It's been five years since we last heard the super lush, whispery, twee sounds from Matryoska. So what have they been up to? Something huge, it would seem. Their new album Laideronnette is due out on 12/12/12. The first track "Monotonous Purgatory" (above) is a sad, expansive, glitchy orchestral dream. The rest of the album (see the sampler below) looks to be more of the same, which is all fine by me.
You can download "Monotonous Purgatory" for free direct from their site and order the album there as well. You can also get it at CDJapan.
ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES Curated by Pavement May 14 (FRI) 16(SUN) Butlin's Holiday Centre, Minehead (UK) Information: http://www.atpfestival.com/
Vivid Live festival Curated by Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson May 28 (FRI) Sydney Opera House (Australia) Information: http://vividlive.sydneyoperahouse.com/Default.aspx
ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES Curated by Jim Jarmusch September 5 (SUN) Kutsher's Country Club, Monticello, New York (USA) SUNN O))) and BORIS present ALTAR Information: http://www.atpfestival.com/newsview/1003251415.php
If Melt Banana and The Aprils had sex at a carnival, Hosome might have been their bouncing baby beast. Given an overstuffed toy-box, some half-broken electronic gadgets and a metronome better suited from some sort of Lovecraftian ritual, that child would grow and produce this sort of childish yet intricate music.
Slathered in a thick layer of echo and reverberations, it's a bit tough to pick out any sharp outlines in Hosome's music, though that's probably for the best. There is so much going on in each short slip of a song that trying to focus only causes the listener to miss out on most of the track. The keyboards pump out a drunken carnival stomp, while the guitars swing along with the unpredictable drum lines. The dual male/female vocals also keep things swirling and spinning around as they interweave, calling back and forth to each other across the midway.
Another interesting aspect of the band (as if they need anything more) are their live shows. In a live setting, all of the haziness is stripped away and the band is a much more raw and powerful force. They play virtually non-stop, and the light-speed sonic barrage is overwhelming. Live, they transform from a swirling, art-rock technicolor, pop roller-coaster into a seething, math punk, blistering fury of sound. Hosome is the real deal.
Japan's Nuito is to post-rock as Fantomas is to metal. If you find that sentence a little confusing, how about this. Think tiny bits of complicated, tempo jumping musical blasts, all linked together by the thinnest of threads. In the case of Fantomas, they grind out a mountain of furious micro-metal. With Nuito, it's more your typical noodly instrumental post/art/math rock, only done on a tiny scale.
Formed around 2004 in Kyoto, the trio blends generous amount of finger tapping guitars with various effects and stuttering drums to form their odd constructs. They use "kaleidoscopic" as just one of the many possible adjectives to describe their own sound, and it's perhaps the most apt. They create a constantly shifting mosaic of angular guitar rock, with intricate loops and obscure melodies that vanish before your brain can even register their presence.
That's not to say they run forward, head down, 110% at all times. They also have many moments of sublime calm, but it is no less fuzzy and slippery. It's as if the band will explode if they sit in one place for more than ten seconds. Yet at the same time they demand your attention, lest you lose all sense of the song. If you can manage to stay focused and aren't practically concerned with being able to sing along, then Nuito will provide you with a wealth of material to dig into over many repeat listens.
There's that old saying as to how writing about music is like dancing about architecture. If ever that sentiment were true (and obviously I disagree to a certain extent) then there was never a better example than the music of Merzbow. Not that most people would dare call any of his hundreds of releases "music" or even "experimental." They are, quite simply, noise. Static. Sounds pushed well beyond the normal limits and distorted into new forms of sonic abuse.
That's not to say everything he does is purely idiot white noise. Quite the contrary. While the end result my be difficult to wrap one's hard around, it's obvious that the process of making his tracks hold great meaning Masami Akita, the man behind the machines. One can quickly see how his music could hold the same meaning as a lead vocalist shouting about injustice at the top of his lungs. Plus much of Akita's work revolves around short loops of much more recognizable sounds like drums synths and other, natural sounds, a tendency no doubt due to his early beginnings with analog tape. These simple sounds are then run though the Merz-machines and transformed into stark, shrieking soundscapes.
Akita has found a large wealth of support outside of the noise world. Perhaps most notably he's worked closely with Mike Patton, vocalist for Faith No More, Fantomas and many, many other projects. Massive rock band Boris is another group that has collaborated with Merzbow, several times in fact. Two personal favorites have been his Satanstornade collaboration with Russel Haswell and the epic live show he performed with the Finnish duo Pan Sonic which was later released as V.
When it all ends, it is the silence that is deafening. His work is at times beautiful, at other times awful, and that's exactly his point. Perhaps his approach is best summed up with this quote: "The effects of Japanese culture are too much noise everywhere. I want to make silence by my noise."
It's not often you see people using the words "shoegaze" "death metal" and "techno," all to describe the same band in the same sentence, but when it comes to Coaltar of the Deepers, genre is the first thing to go out the window. Formed in 1991, the band has deftly switched genres almost as much as they have switched members. The core duo of Narasaki and Kanno has seen around ten members come and go over the years.
While the band has taken a few breaks, they've managed to maintain a prolific output, releasing twenty albums and EPs in as many years . For the most part, CotD stick to the washed out, dream-like, grungy, indie-shoegaze sound that they started playing in the early '90s, though they've never been a particularly quiet or brooding band. You'll also get songs like "Giant" that start out with the light female vocals of Ichimaki (who has since left the band), singing a fast pop rock song, only to have it suddenly drop way down into a metal scream fest, then kick into some post-punk/disco sort of beat. "Hyper Velocity" also falls into the above formula of spaced out synths with a very fast beat and dreamy vocals, which then totally falls off the rails into a cookie-monster voiced electro-hell.
Their many EPs seem to be used as isolated playgrounds for the band to test the limits of various sounds.Their Yukari Telepath album takes a much more electronic path, fusing rock with simplistic yet organic synths and drum machines. Much like Supercar's Highvision, it's a fantastic example of dark yet non-gimmicky electro rock. Just about everything CotD does will make you wonder what's coming next with an eager anticipation. Let's just hope there's another twenty years of material on the way.
There's a fine line between noise and art. On the one hand, it's easy to just plug some things into a distortion pedal and make noise. On the other, turning that noise into something more obviously crafted is something else. When do the blasts of micro drum loops become a song? When do the single note guitar beats form something coherent?
These are the lines that Maruosa walks. On the surface, he's just some beastman rolling around on stage and shouting into a microphone while these washes of lethal sonic daggers shoot out of the speakers. Look a little deeper (if your ears can handle it) and you'll realize that this is all very carefully planned. Sure, the songs sound like Alec Empire and Venetian Snares run at fast forward, but it is all pre-planned and very finely crafted. While it's impossible to tell if there are any real words being formed in this storm, Maruosa's message is pretty clear: there is no message. Everything is destroyed and razed to the ground, pummeled into a fine dust through rage and sound. The end result is a bit like the Maldoror project from Merzbow and Mike Patton, only much less abstract.
Maruosa also provides the voice for the Deathstorm project, with Bong-Ra of the Netherlands being the second half of that equation. With Deathstorm, the songs become even more highly edited, with the occasional syth texture added to the otherwise exclusively drum-based pallet. If Maruosa's solo work seems a little too stark, then Deathstorm is the slightly more "deep" alternative, though no less challenging.
Maruosa has made a bit of a name for himself overseas, playing gigs all over the world, through all of Europe, Australia and the US. With a host of new albums planned, the world might want to keep an eye open and watch their backs for more Maruosa live gigs.
When it comes to expecting the unexpected, Hyacca (literally "100 mosquitoes") has cornered the market. A bit like Midori in the chaotic indie jazz department, a bit like Toddle in the lo-fi indie rock department and a bit like, well, just about anything. Covering heavy rock, indie rock, punk, post everything and even a little new wave, the band seems happy to jump into any style, as long as it is raw and hard edged.
Their songs can shift from soft, tinkering jumbles to full-on distorted rock-outs to something in-between. Utilizing both male and female vocals as well as some totally spastic guitars, the band seems determined to do anything other than stand still. Even to vocals change up from simple singing to all out screaming. Many of the band's photos seem to focus on the large number of foot-pedals the guitar players use and the general chaos of the stage, another sign that the band likes to throw everything they have into their music, letting the pieces fall where they may.
Active since at least 2005, the band is something of an enigma, with little info available either on their site, their label's site or their MySapce page. With all the constant shifting, pushing themselves to the breaking point, it's a little tough to find anything to hold on to. That might be the band's weakness, a lack of any real definition. While a band like Hyacca would never (and should never) try and write a radio friendly pop hit, they could use more of something memorable to keep listeners coming back. They do achieve that from time to time, like on both "ライオット," (which sounds a little like Mass of the Fermenting Dregs,) and "スカイライン," (sounding like the aforementioned Toddle) but for the most part they do their best to push the audience away. Again, that's OK when that's likely to be exactly what their audience is looking for. We'll just have to see what Hyacca does next. It's been two or three years since their last (and first) full length release, a lifetime for a young band.
If you took Zoe Keating, Sigur Ros, a slight dash of Warp Records glitch and a sprig of Shugo Tokumaru's playful, toy-like style, mixed them up and kneaded them into a dough, you might come close to baking a loaf of something resembling the music of one Katsuhiko Maeda, aka World's End Girlfriend.
Most of his work seems to be based around a few well known instruments, mainly cello, piano and saxophone. Yet just naming a few of the component parts misses the whole entirely. His composition are rooted in classical ensemble pieces, but that's just the starting point. Maeda then takes the songs and runs them through modern tech, stretch and stuttering them, adding infinite layers, not to mention percussion lifted out of the standard Apehx Twin textbook. While his early works rely more on the obvious use of computer generated sound, his later work throttles that back in a big way, letting the music speak for itself. The pieces are stark, yet darkly elegant. They have the quiet seriousness of Sigur Ros, yet also a more playful, organic/fantastic mood at times. The incongruous use of saxophone and other slightly less traditional instruments alongside the small string section only adds to the cognitive dissonance.
The musical style also effortlessly shifts, often several times within a single song, from dour classical, to slight jazz, to sparkling piano interludes. Maeda packs each song with dozens of ideas. It's almost too much to take in at one sitting. The songs demand repeat performances, if only to prepare one's self for the oncoming tide of musical colors. The album also titles offer a bit of insight into Maeda's world, Farewell Kingdom, Enchanted Landscape Escape and Hurtbreak Wonderland being most notable. His music does have a certain fantastical element behind it. Something very civilized, yet not quite grounded in reality. Something well suited for, say, a Ghibli compilation like Kira Kira Gibri, Nausicaa Requiem and Kimiwo Nosete, which he does, in fact, appear on (along with the similarly fantastical De De Mouse.)
In a live setting Maeda sometimes plays solo, other times with a larger band. His solo performances seem a little boring to watch, as he just sits next to some gear, playing along on the guitar. With a larger band the songs find a bit more life. Yet Meada's work seems best consumed in the album format, in a quiet setting with either some nice headphones or in a suitably dimly lit room. Whatever the venue, his music is sure to inspire otherworldly visions of greener pastures.
Sometimes the best way for an established and accomplished artist to expand out into new territory is simply to use different tools, or to use old tools in completly new ways. Painting with a non-dominant hand, working in a completely new media, or, in the case of Six String Sonics, The, reinventing the wheel. Or, in this case, the guitar.
The project of evil genius Gil Kuno, Six String Sonics, The is as much an equipment demo in motion as it is a group of musicians. Kuno had the idea of breaking apart the standard guitar into six individual stings. Each of Kuno's unique instruments is a single string, mounted just like a regular guitar sting, on a thin metal body. Instead of one person being in control of all six strings, Kuno instead employs six people to play one string each. This gives them the rather herculean task of both playing together while playing apart. The sounds and chords created are like nothing and single player could attempt, let alone imagine. It's a dizzying blend of single, chirpy notes, backed by a drum machine and a two man bass.
Oh yeah, even the bass is treated in a new way. It's giant, needing two people to play. One, at the bottom, plucks the strings and the other, up above, frets the notes.
To top it all off, the players are often arranged in odd ways. One in case, all nine musicians are mounted on a giant metal frame, three to a side, with the bass players and drummer in the front. Kuno also runs a unique video feed over the performance, and sometimes dancers are also used to add yet another layer of chaos over the already frenetic mix.
While the live performances are a blitz of sound, their single mini-album is a bit more refined and listenable. While it lacks the total randomness of the live version, it still retains some flashes of pure alien-jams. Where it works best is when the band is working very closely to make something more like a regular song. Then it really does push the bounds of regular guitar sounds and feels more like a proper attempt at something new and not just a big mess of notes.
Obviously, Six String Sonics, The are very much and art-house project and not something you'll be seeing very often. While they do show signs of greatness, it's really just a chance for people to get together and make some noise and call it art,and really, that's not so bad.
Members: Gil Kuno (Unsound, Wiggle) Ken Takehisa (Kirihito, Group) Sasaki Hisashi (ex Jam Jack, ex Ruins) Ishikawa (Group) Tetsuro (Volume Dealers, ex UG Man) Murochin (Abnormals, Wiggle, Wrench) Eiichiro (ex Hellchild, Wiggle) Isobe (Abnormals) Numata (NLK) Matsui (D.M.B.Q.) cba (ex Surfers of Romantica) Takada Masako (Nisennenmondai) Skank (Nibrol, ex Seagull Screaming KHKH) Fujii (Music from the Mars) Sakamoto (Wrench) Ninomiya (Eastern Youth) Tani (ex UG Man) Nori (ex Nukey Pikes, Nightmare) Keisuke (Charm) Kyo (ex Garlic Boys)
Tight. Tight. Tight! Of the many things one can say about the band 54-71, "tight" has to be first and foremost. Ostensibly a stripped-down rap group, they are in fact a full band. Not to mention a tremendously powerful one. Sure, they might not be huge and thundering with their amps turn up to "meltdown," but they nevertheless pack one hell of a punch.
First off, the rhythm section. Well, the entire band, including vocalist Shingo Sato, is the rhythm section. Together the play in absolutely perfect lock-step. Stripped down with zero frills added to the production, every creek and pop is brought to the front, leaving no room for error. Think a slow-motion Melt Banana. As funky as they are tight, the band grooves hard and long while Sato screams his angry diatribes over the top of it all. Without his scratchy and nearly incomprehensible delivery, 54-71 might be mistaken for a much softer, almost lounge outfit. The music isn't what brings the pain, it's the vocals, for as tight and precise as the band is, they are also smooth and almost mellow. The pounding kick-drum throws off any chance for a relaxing evening, but otherwise there's little to offend in the instrumental department.
In fact, just about every song throughout the band's long discography (they've been playing since 1997) sound very much alike. 54-71 is not about innovation or evolution. That's probably the point, as albums are often structured to blend together from song to song. From one jazzy phrase to the next, the songs flow as smooth as the vibes. The tension is high and the landscapes sparse and grim throughout, with only the very rare Primus-like upbeat track here and there. For the most part, it's kick, snare, bass and a jangly, clean channel guitar with an equally dry and raw vocal track. Over and over, like a fist returning to a face.
The band has, unsurprisingly, won universal appeal, playing gigs with America's Deehoof and Battles. They even recorded their 2008 album I'm Not Fine Thank You, and You? in Chicago with none other than studio great Steve Albini.
Albums: 54-71 (1997) 54-71 (2000) Untitled (2000) Reprise (2001) Enclorox (2002) True Men of Non-Doing (2003) All Songs Composed & Performed by 54-71 (2004) 54-71 (EP, 2006) I’m Not Fine, Thank You. And You? (2008)
800 Cherries are a Shibuya-kei style duo made up of singer Manami Marufuji and producer Masayuki Takahashi. They started out in 1995 with an acoustic folk sound on the mini-album Manamidemonade, comprised of simple songs made up of effected acoustic guitars and Manami's incredibly tiny, breathy voice. While this basic approach would stick around through their career, it gradually developed into more electronic territory as the progressed.
Their first full album Piccolo is full of the sort of bedroom 4-track experimentalism one might expect. There are swirling organs, spaced out backing tracks and some shaky vocal performances. The chorused guitar remains in most of them, liking all the songs together into one unified sound. The songs are almost psychedelic in parts, blissed-out and very soft. Their second, self titled album showed very little progression over the intervening two years, being more of a continuation of Piccolo than a new album.
Their real break-out was with 1998's Romantico. This album even made it over to America for a brief time and is therefore their most popular, and rightfully so. While there are still plenty of examples of their original, slightly hesitant early days, there are almost more confident tracks with stronger production. They also stretch out a little with a few electro instrumentals and more fully fleshed pop tunes. They never really let loose and rock out or anything, but they do ramp up the volume a bit here and there. They also mange a few transcendent moments with the softly beautiful "Frozen" and their re-working of "Everybody Knows," original found on Piccolo.
This was followed up with their fifth release Opuscula in 2000. This is more of a mix of instrumental and a cappella, with Manami simply humming and "doot doo doot"-ing along to the atmospheric music. It's till twinkles and shines, but there is very little to hang on to and is a strange way for the band to exit the stage. After that, the band seems to have vanished from the face of the Earth.
While not quite as well produced as Takako Minekawa or as arty as Gutevolk, 800 Cherries walks along the same lines with songs that are cute and innocent with no real point other than to be cute and innocent. There's a warm, nostalgic glow around it all and there are a few really nice gems to be found.
If there ever was a band that lived up to its name, it would be Mutyumu. A "crazy dream" is probably the best description for their music. A crazy dream full of fire, statuesque figures, impressionistic operas, delicate ballet performances, leering demon faces...the images are as diverse as the instrumentation and song structure. At one moment you'll be treated to very soft piano and violin melodies, only to be bashed over the head with a massive heavy metal dirge the next. Similarly, the vocal treatments range from almost inaudible whispers to angelic female falsettos to guttural male bellowing.
The work of Mutyumu is extremely artistic and symphonic, yet not overly so. They never stray into straight-up new age territory, while also staying clear of schlocky death metal. Simply put, it's goth in the very best sense of the word. Mature and very sophisticated, classically dark, they never go the easy route of over-the-top style over substance, instead doing the reverse. Avoiding slathering on the gloom, they strip things down to few elements, developing them into minimal symphonies. They even have a few regular rock songs that wouldn't be out of place on a Bauhaus or Buck-Tick album.
Their raspy strings and twinkling pianos along with other synthetic sounds set them apart as something more than your average band that just gets on stage and rocks out. They have extended atmospheric sections that either lighten or darken the mood, like either the sun or the moon rising over a secluded pond. A bit like Matyoshka or Sigur Ros with their trance-like crescendos, they seem to find their most beautiful moments when they're either their most calm and repetitive, or their most loud and soaring. Case in point, the incredible "祈り," ("Prayer") which builds to ridiculous heights over ten minutes.
Having been formed in 2002, they are still a bit young, yet their solid sound and production really hit the ground running with their first self-titled album in 2006. Their 2008 follow-up Ilya cranks up the number of full-band rock outs and death-metal blasts. It's much less subtle and atmospheric, aiming more for the gut with a clearer guitar/drums/bass/vocals format and less of a focus on the strings and piano, though they are both still very much a part of the equation. (Again, refer to "祈り" above.)
Whatever your poison, be it classical strings and high society, or ancient demon metal and flaming pagan rituals, you'll find much to sink your teeth into with Mutyumu's twisted dream-scapes.
Taking a quick look at his influences, everything from Lizst to Brahms to Morricone to Venetian Snares to Audry Hepburn to YMCK and then taking into account that he's currently signed to Japan's massive Avex label after only a few years in operation, one begins to get an image of the very unique artist that is De De Mouse (aka Daisuke Endo). Indeed, the music that this one-man electro symphony creates is at once very musical and complex, yet extremely childish and innocent, bright and catchy.
While firmly planted in the cyber-soil of today's modern music making software and techniques, something about De De Mouse's '70 and '80 throwbacks make his music seem almost outside of our time. While nothing like Boards of Canada's muzzy, kaleidoscopic walks down memory lane, Endo does seem to be traveling in the same direction. From his excellent (not to mention colorful) album covers featuring young kids dancing with animals in dreamlike landscapes, to his signature use of cut-up falsetto lyrics in a beguiling non-language, the elements of his songs all work to create an idyllic world. Others have described his lyrics as "vocoded," but they aren't. They are actually more along the lines of those found in some of Nobukazu Takemura's work, or that of the popular Vocaloid software that spawned the omnipresent Hatsune Miku. They are totally synthetic, generated, cut up and manipulated through pitch bending software. This is yet another layer of twinkling magic added to the already thick and gauzy blanket of shimmering sounds.
While rather repetitive, the songs do slowly evolve, though not very far. They bounce along on their punchy-yet-pleasing beats, never glitchy or broken in any way (though Endo's first album is a bit more abrasive.) The clockwork synths run from one chord to the next, shifting the entire songs along with them in a rather robotic, auto-harp fashion. The vocals are more like a child singing their own traditional tribal anthems than actual words.
De De Mouse manages to ride that fine line between totally self indulgent trainspotting synth programmers and overly processed dance-pop idols. It's definitely art-house stuff, but its presentation and flat out jubilant, wide eyed innocence makes it instantly accessible to anyone looking for a quick shot of pure bliss.
Matryoshka is a somber, ethereal duo consisting of programmer Sen and vocalist Calu. They seem to be very heavily influenced by other precious bands like Mum and Sigur Ros. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they found a resonance with fans in the Netherlands who helped bring them to the attention of the powers the be.
While the dark, washed out chords and gradually building piano lines might at first conjure up echos of the Icelandic shoegaze super group, Matryoshka does have their own style. (Although, having said that, "My Funeral Rehearsal" is almost note-for-note Sigur Ros fodder.) First off, being a duo with (apparently) a single, largely electronic music producer, their sound pallet is certainly different. Where Sigur Ros is solidly grounded in real-world instruments, Matryoshka instead beings a host of both frigidly cold soundscapes and more heavily processed glitches. Most songs are a mix of muffled beats and the aforementioned pianos and stings with various vocal twitters and sonic trickery. Others are a bit more experimental, like "Viridian," an exercise in massive synths and little else, something that wouldn't be entirely out of place buried deep on a Nine Inch Nails album.
That's not to say they are stark and lifeless however. Quite the opposite. Calu's melancholic and angelic singing style brings an almost Dead Can Dance feel to some songs, most notably the absolutely amazing "Evening Gleam Between Clouds." She sings in both a whispery falsetto and a lower, more mature register. It's almost as if two people inhabit her voice from one song to the next. Much like their Russian name (nesting dolls) and Polish album title Zatracenie ("doom"), the vocals also jump between languages, from Japanese to English, though with the ghostly presentation it's often tough to tell the difference.
While they do at times show signs of still being a rather young band (they formed in 2006) with limited resources ("Tyrant's Miniature Garden" is a fantastic song marred by synthetic strings and drums) they definitely have a very unique style that's ripe for many years of harvest yet to come. In fact they already have a second album in the works. You can listen to and download almost all of their songs directly from their official website, something else rather unique.
Adachi Tomomi is an avant-garde/experimental artist who uses his voice along with a few electronics and self-made instruments to create his art. Like many other experimental/noise artists (see: Merzbow) Tomomi uses homemade sound generators to produce his unique brand of sounds. Unlike many of them, Tomomi also uses his voice to generate the signal. This is then filtered through a hodge-podge of gizmos that turn it into otherworldly sounds. These include wearable devices like shirts and gloves as well as very small kits made out of Tupperware that have bits of raw wire sticking out that can be “played” by touch. He's made several art gallery installations featuring a variety of his strange yet playful sound generating toys.
1997 saw his first performance as Adachi Tomomi Royal Chorus, formed with a few other non-musicians and non-traditional musicians. It truly is a chorus, using nothing other than their voices as instruments. As Tomomi explains it, there is no actual harmony or set musical pitch to the pieces. The members simply play off of the natural tones of the other performers. At first listen it might seem like a chaotic swirl of staccato "ah" and "nu" types of utterances, but eventually words and patterns form out of the stuttering rhythms. The styles range from angry and frenetic to soothing and almost playful. From a round of rapid-fire screams and shouts (think "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" in hell) to soft, eerie passages fit for only the most terrifying of survival horror video-games. If Fantomas and Rockepella got into a fight, this would be its soundtrack.
Adachi Tomomi Royal Chorus has released two full-length albums. Their first, nu (2001) is a collection of songs written by Tomomi and several other members of the chorus. With 2003's YO Tomomoi took over all the writing duties as well as production. The album even caught the attention of avant-garde godfather John Zorn who was involved as executive producer. The albums are extremely stark yet very organic, which shouldn't be surprising considering the free-form vocal approach. From the warm undertones to the ear piercing high end stabs, the songs range from calm burbling streams to violent vocal firestorms. Certainly not something you'd want playing in the background of your next high society dinner-party, but maybe useful in chasing away those unwanted door-to-door salesman.
About a week ago I received a comment here on the A-Z. It was from Mike McGuire, one half of the electro group On An Ocean Amp. He was surprised and happy to see his band on the blog. After all, OAOA isn't exactly your mainstream major label outfit. In return, he sent me their second album We Are Now Growing Fast. Behold! The power of the internet!
Sadly, it turns out that their second album never found a home. Doubly sad because it shows a marked improvement in the band's songwriting, a transition to more traditional song structure than their self titled debut. On An Ocean Amp is more a study in sound and textures than a traditional lyrics based album. It's mostly made up of Mike's precision cut & paste beats and granular sonic glitches, with only hints at singer Kaori Hashimoto's vocals. We Are Now Growing Fast is much more user friendly while still retaining, and in fact amplifying, Mike's attention to the teeny tiny sonic details.
From the ultra swank opening "Intro - OAOA Spacelines" we are slammed face first into the pounding "Brachioplatypus." It's a short battle, fought with SNES and Genesis controllers, but it quickly sets the mood of the album. Think it's going to be all soothing synth beds and whispery voices? Think again brutha!
"Orange Beam" takes a page directly out of The Plastics and Hikashu play books. Kaori switches into robot mode, delivering her monotone syllables over the stoic beats and basslines, while clockwork twitters and buzzes fill in the corners. "Kokoro Koro Koro," one of the album's stand out tracks (which you can here on this episode of Japanator Radio), breathes life back into the music box. A scratchy gramophone background hisses out a memory of some distant heartbreak, with the flubbering beat rolling things along. A forlorn toy keyboard melody taps out some distant communication over light-years of phone lines.
Kaori adopts a more traditional tone on "Akai Haibisukasu," chirping and keening in a high drone while a shamisen is cut to pieces underneath. The cut-up continues into "Sai Kai,"an excellent Autechre-esque glitch track that stays well away from traditional glitch pit-falls. Namely, it actually has a melody, though the stuttering pots and pans certainly try and prove otherwise.
"Talaria" drops the stuttery glitch entirely and moves into a sort of spaced-out new-wave direction, with a funky, jerky groove. "Interlude" is indeed an extremely peppy break half-way into the album. It's the soundtrack of robot cats chasing robot mice, only to find the robot mice are legion and have large robot dogs under their control. Then they all laugh it off and relax by the pool.
"New Clicky" is probably the album's crowning achievement. It's a slow burn while the pin-prick beats tumble over a solid kick that carries the song along. Kaori adds to the tension with her own soft yet urgent delivery, which all builds into a straight-forward dance track near the end. The tiny blips and bleeps turn it into a whirling synth pop gem.
"Pink DSP" is an orchestral hip-hop cut up, with its tightly looping bits and buzzing, obliterated vocals. "Flight of the Goldfish" again dips into 8-bit territory, mostly pounding away with a soft retro NES blurb bopping away in the background. "Natsu ga Kita" is another relentless song full of stuttering and jumping clips, but tempered with soft synths and blissed out vocals.
"Sure Chigai" is a slinky-as-hell deep house track with some beautiful vocoded vocals over classic techno beats. It would be perfect on any ambient collection from the mid-90s, and I mean that in the best way possible. "nl5" ends the album with a trip into a wash of reverb, finally awakening from some happy dream, the trip on OAOA Spacelines complete.
It's a bit sad to see such a great album lost to the ether. Luckily Mike was kind enough to make it available to the world through the internet. You can grab it here. You can also buy their first album here. Make sure to let Mike know what you think!
"I'm probably going out on a limb here, but from my vantage point, this is not only the most brilliant of all of contemporary Japanese bands, but perhaps the greatest group currently operating in the world." -Alternative Press
Yes.
Well OK, best band in the world might be pushing it a bit, but if you're grading based on intensity, musicality, prowess and sheer weight of sound, then Koenjihyakkei is definitely one of the best bands out there.
If Fantomas, Ex-Girl, John Zorn and Godzilla were all battling at the end of the world, than you might get close to the sound of Koenjihyakkei. They are first and foremost an avant-garde, progressive, jazz/rock/choir fusion band. There isn't a straight time signature to be found for miles, and the concept of verses and choruses have been thrown right out the window. Instead, Koenjihyakkei focus on an ever evolving wall of voices and massive drums, conjuring up the aforementioned epic space battles on the edge of an erupting volcano. The most distinguishing features have to be the operatic vocals sung by just about everyone in the band. In that respect they are a lot like Adachi Tomomi Royal Chorus, only with a furious band full of synths, bass and drums behind them.
The official genre-fication of Koenjihyakkei is called zeuhl. While Wikipedia has a full explanation, it's summed up simply (in my opinion) as intense prog-rock with made up words. Drummer, vocalist and founder Yoshida Tatsuya is part of another zeuhl band called Ruins, which gets its major influence in the ur zeuhl band, Magma.
While the following videos are awesome, they don't compare to the utter heaviness of the albums.
Just in case you haven't noticed those shiny, candy-like buttons over there on the right, ZB's A-Z is affiliated with Japanator.com. In fact that's where this blog was born, in a way. I'm a writer and editor for Japanator, and obviously I focus on Japanese music. Make sure to check out the site every day for much more music news as well as anime, manga, culture and everything else Japan related.
I'm also the host of Japanator Radio, a weekly podcast featuring all genres of music from Japan. I try and dig up the bands that you might not normally hear from, much like this blog. In a way, Japanator Radio is the audio version of ZB's A-Z of J-Music. It should go without saying, but if you like the blog, then you'll like the show.
Right now, there are a few ways to get the show. The best way is to just add Japantor to your RSS feeds. There's a new Japanator Radio every Monday morning (U.S. central time.) You can also bypass the rest of the site and add just the Japantor Radio RSS feed. Finally, you can visit the Japantor forums and look for a new post in the Japantor Radio forum. We are also looking into getting the show in iTunes, so I'll let you know when that is finalized as well.
I'm currently working on show number twelve, so if you haven't checked it out yet, then you have a lot of great new music to catch up on! Here's a link to all the previous posts.
J-Pop and J-Rock are only the beginning. The modern Japanese music scene is just as vibrant and varied as any other music scene in the world. I'm Zac Bentz, writer, musician, designer and all around Japanese music fanatic. Here I hope to share with you a comprehensive (!!) list of Japanese artists and bands (with a strong focus on underground and indie acts) that you may or may not have heard of, in the hopes of expanding our mutual awareness of Japanese music.
I don't mean to suggest that everything I listen to is great. Quite the contrary, I hope that you will take the time to recommend your own favorite artists in the comments so that we can all learn a bit more about the huge range of Japanese music that's out there.
"The best Japanese music blog in the world." - Door Slam "Definitely a must-visit for J-pop and J-rock fans!" -The Otaku "Zac Bentz loves music. A lot." -Japanator "Very cool!" -J-ENT "...one of the foremost blogs and information centers on all J-pop and J-rock...the top source for tour information on Japanese bands in the US..." -YankeeOtaku "Wer mehr darüber wissen will, der sollte sich mal hier umschauen, ein sehr gutes J-Music Blog übrigens." -CommandSheep "...very well-written, and there’s an excellent range of artists...a useful resource." -International Wota "не плохая энциклопедия японских исполнителей/групп" -Diary.ru "Great resource for Japanese music fans who want to explore today's J-rhythms beyond Johnny's Entertainment bishonen music and anime music. XD" -Kaishi "If you are a J-Rock fan, [ZB's A-Z] is a must see." -Crunchyroll community "Otaku USA magazine finally got wise and hired Zac Bentz as a J-music contributing editor."-Radicalpatriot "Reviews practically every Asian band that has ever created a recording."- Zallie "Gewährt spannende Einblicke in die japanische Musikszene." -Laut.de
