This album came out back in 2001 (or at least that’s when I got my review copy). Here’s what I said about it then (with some minor editing):
It’s no coincidence that this Japanese acid-jazz trio’s initials are UFO. For one thing, they’re definitely brothers from another planet; for another, you never know where they’re going to land next.
Bon Voyage, their fifth album, is another trip around the world in 60 minutes. Kicking off with the snappy Brazilian bossa nova grooves of Tres Amigos and the Miles-circa-’75 jazz-funk of Somewhere, the boys venture far and wide across the musical map. Mixing and matching sounds and styles — James Brown meets Pizzicato 5 in Flying Saucer; furious funk and Indian melodies intertwine in the aptly titled Labyrinth; Doobie Brothers folk-rock and Popcorn synth-butter melt together in Good Luck Shore — and singing in English, French and Japanese, UFO seem intent on turning music into one vast, borderless multi-culti landscape. Better climb aboard while you can; who knows where their next CD will take them?
