Banzai Freakbeat

To say that Japan’s several decades-deep rock and roll history is absolutely worth further exploring in general is a truism, but after an early 60s mania for surf music and before the numerous wild and wonderfully strange 1970s groups and albums that took guitar freakery to new heights, the mid-sixties Beatles-inspired wave known as ‘group sounds’ was generally seen to be well-scrubbed and sweetly melodic clones of the Fab Four and its compatriots, beholden to the major labels that held absolute sway. On the Australian-originated 1996 bootleg CD Banzai Freakbeat, its anonymous compilers aimed to showcase a ‘rawer breed’ more amenable to the Nuggets vein of listeners worldwide, pulling together both the wilder side of the bigger acts and more obscure bands both, often relying on obscure compilations, live recordings or B-sides. As was often the case with many non-Anglophonic scenes, covers of UK and American favorites appear throughout, but there are plenty of striking originals worth noting, including Jacks’s moody “She’s a Good Old Girl” and the legendary guitarist Takeshi Terauchi-featuring Bunnys tearing up a live take of “Little Devil.”  Though the fine liner notes really could have used a much bigger font size – no joke! – Banzai Freakbeat fulfills its brief fully otherwise.