V/A: Sixties Japanese Garage-Psych Sampler [COSMIC ROCK]

Why you'll love it

Cosmic Rock gathers fuzzed-up beat and garage psych from Japan's group sounds boom on one LP. Several players went on to Flower Travellin' Band, Speed, Glue & Shinki, Les Rallizes Dénudés and Foodbrain.

About the album

When the British Invasion reached Tokyo in the mid sixties, Japanese teenagers didn't simply buy the records, they formed bands by the hundred. The resulting scene was called group sounds, and at its wilder end it produced fuzz, feedback and screaming vocals to rival anything coming out of Liverpool or the Pacific Northwest.

Side one kicks off with The Golden Cups' "Love Is My Life" and runs through Dynamite's "Tunnel to Heaven," The Outcast tearing into "Long Tall Sally," The Carnabeats' "Chu! Chu! Chu!" and The Tempters' "Tell Me More." Side two opens with The Mops announcing themselves on "I'm Just a Mops," then The Spiders, D'Swooners, Zoo Nee Woo, a snarling cover of "Gloria" by The Fingers and The Bunnys signing off with "Hey! Chance."

Several of these players later turned up in Japan's heavier rock bands of the seventies. It's a terrific starting point for anyone who has heard about Japanese psych and wants to know where it came from. Fair warning, though: one listen to The Mops and you'll be hunting their albums too, and we can't be held responsible for that.

Also at Kops: more Sixties Japanese Garage-Psych Sampler on vinyl · browse World

Tracklist

Listen

On Cosmic Rock (cat# COSMRO023), the 2023 compilation.