I've said this before, but it bears repeating: in working my way through this project, finding information on 80s rock has proven to be the most difficult of all the time periods. It's not that there's nothing to find…after all, some of Japan's most important artists hit their stride in the 80s (Yellow Magic Orchestra, Jun Togawa, Panta and Hal, etc.) Its that many of the less commercially successful (but equally influential and important) artists fall into a bit of a wormhole. Bands from the 70s, even the obscurities, tend to have more product out there because they sold their albums (at least) twice: the clamoring for CD reissues in the early digital days meant that even mid level success stories would sell an album once on LP, and again on CD, effectively doubling the number of copies in recordstoreland for guys like me to stumble upon.

80s bands haven't gone through that process to nearly the same degree, which means that utterly stupendous albums, like Rosa Luxemburg's debut album "ぷりぷり" ("Puri Puri," a mimetic sound that descibes someone who is grouchy or cranky) are virtually impossible to find. The album was gone, but the influence sure as Hell wasn't: I had had so many people mention them to me by the time I finally found a beat to hell CD (which was still going for about $40,) I felt like I knew them, despite never having heard a note.

Getting the thing home, I have to admit that I was initially nonplussed, as the band's manic funk pop was pleasant, but nothing particularly striking. The second listen, a few details popped out. By the third time around, it clicked, and it clicked hard: Rosa Luxemburg were the intersection, the moment when the vast sea of New Wave funk, snarky RC Succession style swagger, bouncy 80s pop, psychedelic guitar and God knows what else locked together in a freakishly tight, manic, and dizzying kaleidoscope that defies explanation, except to say that a live Rosa Luxemburg show must have been a sweaty occasion indeed.

The first thing you hear is hyperactivity. Opener "おもちゃの血" ("Omocha No Chi," i.e. "The Blood Of Toys") bursts out of the gate like early Gang Of Four on crank, with frenzied stabs of funk guitar, sinister bass, and a creepy, swirling psychedelic bridge. Vocalist Takashi "Bang" Hisatomi sounds like a candidate for a straightjacket, if he's not already in one, spitting out lyrics in a high speed panic attack, like they're burning his tongue. When the high pitched chants and toy clown noises kick in, it's looney bin time.

There's no way in Hell mere mortals can keep up that pace, so the band wisely take a detour into the relatively calm (but still pretty out there) their debut single, "在中国的少年" ("Zai Chugoku Teki Shonen," i.e. "A Boy In China,") a kind of punk funk take on Siouxsie and the Banshees' "Hong Kong Garden." Bang sounds quite a bit like RC Succession's Kiyoshiro Imawano, all gravelly warbling and bizarre, over the top confidence. Next comes "原宿エブリデイ－ブルーライトヨコハマ－" ("Harajuku Everyday - Blue Light Yokohama") which takes a groove from somewhere between Tom Tom Club's "Genius Of Love" and After The Fire's "Der Kommissar" and weirds it out. The eerie guitar touches of Hiroshi Tamaki are punctuated by another panic attack from Bang that segues into a mocking, unhinged sing along chorus.

And that's just the first three tracks. "Puri Puri" goes from strength to strength, it's endless inventiveness a result of weeding through a reportedly huge number of potential tracks by putting them through the wringer of their legendary live shows (the riotous psychedelic splatter of the artwork was not restricted to album covers.) The sheer amount of compositional detail is initially overwhelming, but eventually smooths out into a fascinating depth that rivals such equally nervous, psychedelic, experimental funk excursions like Talking Heads' Speaking In Tongues, and (more obscurely) The Pop Group's more clearheaded moments.

Bands as manically inventive as Rosa Luxemburg are built on intensity, not longevity. There would be one more studio album, II (which I've never even seen, let alone heard,) the Stay But Eat EP (ditto,) and a posthumous live album. The band went their separate ways in 1987, most famously with Bang and bassist Toshimitsu Nagai's somewhat less insane Bo Gumbos (another band that gets name-dropped constantly, but is virtually invisible in terms of availability.) Why is Puri Puri still out of print? Rolling Stone Japan rated it as #70 in their 100 greatest Japanese rock albums of all time (just above…gulp…The Flower Travellin' Band's Satori.) Whatever the reason, here's hoping it gets sorted, and fast,