Happy End (First Album)

Survival Research present a reissue of Happy End's debut self-titled album, released in 1970. Following the abortive appearance of Japanese psychedelic band Apryl Fool, who imploded after producing an album and an EP for Columbia Japan in 1969, bassist/keyboardist/singer and main creative force Haroumi Hosono and drummer Takashi "Rei" Matsumoto formed Happy End with guitarist Shigeru Suzuki and guitarist/singer Eiichi Ohtaki. The new group's self-titled debut, released in 1970 on URC, the pioneering independent label founded by guitarist Hayakawa Yoshio (initially as the affiliated imprint of mail order company, Underground Record Club), evidenced more cohesion than the Apryl Fool LP; instead of the lengthy, excessive freak jams of the earlier set, Happy End's track list took the form of more easily digestible slices of Japanese psychedelia, the understated drumming perhaps referencing Matsumoto's veneration of The Beatles. Of course, with song titles that translated as "Unflyable Sky" and "Enemy Remember Thanatos!", the music was certainly adventurous. The group would continue for the next few years, before Hosono began to concentrate on solo work, as well as various side projects, which would culminate in the formation of Yellow Magic Orchestra.