Recorded December-January 1998

With Warhorse my interest in Japan was starting to show, at the very least in album titles. Yakuza, which is the Japanese mob, is the title of this concept album about genre noire era organised crime.

1. Dragons (completed Jan 6)
This ‘side-long’ epic about a fictitious crime syndicate has five sections to it. The music of these recorded Dec 23, 24, 27, 30, and 31 respectively, while the vocals for the complete piece was recorded Jan 6.
a) The Master Mind
This is an instrumental introducing recurring musical themes.
b) The Perfect Crime
The music for this borrows heavily from The Friends of Mr. Cairo by Jon & Vangelis.
c) New Recruits
d) The Rat
e) Epilogue
This final part reprises music from parts b,c,d with new words.

2. Tramp (Jan 7)
A song about a genre noire style femme fatale.

3. To Be Free (Jan 7)
Sung from the perspective of someone trying to steer youth in a better direction.

4. The Good Old Days (Jan 8)
Sung from the perspective of a nostalgic mafioso.

5. Lie To Me (Jan 8)
A cover of the song by Depeche Mode created using what I call the tracing method, whereby I use the original as a guide and approximate the various instrument parts.

6. Dead of the Night (Jan 11)
A tale of betrayal in the criminal world. The end part has Satana vibe to it, even though I wasn’t yet familiar with his music when I did this song.