Japanese Psychedelic

Japanese psychedelic took shape as the post-Beat “Group Sounds” (GS) wave mutated under the influence of Western psychedelic and acid rock. Bands such as The Jacks and The Mops pushed beyond GS conventions, embracing fuzz, feedback, extended solos, and darker, more introspective lyric themes. The climate of student protest and rapid social change in late-1960s Japan provided fertile ground for more experimental expressions.

In the early 1970s the sound became heavier and more exploratory. Flower Travellin' Band fused blues-rock weight with psychedelic excess and global influences, while Speed, Glue & Shinki distilled a raw, hard-driving, fuzz-worship approach. Parallel currents leaned toward spacey, cosmic textures—exemplified by Far East Family Band—connecting to the era’s progressive and cosmic rock. Les Rallizes Dénudés, active largely outside the mainstream, cultivated a mythic feedback minimalism whose stark volume and trance-like repetition foreshadowed later noise scenes.

While mainstream attention waned, the underground lineage deepened. Groups like High Rise and the PSF Records circle (and related Tokyo underground currents) pushed toward blistering, high-volume, free-form psych that intersected with noise and free jazz energies. In the late 1990s, Acid Mothers Temple reframed Japanese psychedelic for a new global audience with ecstatic, long-form jams and a prolific release schedule, helping to codify a contemporary, internationally visible Japanese psych identity.

Renewed global interest in psychedelic rock and crate-digging reissues spotlighted canonical Japanese psych recordings. Bands such as Yura Yura Teikoku and Kikagaku Moyo drew from classic fuzz, motoric grooves, and folk-psychedelia, touring widely and bridging scenes from Tokyo to Europe and the Americas. The genre now exists as both a historical continuum and a living practice that continues to influence noise, stoner, space, and neo-psychedelic scenes worldwide.