"Josee, The Tiger And The Fish"

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Joze to Tora to Sakanatachi is the soundtrack to the Japanese 2003 indie film of the same title and as a result, most of the music on this album, all composed by Quruli, is instrumental. Loosely meandering through a number of genres, it begins with the laid-back, dub-influenced Joze No Theme, which sets up the weary, faintly disconnected ambience of the album, a sense compounded by the dusty blues of Drive and Tsuneo to Joze's slow, wandering piano. Steel drums make a brief appearance in Sagan, which appears to be required by law in all post-millennial Japanese indie flick soundtracks, and closing track Highway sounds like the tender hangover after the wild party of the previous album's Suichu Motor. As Quruli's first release after their landmark 2002 album The World Is Mine, it's a retreat of sorts from its predecessor's electronically enhanced excesses, and forms a bridge to the more straightforward rock and folk-influenced Antenna, which followed in 2004. However, as a soundtrack album in its own right, it's an effective and atmospheric piece of work. ~ Ian Martin, All Music Guide