vivid as their idols.
The artists appeared on the stage welcomed by enthusiastic reaction of the audience. The intensity of the fans’ scream let me know which of the samurais is a frontman of the band. Ushi-waka – the vocalist emerged from the backstage in a beautiful white and gold kimono. All of the young samurais looked extremely gaily and exotic with spiky hair, and colourful outfits referring to traditional clothes from the Land of the Rising Sun, and with make-up causing uncertainty whether these are really four boys.
The view itself was worth enough to take the trouble to go there. However, after a while also the music of slant-eyed musicians proved to be worth getting interested in. Orochi threw almost two-hour concert keeping the same level for all of the time, without noticeable lapses. Most of the presented songs constituted an interesting mixture of hard guitar playing, ethnic sound of the flute and smoothly intertwined Japanese folk melodies. Songs from "Soul of Pray" album sounded much better in concert version thanks to more effective accentuation of the dynamic percussion. Rock sang in Japanese sounds really amazing, especially when some parts are performed like metalcore scream and some in crisp and clear vocal with exceptional exotic timbre.
Despite language barrier the vocalist managed to make contact with the audience. Other members of the band were far less communicative but instead they smiled and enchanted with fairylike appearance. The band brought with them some teaching aids. Surely being aware of Europeans’ rather poor command of Japanese and simultaneously wanting to engage the audience in having fun, they prepared choruses of several songs written phonetically on the pieces of paper. After short Japanese lesson fans could easily sing their favourite songs along with their idols.
To be honest, the performance did not sweep me off my feet but still it was quite pleasurable musical experience. Lively, catchy songs performed professionally with the power of rock music. Visual part of the Orochi’s performances, their original mode of expression and exotic appearance are undoubtedly band’s strong points. However, it also must be admitted that they really can make you interested in their music.
In such a fairylike way the members of Orochi band want to acquaint listeners with unusual atmosphere of their music in which alternative rock and traditional elements of Japanese culture are mixed.
One day in March four samurais appeared in a distant European country, in the Liverpool club in Wrocław as a part of the tour promoting their latest album "Soul of Prey."
I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from the concert of the band playing so called samurai rock – the genre I didn’t know much about, not to say nothing. Surprisingly it came out that Japanese musicians do have fans in Poland. There were a lot of young people there. Though probably most of them were too young to buy a pint of bear in a club, their outstanding and flamboyant outfit left no doubt that they came there purposely. Some of them looked almost as vivid as their idols.
The artists appeared on the stage welcomed by enthusiastic reaction of the audience. The intensity of the fans’ scream let me know which of the samurais is a frontman of the band. Ushi-waka – the vocalist emerged from the backstage in a beautiful white and gold kimono. All of the young samurais looked extremely gaily and exotic with spiky hair, and colourful outfits referring to traditional clothes from the Land of the Rising Sun, and with make-up causing uncertainty whether these are really four boys.
The view itself was worth enough to take the trouble to go there. However, after a while also the music of slant-eyed musicians proved to be worth getting interested in. Orochi threw almost two-hour concert keeping the same level for all of the time, without noticeable lapses. Most of the presented songs constituted an interesting mixture of hard guitar playing, ethnic sound of the flute and smoothly intertwined Japanese folk melodies. Songs from "Soul of Pray" album sounded much better in concert version thanks to more effective accentuation of the dynamic percussion. Rock sang in Japanese sounds really amazing, especially when some parts are performed like metalcore scream and some in crisp and clear vocal with exceptional exotic timbre.
Despite language barrier the vocalist managed to make contact with the audience. Other members of the band were far less communicative but instead they smiled and enchanted with fairylike appearance. The band brought with them some teaching aids. Surely being aware of Europeans’ rather poor command of Japanese and simultaneously wanting to engage the audience in having fun, they prepared choruses of several songs written phonetically on the pieces of paper. After short Japanese lesson fans could easily sing their favourite songs along with their idols.
To be honest, the performance did not sweep me off my feet but still it was quite pleasurable musical experience. Lively, catchy songs performed professionally with the power of rock music. Visual part of the Orochi’s performances, their original mode of expression and exotic appearance are undoubtedly band’s strong points. However, it also must be admitted that they really can make you interested in their music.
