[WORLD GROOVE] Listening to MONKEY MAJIK – “Sora wa Marude”

July 26, 2007 by Dennis Amith 

GROUP: MONKEY MAJIK
ALBUM: Sore wa Marude
CATALOG #: AVCD-23314
LABEL: binyl records
RELEASE DATE: July 25, 2007
WEBSITE: www.monkeymajik.com

TRACK LISTING:

1. Sore wa Marude
2. No Snow in December

3. 光朝

4. Picture Perfect
5. Sotsugyo, Soshita Mirai e
6. Change
7. Futari
8. LONG SHOT PENNY
9. Pretty People – Japanese ver.-
10. Negai
11. Smile
12. MAYBE
13. I Miss You
14. BONUS TRACK: Around The World + Go!
15. BONUS TRACK: Gandara

One of my favorite artists is Jack Johnson. I love the melody and the awesome music that he is able to have with just his acoustic guitar. I was looking for an artist and group like Jack and I somewhat found it with the band MONKEY MAJIK.

MONKEY MAJIK is a band that sings in English in Japanese and features a good balance of acoustic guitar, drum and bass. But an integration with awesome melodies and also cool vocals, great unison among the Plant brothers and the guys can rap as well.

And if there was a band that definitely can transcend well with a career both in Japan and outside of the country is definitely the guys of MONKEY MAJIK.

The group features the Plant brothers Maynard and Blaise from Canada (both do the vocals and acoustic guitar), tax on drums and DICK on bass.

Their latest album “Sora wa Marude” features 13 tracks of awesome music with collaborations with SEAMO (on “Sotsugyo, Soshite Mirai e”), m-flo (on “Picture Perfect”) and the Yoshida Brothers (on “CHANGE”) which add to the freshness of the music offered by the group.

The album also includes four CD singles “Futari” (3rd CD single, rel. October 2006) up to “CHANGE” (sixth CD single, rel. April 2007).

I have to say that MONKEY MAJIK is quickly becoming one of my favorite groups from Japan right now. Their latest album is highly enjoyable and because the songs feature quite a good balance of English and Japanese, I guess for me, it has that Western feel because of the usage of English in their songs.

I really enjoy the collaboration songs such as “Sotsugyo, Soshite Mirai e” which the group jam with hip hop artists SEAMO and features the group rapping as well.

“CHANGE” features shamisen and I just found it cool how it integrates with the group’s rock music. This track features more of a rock sound as the electric guitar is used but to hear the shamisen playing integrated into the song is just very cool!

“Picture Perfect” is the group collaborating with m-flo and another cool song featuring verbal and the Plant brothers singing and rhyming.

And also a good dose of slow jams such as “Futari”, “Smile”, “I Miss You” and also two bonus tracks included like a new version of their 2nd hit CD single “AROUND THE WORLD+GO! Sora”

I’ve been listening to this album over and over for the past few days and it’s an album that features great music, very good vocals and one of the best albums I have heard this year.

Highly recommended!