GS I Love You - V/A, Japanese Garage Bands of the '60s

                                                                       The Spiders

AQUI:

Japan, like many non-English-speaking countries, was home to a thriving garage/beat band scene in the 1960s. The Japanese scene, at least to Western ears, was more peculiar than most: for one thing, it didn't really kick into gear until well into 1966, and Japanese groups were still playing in an early British Invasion-influenced style until the end of the decade. Singing in both Japanese and heavily accented English, the guitars (as a result of the Ventures huge popularity there) were surf-ish Mosrites, and the material was often a strange fusion of Merseybeat, punk, and over-the-top weirdness. GS I Love You is a 28-track compilation of songs originally released on the Crown and Teichiku labels, and while it's no match for the British groups (or, for that matter, the best beat/punk groups from Holland and Sweden), it's truly like no other '60s rock you've heard. The guitar work is often frenzied and imaginative; the vocals walk the line between tough raunch and low comedy, particularly when they mangle English phonetics (the Swing West's version of Arthur Brown's "Fire," as well as the Out Cast's butchering of "Long Tall Sally" defy printed description). Sound quality and liner notes (in English) are excellent, and cuts like the Blue Jeans "One More Please" are genuinely good fusions of pop and punk, making this a good pickup for the more adventurous '60s collector. ~ Richie Unterberger

28 tracks of GS (Group Sounds) - the upsurge in Japanese beat combos following the Beatles' visit to Japan in June '66), heavily influenced by the Animals, the Kinks and the Rolling Stones; groups inc. The Out Cast, Spiders, Blue Jeans, Terrys, Swing West,

Personnel: Masaaki Sakai, Hiroshi Miyagi, Masayuki Yuhara, Rudy Abdo, Jun Inoue (vocals); Mikio Aida, Yohru Yanase, Kazuo Okamoto, Takayuki Inoue (guitar); Masatake Chiba, Hiroji Yokoyama (organ); Yoshitaka Yoshino, Shochi Tanabe, Akio Mizo (drums).

By Alec Palao.

Faixas/Track List:

1. You Gat A Call Me - Out Cast
2. Everything's Alright - Out Cast
3. Dynamite – Spiders
4. Monkey Dance – Spiders
5. One More Please - Blue Jeans
6. Stop Dance – Terrys
7. Shevidevi De Yuko – Playboy
8. Kaette Okure – Playboy
9. Kokoro No Tokimeki (Ajoen Ajoen) - Swing West
10. Fire - Swing West
11.Let's Go Rangers – Rangers
12. Koi O Kesunda – Napoleon
13. Aphrodite – Cougars
14. Suki Nanda – Cougars
15. Wipeout – Spiders
16. Furi Furi – Spiders
17. I Saw Her Standing There – Burns
18. Bara O Anokoni - Days and Nights
19. Let's Go On The Beach - Out Cast
20. Bokuno Sobakara - Out Cast
21. Hold On I'm Comin' – Voltage
22. J And A – Cougars
23. Seishun A Go Go – Spiders
24. Hey Girl - Van Dogs
25. Omiyasan – Toys
26. Long Tall Sally - Out Cast
27. Kimamana Shelly - Out Cast
28. Jane Jane - Out Cast

Álbum gentilmente cedido pelo nosso amigo Luís Futre, a quem agradecemos.