Rakita: Flying Rock

Flying Rock is the debut album of the young singer, guitarist and songwriter known as Rakita who is based in Okinawa. All but one of the ten songs on the album were written by Rakita and he is joined on several tracks by other musicians on guitar, bass, percussion and synthesizer. Some of the CDs come with an additional DVD of the song ‘Furimukeba’ which is also included on the album.

Rakita will be 23 this year. He was born in New York and grew up in Shonan, Kanagawa before moving to Okinawa. His father is the late singer Donto and his mother Sachiho was a member of the Japanese band Zelda and is currently part of the Okinawa-based trio Amana. Not surprisingly, Rakita grew up in a very musical family who also travelled around the world. When he was 18 he formed a funk band and released an album but Flying Rock is his first solo effort.

It’s hard to listen to this album without being reminded of Rakita’s father Donto whose premature death in 2000 at the age of 37 occurred after he had moved to Okinawa and was making some of the most interesting and exciting rock music with strong influences from Okinawa and Indonesia.

There is something of the spirit of Donto in much of the sound and songwriting here. Despite its title, this isn’t just full on rock but is more varied in its style and execution. The musicians let rip on one or two tracks but there is an almost equal amount of quieter reflection with just Rakita’s vocal and acoustic guitar on songs such as ‘Toumeiningen’. Overall this is a good start and something that Donto himself would have been pleased with.

Flying Rock is released on the Tokyo label Tuff Beats.

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