#blues creation

Speed, Glue & Shinki: Speed, Glue & Shinki (1972)

As Julian Cope chronicled in his massively educational JapRockSampler, that country's rock scene of the late '60s and early '70s was full of strange and exotic artists, all of them seeking their own way to process and interpret Western trends.

And arguably none of them was stranger or more exotic than the rock 'n' roll deviants known as Speed, Glue & Shinki: a power trio that saw the period's self-liberating drug culture as an integral part of their equally experimental musical endeavors.

Alas, like their no-holds-barred, often chaotic stoned jams, the band members' personal and creative relationships found themselves in a state of serious disarray during the recording of their eponymous double-vinyl sophomore album in 1972.

Their ostensible bandleader, virtuoso guitarist Shinki Chen (formerly of Food Brain), was already partially distracted from the proceedings, and so was original bassist Masayoshi 'Glue' Kabe, who was itching to resume his hobo-like travels.

This left preternaturally wired vocalist and drummer Joey 'Speed' Smith no choice but to jump into the driver's seat and, along with new bassist Mike Hanopol, accelerate the band's acid rock school bus right over the cliff of reason.

The duo wrote most of these 14 songs, which naturally included ultra-distorted, typically loose, proto-metallic acid blues grinds like "Run and Hide, "Calm Down," and a pair of waste-oid anthem for the ages in "Sniffin' & Snortin', Pt. 1" and "Pt. 2 (Vitamine C)" (complete with appropriate sound effects).

The cumulative emotional effect of all this gloriously demented garage rock drudgery (think the MC5 meets Grand Funk meets Black Sabbath meets The 13th Floor Elevators) was so disconcerting that when a flute suddenly flutters across Shinki's "Don't Say No," I almost tried to swat it away in panic.

To be fair, the prodigal guitarist (then known as the "Japanese Hendrix") still managed to showcase his considerable talents on many of these songs, especially the epic "Search for Love" and in the backwards solo of "Wanna Take You Home."

The latter was erroneously credited to Hanopol, even though it obviously duplicates "Take You Home" (1969) by American power trio Fields, while the bassist's other tunes -- "Bad Woman," "Red Doll" -- suggested a passion for Leslie West's Mountain, instead.

But there was no mistaking Joey Smith's dominant role throughout the LP, whether he was croaking like Louis Armstrong across "Flat Fret Swing" or improvising a 13-minute ambient Moog experiment called "Sun - Planets - Life - Moon," which, along with the slightly less free-form "Song for an Angel," took up all of the fourth vinyl side.

Aaaand exhale … COUGH-COUGH-COUGH!

As if you hadn't guessed already, and in spite (heck, perhaps because) of the all-consuming chaos surrounding its recording, Speed, Glue & Shinki ended up delivering a genuine proto-stoner rock (bong) watershed here.

This may not have translated into record sales, and the band's messy collapse soon after left a bitter taste in everyone's mouths (not least their free-spending, un-recouped financial backers), but, all these years later, there's simply no mistaking this short-lived trio's cult legacy with that of any other group.

p.s. -- Some of these words originate in my All-Music Guide review of Speed, Glue & Shinki's eponymous second album.

p.p.s. -- This 2001 reissue of dubious legitimacy doesn't have the best sound, but compensates for it with a deluxe reproduction of the original package, including both its cardboard-grade outer wrap and bright yellow 'tiger' inner sleeve.