This week, Sonic Flower release what’s ostensibly their third album, Me and My Bell Bottom Blues through Heavy Psych Sounds, and perhaps with it make for themselves a new beginning. Formed more than 20 years ago by Tatsu Mikami of Church of Misery, who even by then had established himself as one of the world’s foremost conjurors of Riff — I mean that — the band first signed to Leaf Hound Records to release their entirely instrumental 2003 self-titled debut (reissue review here) before calling it quits during the making of what Heavy Psych Sounds unearthed last year to offer as a short second LP, Rides Again (review here), in 2005. If you’re reading this, you probably know a decent portion of the rest of the story. Church of Misery continued to take off internationally, became a firm priority for Tatsu even amid an ever-changing lineup, and apart from a prior reissue on Emetic Records in the US, Sonic Flower remained largely a footnote to be appreciated by those who were fortunate enough to have chased them down in the first place.

Me and My Bell Bottom Blues hits this obscurity like a train on a grand and funky railroad, with seven fully realized verse-and-chorus songs — not pieces that might’ve been expanded, not instrumentals; nothing against either of those things, mind you — that brim with energy as Tatsu is joined by drummer Toshiaki Umemura, guitarist Fumiya Hattori and vocalist Kazuhiro Asaeda in an ace incarnation of Sonic Flower, built around the purpose of conveying the spirit of classic heavy rock while demonstrating their own righteousness in the form. With production by Eternal Elysium‘s Yukito Okazaki, the indication would seem to be that Sonic Flower are more of a band than they’ve ever been. I don’t know what Church of Misery have been up to since announcing they’d record a new album in August — also with Toshiaki on drums — but Sonic Flower do not sound like a side-project on these songs, and whether it’s the layered-in acoustics of “Black Sheep” or the swinging jam in “Poor Girl” or the riotous stomp of “Swineherd” that sets the high bar for what follows as the leadoff cut, there’s vitality, electricity, palpable.  When they finish with the eponymous “Sonic Flower,” it feels declarative.

Wherever Fumiya came from, the young gentleman can shred and then some. It’s strum and slide acoustic in the beginning of “Quicksand Planet,” on “Sonic Flower” it’s a running heavy blues entrusted over Tatsu‘s bassline, and on “Love Like Rubber” he brings the start-stop groove forward as punctuated by Toshiaki‘s snare while Kazuhiro sneers out the verse lines in a style that is soulful and over-the-top in kind — just the right blend for a band who are spitting hot, distorted fire across the album’s entire span. And in that span, to hear them move as a unit from the balls-out swaggering proto-doom of centerpiece “Captain Frost” through “Quicksand Planet” and into the funky outset of “Poor Girl” (8:15) with the sprawling, not-coming-back jam taking hold before the track’s even hit its fourth minute, and then to answer that with the nine-minute “Sonic Flower,” inevitably expansive, but also rich in its vocal layering circa 3:10, and tease doing the same thing with a break before returning — led by Fumiya‘s guitar — to a triumphant structural bookend from whence they once more take flight and jam into the last fadeout only highlights the mastery at work in Tatsu‘s songwriting.

It’s hard not to think of the bassist as an auteur generally, but perhaps easier here since Fumiya, Toshiaki and Kazuhiro bring so much to the finished product and Me and My Bell Bottom Blues is so complete sounding in its still-manageable 46 minutes. But it is Tatsu at the heart of the band, and there’s a long history behind him of trading out members between releases, tours, etc., in this project as well as Church of Misery, so I won’t claim to know one way or the other what will follow for Sonic Flower. As it stands, though, Me and My Bell Bottom Blues is easy to be excited about because the music itself is excited as much as exciting, and with that, one struggles not to ponder the possibilities for this incarnation of the group. I’m not saying Sonic Flower could never release another good album if anyone left or was let go, only that Sonic Flower as they are in 2022 have put together something pretty special in these songs. Whatever else the future might bring — if it’s some more of the kind of hard boogie in “Love Like Rubber,” that’d be just fine, thanks — the declarations made within the tracks of Me and My Bell Bottom Blues and the overarching move-your-body feel of the entirety are not to be missed.

So don’t miss them. Full album is streaming below, followed by more from the PR wire.

Enjoy:

Sonic Flower, Me and My Bell Bottom Blues album premiere

USA SHOP:
https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop-usa.htm

EU/ROW SHOP:
https://www.heavypsychsounds.com/shop.htm#HPS238

SONIC FLOWER was formed as a side project of Church of Misery in 2001. Tatsu Mikami (Church Of Misery bassist) and Takenori Hoshi (guitarist on Church of Misery’s second album “The Second Coming”) teamed up to play more bluesy and instrumental heavy rock influenced by 70’s acts such as Cactus, Grand Funk Railroads, Groundhogs or Savoy Brown. Guitarist Arisa and drummer Keisuke Fukawa quickly joined them. In 2003, they released their bluesy heavy rock self-titled debut album ‘Sonic Flower’ on Japanese label Leafhound Records. This instrumental, improvised double guitar-charged record was internationally acclaimed, and they got the chance to support Electric Wizard, Bluebird or Acid King on their Japan shows.

In 2005, SONIC FLOWER went to the studio to record new material, but as Arisa was pregnant and day jobs prevailed, they put the band on hiatus after the recording session. These recordings have been sleeping in the vault for fifteen years until Tatsu decided to reform the band in 2018. This time he teamed up with former Church Of Misery singer: the result was their new album ‘Rides Again’, 2021 through Heavy Psych Records. Their brand new album ‘Me and My Bellbottom Blues’ sees guitarist Fumiya Hattori joining on guitar, for a late September release on the Italian label. Recorded in Tokyo in early 2022 and mixed by Japanese doom guru Yukito Okazaki of Eternal Elysium fame, “Me And My Bellbottom Blues” is “their biggest work to date”, according to Mikami.

SONIC FLOWER is:
Tatsu Mikami – Bass
Kazuhiro Asaeda – Vocals
Fumiya Hattori — Guitar
Toshiaki Umemura – Drums

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