Apryl Fool -- April Blues

Kinda figured that with it being April 1st today and all, I had to find something appropriate, and I recollect that there was a band connected to this day. Sure enough, there was the rock band Apryl Fool (yes, with a Y) which existed only in the year 1969. For kayo fans, some of the members will be rather familiar to you: Haruomi Hosono（細野晴臣）, Chu Kosaka（小坂忠）and Takashi Matsumoto（松本隆）along with Eiji Kikuchi（菊池英二）on guitar and Hiroyoshi Yanagida （柳田博義）on keyboards. Of course, the following year Hosono and Matsumoto would start up Happy End（はっぴいえんど）. Another tidbit of information is that during Apryl Fool's reign, Matsumoto took on the name of Rei Matsumoto（松本零）.

Via J-Wiki, the September 1969 edition of "New Music Magazine" stated that the initial incarnation of the band was The Floral, a Group Sounds band that had formed in 1968 when Group Sounds was actually on its way down in popularity. Then with the changes in the bassist and drummer, the name of the band itself changed over to Apryl Fool since according to one of the members, the name would allow a measure of freedom in what they could do. Yanagida, who seemed to have been the central member, wanted to take Apryl Fool into more of an art rock or psychedelic rock direction such as was the case with The Doors and Iron Butterfly, and as a result, the band was seen as one of the pioneers for the new Japanese genre of New Rock.

In September 1969, Apryl Fool released their sole self-titled studio album, and the track that I have here is the instrumental "April Blues". It's got the psychedelic rock to be sure, but I think Yanagida's relentlessly rolling piano takes things down the jazz vein. With both rock and jazz in there, I would have remarked that this could have been one of the first cases of a fusion song, but I don't think the jazz and rock are fused here. It's more of a collaborative effort between two genres. There is also that feeling of rawness with all of the background noises and blurting of voices here and there.

Also, you can take a listen to the full album below. Plus, this time, you can also get to listen to Kosaka singing away.