Made in Japan is the third album by Japanese rock band Flower Travellin' Band, released in 1972.
Contents
Production
After meeting Lighthouse at the Expo '70 festival in Osaka, Flower Travellin' Band were invited to visit Canada. While there, the group recorded Made in Japan with Lighthouse keyboardist Paul Hoffert helping produce. Vocalist Joe Yamanaka later stated that the process was very easy, with everything flowing well.
Due to George Wada becoming ill with tuberculosis, Canadian drummer Paul DeLong plays on some tracks on this album. The lyrics were written by Yoko Nomura, the wife of the band's manager, who translated conversations she had with the group and their ideas into English. "Heaven and Hell" was written by Yamanaka in Japanese and she translated it. The song "Hiroshima" is a re-imagining of "Satori Part III" from their previous album Satori. The introductory first track is an advertisement for a concert at Stanley Park Stadium in Toronto by Flower Travellin' Band, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Bob Seger and Teegarden & Van Winkle, with a clip of "Lucky Man" playing in the background.
"Hiroshima", "Heaven and Hell" and "Aw Give Me Air" were covered by Cult of Personality, 9, and punk band Pulling Teeth respectively, for the 2000 Flower Travellin' Band Tribute album.
Reception
Musician and author Julian Cope included Made in Japan at number 18 on his list of the top 50 albums of Japanese rock, as found in his 2007 book Japrocksampler. He described the record as "proto-metal of the Amon Düül II variety, replete with acoustic Tony Iommisms and mucho Satanic raga", "Aw Give Me Air" as retaining the "proto-metal Devilish chord changes" of Satori but "more Asian than demonic", and "Heaven and Hell" as musically "pure Hendrix".
Both Mason Jones of Dusted magazine and Eduardo Rivadavia of Allmusic claimed that following Satori was a difficult task and that Made in Japan was "doomed to fall short of expectations," respectively. Both reviewers also cited the same three songs, "Kamikaze", "Hiroshima" and "Spasms", as the highlights and being on par with the band's best work. Although he felt it inconsistent, Rivadavia called the album "pretty darn good!" and gave it a 3.5 star rating out of 5.
Personnel
Flower Travellin' Band
Joe Yamanaka – vocals
Hideki Ishima – guitar, sitar
Jun Kozuki – bass
Joji Wada – drums
Additional musicians
Paul DeLong – drums
Production and design
Yoko Nomura – lyrics
Flower Travellin' Band – arrangement
Ikuzo Orita – producer
Paul Hoffert – producer
Yuya Uchida – producer
Gilbert Kong – mixing
Kiyoshi Sunamori – artwork
Yoshio Niwano – artwork
David Ohashi – photography
Toyo Nakamura – liner notes
John & Yoko Nomura – supervision