[Harlem Jets] by Blankey Jet City

Blankey Jet City started rocking in Tokyo circa February 1990. Think of the Pixies' [Surfer Rosa] with more surf and Japanese instead of Spanish, and magnify that over a decade. Get the idea? Super-duper white-hot rock explosion.

I first came across this tight trio late in the game, due to casual [M.C. Sister] fashion-magazine reading (one of the few Japanese magazines the Berkeley Library gets). [Harlem Jets] was that issue's highlighted album, and it sounded swell enough that I picked it up the next time I was in Japantown San Francisco.

For a good year, Blankey Jet City's final album was one of my top 20 carry-around CDs, never ceasing to please with the high-energy singing by Kenichi Asai, not to mention his excellent guitar work which puts a satisfying twist to US surf-rockabilly-punk-pop.

[Harlem Jets] is by far one of the best records in my collection, and even though it's primarily sung in Japanese, I see no reason why anyone couldn't enjoy it immensely. If you want stick your ears in the jets, by all means start here.