Where To Start: Japanese Screamo

     I've had several people mention that they don't really know where to start when getting into Japanese music. I can definitely see how, when faced with hundreds of awesome bands that are equally obscure, it can be a daunting task to get your feet wet. Hopefully I can help out with that, and I'm going to try to do a series of posts that basically aim to gracefully get you, the reader, into some of the best music you'll ever here. The first subject will be my favorite, Japanese Screamo.

     To check out more Screamo, you can browse using the screamo tag.

Please leave feedback on what you want to see with these. I'm sort of shooting in the dark as to what is the best way to help newcomers dive in.

Intro:

     Screamo (or Emotional Hardcore) came to Japan in the early 90's. There are early traces of Japanese people contributing and sending in stuff to Heart Attack magazine, and appearances by Sawpit on the label, Ebullition, and Bonescratch doing splits with foreign bands. The late 90's saw the Tokyo and Sapporo scenes both getting pretty busy. Tokyo had bands like Swipe, Envy, and Kulara; Sapporo had bands like Next Style, The Carnival of Dark-Split, and Black Film Dance. From there, screamo blossomed, spawning small scenes in nearly every large city in Japan. There have been countless bands over the past 20 or so years to play this awesome style, so let's dig in! These four groups represent the four pillars of Japanese screamo to me. Yes there are more! And I'm already sorry that I may or may not have included your favorite band. This is all just my opinion.

Starting Point - Envy:

     Envy is basically the glass through which the rest of the Japanese screamo scene should be view through. They began in 1992 and have had the same members for nearly their entire existence. Their style has been copied and modified countless times and nearly every Japanese screamo band has traces of envy in their sound.

What to listen to:

     Envy dropped their first proper album, From Here to Eternity, in 1998, and the Japanese scene has still not recovered. In my travels, it has consistently been the favorite envy album for most of the Japanese musicians I talk to. It's a very raw album, with gorgeous melodies and tons of passion.
     My favorite album and envy's masterpiece is All The Footprints... released in 2001. This was 11 of the most daring tracks to have ever played. Marvelous compositions, soaring melodies, crushing heaviness. It was everything envy hinted at, fully realized. THIS is what the scene really took from and built on. To me, this is the epitome of Japanese screamo.

Where to get it:

     Envy's catalogue is fairly easy to get. Temporary Residence Limited is there US label, and has re-released most of their back catalogue. MP3 versions are available through Spotify, Amazon, ITunes, and more. TRL just released a jaw-droppingly amazing boxed set of envy's entire recorded output, 14-LP's. It's a bit of an investment, but it will give you everything you need to understand and appreciate this important band.

What to watch:

     Envy @ Sendai Birdland (1998)
     Envy @ Shinjuku Anti-Knock (2002)
     Envy Transfovista DVD (2007)
     Envy @ Kaikoo Popwave Festival, Osaka (2013)

Next - Gauge Means Nothing:

     Gauge Means Nothing started playing in the late 90's. Their first EP came out in 2003, from their label and mine. They are the band that got me into releasing things and energized me to preach the Japanese music gospel. They broke up in 2005, and left behind an EP, split with My Precious, and a last song. They aren't for everyone, and you'll probably either love them or hate them. They take the Japanese screamo sound of envy, and add emo, metal, hardcore, and J-Pop. Their music is always emotional and passionate, and you can tell they are having a blast playing it.

What to listen to:

     Their first EP, The Absent Trail of an Echo..., (which this blog is named after), is the best place to start. There's five songs on there, totaling around 30 minutes of music. Their later stuff gets even more interesting, but there were some changes in songwriters and the personality is different. Check out this EP first.

Where to get it:

     So glad you asked! You can buy copies of The Absent Trail of an Echo... on CD at the MeatCube store.   You can listen to it on MeatCube's bandcamp page. And when you're ready to move on, you can also listen to their split with My Precious, although the CD is out of print.

What to watch:

     Gauge Means Nothing @ Tokyo (2003)
     Gauge Means Nothing - Right Hand PV
     Gauge Means Nothing @ Nishiogikubo Watts (2004)

Next - Killie:

     Killie started playing in the mid-2000's. They pretty much formed as a super group with members from 3cmtour, Cleaner, Anthropic Disease, Sora, and The Black Line Fever. Their image and brutal sound has made them gain popularity fairly quickly. They've released several splits, singles, and EPs to this point, and are working on their first album now. Their sound is based on envy's sound, but add lots of time changes, depressing melodies, and intensity ala Louise Cyphre or Orchid.

What to listen to:

     Killie's first EP, Want to Escape From the Underground..., is my favorite. It mixes their raw intensity with some amazing melodies. They've moved on to a more broad sound since then, but the brilliance of that EP overshadows their other stuff, for me. The next step is to check out their EP, After all, the opinion.... Two long songs on one side of an LP.

Where to get it:

     Unfortunately, nearly everything Killie has ever released is sold out. You can keep an eye on their Discogs page to see when people sell things second hand. Their 2xCD split with Off Minor is usually the first thing to show up. Otherwise, you can download almost their entire discography from this post here. Hopefully their upcoming album will have more copies produced and be distributed out a bit better.

What to watch:

     Killie @ Arayakushimae Studio LIFE (2005)
     Killie @ Tokyo (2007)
     Killie - Resurrection DVD (2008)
     Killie - Taipei, Taiwan (2013)

Next - Dip Leg:

     Dip Leg started playing in the early 2000's in Okayama, which is kind of in the middle of nowhere. They developed their own offshoot of screamo which built from envy's sound, and added angular guitars and deep, soulful grooves. Their album was the second thing I released, and they released another EP before splitting up. Their sound is very approachable, with warm melodies and perfect instrumentation. Their vocals are high-pitched and may take some getting used to, but meld well with the rest of the music.

What to listen to:

     Their debut album is classic Dip Leg, The Sympathy Without Love. It has 8 songs, and every one is a winner. The album is pretty much another Japanese screamo masterpiece, perfectly conceived and executed.

Where to get it:

     Their album is still available on CD at the MeatCube store. You can also listen to it here. Once you've consumed that, I also posted their followup EP here.

What to watch:

     Dip Leg Live (?)
     Dip Leg - Videos from EP (2006?)

Kulara - Fragmental Remembrance, A Switch of Resurrection, and My Hearing Vanished [2002]

Kulara is the best. As I've already written, I botched my chance to see them live. Luckily, there are some amazing videos of them online. This CD collects two of their EPs together. Essentially, it's the last recordings they ever made. There are some earlier things that are collected on their discography, but this is the Kulara stuff that I know the most. Enjoy!

Kulara - Fragmental Remembrance, A Switch of Resurrection, and My Hearing Vanished

1. Brown Knife

2. The Belt of Sleep Freeze

3. Two Suns Day

4. Your Own Gain

5. Fate

6. Machine and Me

7. Human Pattern

Fugüe / Overmars - Our Dreams Walking Their Way Chapter 3 [2003]

Not a lot of info exists on Fugüe. Even when this release was announced, I was kind of confused by the pick. You're doing a series, and your first two bands are envy and TIALTNGO. Who should you have on the next one? My picks would be nine days wonder, bluebeard, kulara, maybe black film dance or end all. But Fugüe? Who the fuck are they? I knew Overmars, and dug their debut album, but the Japanese pick on this was confusing.

On getting the release and listening, Fugüe is pretty good. They play a really noisy, stoner metal variant that fits nicely with Overmars' own epic doom. The bands are a surprisingly good match, and if the whole point of the series was to do something like: hardcore, emo, stoner doom, then I guess the whole thing makes sense. Still, I wish the series would've included the 1000travels/Aghast split that came out the next year. It would've been that cherry on top.

No videos I could find of Fugue. Here's one of Overmars. Have a good weekend!

Fugüe / Overmars - Our Dreams Walking Their Way Chapter 3

1. Overmars - I Take Degenerating Materials For My Knowledge

2. Overmars - Instrumental

3. Overmars - La Nuit Des Masques Et La Systématique De Ses Lendemains

4. Fugüe - Into The Soul

5. Fugüe - MISTRAL

6. Fugüe - Real Love

7. Fugüe - TRUTH

There is a Light That Never Goes Out / Vanilla - Our Dreams Walking Their Way Chapter 2 [2002]

Chapter 2, better than the first? It's hard to beat envy (for me), but these TIALTNGO songs are the best in their short history. They just perfected the sound they were going for at the last moment, it's a shame that they didn't keep going. What's disappointing is the Vanilla tracks. Their debut album on Salvation was quite good, but these songs are boring and fail to impress.

My only story of TIALTNGO is a sad one that goes with the Kulara one. I was at an envy show in Tokyo and sat in the green room, talking to people while both bands played. So pissed at myself, still.

TIALTNGO went on to form Z, who I never cared much for. A better band to reference is their pre-TIALTNGO band, Swipe, who were really good. Gahh.... I don't have anything else to say. Enjoy this shit!

Here's a great video from a reunion show in 2010:

There is a Light That Never Goes Out / Vanilla - Our Dreams Walking Their Way Chapter 2 [2002]

1. There is a Light That Never Goes Out - 枯れる

2. There is a Light That Never Goes Out - 非常事態

3. Vanilla - Body Fever

4. Vanilla - Heartbreak

5. Vanilla - Machine Man

Kulara - A Naked Landscape [2000]

I don't always make the best decisions, even though I've gotten better as I've matured. August of 2002, I was in Tokyo in the green room at Shinjuku Anti-Knock talking to Kensuke from Nine Days Wonder. In the main room, Kulara was playing. I'd never heard of them and somehow in my short-circuiting brain, I thought that meant I wouldn't like them/they weren't any good. I peeked out from the room a couple of times to see the vocalist pounding on some bongo drums, but that was it. Yes... I had the chance to see Kulara and instead stared warily at a drunk guy in the corner and chatted with a dude who would ignore my emails thereafter and order me to take his band's live videos off my Youtube channel. I'm a fucking idiot (or was... well, probably still am).

Somehow, when I saw this CD in a record store some time later, I had the foresight to pick it up. Packaging was the first to catch my eye, I'm sure. It's a (fairly) solid piece of cardboard perfectly cut to hold a CD in. It was shrinkwrapped, but I was in awe with how they'd put it together.

Once I got home, I was again surprised by the music. 2 songs, roughly 30 minutes (doing this from memory), but the song structure wasn't post-rock or anything. Kulara takes this chaotic song structure and stretches it over two long 10-15 minute songs. It's amazing. A multitude of instruments, riffs, dynamic structures are spread throughout. I even wrote a paper about this in my college music class (I tried to find it, cause it would be funny to post, but it was garbage anyways). Later I would get the collected CD from Waiting For An Angel, and kind of prefer their early songs better (due to my musical ADHD), but this release is really Kulara's masterpiece. The pinnacle of the structures they were trying to form.

Members went on to be in As Meias, Hununhum, and Z (I think Z, not 100% sure), and honestly none of those bands have matched up to the originality and perfection that was Kulara. Here is one of threepennie's legendary videos of the group:

Kulara - A Naked Landscape

1. Brown Knife

2. The Belt of Sleep Freeze

Sewi - Self-Titled [2006]

This week is going to be laid back for me. The weekend was busy so I didn't have much time to prepare. So, no schedule or themes, just some random shit I'll be throwing up here. If you haven't checked it yet, I started a forum attached to the site (link at the top). It's just a chill place to chat about Japanese music. Register and hang out!

I got this sewi demo from an Oto Records order. Honestly, this band/unit confuses the crap out of me. There are 8 songs on here, I'm not sure if it's a demo or self-titled release though. And just about every track sounds different, so it's hard to even figure out what's going on. To add to my confusion (seriously, it doesn't need any help), the last 6 tracks are listed as bonus tracks. Ugh, I give up. It's a CDr, there is some packaging. There, I've explained all the "meta" knowledge I have about this release.

As to what kind of music there is, I would put it in the screamo genre, but it stretches it a lot. In some ways, it really feels like Kulara, and how they took a pretty normal genre and just made it wild. Some of the songs can get into really great grooves where you could swear you were listening to some early Kulara or maybe Z. Some of the bonus tracks are a little more... emo, I guess. Look, I can't explain this shit. It's cool, original, and you might like it. So, here's a video and go download it.

Sewi - S/T

1. ザツヨンスル　（１部）

2. 意欲、右翼　（２部）

3. 相違　（ＳＥ）

4. 透明な先行　（１部、hanamauii ver）

5. dancefollower or clearvoice or non　（２部、sew or sewi）

6. expected back　（１部、siox ver）

7. 慟哭２　（sew、プリプロダクション）

8. 明るい朝　（２部、hanamauii）

VA - I've Come For Your Children Summer 2003 Sampler [2003]

Here's a little blast from the past. When I first started the I've Come For Your Children distro in 2003, I put together a sampler CD to give out to people (I'm not sure if I even gave them to anyone). It had a track from every release I was carrying at the time, which is on the inside with prices. It also included a track from the demo of my band at the time, The Baldwin Mass Suicide (of which Matt and I went on to form Cease Upon the Capitol, and Roy joined on Bass later).

VA - I've Come For Your Children Summer 2003 Sampler

1. Gauge Means Nothing - Right Hand

2. Envy - Color of Fetters

3. Torico - In the Air

4. Black Film Dance - Escape

5. Amanda Woodward - Pleine de Grace

6. Enforce - Kusari to Kaembin

7. The Jhai Alai - Wise Old Man

8. Iscariote - Moonbeam and the Dark

9. 324 - Quarter Moon

10. Kulara - Your Own Gain

11. The Baldwin Mass Suicide - First You Broke My Heart, Then You Broke the Hula Girl on My Dashboard Confessional

12. Vanilla - Body Fever

13. The Carnival of Dark-Split - New Normal

14. There is a Light That Never Goes Out - Hijou Jitai