mondo pop 6 (1st alto show)

My first altoradio.live show features Lebanese electro pop, Korean folk rock, Nigerian disco and this month’s cover stars, Japanese 60s garage rockers The Golden Cups.

Japanese garage rockers The Golden Cups were one of the leading lights of the G.S. (Group Sounds) scene in late 60s Japan - the first scene that really embraced Western rock. They began playing sets consisting of covers of American pop and rock hits, and became the house band at the Golden Cup club close to the US Army base - hence their name. They became very popular in Japan but had a pretty strange career - after signing to the Toshiba label, the band were forced to sing soppy ballads as singles, and it was often only on the b-sides that they really rocked out. So their albums have a slightly schizophrenic quality. As you can hear on the track featured in today’s show, Hiwa Mata Noboru, the b-side of their debut single, they have a garage rock heart and they really knew how to let rip.

This month’s Mondo Moment is from a fantastic reissue on the @discostan label - Disco Se Aagay, the extraordinary 1984 synth-pop album by teenage British-Pakistani sibling duo Feisal Mosleh and Nermin Niazi.