Release Date: August 2025
%20(002).jpg)
After their debut album Wild Echizen (Otitis Media Records, 2022), The Fuzziyama Surfers from Japan’s megapolis Nagoya are back with a small CD. The four-track EP was successfully launched at the Surf Guitar 101 Festival in Long Beach, California, in August 2025. This marked the band’s inaugural live performance on American soil. Following this, the silver disc will only be available in their homeland.
We know today that surf music was
smuggled into Japan many decades ago by the secret agent Mr. Moto. There, he
handed the electronic circuit diagrams over to the custodians of the
three-string long-necked lute. This led to the electrification of plucked
instruments in the Far East, and “Eleki” was born. The rest is history.
Fuzziyama is, as electric guitar
players will immediately notice, a portmanteau of "Fujiyama" and
"Fuzz Box". The latter is an essential distortion device used to
create sawing sound effects on the guitar. Here, this marvelous thing is
equated with the sacred mountain of the Japanese.
The band’s mastermind and composer
is Masumi Fujio, who is known to everyone in the scene as “Fuzzio”. He already
rocked with the “surfin’ instrumental band” The Windows and did his finger
exercises diligently. He has long deserved a place in the “Nippon Guitars” hall
of fame. No one else in the Far East plays “Misirlou” more in tune across the
frets than he does.
In any case, the artwork for his
new sound carrier, designed by Chiaki (the band’s second guitarist) using the
two-color duplex process, is a success. The reduction in color makes it stand
out from other record sleeves. But what’s even more striking is that the
Fuzziyama Surfers have a female drummer.
It is said that Karen Carpenter
from the Carpenters is the reason why there are comparatively many female
drummers in Japan. During their successful 1974 tour (see Live at Budokan), a woman
was seen drumming for the first time in Japan, triggering a boom that continues
to have an impact today.
Nakkie from the Fuzziyamas is
currently one of the best live drummers on the scene. Her playing swings, which
is so crucial to surf beat. Through her personality and her spontaneous
screeches, she also brings a lot of energy and vitality to the band.
This blood-pressure-increasing
stage sound is captured unadorned on all of the band’s recordings. The
following four tracks were frantically taped in spring 2025 in Geru Matsuishi’s
earthquake-proof recording studio on the outskirts of Japan’s “motor city”,
Toyota.
(1)“Nagahama” (長浜) means “long beach” in Japanese and
possibly refers to the location of the band’s first guest performance in the
US. Unusually for surf music, the piece begins with a piano chord progression,
which immediately calls to mind the forgotten oldie “Nut Rocker” by B. Bumble
and the Stingers. Although the piano was a vital element of early
style-defining surf bands such as the Bel-Airs and the Challengers, it is
reviled in the genre today and has largely been replaced by the organ. The
fast-paced interludes in “Nagahama” even evoke progressive rock, revealing that
the composer is a “child in time” who floats in deep purple spheres.
(2) “Oh! Showgatsu” (お正月) is a traditional Japanese lullaby sung to young children
on New Year’s Eve. Shōgatsu,
the turn of the year, is one of the most important holidays in Japan. However,
a night’s sleep is not on the cards here. The band pulverizes the bedtime song
with an unbridled “lock’n’lol” attitude.
(3) “Chanbara Ogin” (チャンバラお銀) is a nod to Kagerō Ogin, a female ninja character
from a light-hearted Japanese soap opera who is adept at cheating and
poisoning. “Chanbara” is the Japanese genre term for samurai films. Not
entirely inappropriately, the track has a spaghetti western feel. However, the
guitars remain as sharp as the blade of a katana longsword.
(4) Things continue to be martial
in “Kita-Kaze” (キタカゼ). The title means “North Wind”,
but also refers to the eponymous Japanese Tier IX destroyer of the Imperial
Japanese Navy. The Second World War ship has long since been scrapped, old
rivalries have blown away in the wind, and a pacific friendship has developed
between Americans and Japanese people.
Japan may well be the main factor
why the surf music community is global today. Bands like the Fuzziyama Surfers
are continuing the instrumental rock tradition that Takeshi Terauchi and the
Blue Jeans started so gloriously in the early ’60s.
Although their EP has only four tracks, it introduces you to a wide range of Japanese popular culture. Want more? This sample CD is meant to whet your appetite for the band’s upcoming LP. You could say it’s the miso soup before the sashimi.
Jimmy Dee, Staff Writer at Surf Music and Art
Tracklist:
01. Nagahama (長浜)
02. Oh! Showgatsu (お正月)
04. Chanbara Ogin (チャンバラお銀)
05. Kita-Kaze (キタカゼ)
%20(002).jpg){kind=link}