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"Yura Yura Teikoku started as a four piece in 1989. They were fixtures in Tokyo's underground psychedelic scene - they played at the legendary hole-in-the-wall UFO CLUB in Koenji and appeared on premier Japanese psych label PSF's "Tokyo Flashback" compilations. They released a demo cassette and two CDs on their own Jigoku (Hell) label and eventually signed to Captain Trip records, for which they recorded a proper album and a live CD. Their early material was proggy, heavy-psych with lots of dueling guitar solos and bombastic drumwork. Friends who attended shows of this era recall being frightened by singer Sakamoto Shintaro, who at the time shaved off his eyebrows and wore his waist-long hair parted down the middle, traditional Japanese ghost-style. Their fan's devotion was a sign of things to come -- many audience members mimicked Sakamoto and shaved off their own eyebrows. Yura Yura Teikoku were good - Kamekawa Chiyo's hypnotic basslines and Sakamoto's piercing voice distinguished the band from their peers - but material from the early years pales in comparison to their later masterpieces.
In 1992 their second guitar player left and the band went through a succession of drummers. In 1997 current drummer Shibata Ichiro joined the group and the ecstatic psych-pop sound for which Yura Yura Teikoku would become famous was born. In 1998 Tokyo's MIDI Records released the three-piece's first major album, 333. Every music magazine in the country lavished the record with praise and their fan base exploded overnight. Yura Yura Teikoku songs popped up in karaoke booths and their shows were swamped with worshipping fans. Since 1999, getting tickets to one of their performances has been near impossible - shows sell out in a matter of minutes. What happened?
Yura Yura Teikoku are the first and only Japanese underground psychedelic rock group to have achieved "overground" success. Yura Yura Teikoku look and sound like no other band in Japan, and their widespread popularity strikes most followers of underground psychedelic music as just plain...weird. For me, what's really weird is that they've followed their masterpiece 333 with five albums of equal brilliance, inspiration and growth. They've become more experimental with each album yet continue to attract more fans." - Justin S./Mesh-Key Records
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"Yura Yura Teikoku first formed in 1989 as a four-piece, led by guitarist/ vocalist Shintaro Sakamoto, a graduate in design from Tama Art University. The group played out frequently at Koenji's celebrated if tiny UFO Club, for which Sakamoto designed the interior. Their first recording appeared on Tokyo Flashback, a compilation put together by Tokyo's PSF Records, home to a wealth of top flight psychedelia including Keiji Haino, Ghost, High Rise, White Heaven, and Acid Mothers Temple. Yura Yura Teikoku's first full albums were of prog-ish psychedelic music on their own Jigoku (Hell) label. Compared to other bands with psychedelic leanings, Yura Yura Teikoku has a distinct pop flavor to their sound, but of a quite odd variety that frequently had them compared to the 13th Floor Elevators." - Nippop
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"Yura Yura's albums are a mix of crispy, angular rock, freeform freakouts, groovy talkers, and sometimes, beautiful jangle pop with female backing vocals. Sakamoto doesn't particularly see pop and rock as opposing forces, and his holistic lyrical vision ties the disparate parts into a unified vision. Tales of ghosts, cars, guitars, green liquids dripping from the head, and pants covered with lamé should be embraced symbolically, warns Sakamoto: "I want my lyrics to be interpreted in various ways. I don't like it when there's a definitive interpretation." More important than the content, however, is Sakamoto's rhythmic delivery. The band often mixes the vocals super hot - uncomfortably close to the listener's ear - and as a result, the singer's punctuations and spasms can be just as piercing as the over-distorted guitars. The vocals rock as hard as the backing band." - W. David Marx
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artist: Yura Yura Teikoku
title: 1998-2004
type: compilation
label: MIDI Inc.
release date: 2004
length: 113:29
genre: psychedelic pop/rock
country: Japan
language: Japanese
format: mp3
bitrate: 320kbps
codec: lame 3.96
credits:
Shintaro Sakamoto - vocals, guitar
Chiyo Kamekawa - bass
Ichiro Shibata - drums
tracklist cd1:
1. グレープフルーツちょうだい (新録)
2. 発光体
3. 夜行性の生き物3匹
4. ラメのパンタロン
5. 午前3時のファズギター (FULL LENGTH VERSION)
6. 待ち人
7. アイドル (新録)
8. すべるバー
9. ゆらゆら帝国で考え中 (SINGLE VERSION)
10. 恋がしたい
11. ドックンドール
12. ズックにロック
13. 3×3×3
14. 誰だっけ？
15. ミーのカー (SINGLE C/W VERSON)
16. 冷たいギフト
tracklist cd2:
1. パイオニア (ALTERNATE VERSION)
2. グレープフルーツちょうだい (ALTERNATE MIX)
3. うそが本当に (ALTERNATE VERSION)
4. 恋がしたい (KAORI TAKEDA SOLO VERSION)
5. バンドをやってる友だち (DEMO)
6. ボーンズ (FUKO&SAKAMOTO DUET VERSION)
7. 少年は夢の中 (ALTERNATE MIX)
8. 太陽の白い粉 (ALTERNATE MIX)
9. イエスタデイ・ワンス・モア (カーペンターズ)