The hyper kinetic atomic pop punk rock of Judy And Mary has been long heralded on this site. Their songs swing into life fusing all the best elements of bubblegum pop, twisted heavy punked-out guitars, and plenty of off-kilter melody. Their beginnings were rather humble, but as they hit their stride they ushered in a new era of Japanese pop music from the late 80's on into the 90's. Although now broken up, they left behind a legacy of influential albums and some amazingly catchy music that didn't just cross boundaries, it fused them seamlessly into a patchwork audio net of bright colourful musical expression.As testament to the band's power, there is a newly released JUDY AND MARY 15TH ANNIVERSARY TRIBUTE ALBUM in which fifteen Japanese artists and bands pay their respect to the gods (and goddess) of JAM! Truthfully, I was not familiar with most of the artists on this compilation but have been pleasantly surprised to get this and enjoy the interpretations of these great songs. Some stick closer to the original, others add their own unique elements...including a rather noisy, disjointed version of "ミュージック ファイター" (Music Fighter) by an artist known simply as Midori; whose cut comes across like a polite version of early Boredoms. Mihimaru GT throw in a trip hop rendition of "Over Drive" that includes this super goofy hip hop breakdown complete with horrible scratching and Auto-tune...in other words...awesome! Puffy is no doubt the biggest name on here and they turn in a surprisingly grungy and loose version of "Motto."
Did you read that? Yes, Puffy covering Judy And Mary!
Somewhere...a J-Pop fan just wet themselves.
2 comments:
Thank you once again. You make me very happy!
Eric
Thanks for this. I don't know if you've heard any of Midori's albums, but they're pretty fun. Worth checking out for sure.
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