Live at Club Goodman by Koenjihyakkei

When people describe concept-heavy prog albums as “rock opera,” I often feel as if they’ve taken their description just a little too far, but the music we find on Live at Club Goodman by Koenjihyakkei vindicates the rock opera descriptor a thousand times over. Capturing all the exaggerated drama of the stage alongside the maximalist complexity of jazzy prog rock, this album hits the gas in the first measure and never lets up, dancing through influences from the east and west, instrumentation from every century, and guitar tones from every genre of rock. Characters converse through an intuitive code of improvised solos, interspersed by soliloquies of classical sung vocals to bridge the gap between prog rock and musical theater. Elaborate, magnificent soundscapes translate flawlessly from the artist’s imagination to the recorded tape, giving us a seat at the table of their subconscious as their various drives, desires, and personalities fight for supremacy in the protracted drama of the inner self.