3 Kick Ass Japrock Albums

Les Rallizes Denudes-Heavier Than A Death In The Family

"Les Rallizes Dénudés (裸のラリーズ, Hadaka no Rallizes) are an influential, yet reclusive Japanese psychedelic noise band. They were formed in 1967, and the band was known for their ties to avant-garde theater groups (as typified by Shuji Terayama's troupe) and leftist political groups, as well as for their feedback-drenched live shows and use of strobe lights and mirror balls onstage, which earned them comparisons to the Velvet Underground. Most of their albums that have been released are in very limited editions.

The band's style is typified by simple, repeated bass lines and shrieking guitar feedback.

In 1970, the original bass player Moriaki Wakabayashi was involved in the hijacking of Japan Airlines Flight 351 orchestrated by the Japanese Red Army. Singer Takashi Mizutani was allegedly offered a role in the hijacking but turned it down.

Heavier Than a Death In The Family is a collection of live tracks at the height of their career. Copies of this album are rare, very high priced and of course, long out of print."

This one is for you Acid Mother's Temple fans.

Feel the weight



Speed, Glue, and Shinki-Eve

"They took their name from Kabe's love of sniffing Marusan Pro Band glue and Joey Smith's obsession with amphetamines, as evidenced by the lyrics of many Speed, Glue & Shinki songs (all lyrics being written and sung by Smith). The resulting sound was extremely bleak and raw, with Kabe's crunching atonal bass runs and Smith's stop-start rhythms creating a unique foundation for Shinki Chen's euphoric blues. Song titles such as 'Stoned Out of My Mind', 'Mr Walking Drugstore Man' and 'Sniffing and Snorting', combined with Smith's dangerous outlaw lyrics and caustic Iggy Pop-like vocal asides, gave the band an edge that no other Japanese band could (or would have wished to) achieve."

Sniff that shit



Flower Travellin' Band-Satori

"Satori is a conceptual hard rock-psych album driven by Hideki Ishima's furious guitar licks which erupt and explode over the harmonic heart beat of the drums and bass and Yamanaka's banshee-like vocal style which was turning him into an occidental Iggy Pop or Ozzy Osbourne while the band itself was rapidly becoming Japan's answer to Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath. Satori is a huge album in every way. From power chords to Eastern-tinged North African six string freak-outs and crashing tom-toms, the band flexes its collective muscle from start to finish. In short, this is a real rock classic of the type they simply don't make any more."

Travel on

I will post plenty more of this awesome stuff, Japrock is fucking nasty. Make sure to check out Akira Ishikawa and Count Buffalo as well right here for another example of some bad ass Psych.