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The Mops - Psychedelic Sounds In Japan (1968)
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Here we have an album that at it's worst is a historical curio and a comedy album, at it's best - a highly enjoyable psychedelic romp.
The Mops were, from what I've heard, the rawest and weirdest of Japan's sanitized 'Group Sounds' era. Group Sounds was a fusion of Western rock and Japanese popular music - which for the most part was melodramatic tripe - that was pretty much all manufactured with creative control going to the record executives.

As with most Group Sounds bands they began as a Ventures-esque instrumental rock group, before taking on the mantle of drug-influenced rock music emanating from overseas to become Japan's first psychedelic band. This was not the idea of the Yardbirds/Stones-influenced band of course, it was the Mops' management who molded them into hippies as stipulated in their new record contract (see album cover).

However LSD was impossible to procure in Japan at the time and as well as putting on the most dazzling light shows to cement their psychedelic credentials (the other Group Sounds were catching on fast), the Mops would often resort to playing blindfolded to disorientate themselves!

So apart from being trippy dippy and lyrically darker than any Group Sounds band at the time (please kill me in the 6/8 time 'Blind Bird'), what does this alien interpretation of 60's vogue have to offer?
For a start I was surprised by the garage influence, there's a lot of fuzzboxed guitar and it certainly packs a wallop; and when the Mops are in full swing (playing their own songs) the production is great too: Masaru Hoshi's constant, twisting guitar solos coming from somewhere off in space and the band keeping a frenetic groove.

Not the best example here, they sound much better on record

All sounds good so far, non? But now I have to address the much-vaunted cover versions of psychedelic standards and the all-English vocals.
When the Mops are attacking these songs in their extremely bloken Engrish and their own inimitable style, it can work ('Somebody To Love' sounds great, singer/guitarist Yoshiro Hayakawa must have spent days getting the 'L' on 'love'); but the rest of the time you just can't help but giggle, and there are certainly a few comedy moments on the album such as the adorable 'San Franciscan Night'.
However there is an element of humour to the whole affair when listening to this strange record, being as it is a heartfelt tribute to/cash-in on a hugely self-indulgent Western pop style... just totally naive and a lot of fun. None of this would matter if the songs weren't great.

On the whole it's magnificently done, they manage to work in everything from harpsichords to a Misunderstood-style atmosphere of doom - but the failures are epic. See: the inept sitar racket of 'Unforgettable Memory' and the musically competent but laughable covers of 'White Rabbit' and 'Light My Fire'.
The pros far outweigh the cons though and it definitely belongs in your 60's collection. Watch this space for a high-quality share ;)

Unfortunately when the album surfaced, Group Sounds was on it's last legs - Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin were beginning to catch the attention of Japanese youth.

The Mops were dropped :(

And this is where we leave our (magnificently named) heroes, who would cunningly move with the times and re-brand themselves 'New Rock'. It was left up to other, hairier bands to make history in this area...

3.9/5

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Various Artists - Pebbles Vol. 2 (1979)
Download (donations to the usual address)

It's almost summer and the freakbeat is coming out to play... :afro:
There are already two reviews of Lenny Kaye's much-revered Nuggets compilation on MB, so if you can't guess where this is heading you probably haven't been paying much attention to the threads in question!

As with Nuggets, the Pebbles volumes are compilations of recovered mid-to-late sixties obscurities of the US proto-punk and garage-psychedelia variety - except the Pebbles bands were obscure even in their time...
The original line of LPs began in the late 70's and ran to 28 volumes, these were later repackaged as 11 CDs (accompanied by many a complaint about the lacklustre 'remastering').

It's true that the recordings vary in quality from the slightly hissy to the downright awful. But screw that, I'm offering a rip of the original 17-track vinyl; and anybody's who's familiar with the delightful, energetic spontaneity of these one-off teen groups of yesteryear will know that this doesn't matter a jot.

Of the Pebbles I have heard volume two is almost certainly my favourite, with almost every track having something to recommend it - you have speed-blues stompers, shot-away desert rock, piles of buzzsaw distortion and 60's effects and even a bit of Brit-style whimsy; but for the most part this is 60's garage-punk of the highest order.
It even has comedy value with a turn by the only well-known band featured here, the Electric Prunes, in a wah-wah pedal advert which really hammers home how long ago all this music was made.

Here's the near-flawless volume that started it all too, at some point you may hear another track bleeding into the mix, that's just how ramshackle this stuff is. But it's f*cking brilliant.

Fun fax:
- Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top was a member of the Moving Sidewalks
- Arthur Lee (he of Love fame) wrote 'Feathered Fish' for the Sons of Adam, as such it's probably the best track on here

4.4/5