I don’t know about you, but I don’t usually expect to find worth-while albums featured in those “listen here” kiosks. But upon visiting the Tower Records store in downtown Kumamoto, Japan I decided to have a listen. Expecting nothing particularly interesting I scrolled through many of the featured albums. My attention was then grabbed by an album with some nice cover art.

The album was titled “Good Morning” by a band named Special Others and the particular song that I proceeded to listen to was called “Aims”. This song alone impressed me so much that I felt cool and spontaneous enough to buy the album immediately.

Special Others have an odd name indeed but it describes them perfectely. Their sound and style are something new for me. Special Others is essentially a jam rock band. While the band’s use of vocals is fairly minimal and simple, their music consists of instrumental melodies and the like. The guys from Special Others also experiment with improvisation and some pretty creative tempo changes.

Special Others consists of Yuya “SEGUN” Matayoshi on bass, Ryota “TOYIN” Miyahara on drums and vocals, guitarist and vocalist Takeshi “DAYO” Yanagishita, and Yuma “REMI” Serizawa is on keys. They’ve been releasing EP’s since 2004 and this first full-length album, “Good Morning” hit shelves on November 22nd, 2006.

 
It’s safe to say that Special Others are not for everyone. If you’re not one for heavily instrumental-type music you won’t be turned on. If that doesn’t describe you and especially if you love instrumental rock like me you’ll appreciate the quartet’s music much more.

Special Others just recently played at COUNTDOWN JAPAN in Tokyo (I went to COUNTDOWN JAPAN west in Osaka). With an increased frequency of releases and their popularity on the rise, I’ll expect to hear more Special Others in the future.

There’s a music video,

I’d just let you listen to the mp3 but the PV for “Aims” rocks (elephants!), so enjoy:

Special Others official site, “Good Morning” on YesAsia