Kazuhiko Kato - "Arthur Hakase No Jinriki Hikouki" | Japan Archival Series | Light In The Attic

This track is from a Light In The Attic release called "Even A Tree Can Shed Tears: Japanese Folk & Rock 1969-1973," which is part of Light In The Attic's Japan Archival Series. Even A Tree Can Shed Tears is available here: http://bit.ly/2peNdyC.

There was something in the air in the urban corners of late ‘60s Japan. Student protests and a rising youth culture gave way to a creative community that thrived on subverting decades-old traditions that had taken root in the complacent post-war years. Folk songs became political, and Beatlemania-inspired copycat groups made way for a more personal kind of “New Music,” with introspective Japanese lyrics sung over rhythms inspired by the American West Coast.

The first release in Light In The Attic’s Japan Archival Series, Even a Tree Can Shed Tears, includes the highly influential artists Happy End, Haruomi Hosono, Maki Asakawa, Sachiko Kanenobu, Kenji Endo, and many others who emerged from the angura, or underground, scenes of Vietnam War-era Japan to become some of the most important artists of their generation.

This compilation also includes the bluesy avant-garde stylings of Maki Asakawa, future Sadistic Mika Band founder Kazuhiko Kato with his fuzzy, progressive psychedelia, the beatnik acid folk of Masato Minami, and the intimate living room folk of Kenji Endo. These songs only scratch the surface—but it’s about time the door is opened to introduce the vast catalog of incredible music to hungry fans outside of Japan.