Olive - First Album. 1976? Japan

This album goes back to my CDRWL research days, but I never wrote about it (but did rate it) since I couldn't find any background data whatsoever. There were (and are) so many fake albums out there, it sometimes is very difficult to know what is real and what is not. I preferred to wait and see if more data would emerge. That day has come, some 8 years later, as the cd-r was randomly selected.

And really not much else has come to light. However, one copy did sell on Discogs (4 figures) in 2016, and excellent photos have been added. We now know the LP is titled First Album and it's on Studio-3 of Yokohama. I'll discuss this in further detail below.

As for the music, it's really quite an extraordinary album for the time and place. It doesn't really sound Japanese at all, though the soprano female vocals are indeed in the local language. The music is a type of hard rock psychedelia, that at times is very progressive. The lengthy tracks (the album is a super long 55 minutes - extraordinary for the 70s) allow for many ideas to come forth. The album opens with cello mellotron, making one think they may have stumbled onto some Anekdoten archival tapes (which, truth be told, made me a bit suspicious from the off - I mean who in mid 1970s Japan would have done that? Olive apparently...). The guitarist in particular shines throughout the album. Overall Olive reminds me of one of those crazy southeastern US hard rock / progressive bands that one might find on the Nasco label for example. Take away the vocals, and it's not hard to imagine these guys being from Tennessee or South Carolina. Bands like After All, Felt, Westfauster, and J Teil Band all came to mind here. I've been told that Carmen Maki & Oz has a similar sound, though I have to plead ignorance on that front. In sum, an excellent album that truly needs to be discovered, and is in dire need of a reissue.

As noted above, First Album is incredibly scarce and not much is known. One issue that remains is the date. It's generally accepted to be from 1976. But I'm not sure where that data comes from. It's not on the album itself. The label Studio-3 has a few other albums on Discogs as well, yet none claim a recording date (on the album covers or label). It's certainly believable to be from 1976, but I could also believe 1979 or 1980 as well, given the progressive rock oriented culture at the time in Japan. An internet search only propagates the 1976 date without corroborating data. Let's hope a reissue emerges in our lifetime. The album is too good to be only known to downloaders and YouTube seekers.