GS I Love You Too: Japanese Garage Bands of the '60s [Vol. 2]

by N/A

Overview

Like its predecessor GS I Love You, this compiles unheard-in-the-West cuts by 1960s Japanese garage-psych bands. All 27 songs were released on Philips in Japan between 1966-69; the "GS" of the title is an abbreviation of "Group Sounds," as this genre was termed in Japan. Sure, you'd be challenged to find many (any?) collectors outside of Japan who had all of this stuff. This does not mean, though, that this is any less generic than many a standard '60s garage/psych/punk compilation from the U.S. or Europe, though the fidelity is certainly way better than the standard. In most respects these Japanese bands were the same as those from other lands in their catalog of fuzz riffs and basic variations of R&B-influenced rock patterns. It's a little strange to English-reared ears because of the accents, frequent mangling of English phrases, and off-kilter, bizarrely energetic transmutations of American and British rock cliches. The truth is, the songwriting and instrumentation aren't too imaginative, and attention tends to wander often during the course of the lengthy disc. Yes, you can pick out odd touches to numerous arrangements -- the television drama horns that mix with fuzz guitars on the Carnabeats' "Chu! Chu! Chu!," the verbatim quote of the guitar riff from the Byrds' "Here Without You" that opens the Tempters' "Himitsu No Rikotoba" (after which it goes right into a totally unrelated, basic garage-psych tune), the quasi-San Francisco blues-rock groove of the Tempters' "Tell Me More," the D'Swooners' eccentric translation of "Stone Free," and the Shadows-meet-Joe Meek instrumental "Space Express" by the Savage. But, to trot out a reviewer cliche to match the musical ones, little sticks in the memory. The most entertaining cuts actually tend to be the ones in which raunchy '60s rock meets incongruously poppy, brassy production (as in Lind & the Linders' "Koi Ni Shiberete"), if only for the novel admixture. ~ Richie Unterberger

Product Details

Release Date:	11/09/1999
Label:	Big Beat Records
UPC:	0029667419628
Rank:	108358

Tracks

1. Hanashitakunai  -  Youngers
2. Dancing Lonely Night  -  Jaguars  - Kunihiko Suzuki
3. Chu Chu Chu  -  Carnabeats
4. Please Please Trina  -  DSwooners  - Ronnie Parina
5. Himitsu No Haikutoba  - Yoshiharu Matuzaki  -  Tempters
6. Sutekina Sandy  -  Carnabeats  - Ai Takano
7. Zin Zin Zin  -  Youngers
8. Tell Me More  -  Tempters
9. Seaside Bound  -  Jaguars
10. Stone Free  -  DSwooners  - Jimi Hendrix
11. Space Express  -  Savage
12. Koi Ni Shiberete  -  Lind & the Linders
13. Kidotta Ano Ko  - Yoshiharu Matuzaki  -  Tempters
14. Give Me Lovin'  -  Carnabeats  - Bill Schnare
15. Dancin' Baby  -  Jaguars  - Hisayuki Okitsu
16. Stop the Music  - Milton Subotsky  -  Tempters  - Clive Westlake
17. My Love, My Love  -  Youngers
18. Kono Mune Ni Dakishimete  - Yoshiharu Matuzaki  -  Tempters
19. Love Only for You  -  Carnabeats
20. Yuhi Yo Isoge  - Hiroshi Kato  -  Lind & the Linders
21. Beat Train  -  Jaguars  - Yukio Miya
22. Bokutachi No Tenshi  - Yoshiharu Matuzaki  -  Tempters
23. Do the Whip  - Jesse James  -  Youngers
24. Taiyoh Yaroh  - Tokiko Iwatani  -  Jaguars
25. Kanashami No Bell  -  Carnabeats
26. Wasure Emu Kimi  - Yoshiharu Matuzaki  -  Tempters
27. Kamisama Onegai  - Yoshiharu Matuzaki  -  Tempters

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Youngers   Primary Artist
Savage   Primary Artist
Tempters   Primary Artist
Carnabeats   Primary Artist
Lind & the Linders   Primary Artist
Jaguars   Primary Artist
D'Swooners   Primary Artist
Noboro Takaku   Bass
Yoshio Okushima   Vocals
Yoichi Suzuki   Guitar
Koji Hori   Guitar
Yasuji Sato   Organ
Jiro Kitamura   Guitar (Rhythm)
Mitsuo Nagai   Drums
Hiroshi Koshikawa   Guitar
Edmund Fortuno   Drums
Yukio Miya   Drums
Hitoshi Nishi   Guitar (Rhythm)
Kenichi Hagiwara   Vocals,Harmonica
Kenzi Misaki   Organ
Chris Solano   Bass
Tadao Oka   Bass
Ronnie Parina   Vocals,Saxophone
Ernie Esiritu   Organ
Kiochi Miyazaki   Guitar,Vocals
Kazuo Unoyama   Bass
Takashi Kubo   Vocals
Kekichi Usui   Vocals
Shin Okamoto   Vocals
Charlie Cajilig   Guitar
Ai Takano   Drums,Vocals
Yoshiharu Matuzaki   Guitar,Vocals
Fujimaru Hamada   Drums
Hisayuki Okitsu   Guitar
Teruo Sakaki   Vocals
Hiroshi Kato   Guitar
Mikio Morita   Bass
Toshio Tanaka   Guitar,Organ
Hisao Horiuchi   Bass
Hiroshi Oguchi   Drums

Technical Credits

Hitomi Omoro   Photo Courtesy
Yukio Miya   Composer
Ronnie Parina   Composer
Kunihiko Suzuki   Composer
Ai Takano   Composer
Yoshiharu Matuzaki   Composer
Bill Schnare   Composer
Hisayuki Okitsu   Composer
Clive Westlake   Composer
Jesse James   Composer
Jimi Hendrix   Composer
Nick Robbins   Mastering
Milton Subotsky   Composer
Alec Palao   Liner Notes,Photo Courtesy
Tokiko Iwatani   Composer
Hiroshi Kato   Composer
Philip Lloyd-Smee   Package Design