Shonen Knife consists of three young Japanese women who play some of the happiest, snappiest rock & roll ever to bounce off a satellite dish. Mostly they sing in their native tongue; when they try English, it's tough to make out the words, but what needs no translation is how their awkward humility mixes with their irrepressible vivacity. These girls may well constitute the most unpretentious guitar band on the planet, but what's more exciting is that they obviously derive some kind of perfect joy from making music.

On Shonen Knife, a compilation of two EPs originally released in 1984 in Japan, this feeling comes through everywhere: when the harmonies reach for the treetops in "Miracles," when the group shuffles atonal horns and tiny percussive clangs over a "Land of 1000 Dances" rhythm and then leapfrogs toward a stunning shouted climax in "Burning Farm." It's in the girl-group Morse code, in the bongo solos and counted-off chants and fuzzy grunge and baby-talk syllables. These sounds never pretend to be "experimental"; guitarist Naoko Yamano sees them instead as "different toys in [a] toy box." The album also includes songs about food ("Cannibal Papaya"), animals ("Elephant Pao Pao"), hobbies ("Insect Collector") and dreams ("Parallel Woman"). In "Twist Barbie," set to a riff swiped outright from "We're a Happy Family," by the Ramones, the group dreams of having "blue eyes, blond hair, tight body, long legs," of being glamorous and sexy and "welcomed by boys." Lured into music by the punk noise of X-ray Spex and Iggy Pop but in love with radio pop's beauty and beat, Shonen Knife is fearless.

In February, Giant Records released a two-album tribute, all cover versions of Knife numbers by combos from Sonic Youth on down. What such scene-makers admire is how tunelets like "Twist Barbie" reveal an innocence that jaded Western postpunks have worked years trying (and failing) to win back. These Little Evas of the East see decades of U.S. pop culture through wide-open eyes, then give it all back with wide-open hearts. (RS 586)

CHUCK EDDY