Thursday 5 September 2013

Viva Elec. Guitar - The Spacemen (1965)

Apparently, back in the sixties there was quite a big wave of Japanese bands inspired by the surf guitar bands of the United States. They called this music 'eleki' and there were many bands playing in this style, until the Beatles and the British Invasion kind of wiped them out. The Spacemen seem to be a pretty obscure proponent of this sound, but hot damn are they good! 

My brother found this LP in a tip shop in Canberra and it's a great listen -  inventive arrangements, ancient keyboard tones and loads of baritone guitar. There's also a kind of 'outsider' feeling to the overall sound of the album, presumably due to the amplified isolation of Japanese musicians in the early sixties who were miles away from the California surf sound to which they were paying tribute. Even standards like Tequila and Caravan, tracks that I thought I might be skipping past, are given exceptional interpretations by The Spacemen and the LP is a great listen from start to finish.


Label: Victor
Released: 1965
Players: Unknown. There are extensive liner notes, but they are in Japanese.

Mediafire.

9 comments:

  1. This is awesome, man. Bird's the word and thank you sir

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  2. great stuff,bundles of thanks!

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  3. Only just found your excellent blog - and damn, am I glad that I did! This album is a killer - only needed to hear a few bars of Caravan and I was hooked - definitely going to be playing selections from this at our Sophisticated Mischief event :-)

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  4. Glad you are all enjoying this gem. What's the Sophisticated Mischief event Nick?

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  5. Hi I've been trying to look for this album as well. My mom's favourite. Reminded her of her childhood. By any chance would u know where to either purchase or download? Appreciate it. Thanks for sharing!!

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  6. You can download the LP right here! Click the 'Mediafire" link at the end of the post.

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