Speed Glue & Shinki
When Shinki Chen was reissued a few years back (first not officially) I remember it was appreciated very much by heavy rock/psych collectors. Of course for any even slightly freaking out and experimenting guitarist with some blues fundament, Hendrix obviously was mentioned as a reference a few times. For Shinki Chen this blues association only appeared after some past in folk and surf music and his Yardbirds and Kinks interest. After a period with un-compromising long hair looks and an I-play-what-I-like attitude, the first Shinki band was formed which renamed themselves from The Bebes, Golden Cups (with a single) to Powerhouse (with an LP in 1969), and then Food Brain (with an LP in 1970). The first Shinki Chen & Friends album was recorded the next year, in 1971, and they had a second double LP release in 1972 (with a different line-up). The band at first was called Speed Glue & Shinki, a trio, with bassist Masayoshi Kabe (since Golden Cups/Foodbrain) and new member, American Vietnam war refugee, Joey Smith (from former Zero History, later with DK Mushroom & Son). The single after that last LP did not show much success, Joey Smith with the new bass player Mike Hanopol, returned to the Philippines where they would join a second version of Juan de la Cruz.
This is the first album by the trio. It follows more the American acid bluesrock traditions (not even “powerhouse”), with a Hendrix influence indeed but still a bit predictable. What surely is an odd factor and which is unusual for a Japanese album is that I think there were really drugs involved. This brings at the same time a pain in the ass “fuck this and that” rather straight forward and mind blinded attitude with it, it also gives the album its charm, because when the enhance their own freedom to play, especially on “ode to bad people” the electric guitars (bass and lead guitar) starts to take the trip more enhanced, they use a few small experimental effects (on “M Glue”), and their mind and playing goes a little bit more far-out as usual. It is not one of the top acid psych-bluesrockers but it surely has its charm
