Frank Chickens — Ninja Legends 1983- 1989

Ninja Legends is a four-CD box set bringing together all the output of the Japanese-born, London-based two-piece Frank Chickens, who blended Western pop tropes with tacky to traditional eastern elements. They have a genre-blended sound that shifts between the quirky, tuneful, and moodily theatrical. The set takes in the project's three ’80s studio albums- We Are Frank Chickens, Get Chickenized, and Club Monkey- with the fourth disc taking in the project's 80's BBC sessions.

The set appears on Cherry Red, with each of the four discs coming in their own card slip sleeves recreating the original album art, all presented in a white flipside card box. The set is finished off with a glossy/ colourful twenty-four-page inlay booklet, including a thirteen-page write-up about the project & the cover material. As well as loads of pictures, and full album credits.

Frank Chickens formed in the year 1982 in London, bringing together Kazuko Hohki and Kazumi Taguchi, who later added up to a dozen other members. In total, the project put out five albums between 1984 and 1994.

The project's first album was 1984’s We Are Frank Chickens, which was originally released by Kaz Records. It’s a ten-track affair which has quite a densely packed, sample-layered, and electro-heavy sound. It opens with the electro drum & eastern vibe/ percussion lined “Cheeba Cheeba Chimpira” with its stabbing bass synth line, joint singsong to chanted female vocals, and flotsam ‘n’ jetsam sampling. We have skittering beats & electro funking flow of the single “We Are Ninja”. There’s the western smooth soul meets twanging western shimmer of “Shellfish Bamboo”. And marching Synclavier meets swooning strings and wailing vocalising/ spoken word of “Sake Ballard”. As debut albums go, it’s certainly a lively, busy, at times overloaded affair- but you’ve got to be impressed by the genre/ west & east blending going on. The disc is finished off with seven bonus tracks, which are a blend of remixes of “We Are Ninja”, and non-album tracks.

Next up on disc two, we have 1987’s Get Chickenized, which first appeared on Flying Lecords. It’s a fourteen-track affair, with a clear/ neater production- there is still a keen electronic edge to the sound, but there are more formal/ non-electronic instrumentation woven in.  We go from the west meets east pop groove of “Scared Marriage” with jiving synth bass line, sampled vibe ‘n’ flute hits, and joint female vocals. There’s the stripped-back beats, semi-spoken word vocals, flute piping & gong ’n’ vibe percussion of “Japanese Girl”. We have the string swooned, glip-clop percussion, Spanish guitar/ organ flourishes, and jaunting groove of “Yellow Toast”. Through to the strutting electric guitar, snapping beats and sing-song vocals of “Monster”.  As you’d hope with a second/ follow-up album, Get Chickenized nicely refines & expands the project's sound.  The CD is finished off with two bonus tracks.

On disc three, we have 1988’s Club Monkey- this appeared on Flying Lecords. It took in twelve tracks, and the sound here was a bit more up-beat pop-focused, and at times, unfortunately, it does move into the more novelty side of things. Prime example of this trend is the opening title track, which feels like 80’s party pop, with very light eastern undercurrents. As we move on, there are some decent moments like the urgent darting keyboards & wow funk groove gone slightly eastern of “Burn The Body”.  We have the Cajun swing meets clip-clopping cod reggae blues of “Shaken By God’s Hand”. Or the stabbing synth bass, churning guitar tone, snapping beats, and dramatic production of “Hey Dead”. Of the three albums, I’d say this is the lesser, as it seems to lack the same distinctive identity of the first two albums, but there are decent moments to be found. There are no bonus tracks on this CD.

The fourth and final disc is entitled BBC sessions. This is twenty-one-track affair, taking in nine sessions from between 1983 and 1989.  We get six John Peel sessions, two with Richard Skinner, and one with Janice Young- with the tracks spanning the three albums here.

At their best, Frank Chickens were a wonderful crossbreeding of eastern and western tropes, with quirky flair for genre blending. And it’s great to have all their 80’s work in one place with this four-CD Ninja Legends box set.