JAPAN SWINGING SIXTIES

ACE COWIKO 288
Japan's transitional pop years, where girls had most fun

Those lucky enough to have been there recently are saying that Tokyo boasts the most happening music scene In the world: fearlessly experimental and energised. It wasn't always that way, Japan boasting a conservative, traditional musical outlook until the 60s, when the country's pop culture started looking to the West after The Beatles made their mark, replacing sanitised MOR with their own twist on beat music, dance crazes and even psych. This led to (mainly female) superstars, exponents of what was called Group Sound and audacious remakes of British and American hits. The results could be strangely exotic, unintentionally comical or downright weird.

This oddly-enjoyable album gathers mainly late 60s highlights, ranging from girl pop­ lite to Maria Atsumi's steamy moans on Suki Yo Ai Shite. The dance crazes are particularly fun, as The Cupids frug The Bazazz and Mie Nakao fuzzes up the Sharock. The Zombies' Love You is hijacked for Nana Kinomi's sultry Suki Sa Suki Sa Suki Sa, while Ayumi Ishida packs glrl group melodrama. There are also ftings with bossa nova, hilarlous girl-boy banter and enough alien highlights to justify investigation by those interested in esoteric pop history or the basis for Japan's current musical good health. (Kris Needs in Record Collector 371, January 2010)