"This album traces the beginnings of Japan's angura (underground) folk scene. It was an incredible, creative, formative few years from the end of the 1960s, influenced by Bob Dylan and Pete Seeger ... For the coffee shops of Greenwich Village, read the kissas of Tokyo's Shibuya Dogenzaka district, while down in Osaka, a similar, yet more overtly political movement was brewing. Many of the artists that emerged during this period went on to achieve iconic status ... There's an awful lot of cross-collaboration among the nineteen tracks, writing wonderful songs and beautifully producing for each other. Many recorded for the URC (Underground Record Club) label, such as the precocious talent Sachiko Kanenobu, often compared to Joni Mitchell, but whose story and sound more closely resembles Vashti Bunyan ... The booklet notes probably provide more information in English than ever before on this evocative, seminal music".
