"Okay... first and foremost, anyone that likes Battle Without Honor or Humanity (from Kill Bill) should listen to some tracks from this before just whipping out and buying it.
About the actual album: This album from start to finish is absolutely great Japanese Pop/Rock. Hotei has been a HUGE success in Japan for years, and he just continues to make brilliant music. This is one of those albums that you can take with you on a road trip, and it will keep your heading bobbing the whole time (Hotei has a way of doing that).
I have been a huge Hotei fan for quite a few years. I was turned on to him from a German guitarist review, and his name just happened to pop up. I checked him out and loved everything about him! He absolutely rocks and pretty much does ALL of the music on the album. He is an extremely talented man. I would personally compare him to such greats as Steve Vai, Jeff Beck, Richie Sambora, Paul Gilbert, and Joe Perry... just to name a few.
If you are also interested, Hotei helped out with the score for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas which has a great soundtrack! He has done so much for the music world and has truly kept a big, running, and positive name for Japanese Rock!
I say, rock, rock on to Tomoyasu Hotei! He has one true and hardcore American fan right here!"
Great CD!
Emerson C. Niide | São Paulo, SP, Brasil | 07/16/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Hotei is a fantastic guitarist, his songs are alive, you can almost touch it! This album has many of his best songs, I absolutely recommend it. He is part of a whole new generation of rock and roll, everybody likes him here in Brazil."
He rips it!
Aryf | Los Angeles Area, CA | 12/24/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Had to write a review after reading the others about 'Kill Bill'. Tomoyasu Hotei is a well-established singer/writer/guitarist/producer/composer/arranger in Japan and has also worked with many other non-Japanese, for example Brian Setzer(and is married to Miki Imai). His writing is very melodic (often in an 80's power-pop/radio hard-rock vein). Listening to mostly J-Pop/J-Rock, the movie 'Kill Bill' does not make me thing of Hotei (maybe that's like being a Zeppelin fan and when thinking of John Paul Jones not associating him with the movie soundtracks he has worked on...). The songs are well-structured, hooky and will stand the test of time. One reviewer mentioned something to the effect that the songs are formulaic with no real character (?). I can understand why someone may say that, but I also do not think there's anything else that has his melody, arrangements, energy and personality."
Japanese American Rock Fun Stuff
trxs1212 | Farmington, NM US | 05/05/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"A foreign exchange student turned me on to Hotei back in the 80s, with Guitarhythm (1988). The lyrics were mostly in English that only a Japanese person could sing. The musicianship was up beat, technically crisp, and moving. So, I bought this album to bring me a little up to date. While, in my opinion, not as good as Guitarhythm, there are four excellent tracks here, particularly the first two, and lonely wild, which remind me of Guitarhythm. In this collection, the lyrics are mostly in Japanese, with a few English phrases sprinkled in, which, for an American, makes these songs different and fun."