Lucrezia

Of all the Japanese psych-rock groups that emerged in the late nineties and early noughties, Up-Tight are the most reverent, the most directly plugged into the source, from their name (after the Velvets book, I’d guess) and their referential song titles (here, “Daydream Believer”) to their extended one-chord jams, with knowing names like “Sweet Sister”, though on this album, the two-part, thirty-three minute meander is “Song For Lucrezia.” Tomoyuki Aoki’s voice is pitched at the edge of desperation, the better to carve out some space amidst the hedges of distorted guitar, and numbed, narcotic rhythms that guide the five songs on Lucrezia; it’s maybe their strongest set, though honestly, Up-Tight’s albums are all of a piece, an exploration of one long, unending psych-rock song.