MURASAKI-MURASAKI-

As this outfit from Okinawa does what it can to Copycat the sound and style from first of all , Deep Purple, there´s much to be discovered underneath the layers of terrific songwriting and personal expression. As Murasaki means “Purple” in Japanese there´s no doubt where the biggest influence come from. Yet there are several passages cleverly borrowed from both Uriah Heep and maybe, a bit from Camel.

This release from 1975 is great in the production with splendid interaction between the guitar/bass and organ. The Twin riffs just never fails to deliver and the lyrics are familiar with a personal Okinawa seasoning to it. This outfit would be the frontrunners comming up with the sound known as the Okinawa rock movement and frontman George Murasaki is a big, if not the biggest, influence. This is probably the greatest Deep Purple pretenders ever, and that is ment as a compliment!! 🙂

Whatabout the drummer, Eiichi Miyanaga?? Well, Ian Paice got some stiff competition here. Mr Miyanaga got both the ability to drive hard with high striking abilities and terrific hit ratio. The dynamics are solid and superb and there´s not much more to ask for. As this outfit almost could be taken for a high end Deep Purple cover act, this is not the solid truth. The songs are in some passages just Blueprint copies of the original but that tend to sving into to more sophisticated arrangements which in my book are damn good impressive. I like this a lot and who saw that coming?? 🙂 Thumbs up!!

There are splendid copies out there for decent buck and why not, just give yourself a chance to spice up you Purple Collection with the next best thing..and might I just add.. “Made In Japan!”  Just hilarious… 🙂

VINYLRATING/GRADE

-6-VERY GOOD!-WORTH BUYING-