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Review:
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The lovely Liv Akane was born to a Swedish/Polish father,
a Korean/Japanese mother, and studied Shakespeare and opera
in England (winning singer of year), so she is truly international.
On her return to Japan she did various Broadway style shows
and classical performances, modelled for L’Oreal (because
she’s worth it), before meeting producer and keys player
Tatsuya Nishiwaki, and the idea for Liv Moon was born. If
you think that as she’s a bona fide opera singer with that
traditional classical/showbiz background it would be something
like Tarja, well, she’s got some surprises for you. Opener
‘Nephrite’ sounds like ELP jamming with Metallica, Nightwish
and Dreamtheatre, she hits a note that shattered every piece
of glass in the house as well as all my preconceptions,
incredible. ‘Tsukikake’ is a plaster loosening, headbanging,
turbo charged, raging rocker, with a scorching guitar solo.
‘Double Moon’ is more like Tarja, an awesome pop metaller,
strangely a single and video were not done for this, instead
a covers EP ‘Scream as a Woman’. Next up is a manic crazed
version of ‘The Phantom of the Opera’, with an injection
of Bond theme, and another one of those notes, good grief!
A brief peaceful interlude, ‘The River Of No Return’, gives
me chance to clear up some of the wreckage. I was lulled
into thinking ‘A Wish’ is a beautiful ballad, then WOOMF
and the walls are shaking, before it relents to calming
ending. ‘Oto Naki Sakebi’ and ‘Azayaka Ni...’ also start
off as gentle pieces before the band lay on the power as
the songs quieten and soar, what a ride. A brief proggy
interlude, ‘Privileged’, then ‘Wild Creatures’ storms in
like a stampeding elephant with enough bass to disintegrate
cement. There’s no ‘Escape’ on the next track as the bass
synths rumble and the band thrashes out an earth shaking
riff, with another one of those notes (a live video for
it is on the Female Voices blog). Thank goodness ‘Time To
Say Goodbye (Con Te Partiro)’ is next, the house can’t take
anymore as the ceiling starts caving in, they give this
a slightly jazzy swinging slant, with those James Bond horns
coming in towards the end. The mood continues with the gorgeous
big band ballad ‘Good Night’, Liv showing the deep rich
end of her incredible range and it ends with the beautiful
but brief bonus track ‘La Luna’.
Bizarrely, Japanese CD’s are at least twice the price
of those anywhere else in the world, no wonder they demand
bonus tracks, and as this is only available on import (CD
Japan, Amazon, EBay, HMV Japan) you may have to sell your
house to get it, but look at how much you will save on repair
bills! Backed by the mighty JVC corporation, you get premier
league musicianship, vocals, production and songs, now where’s
that broom? 9.5 out of 10.
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