Juni & Too Much - Too Much Been a while since I dipped into 70's proto metal in this section and definitely a while since I've hit up the 70's Japanese scene so here's one for the die hard RSTB re-released fans. Too Much began as an offshoot of The Helpful Soul, another Japanese
blues-rock band that played alongside Blues Creation around Japan at the time. Both bands performed at a large concert event named TOO MUCH in Kyoto in 1970 and as The Helpful Soul came to an end guitarist Junio Nakahara appropriated the name for his new group, fleshed out with some high school friends as a powerful rhythm section and the stadium sized vocals of Juni Lush pulling the whole thing into hip-slung rock territory. The band got a deal from Atlantic but intervention from too many opportunistic execs seemed to take their sound in too many directions. The results make the straight-ahead rock thrusters here essential but some of the slower, ballad heavy swooners seem to be more in the filler category and maybe they shouldn't have tackled Dylan, someone should have intervened there. Still, for fans of power stomp, there's plenty to be had here. They close the album out with the epically adorned "Song for My Lady" which has huge Moody Blues overtones and, though its been derided elsewhere, I think has its own charms. Listen: Buy it HERE.