[purchase]
I´ve been a huge fan of that stripped-down, transparent power trio sound as long as I can remember, so this week´s theme really got my juices flowing. Lots of obvious choices immediately came to mind, but in the end I decided to settle for something just a tad more obscure.
Enter the hard rockin´ free-blues of Speed, Glue & Shinki. These Tokyo-based stoners made two rip-roaring albums in the early seventies, which ended up as (shared) number 1 and number 15 in Julian ´Japrocksampler´ Cope´s top 50 of Japanese sixties and seventies rock. Totally deserved, as the triumvirate of Masayoshi Kabe on bass, Philippines-born Joey ´Pepe´ Smith on drums and snotty vocals, and the amazing Shinki Chen on guitar put many a Western counterpart to shame. Banzai!