Siam Shade (EP)

Siam Shade is the debut mini-album^[1] by the Japanese rock band Siam Shade, released by Leaf Mt. on December 10, 1994. It sold 10,000 copies and reached number two on Oricon's independent albums chart. A remastered and expanded version of the album, titled Siam Shade Spirits 1993, was released in April 2012.

It was recorded from the end of June 1994 to the beginning of July, and mixed that September.^[2] Some of the songs were previously included on the band's May 1993 self-titled demo tape.^[3]

The album was remastered and re-released in April 2012 under the title Siam Shade Spirits 1993, with three additional songs.^[4]

Siam Shade sold 10,000 copies and reached number two on Oricon's independent albums chart.^[1][2] In 2004, it was named one of the top albums from 1989–1998 in an issue of the music magazine Band Yarouze.^[5]

Music writer Takuya Ito wrote that Siam Shade's signature sound, melancholic hard rock with technical developments, was already established by the time of this first album.^[1] He cited "Toki no Kawa no Naka de" as an example of the "exquisite" signature twin vocals between Hideki and Kazuma and noted that "No Control" and "Imagination" went on to become staple songs that the band continued to perform throughout their career.^[1]