Whew... what a week. I do get a little tired trying to write about bands everyday. I wasn't a journalism or writing major, so I usually have a limited vocabulary to write about music. I guess I've improved, but it's still tough. So, usually I schedule things on Friday that I'm really into. This ends the week on a good point for me and gives me some motivation to keep going through the week. At first I didn't do it on purpose, but now I try to bookend the week with two releases that are easier for me to write about (because I love them). This also lets me exercise some flexibility during the week and post stuff that I might not know that much about. I listen to a lot of different kind of stuff (right now I'm listening to the Persona 3 OST), and not all of it would fit on this site, but I try to cover almost everything in the Japanese underground (except maybe the noise/experimental scene. That's suicide trying to go after all that stuff). But, today is not that day. Today is about distilled Japanese screamo and Tetola93.
TO THE MUSIC!
Sometimes I dive directly into a band, sometimes I dip my toe in and slow go deeper. I first heard Tetola93 on the Phone/Tetola93/AO split. It was streaming on spotify, and I heard about it through phone (maybe I was looking at their myspace?). It was pretty immediate, they were amazing. But their myspace had very little information. I listened the the split songs several times, and then it slipped out of my memory.
Later, I was sharing some music with a friend, and they shared Tetola93's 3rd demo and an EP. That was when the love affair started, but still slowly. I listened to the songs and liked them, but they hadn't sunk in yet. I would listen through both releases together, the epic emo-violence washing over me, and it would be over before I knew it.
But then, they put up their bandcamp site. Have I mentioned how much I love bandcamp? Yeah, probably. I had watched a trailer of their upcoming split with Visyaa, and drooled a bit. So when I saw it on their bandcamp, I listened and listened and listened. I might've listened to those 5 tracks 10 times in the first day. It was wonderful, they were perfect. It reminded me of how I used to listen to Love Like... Electrocution's full-length. There would be these small parts in each one of the songs that would only last maybe 10 seconds, but they were perfect, so I would listen to some songs on repeat, just over and over. With Tetola93, it was the same thing. Each song had so many different feelings, emotions, and sounds that I would listen and re-listen. And I didn't get sick of the songs, I just kept finding new things in them.
You might listen and think Killie or Louise Cyphre. Maybe a mashup of the two. And I'd agree to a point, because there is definitely a similar song structure and dynamic range between all three bands. But where those bands stay pretty focused on a very narrow sound, Tetola93 opens it up just a bit and lets in some light. One of the most obvious expansions is the sung vocals that overlay a lot of the screaming. I admit, at first I didn't get it; I thought it sounded a little weird. But now I get it, and see how perfect it is and how much it changes the sound. Agh, just listen to OVID on the 3rd Demo at 0:20 and you'll see exactly what I mean. It's singing, but not how other bands do it. It's like this intense, desperate, begging singing, asking the screamo gods for mercy. It just adds so much to the music, and its something that if it was not in the music, it would sound completely different and not as perfect.
I don't know much about the band, so there's not much else to say. I really got chills when I watched the video I posted up above. Just the intensity in that video and how perfectly it matched to the music is pretty rare. I think there's something really special about this band.
On a good note, I'll be getting copies of this split and the Phone/Tetola93/AO split in my distro soon. Look for it!
1. Habit Was Tampered With
2. Take Away The Life There Is No Right
3. Meritocracy
4. Dying For One's Country
5. Sinks In Marsh
