Le Monde Fabuleux Des Yamasuki has been described as “a fuzzed-out educational multi-cultural psych rock opera,” “proto-psychedelic hip-hop with overweight drum beats and baselines,” “escargot sushi,” “absolute fucking genius”, and “better than a lot of other records.”
The 1971 concept album was the brainchild of French pop composers Jean Kluger and Daniel Vangarde, who learnt Japanese before recording began and even enlisted the aid of a renowned black-belt Judo master to introduce the tracks, which were all sung in Japanese by a school choir.
The result is theatrical, epic, freaky and exotic psudo-Japanese pop that absolutely defies categorisation, and the rare recordings were in recent years rescued and reissued by our favourite music archaeologists Finders Keepers (available in Australia via Title). For those who haven’t heard it, hold on to your minds – they will be blown.
