S.M.B. PRESS RELEASE----------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------When, three years ago, he formed a rock band, Kazuhiko Katoh ran into more than a little local opposition: the locality being Tokyo - the world's largest and most technologically advanced urban complex, simultaneously one of the most resistant to changes of attitude. The Japanese music business didn't appreciate Kazuhiko's move, not only beacause he was abandoning his position as one of the country's biggest solo stars, but also because a rock band was not considered a viable proposition in itself - it was suicidal, they said, to complete with Western rock 'n' roll on its own terms. Which was precisely what Kazuhiko intended to do: no mere duplication of Western nabds - which in Tokyo would have been a safer bet commercially - but an original style of music. He sought out four of the most accomplished musicians in the country and together they began writing and rehearsing their own material, evolving an individual brand of music. It was bona-fide rock 'n' roll; it was also distinctly Japanese.They became the Sadistic Mika Band. The name remains a mystery. Any explanation offered is likely to hide the truth; the Japanese after all are ultra-polite. (Certainly Tokyo is the world capital of S. & M., bondage and other arcane leisure activities). Anyway, Mika joined the band, as singer, odalisque and iconoclast. Beautiful, extrovert and unpredictable (by Japanese standards a total eccentric), she completed the band's line-up and clinched its distinctive identity: both musically and visually, original, sophisticated and bizarre.The first album, "The Sadistic Mika Band", was released in 1973. Uncompromising heavy rock with a pervasive Oriental underlay, it confused Japanese audiences to great effect. Virtually unnoticed in Britain, it nevertheless attained a cult reputation; Ian MacDonald in the New Musical Express declared that the album made "Iggy and the Stooges sound like the Amadeus String Quartet. And it's great - sure they're mad - but they're fighting mad".Although a single, "Cycling Boogie", had some success, the conservative trend of the market delayed any popular recognition in Japan for some time. By 1974, however, things had changed, partly due to the effect of the band's extensive touring. The Sadistic Mika Band's reputation was outstripping that of any other Japanese group, and at festivals they began to constitute a rival attraction to Western acts.About the same time Kazuhiko, in London (to buy a Rolls-Royce), met Chris Thomas, producer of Pink Floyd, Procol Harum and Roxy Music, and already an admirer of the Sadistic Mika Band. It was arranged for him to produce the band's next album in Tokyo, and the result was the stunningly impressive "Black Ship". Above all it confirmed the band's mystery in both composition and performance, and their right to recognition on a world scale. As on their first album (which the New Musical Express described as possessing the "finest album cover photo of the year"), the group's visual flair was demonstrated on "Black Ship" by the extraordinary image of the group floating - as if with wings in mid-air (an idea recently cribbed by a much more famous band). "Black Ship" shot into the Japanese charts - something which Western bands rarely achieve. In Britain "Black Ship" received numerous critical accolades. John Ingham in Time Out called it "1975's most essential record". "Found at last, real rock 'n' roll in Tokyo", declared the New Musical Express. Sounds praised its "inventive and abrasive rock 'n' roll"; "an important new force", said Music Week; "this sextet will stagger you", announced Derek Jewell in the Sunday Times. ("Makes very little sense to me", complained the Disc reviewer). U.S. crtics were no less impressed: Cashbox called the band a "supermonster from Japan" playing "exciting commercial rock 'n' roll with an accuracy not possessed of many American groups"; "let the Occident beware", warned Circus magazine.
By now established as the leading rock in Japan, the Sadistic Mika Band won most of the country's pop polls for 1974. In Music Life, the biggest rock magazine (devoted almost entirely to Western bands) and with a circulation of 500,000, they were voted No. 3 Band, and No. 2 in the Best Musician/Group section, with "Black Ship" No. 5 Album. In the Japanese edition of Rolling Stone, which sells 250,000 (ten times the British circulation), they were voted No. 1 Band, with "Black Ship" as No. 1 Album; Kazuhiko was No. 3 Man of the Year and also No. 3 Songwriter. In both magazines all the band members were highly placed in individual categories, and this recognition was echoed in most of the other Japanese publications dealing with music.
During the summer of 1975 the band recorded their third album, again with Chris Thomas as producer. It shows a marked change of flavour from "Black Ship", just as "Black Ship" did from the first album. More direct than the second album, and with English lyrics, "Hot! Menu", is released in October (1975), to coincide with the band's first tour of Britain. The tour, with Roxy Music, is significiant as well as being the first that any Japanese band has ever undertaken in Britain. For some months the group had been planning to go international, but simply needed the right opportunity. Similarly, Roxy Music were looking for the most interesting and exciting support act possible: already familiar with the Sadistic Mika Band, it seemed the ideal matching.Back in 1973 the New Musical Express wrote of the Sadistic Mika Band: "If they were to tour Britain right now, they'd slay us". Two years later it's still true.To be continued.....---------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------Original source of this page was taken from Harvest Records press release
