The Syrup: Japanese Maple Sugar

You know those cool sounding soundtracks from late sixties movies that combined jazz, funk, and pop into a heady psychedelic brew? Quick, can you name one band that produced this type of music? I couldn't, still can't, and yet I have found the twenty-first century purveyors of this unique sound alive and well in Japan.

They call themselves The Syrup, and they've been releasing albums since 2000, although I didn't have the pleasure of discovering them until their greatest hits package surfaced on emusic a couple years ago. One listen through the samples and I downloaded the whole set. All 22 tracks have been in regular rotation on my ipod ever since. If you're not one for music reviews and prefer to listen for yourself, you can try their video below or just go straight over and hear the samples themselves. If you like the groove they're working on there, take the plunge and thank me later.

If you're still reading, I have to highlight some of the brightest lights on the album to give you a sense of their range. The up tempo numbers are uniformly strong, yet distinct from each other. You could listen to any of "Desperately Blues," "Deviations," "Like to Sing Rhythm and Blues," "Psychedelic 1000," "Will Be Nude," "The Syrup's Goodbye Triangular," "Stone Incident," or "Love Parathesia" and think that the song you're listening to is the best one, only to change your mind again when the next starts. Duffy would be so lucky to have written any one of them as a follow up to "Mercy."

As good as all these songs are, the ones that really blow me away are a few of the slower tempo tracks. "Love Island" has a nice wistful tone. "Songs Beach Disappear" is just what the title implies, a cool summer song right down to the surf guitar playing in the background. Then there's "Just Go Down," which captures romantic longing as well as any song I've ever heard.

Thankfully, this is not their only album available of emusic, but you'll have to do a bit of digging to find it since it was misfiled under Syrup, an American band about which I am woefully uninformed. Empty Night moves the band's sound into the early seventies, and fans of their Best are sure to follow. "Instrumental 02" makes an interesting segue into "Beautiful Young Generation" if only for its use of traditional Japanese instruments like the shakuhachi and whatever is used to make gagaku (Imperial court music). While the two albums mentioned here aren't on itunes, three of their earlier efforts are available there if you prefer.

If I still haven't convinced you that The Syrup's mix of horns, fuzz bass, electric guitar, organs, vibes, and the occasional flute is for you, try this experiment. Listen to a few songs on headphones. See if lead singer Kazumi's sultry vocals turn your brain to mush and your knees to jelly. It's a beautiful feeling.

So without any further adieu, here's the video for "Will Be Nude" (There's no actual nudity in the video, but you might not want to watch it with your kids around due to a comically suggestive situation).