So my friend Lisa does this blog, which I secretly love along with Liz Phair, Welsh Corgis, back rubs, and other things I don't talk about around town. So when I suddenly I had the urge to contribute, I was stoked to hear an immediate yes come back along wih a Typepad password...
Julian Cope is an author and musician best known for chronicling (and thereby popularizing) old German prog and hard rock albums in the 1990's compendium Krautrocksampler. So why namedrop Cope on TokyoMango? Because the prolific blogger and rocker just did it again for Japanese rarities of the 60's and 70's!
Japrocksampler: How The Post-war Japanese Blew Their Minds On Rock N' Roll is actually way duller than what I expected, especially after lifting the BEST ALBUM COVER EVER for the artwork from the Flower Travellin' Band's debut LP Anywhere.
There are a couple of awesome stories weaved in with bands I actually care about, one of which involves a plane hijacking, so that was sweet. But the academic writing style mixed with two opening chapters revolving entirely around obscure minamalist Japanese composers influenced by John Cage and drugging it up with pre-John Yoko Ono, is enough keep this one off any casual reader's Oprah list.
While Krautrocksampler has been described as a field guide of sorts for hipster record collectors, the book's anectdotal information on the bands it referenced is in sharp contrast to the premise of Japrock; which, to summarize, ties a Western influence to each artist or musical movement itself, so that Cope can expound on a uniquely Japanese filtering and reinterpretation process. It's the island life story. Post-war transformational improvisions that may have challenged the patience of Western minds, but mainly due to influence from Buddhist gagaku percussion rituals or other standing musical traditions of Japan...not rampant drug use, which was driving sound explorations to the west.
Luckily, the entire second half of the book is little more than a shopping list of great Japanese psych and heavy rock from the heyday of late 60's to mid-70's. My Japrock Christmas Wishlist. And since so many of these gems are being reissued these days on CD, here is a starter for any TokyoMango readers that want to check out the more accessible picks I have filtered out:
- Far East Family Band, Nipponjin (1975): Like Pink Floyd. Sparse drums. Long songs. Awesome synths.
- Blues Creation, Demon and Eleven Children (1971): Influence from fellow countrymen Flower Travellin Band, and Sabbath. ESSENTIAL and head-nodding to any heavy rock fan.
- Flower Travellin Band, Satori (1971): If you dig either of the first two, head here next. A guitar album through and through that has influenced modern day psych worshippers like Comets on Fire and Queens of the Stoneage.
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