They were unable to release any albums during their lifetime; by the point they were approached by a label, most of their members felt the genre was no longer capable of supporting the themes they wished to explore.
By spring 1972,[1] Shitamachi high schoolers Fumiyasu Abe (安部 文泰) and Susumu Hirasawa were musicians with unusual tastes unsatisfied with their playing opportunities.
The duo spent the rest of the year looking for like-minded fellows to form a band at and near the few established rock kissaten in Shinjuku, Kichijōji and Harajuku.
[8][2] Their fortunes turned in late 1973 when two applicants answered an advertisement soliciting heavy rock musicians to meet at the Higashi-Koganei Station turnstiles.
[12][13] They worked on original material, which pivoted stylistically towards progressive rock after Abe suddenly took up the violin, quickly completing the 19-minute long song "Deranged Door" (錯乱の扉, Sakuran no Tobira).
[d][8] At some point, he felt unable to play prog time signatures after his girlfriend broke up with him and disappeared following a bout of erratic behavior.
[16][8] Searching for a new bassist, Hirasawa approached a college classmate, Hiromi Seki (関 弘美),[12] a fan of Eikichi Yazawa's rockabilly band Carol [ja].
[18] A highlight for the group was their well-received set at the 1977 Tajimagahara [ja] Outdoor Concert in Sakura:[19] the festival was beset by rain, but it stopped as Mandrake took the stage, and a rainbow formed behind them as they played.
[22] Mirage (吉祥寺ミラージュ), a venue focused solely on prog, had a stage too small to fit Mandrake's Mellotron, who set the all-time highest attendance record there with 30 concertgoers.
[23] They found consistent booking in unusual venues like an event space inside a Dai-Ichi Katei Denki [ja] consumer electronics-oriented department store, and a restaurant.
[33][23][34] Mandrake's third and final bassist was Tohru Akutu (阿久津 徹) of the recently disbanded Emerson, Lake & Palmer-inspired trio Hatenkō (破天荒).
[36] A Victor Music Industries A&R coordinator scouting prog bands[37] reached out to them,[11] initially to release an album by April 1978, but then postponed the plan.
Hirasawa entered a Weekly Playboy contest offering free synthesizers to talented amateurs who submitted high-quality multitrack recordings at a superior's advice.
[45][39][23] His attempt, "Temptation from Necessity Bees" (いりよう蜂の誘惑, Iri-yō Hachi no Yūwaku), was praised by head judge Isao Tomita: "Outstanding composition.
[37][13] Mandrake ended with a special 3-hour long show, not announced as their finale, at Shibuya Jean-Jean on New Year's Eve 1978,[54] conceived by Hirasawa as commercialism defeating alchemy.
[55] After the performance and holiday celebrations, on New Year's Day 1979, the bandmembers and Susumu's brother Yūichi (平沢 裕一) convened at the Hirasawa family house in Kameari [ja].
[54] Later lineups of the band would contain Tadahiko Yokogawa [ja] (横川 理彦) and Kenji Konishi (小西 健司), both participants in the '70s Kansai progressive scene who also turned to new wave.
The opening section of "Deranged Door" was slightly rewritten, with a faster tempo, as "The Great Brain" (偉大なる頭脳, Idainaru Zunō) for In a Model Room.
[68][69] A Mellotron line from Kimyō na Tamago (奇妙なタマゴ, "A Strange Egg") ultimately became the top synth melody of "Looping Opposition" from Scuba.
[73][51] His continued exploring of concept albums with storylines and grand arrangements led to his solo works being called "modern prog" (現代のプログレ).
Bootlegs circulated among collectors; one prog-centric independent label went as far as pressing an unauthorized limited edition single with a unique multi-material jacket in the mid-'80s.
[74][51][75] The first official release of a Mandrake recording was in 1987 when a cassette containing "Deranged Door" was included in an auction lot amid other band belongings;[76] it went unsold.
[1] Originally planned to be just one bootlegged concert, Hirasawa took a proactive role, bringing recordings from his archive[73] and making alterations to each track for release.
[38] Musing retrospectively, Masaki Takazawa (高沢 正樹) of the Urawa Rock 'n' Roll Center—a concert planning group that often booked Mandrake—felt they stood apart from their peers: "I never thought they were simply following a trend.
[11] While progressive rock traits are apparent in their songs,[84] there is no clear-cut single foreign band that Mandrake modeled itself on, unlike regional contemporaries Shingetsu and Bi Kyo Ran.
[87][88] Critics agree with these comparisons,[79] also finding similarities with Tangerine Dream;[74] Nektar;[89] Emerson, Lake & Palmer; Outer Limits; Eloy; Beggars Opera and krautrock in general.
[9] As a vocalist, Hirasawa's early role models were Inga Rumpf [de] of Frumpy (for appearance and stage presence) and Demis Roussos of Aphrodite's Child (for voice and singing style).
[9][34] For inspiration to write lyrics, he looked to those by the vocalist of Yūichi's band Jōji Maion (じょうじマョン), who advised him to read Kenji Miyazawa.
Weather balloons filled partway through shows doubled as projection screens for slideshows and animations directly drawn on 8 mm film with needles.
[62] The final concert featured a giant picture frame that came apart during the style change skit (which starred Yūichi and Akiyama as mad scientists), a treadmill and a glowing multicolored fetus.