Lucy's Drive – Lucy's Drive EP (1992) – LITTLE LOST CLASSICS

I've already said here and in the radio/podcast version of this blog that the foam of the shoegaze tsunami of the early 90s spread throughout the world, not leaving a single continent free from its noisy and dreamlike reverberations.

Recently, listening to some new and great Japanese bands melted by distortions, I decided – as always – to delve a little deeper into this field and digging through what information there was in English I came across a guy called Yuichi Nakamura and a band in which he played bass, The Zeppet Store; Looking further, I came across another group that he was part of and that later went on alone, Lucy's Drive, and here we are.

Maybe if you go deeper into the history of Japanese shoegaze you'll discover something earlier, but for now this eponymous EP by Lucy's Drive is my first known record of the genre released there, in the distant year of 1992 (the band was born in '91), practically in parallel with people like Ride, MBV, Boo Radleys, Pin Ups, Lilys, Ecstasy of Saint Theresa and other pioneers of this particular universe.

The album has 4 songs and in addition to the gazer/dreamer source Nakamura also bathes lightly in the good psychedelic water of Madchester (in “Pale apple”), showing that he was in perfect tune with what was happening on the B side of the old continent. I'll be back here soon to talk about another band from the land of the rising sun that owes nothing to its European peers, Venus Peter.

Now turn up the volume and discover Lucy's Drive. Bon voyage!