Harumi: Psychedelic Rock

"one of the wildest and most unbelievably ambitious recordings to come from the psychedelic era."

"Simply put, there is nothing at all like this record in the known universe."

Thus arrives a re-release of an album by a Japanese rocker named Harumi (interestingly, that seems to be both a boy's and a girl's name in Japan). When I lived with Nanny & Grampa Weiss, Grampa had purchased a stereo that came with 100 free record albums. He was given a free membership in a record club, and every month he allowed me to pick two or three albums for myself. What a great guy.

Most of the records were way off any charts, so I chose by album cover. Harumi was a double-album set. I never knew anything about the guy, but the music was fantastic. Just what I was looking for in the age of psychedelic music. This would be about 1968. It was a huge relief to actually get a record that was good; there was a lot of crap available. I played it for Chris on a trip to Camp Petawawa; together we were thinking this guy was pretty good.

Imagine my surprise the other day when the All Music Guide informed me that, not only was the record now out on CD, but that the reviews were air-gaspingly good. Take a listen to an MP3 that someone thoughtfully has made available. If you are a 60's pysch-era rocker, you owe it to yourself to hit the record store and pick up a copy.