Natsumen
Endless Summer Record

Have you ever been desperately searching for a music group made just for you and couldn't find it?

Then, when you least expect it, it appears in all its splendor. This happened to me less than a week ago, while looking, as usual, for a band that would give me a spark, that would make me addicted, a band that would bring back the infamous thrill down my spine after such a long time. So, while discussing on a forum I often visit, my eyes lit up. I hear a music that leaves me speechless, and I immediately exclaimed: "Who the heck are they?" and then I read the band's name. "Natsumen? What kind of name is that?", and most importantly, why on earth are they so obsessed with summer?

That's exactly what made me realize they were the group I was looking for, precisely the fact that I hadn't paid attention to their name, but solely and exclusively to their musical proposal, which literally swept me away into a completely mad, psychedelic, and euphoric world. After a while, I finally managed to get hold of their first album, "Endless Summer Record" after browsing on YouTube, searching for anything with their name on it. As soon as I hit Play, I thought of Edward Norton in Fight Club, in the scene where he talks about the groups for alcoholics and the sick that he attended. The scene where he says: It became… a drug!.

Exactly, because from the start I knew they would become an addiction and in fact, since I discovered them, all I do is dive headlong into their psychedelic universe. I don't care about the genre they play, I don't care what the members of the band are called or which band they previously played in (for the record, they were born from the ashes of Boat, a band, however, very different from Natsumen) I only care about staying all day with my huge headphones, placed over my unfortunate ears, period. Now I'm trying to become more sober and dampen the enthusiasm a bit, I swear.

Well, Natsumen is a band that has self-defined as a "Japanese Progressive HardCore JAZZ Aggressive Improvisation ROCK band" and indeed I would say they hit the nail on the head (or partly, at least). It's true, in this “Endless Summer Record” you will find Progressive, jazz fusion, post rock, everything that Natsumen want to play without any limits. This is the most important thing about this group, the carefreeness and nonchalance with which they create everything.

Improvisation is never too much, Natsumen is a sincere band, that wouldn't sound much different during a jam session in the rehearsal room than they do on a record. They are Japanese guys, who even though surrounded by a "progressive" aura and therefore "intellectual", move around a lot live and put on quite a show. I won't do the usual track-by-track analysis, but I'll just tell you that if you like well-played, crazy, and even improvised instrumental music (yes, because Natsumen are completely and solely instrumental), this is the record for you.

Grab a pair of headphones, plug them into the CD player (or the mp3 player, to be more modern), lie on the bed and set off on a long journey. Personally, I hope my journey continues for a long time, also because I've just started digging deeper and I can't wait to hear the other albums (they have made another album/live and 2 EPs) from these amusing guys who have truly changed my days in unimaginable ways!