Japan had its fair share of progressive rock bands throughout the eighties. Since most of them are fairly synth-heavy – often synths of the glossy, blaring variety typical of the decade – J-prog is not the scene I delve into most. There are, however, some true gems to be found if you know where to look. More often than not, these bands faded into obscurity after one or two good albums, most likely due to lack of exposure. Providence is one of those bands. Their debut album ‘And I’ll Recite On Old Myth From……’ – yes, I counted the dots – is a jazz-rock inspired masterpiece and probably my favorite J-prog album.

Many J-prog bands from the era had female singers and Providence is no exception. In fact, it was their singer that attracted my interest. Yoko Kubota would later front the fantastic heavy metal band Saber Tiger, but she sounds quite different here. Her voice has the narrative quality this kind of conceptual music requires, but she does show a lot more power when the music asks for it – her performance on the chorus of ‘Eternal Children’ is incredible. Musically, Providence is still quite keyboard-heavy, but keyboard player and main songwriter Madoka Tsukada thankfully seems to favor analog synths, electric organs and mellotrons over glossy eighties sounds.

Unlike many of their peers, Providence wastes no time getting to the point with opening track ‘Galatea’. Yes, its intro is quite long, but it is energetic and powerful. Tsukada and guitarist Satoshi Ono alternate between trading lead lines and playing them in unison, always surprisingly memorable melodically. The rumbling Rickenbacker-esque bass sound of Yasayuki Hirose does a great job moving the music forward with the drums of Yuichi Sugiyama, another Saber Tiger alumnus. The way the guitars and earthy keyboards interact has a distinct jazz-rock vibe, without moving too far into virtuosic fusion territory. Providence is about the riffs and progressions rather than the solos.

While the album is stylistically consistent, each of the four long songs has its own quality. The relatively subdued ‘Dream Seeker’s Mirage’ strays from the norm the most, being the calmest song by a considerable margin. The song does change atmosphere once the piano part that introduces the second half of the track sets in and goosebumps are unavoidable when Ono starts soloing over that part. Conversely, the twenty-minute title track is probably the most traditional seventies prog song here and contains some of the most riff-heavy parts of the album. ‘Eternal Children’ is relatively accessible and melody-focused, making it the best track to get yourself acquainted with the album.

‘And I’ll Recite On Ancient Myth From……’ is a remarkable album. It is something of an anachronism in the eighties J-prog scene, because it is so clearly inspired by prog and jazz-rock artists from the seventies, but because of that, it is one of the best prog albums of its era. And not just from Japan. There isn’t a single second on the album that feels like it should not have been there. The songs feel like adventures rather than excuses to be ten plus minutes long. It also simply sounds really good, just from a sonic perspective. An expertly composed prog album with fantastic vocals.

Recommended tracks: ‘Eternal Children’, ‘Galatea’