Marble Sheep

It's a wonder why the J-rock scene, with its love for all things extravagant, didn't embrace psychedelic rock at large, but at least Marble Sheep have been doing their best to rectify this since 1987. The group specializes in trippy space rock music that can be traced back to Krautrock, but includes dashes of punk and is also known for its weird sheep-girl mascot "Marby," listed as an official bandmember, as well as an ever-fluctuating lineup.

In the beginning, the band, founded by guitarist Ken Matsutani (formerly of White Heaven), was known as Marble Sheep & the Run-down Sun's Children. The group began playing Tokyo clubs and was eventually picked by Alchemy Records, the label of extreme noise legend Masonna that also housed the likes of Angel'in Heavy Syrup. The debut album, Marble Sheep & the Run-down Sun's Children, came in 1990, but by 1992 every member of this lineup but Matsutani had left. The group revamped the lineup and got a deal with Captain Trip Records, then run by Nakamura Souichiro, Matsutani's former bandmate from White Heaven. The second album, Big Deal (1992), came out, already under the name Marble Sheep, and 1993 witnessed the birth of Marby. A couple more records followed, but from 1995 to 1999 the band was put on a hiatus, broken by a rare live show.

In 1999, however, Marble Sheep returned, with Matsutani helming both the group and Captain Trip Records. The lineup was reloaded again and included, among others, Rie Miyazaki as bassist and an on-stage version of Marby. The band also trimmed the length of its songs, which stopped averaging about 20 minutes, although still hardly fit radio conventions. The first post-hiatus album, Stone Marby, was delivered in 2001. In the early 2000s Marble Sheep established ties with Germany — they played the country and signed to the Fünfundvierzig label for European distribution, as well as invited the Damo Suzuki Network (a German band) to play in Japan.

The 2003 album For Demolition of a Spiritual Framework and 2005's The Gate of a Heavenly Body came out in both Japan and Europe, and in 2006 Marble Sheep toured Germany, Switzerland, and Denmark with Drive By Shooting and debuted in Korea. Another album, Message from Oarfish, followed in 2008, although then Miyazaki left, replaced by Baby, who appeared on the group's eponymous full-length and the EP Green, both out in 2009.