The Japanese Way of Justice

It's a bold concept; take Pink Floyd's iconic Dark Side of the Moon (Harvest, 1973) and reinterpret it in a big band jazz setting. With upwards of forty million copies sold, every note, every nuance of Floyd's eighth album is so firmly entrenched in the minds of the band's legion devotees that to tamper with the work in any way is to leave oneself open to facile criticism. French-Vietnamese guitarist Nguyên Lê, however, is nothing if not adventurous. Lê has already demonstrated on Purple: Celebrating Jimi Hendrix (ACT Music, 2007) and Songs of Freedom (ACT Music, 2012)—his tribute to classic pop and rock songs of the 1960s and 1970s—that he can breathe new life into old material without being overly reverential.

Game Over are another Italian thrash outfit, sticking to a style similar to that of National Suicide, but less direct and a bit more involved. I’ve always considered them to be like Dr. Living Dead lite, as they took on the horror gimmick and went through similar sound changes. In fact, both bands’ most recent outputs have honed in on that a little less, and gravitated towards maturity. Claiming Supremacy is Game Over’s fourth full-length effort, and it’s without a doubt that this is where the writing maturity that began on Crimes Against Reality (my personal favorite by them) comes full circle…

Lighthouse put out three excellent albums on RCA between 1969 and 1970. They were in the same vein of B.S.&T., Chicago, Ides of March, Chase, and Tower of Power. What set them apart was that they even contained a mini string section within the band. There were eleven musicians that could jam, play awesome ballads, and jazz it up when needed. They perfected some excellent pop tunes that were very radio friendly but their peak moment was their American breakthrough hit, "One Fine Morning",(Billboard #24). It was quite progressive for the fall of 1971, but it climbed the charts in the U.S. and finally gave them due justice and their highest charting hit! (They were already pretty successful in their native Canada) Ironically the song was released on the Evolution label which was extremely small. This album reached #80 on Billboard's album charts and ended up being their most successful album.