Community Trust - Is It Contradiction, A Mistake Or Necessity? [2006]

Community Trust is sort of like post-Japanese metalcore. That's the only real way I can describe them. They definitely have a strong State Craft influence, but they take it to a really innovative melodic place that sets them apart from all the other State Craft clones. This album was released from the now-defunct Hong Kong label, God's Child Music. Towards the end, the label started going strictly metalcore, but this was released during their days of focusing more on screamo stuff (ie. Nitro Mega Prayer, Mihai Edrisch). It totally fits, but also doesn't. It's pretty much impossible to talk about Community Trust without talking in oxymorons.

What I can say is that Community Trust is really great. Their whole sound scratches all sorts of itches. Brutal parts, purely melodic and beautiful parts, technical stuff, breakdowns, weird time signatures, etc. They pretty much cover everything and do it amazingly well. The video I found below was kind of disappointing, but to be expected. The album has such a rich sound, I would imagine it would be rougher live. So, don't let the video below dissuade you by its roughness. After listening to the album, the video makes more sense.

Community Trust - Is It Contradiction, A Mistake Or Necessity?

1. Untitled

2. Battlefield Without Glory

3. The Snow Which Fell On That Sunny Day

4. You Stand On Hand

5. Just After The Rain, The Start In New Life

6. Four Seasons

7. Trust & Strong

8. The Diamnds

9. Dilemma

Fragments - Let It Go [2006]

Fragments is sort of a super-group, but not what you would expect from any of the members. Spalding, from Minoritybluesband, fronts the band on guitar and vocals. Aki, from Forgetmenot, Off-End, Conception, Impulse Records, plays drums. Both of those guys are playing slightly different styles, but for Fragments they don't really meet in the middle. Instead they play folk-ish indie rock that reminds me of a less country Chamberlain. This is really, really laid back stuff; it has a definite calming effect.

They released a full album on Impulse Records, but have since quit playing. Spalding is in What-A-Nights now, and Aki continues to play in one thousand bands (exaggerating). Check this out for something a little different from some scene legends!

Buy it Here!

Fragments - Let It Go

1. Undecided

2. Motherly Sea

3. Some Jingle Jangle Morning (Originally By Mary Lou Lord)

Bo!Rock→1 - Self-Titled [2006]

The end to a weird week, me off my schedule, the releases not the usual screamo/emo that you've come to expect. Well, let's end it weirdly then. Here's Bo!Rock→1 (pronounced Borokichi) with their self-titled CD, one I got blind from a trade with Satire Records. No date on the CD, but I think I got it around 2006.

I'm not sure the best way to describe this, because it's not really in my sphere of musical knowledge. I guess I would call it garage rock? Descriptions on other sites say its like Iggy Pop or The Stooges. I never listened to either, so I'll just have to agree with those references. It's messy, noisy, loud, and fun. Vocals are screamed, everything played with a purposeful sloppiness.

Surprisingly, they're still together and rocking pretty hard. Here's a video of them from two months ago playing the first track on this album, Masturbation:

Bo!Rock→1 - Self-Titled

1. マスターベーション

2. LOVE STOMP

3. フリフリ99'

4. 百人町GOTTA STOMP

5. プラス・ド・ライヴァー

6. P.S.

7. ブロイラー

8. ロッカン・ド・ロール

9. サグルソウル

10. GETTO JET MILK

11. 東京SEX

12. クロイチョウ

13. DEATH GO!

14. ドーナッツ

15. 33rpm

16. ラリラリブギウギ

KiLLi - Obituary to a Mystery

So, there's this band called KiLLi. Yes, the name is only one letter away from another band you may know, Killie, but they're not related. This band was from Yokohama, and sadly they've only left remnants of themselves strewn across the internet. They've peaked my interest enough, with their classic Japanese screamo sound, that I think they warrant a post on here.

All the time,nobody understanding. 

Thanks to everyone who support our movement.

 This message, posted on their website as they announced their break up, is some sort of sad goodbye. 'No one gets us, so we're giving up' it says in so many words. That seems to be the fate of so many bands playing music true to their heart, doing something that might not fit the current trend in music culture.

But who was KiLLi? Here's what I know (just the facts, ma'am). They broke up in 2006. They released a CD with 4 songs called A GIFT FROM INSOMNIAC which is sold out, a tape with 2 songs, and a split CD with Wet the Bed, with the two songs embedded below. The members from the band went on to play in ANTI-WRECKERS, Reach Up To The Universe, Sequence Pulse, 氷水. They were active in Yokohama. They split up because their Bassist was going to stop playing music.

Let's be honest. Leaving two songs on a purevolume is a harsh tease. Listening to them, the sound is a melding of 2000-era Japanese screamo and forward-thinking rock. If this band had more exposure, they could easily be really successful. Instead, they disappeared into obscurity. I tweeted awhile back, asking if anybody had any information, but never got any leads. So, I'm writing this. Maybe someone will respond, or maybe this will end up being the band's late obituary.  Either way, you owe it to yourself to check these guys out.

IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION ABOUT THIS BAND, PLEASE COMMENT BELOW!

Members:

HIROSHI NAKAJIMA(Vo/Gu)

AI SUZUKI(Ba/Vo)

KEITA MORISAWA(Dr/Vo)

Toshihiro Chiba(Gu)

Website

PureVolume Site

VA - Here Comes The Bottom Line... Vol. 2 [2006]

Ah, number two. This was some time after the first (around two years) and had a different focus than the previous one. Although the theme of Impulse Records' Here Comes the Bottom Line... seems to really just be about getting great Japanese bands together, each one seems to have a stylistic focus too. The first was a sort of melodic hardcore/screamo/emo mash-up. This one is more about noisy bands and emo bands. You've got the expansive and sneaky Bright and Dark Side next to the wild and chaotic Fountain of Rich Aroma. There's even a solid noise track with 斜陽 (sorry, won't bother translating it). The tying thread, like the first, is that this is the Japanese underground. Aki doesn't collect every band in this series. He would be almost to the hundreds by now. What he does try to capture is the spirit, the ethics of what makes the underground unique. Sometimes its just personal. Most, if not all of these bands have played shows with all the others. They probably know most of the members by name. Styles aside, this is a cohesive scene. And maybe that's the theme of each, he looks at one scene. I'm not sure if many of these bands have played shows with Mule or Minoritybluesband, from the first compilation, so maybe that's it. 


I can see this as also a sort of level setting, to define what makes these bands different. As an outsider to Japan, I don't normally play the scene card. I tend to evaluate bands based purely on their sound, not caring who they play with or what label they're on. And not that those things matter, necessarily, but I think they're indicative of the character and ethics of said band. There's a specific scenario that outlines this point perfectly. Zankyo Records is a slightly prolific label in Japan that releases music in the emo, and sometimes screamo, genres. If you listened to folio and, say, 3nd or The Cabs, you can see a lot of similarities. But, those bands would rarely, if ever, play together in Japan. The reason being, I can only ascertain from what I can see, is that folio is an indie or DIY band, and The Cabs are hoping to "make it big." After the success of 9mm Parabellum Bullet, who were on Zankyo before signing to Sony, it seems that becoming popular while playing indie music with screaming is a real possibility. This is really about the sound of music separated from the reasons that sound was developed. In some ways, that is also the problem with the internet spreading DIY music. Most of the time only the music is communicated, separated from the context that music was created in.


So, these compilations, while not explicitly communicating a message in their packaging, are about the DIY culture and what it means. If so, then it's really some sort of allegorical biography of Aki himself, because the dude embodies what is great about this culture. Playing in about 10 bands, being a focal point and supporter of the DIY scene. His most recent Impulse Fest is a perfect example of his commitment to the scene outside of a specific genre. Do yourself a favor and get into Impulse Records.


This compilation is still available a few places, but hey(!), you can pick it up in the States from me, so DO IT!
http://www.meatcube.com/product_info.php?products_id=293 
And listen at the link below.


For comparison. Folio:

and The Cabs:

Here Comes The Bottom Line... Vol. 2 Compilation

1. Shoutmoskva - Missing? or Nothing?

2. Fountain of Rich Aroma - A View

3. Bright And Dark Side - Mirror

4. Same Place Empty - Consciousness That Was Let Loose

5. Paluka - 荒唐無稽

6. デラシネ - Business For Your Music 10,000,000

7. 斜陽 - 無題

8. Alan Smithee - Stalker

9. 33/45 - 連鎖、共鳴シ続ケル鐘

10. Test Mustard Disco - Irresponsibility

11. R3-N7 - クソッタレ

"Doors" - Revival Sleep / Sora / Forget Me Not / Folio split [2006]

I first traded with Impulse Records back in 2005, right when the label was just getting started. That was my first introduction to Forget Me Not and the label. We kept trading, as they kept putting out really amazing stuff. Impulse is located in Shikoku, a place far off the radar from the prominent Tokyo scene, but they were releasing stuff easily as good as anything else going on in Japan.

When Aki told me he was going to release this, I knew it would be gold. I'd played a show with Sora during my month with Gauge Means Nothing and had worn their demo out already. Adding new songs from Forget Me Not, and it didn't even matter if the other two bands were garbage or not.

What I got once I did the trade was one of the nicest splits ever to come out of Japan. Seriously every band on this thing is top notch and each scratch a different itch. Revival Sleep has since disbanded (can't find much info on them), but the other three bands have gone on to have pretty amazing careers so far.

There's not much else to say about this, except that it's marvelous. Do yourself a favor and listen to this, if you haven't already, because you will thank me later. Here's a vid of Forget Me Not:

Doors 4-Way Split

1. Revival Sleep - SUN

2. Revival Sleep - Short Film

3. Sora - 無色の景色

4. Sora - 小さな手

5. forget me not - 君の顔に映す

6. forget me not - 眼と手と手と眼

7. Folio - One of the Tenderness

8. Folio - Proof

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）

Mynameis... - Tokyo Plastic [2006]

Like a bright morning, cracking your eyes to the clean, clear sunlight streaming in your bedroom windows. All around is a delicate silence welcoming you into consciousness. This day will be different, it will be good. Your mind isn't groggy and confused, like waking up in darkness tends to feel. This is waking with purpose and clarity. This is how mynameis makes me feel.

The album opens with a beautiful intro perfectly fitting a bright morning. Once the music comes in, it refreshes you in a completely different way. Nothing is what you would expect from a Japanese screamo band. Yes, there are the intensely good melodies. Yes, there is that bombastic dynamism that is present in the best. But mynameis is cut from a completely different cloth. The first difference you'll notice is the tinge of the melodies is towards optimism and hopefulness instead of depression and melancholy. The next difference that you'll notice is the passionately sung, not screamed, vocals that further that optimistic sound. They're shouting, almost begging, to the music gods to be something more than another band. And with those two center pieces, mynameis creates a sound that is all their own.

I got this in a package with some other CDs (Note, Bed, some others), and even though everything I got was extremely great stuff, this CD was my favorite. Even to this day, I will listen to this several times a month, simply because there's no other band that plays quite like they do. Similarities to more recent Sora songs could be made, but while Sora has forgone passionate intensity for dynamic breadth, mynameis has both. There's not much to say about this album beyond it being one of the best things out of Japan in the past ten years, in my opinion.

The band is still together. The last update on their website in September 2011 says they are writing new songs. I can't wait to see what they come out with next. Some of the members are playing in a band called heliotrope, which has put out an EP on the same label as this album (I'm pretty sure someone in the band is running it).

This still is available at a few places in Japan, so if you like it, buy it!

Buy at Senseless Records

Mynameis... - 東京プラスチック

1. ...

2. 君に見た夢

3. 忘れた手袋　(再々録)

4. どうせ今日も同じ一日

5. カーテン

6. 言いたいことはそれだけ

7. イントロ

Note - I Left a Note For My Friend Who Was Out [2006]

This is one of those mystery CD's. I got it sometime between 2006 (the release date) and now, but can't quite trace back when I got it. It was probably something I ordered from Oto Records. Whenever we would do trades, I would always try and grab some extra things that I hadn't heard before. In some ways, it's surprising that I even got this. Most english speakers would agree (or maybe I'm just standing here by myself), the band name and title of this ep are both stupid. Note? Really? It's like naming your band 'Red' or 'shoulder.' It's meaningless and not that cool sounding. I'm sure they just wanted four letters to sound like envy, and the long ep name which is also meaningless and stupid just supports that assertion. But, for some reason I thought this might be worth listening to.

Well, it's definitely worth listening to. It's totally great and exactly what I like. "All the footprints..."-era envy is like my favorite thing ever, so whenever there's a band riffing on that stuff, I definitely want a part of it. Note plays it intense and melodic and leaves the post-rock at home. They do enough different things that the music is interesting and fun, but always stays close to that epic screamo sound. There are seven songs here with dumb names like 'milkstand.' I'm sorry, it seems like I'm just insulting this band for their bad choices of english names, but it almost seems like a joke to me. Milkstand? Really?

I'm not sure what their current status is. Their myspace hasn't been logged into in 3 years and the site listed on this CD doesn't exist anymore. Their name makes them positively un-googleable, so I don't know any other way to find information on them. I think it's safe to say they are gone from this earth; in other bands or salarymen by now.

Note - I Left a Note For My Friend Who Was Out

1. Tone

2. Filament

3. Milkstand

4. Summer

5. Chord

6. Pier

7. Arigatou

NOT II BELIKESOMEONE - Tragic Orchestra [2006]

There are quite a few metalcore bands in Japan. The success of State Craft and western bands like Converge have made it a staple in the Japanese music diet. The problem is with the quality of these bands. More often than not, they are sad copies of better bands, and are quickly forgotten. I think one of the main reasons is that most focus so much on what could be called crowd participation. I'm talking about a focus on how people will interact with the music, often putting too much of a focus on breakdowns or heavy parts. This might be fun in the moment, but the lasting appeal of that type of band is nonexistent. The best bands balance originality and familiarity to make something that is fun to listen to, but also deep enough to stand the test of time.

I'd like to present NOT II BELIKESOMEONE as such a band, balancing crowd-pleasing rhythmic parts with original riffing and beautiful parts. Their goal from the beginning was always to make something new, which is always a good place to start. This is their first actual EP after a demo in 2003, and they have that perfect balance of originality and familiarity. They build off a base of State Craft and Hopesfall, but add other parts that could come from Envy or Snapcase (I'm reaching here). They really do have their own sound.

You get 4 songs and one instrumental here. If you like this, I do still have copies in my distro, which you can buy. Otherwise, it's sold out everywhere else I looked. Enjoy!

BUY HERE!

NOT II BELIKESOMEONE - Tragic Orchestra

1. Broken Tact

2. The Mirror Shaped of Knowledge

3. Beneath the Sky that Seems to Come Falling at the Moment

4. Puzzle of Hope

5. Irreplaceable

Unripe - Demo [2006]

Something I picked up from Oto Records a while ago. Unripe was new at the time, but since then they've released a split with The Cops Are Inside Us and another with Midnight Parade. To add to their releases, it seems their sound has changed quite a bit. The video below has a much more rocking screamo sound. Their demo is way more post-rock.

I don't know much about the band. One interesting thing is that they're from Okinawa, which is way the fuck down South of Japan. Honestly, I'm not sure how these guys travel to other towns when they play shows. They would have to either take a ferry or fly, because there's no way that there are bridges to Kyushu.

So yeah, the sound is very clean and post-rocky, and at points it gets crazy and screamy. It's not totally end of the world epic, like envy. It reminds me more of 3cm tour if they had 9 minute long songs. It's good stuff, and even though I don't care for long songs, these are pretty good.

Unripe - Demo
1. A Faint Sound of Her Feelings
2. Resound Room

Dip Leg - No One is Hurt at a Place of Love [2006]

Ah... Dip Leg. This is another band that means so, so much to me. I put so much into releasing their first album here in the States, and it failed so horribly. No, really, I've still got about 300-400 copies of the CD (if anybody wants any: meatcube.com). But, that doesn't change the fact that they are positively amazing and totally underrated. These are the last 5 songs they recorded before essentially breaking up (they said indefinite hiatus, and that was about 5 years ago). Truly a legendary band.

When I went to Japan in 2003, everyone told me about Dip Leg. I'd only heard about them on the internet, but everyone was raving about how great they were. One of their biggest "disciples" was Minoru, of Satire Records. He was planning to release their album, and let me hear the early recordings. I was totally hooked, the sounds were delicious to my ears. They had all the best parts of what was happening in Japanese screamo, but played it so cleanly and perfectly that it was just a pleasure to listen. When GMN went down to play some shows in Okayama (their hometown) and Kyoto with them, I immediately professed my love and devotion and asked if they'd let me release their album as well. It took almost another year before I could find the funds (aka. convince myself to put the CD pressing on a credit card (which is not a good idea)) and get the album out, but I wouldn't change anything for the world. Dip Leg rules, and y'all drool. There.

Here's the extra video that came on this CD:

Dip Leg - No One is Hurt at a Place of Love

1. Balance

2. News

3. Aggression For This Half a Century

4. Changing Town

5. One of the 6.4 Billion Pens