 This
is going to take some explaining: When Beatlemania hit Japan, well,
they went nuts just like everyone else. And just like everywhere else,
a new musical scene erupted around this newfound territory, spawning
everything from blatant imitators (The Tokyo Beatles) to...well, more
imitators.
At first. Whereas these auxiliary scenes never really rose above
wannabe status in the west, in Japan, this scene of imitators morphed
into something altogether more culturally substantial. The scene came
to be known as Group Sounds, and many of the bands, from The Golden
Cups to The Tigers, are still spoken of with reverence today. I don't
just mean the record collectors, who can always be counted on to
romanticize the past, no matter how inconsequential. No, I mean there's
a living, breathing, sizable underground that's happening right now, in
2008, made up of young, attractive, motivated musicians who take the
art of whole thing very seriously.
The Syrup are one of the bigger bands from this scene/aesthetic. Formed
in Nagoya in the last hours of the 90s, they embraced all things
60s/early 70s, jumping from psych to pop to groovy funk and even proto
metal (see below,) all the while keeping the image at the forefront. If
this sounds shallow, well, it certainly can be, but there's some
excellent music in there, and 2007's "We Put A Magick On You" is the
band's most consistent effort.
They get right down to the "Magick" in the title with the opening
track, a brief, wordless tribal chant that fits that cover up there to
a T. But just as you start thinking you've found some new freak folk
band, next comes "法の書" ("The Book Of Laws,") a soul funk number with
flutes, wah wah guitar, early King Crimson wind instruments, Hammond
organ...you get the picture. It's lively yet restrained, cooking with a
slow burn that values calculated cool over wild abandon. It's a
template that serves the band well, and they've got the tunes to back
it up, from the chase theme music of "ストーン変事" ("Stonehenge," sadly not
a Spinal Tap cover,) to the mysterious title track. Through it all,
vocalist Kazumi (that's her in the headband) sings like a hippie
chanteuse, working a floor show in an incense drenched 60s nightclub,
complete with psychedelic liquid light show and beaded curtains.
The whole album (or EP, depending on who you ask...for the record, it's
a bit over half an hour) has a beautiful, hazy aesthetic, managing to
distill everything intriguing about the period (gentle, slightly
sinister psychedelia with a tinge of the occult) while avoiding the
inevitable traps (self indulgence, empty posturing, mindless
nostalgia.) One of the more notable tracks is "賢者の石" ("The
Philosopher's Stone,") and it's difficult to convey exactly what's
going on here. Like a much less aggressive, much more groovy early
Black Sabbath, from the "Iron Man" opening to the "Snowblind" speed up
in the middle and the Iommi-esque solo, it's as if they took fistfuls
of random elements from "Master Of Reality" and "Volume 4," then
filtered them through a hippified femme fatale, removing the edges but
leaving the atmosphere.
You wouldn't think a song like that could use the noted elements in a
relatively gentle way and still work, but that's exactly what it does.
Constructing music for today from cultural building blocks of the past
is a tricky business, but The Syrup make it seem effortless. Or perhaps
made it seem
effortless: "We Put A Magick On You" came out in March of 2007, and the
band hasn't played a show since April of 2008. There's no announcement
of a breakup, but it looks quite possible that this will be their final
release. A shame, but if so, at least they went out on a high note,
with a short, tough release that hits a musical sweet spot that most
bands would be content simply referencing.
---
Available at Amazon Japan
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