Though this one arrived too late to make my last year’s best-albums list, it sure does deserve a place on it.
Considering the fact that they come from Japan, it’s no wonder that their ‘60s influences, which they obviously wear on their sleeves, are being explored up to the tiniest detail, starting with the vintage gear, making monophonic technicolour sounds, through the groovy pop-artish cover art, to the fab modernistic image.
The opening title tune is a sitar-driven Beatle-psych which, thanks to it’s raw sound, comes out kinda like a Revolver-rehearsal outtake, and the album actually comes Full Circle with the appropriately titled closer and it’s ’67-Lennon-like psychedelic phasing.
In between these mynd-excursions, things are pointed much more towards the dance floor, as heard through the melodic mod-ish Northern Soul stomp of Misunderstanding or Who’s Lookin’, as well as Do The Flip, which could’ve passed for a perfect Austin Powers theme.
Song Ain’t Over adds a bit of the riff-laden pop-artistry, while with Bandwagon, they’re trying to jump on the contemporary garage-punk “bandwagon” (well not really I suppose, but I just couldn’t resist the pun), and if I may add, they do it MUCH better and in a MUCH purer way than it’s usually been done.
When they slow it down a bit, what they come up with is a moody Kinky waltz called Pass Me By (also slightly reminiscent of The Magicians’ An Invitation To Cry) or the toon-town-ish Britike of Biding My Time.
I sincerely hope that it won’t take too long until the “second reaction” comes our way.
[Released by Uppers 2004]
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