It’s hard to separate distinguishing whether I like something because I genuinely like it, or because of the narrative behind it, either legitimate or manufactured by an industry intent on selling every last thing. I’m sure I really dig Eve, the debut from Japanese power trio Speed, Glue & Shinki featuring the legendary psych/rock guitarist Shinki Chen – this is a great little dingy rock record. But that enjoyment comes with an asterisk because of the way it was marketed to me. Maybe I’m reading too much into a fun little slice of 70s power blues, but that’s the point of the site, right?

There is a lot of Led Zeppelin DNA in the trio, formed out of the dissolution of a band called Food Brain I never heard of. Comprised of Shinki on lead guitar, Joey Smith on drums and vocals, and Masayoshi Kabe on bass, opening track “Mr. Walking Drugstore Man” could have been lifted right off either of the first two Zeppelin albums. It has the feel of an old blues standard, amped up and electrified with some great lead playing, heavy up front bass doubling the main riff, and some thunderous drumming from Smith, particularly at the end. You get a similar vibe out of “Big Headed Woman”, which uses the standard 12-bar blues in a very standard way, despite the talent on display.

That’s the thing I wrestle with sometimes. I love this genre, so after wearing the standard-bearers of the sound out my natural inclination is to go seek out more of the same. And so I start more locally, picking up album from bands like Point Blank, May Blitz, a dozen other US and European based blues rock bands that all do variations on the same template. It all blends in, sounding the same and so I go further out, lured to the call of an event like Record Store Day, which is where I found Eve, buried in their 2022 listings.

“FIRST REISSUE OUTSIDE OF JAPAN!”

“OBI STRIP!”

These are the siren calls to vinyl nerds, and I obeyed. And I played it, and….it’s fine. Good, even! But it’s not until the third track, “Stoned Out Of My Head” that I really hear something that speaks to what I was looking for. Maybe that’s not a coincidence, since Earthless, one of the best power trios around, have covered it in their live shows. Great little guitar riff, if I’m being honest, and I love Smith’s drumming.

“Ode To The Bad People” has a bit of a Who/Blue Cheer vibe to it, and Smith’s vocals, while fine, don’t have a whole lot of personality to them. Lyrically this is about what you’d expect from a rock band in the early 70s, so I won’t complain and instead just focus on the tight trio format. This is the track for me where Kabe’s bass really shines, alternating between keeping the riff steady for Chen’s soloing and throwing some runs in of his own. Brief as it may be, “M Glue” kind of grinds the album to a halt, being more of an experimental interlude than an actual song. It played with panning, and what sounds like a tight focus on Smith’s percussion, but I’d just as soon skip it in favor of the feedback from Kabe’s bass that kicks off the funky blues rhythm of “Keep It Cool”. Chen’s wah-infused solo is fun.

By now Speed, Glue & Shinki have shaken off the dust of Page & Co., and have fallen into a deeper well of generic psychedelic hard rock. And I still like it, but I’d be hard pressed to say this is an essential rock record, something that is vital in anyone collection who loves this kind of music. Interestingly, maybe the best thing on the album is the acoustic closer “Someday We’ll All Fall Down” which has a unique identity carved apart from the rest of Eve. The final lyric of the song is pretty telling of the band’s sound as a whole, so I’ll leave you with it:

“And in the end, we’ll know where we came from.”