Although talking about influences is a staple of the music press, copying (a charge leveled at so much Japanese music), even respectfully, is often the subject of scorn in serious rock journalism. Novelty, no matter how abstract or silly, generally trumps the enjoyment of the familiar, no matter how lovingly reconstructed.
What would pop music be, however, without a thousand reworkings of Merseybeat or Bob Marley, or more recently, "Saturday Night Fever"? These are formulas so perfect and pleasurable they have become cultural icons, repeated in different guises again and again. Such is the case with Dry and Heavy, a group whose devotion to '70s-era reggae has made the band a consummate tribute to the style.
"The sound of '70s reggae," explained the duo Shigemoto "Dry" Nanao and bassist Takeshi "Heavy" Akimoto in a recent interview, "is a particularly remarkable thing. We love reggae, of course, but aside from that, we feel that the sound of genuine reggae surpasses all other genres and is a special musical form."