The ongoing project to rerelease Yoko Ono¡¯s full catalog of 11 albums, which began in late 2016, has now reached its second stage with the release of a trilogy of early-1970s albums ¡ª taking in ¡°Fly¡± (1971), ¡°Approximately Infinite Universe¡± and ¡°Feeling the Space¡± (both 1973) ¡ª that embody a series of tensions.
¡°Fly¡± is the most difficult of the three, but in many ways the most musically interesting. With its grindingly repetitive rhythm and looping riff, the 16-minute ¡°Mindtrain¡± calls to mind another Western experimental rock band fronted by a frantically scatting Japanese vocalist: the German progressive band Can, whose masterful ¡°Tago Mago¡± had been released six months prior.
And it¡¯s in European experimental acts like Can that ¡°Fly¡± has its closest affinity in terms of its combination of an expansive, free-form structure with sparseness and minimalism. Where it differs from the German experimental rockers is that while bands like Can sought to expunge Anglo-American, blues-based rock ¡®n¡¯ roll influences from their musical vocabulary, Ono¡¯s backing band (notable guests include John Lennon and Eric Clapton) defaults to blues licks whenever left to its own devices.
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