Formed by Number Girl frontman Mukai Shutoku and drummer Inazawa Ahito after that band split in 2002, Zazen Boys takes Number Girl's loud and abrasive garage rock assault and turns it on its ear. With even more complex arrangements and a much more improvisational feel, Zazen Boys blends all sorts of genres like rap, dub, garage rock and electro into one continuously evolving mass. Inazawa has since left Zazen Boys to form his own band Vola and the Oriental Machine.
Their improv and free-form approach to performance is the most obvious driving factor to all of their releases. They've produced many live albums as well, further accentuating their interest in letting their music live and breathe on its own. That's not to say they're just making it all up as they go. Their songs usually revolve one or two complex grooves while Mukai rants and raves over the top. His vocal style is perhaps best described as aggressive rap, sometimes devolving into tight fragments of words and sound stuttered and spit out like a machine-gun. But the music is usually far from hip-hop, bring more like fractured post-rock or math-rock, just smoothed out a little.
As much as the band loves to play around in this jagged world, they also toss out the occasional curve-ball. Their latest work features songs that are very synths heavy, with a dark club vibe an disco beats. Yet even those songs have a raw and somewhat lethal sounding edge to them, like a late night drive through a glitzy, yet dangerous part of the big city. Never one to settle down, Zazen Boys are truly one of the you'll-hear-something-new-each-time-you-listen sorts of bands.
"Usodarake"
Official Site
MySpace
Members:
Mukai Shutoku - Vocals, Guitar, Synthesizer
Yoshida Ichirou - Bass
Yoshikane Sou - Guitar
Matsushita Atsushi - Drums
Albums:
Zazen Boys 2004
Zazen Boys II 2004
Zazen Boys III 2006
At the Matsuri Studio 2006
Zazen Boys 4 2008
"Himitsu Girl's Top Secret"
"Crazy Days Crazy Feeling" (with Shiina Ringo)"
"Asobi"
Weekend"
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