SPEED; GLUE AND SHINKI

A horrible raw electric blues guitar is wrapped around the throat of an equally irritating and uncharismatic stoned vocalist by the name of Joey Smith who sounds like he's choking on a mouthful of marbles.

Next to 'Hairy Chapter' this is the poorest recording I've reviewed in the Archives. Straight rock 'n roll utilising regular guitar, bass, drums and vocals with no redeeming features at all. I can only recommend this to ardent American Blues fans, otherwise you'll just want to snap the disc in two. A dreadful album. One more for the bin dammit.

As everyone has asked himself, I'm wondering how drugs can (or could) influence rock artists. I consider some of the answers are lying open in this album. Look folks. The first track is named Mr. Walking Drugstore Man. Even only this dangerous flavour is enough for us to feel the drug culture, isn't it? Yes, Joey Smith's nickname was 'Speed'. From the beginning, massively heavy Masayoshi's bass & Joey's drums, and funky and sneaky Shinki's guitar, can attack and kick our b**t seriously. Furthermore, at the last of this song he whispers 'Hey, you wanna buy the speed, you wanna buy the speed! Yea...huh...peace!'. Wow, we should be amazed and shocked there be such a song possessed by SPEED. However I suggest this song should be born not in their 'tripping' but in their 'desire for tripping'. That is, I do feel this song be not a freaky-out or another-dimensional one but a serious and strict blues. Other songs they might product with the same feeling as above mentioned I think. Each title should be a story of their eyes. Well there is also a scattered song M Glue but I feel it's their mischief...? :-)

What I particularly want to say for this album is, not only Masayoshi or Joey but Shinki could push his character aggressively in front of us. In Social Gathering (Food Brain) he couldn't have played such a funky and freaky play. Here, as he without stopping did what he had wanted to do, Shinki could play rampantly and violently. Therefore he might make the rhythm section heavier and stronger...sorry but this is my humble opinion. The last track Someday We'll All Fall Down is too acoustic to be nearly suitable for this freaky work. Maybe they, absorbed in SPEED, will all fall down...that's it. Very cool.

At any rate, EVE is completely born from Japanese drug culture and suitable for the dawn of Japanese psychedelic scene. Important!

In a sense, this album may be of Joey Smith and his mate Mike Hanopol's. Surprisingly, all songs were written and composed by each or both of Joey and Mike, except for Don't Say No (composed by Shinki Chen) and Chuppy (composed by Shigeki Watanabe). In Don't Say No, Shinki's guitar can growl smoothly and charismatically(!) with beautiful scats plus drums, and Chuppy should have fantastic harpsichord sounds. Fundamentally this album is a double one, the first CD can be called Blues one and the second Psychedelic one. Inviting Mike Hanopol (bass, keyboard), Shigeki Watanabe (keyboard), and Hiroshi Oguchi (drums) as guest musicians, this EPONYMOUS work might have been a masterpiece. Indeed in Japan these songs were remarkably progressive in the early seventies, but their stance for music should push and emphasize bluesy colour, not each skilled play nor their unity. The psychedelic piece has Sun ~ Planets ~ Life ~ Moon,an absolutely psychedelic and progressive suite, or Song for An Angel with evolutionary battles with guitars and keyboards - regretfully the songs cannot harmonize well I feel. I guess that their making an imperfect trio should let themselves break up after releasing this work.

However, there is no suspicion this album could leave a clear footprint on Japanese psychedelic rock history. Exactly interesting one.