Oh look! It's a Japanese band with a really simple name! Surprise surprise. I really can't wait to move to Japan so I can start a band. I was think of naming it "Is." Well, there might be some copyright infringement thing with Was, but surely past tense and present tense is different enough, right?
Anyways, Bed was another random order from a few years ago. I didn't know anything about the band, but was just grabbing anything unheard from Oto Records' distro. What a frickin find this was. With such a simple name, you don't always expect the most, but bed delivers on so many subtle levels. It could be argued that there aren't many world-class emo bands in Japan. Toe comes to mind immediately, maybe Malegoat. I would say that Bluebeard's pronunciation is too bad and Curve's voice too whiny to stand up next to their counterparts. But Bed is certainly on that level.
Here they offer their first three songs, full of smooth, jazzy emo. You can tell Karate is a big influence, by the jazziness and rhythmic quality of the music. But beyond that, there is just such a nice cohesiveness to the music. Nothing is jarring or sounds out of place. Even when the band gets slightly heavy, it still just feels so right.
I haven't cared much for Bed's output after this. It isn't bad, but it just doesn't approach how amazing and out-of-nowhere this EP was. Maybe I'm just super picky and only want bands to record short outputs and then break up and be completely unheard. Yeah, I think I'm just a sadistic bastard after all...
Forms of Talk is a new band out of Tokyo, 2/3 non-Japanese (or gaijin). They run in the same circles in Tokyo as From Ten To Nine, Asthenia, and Document Not Found. Two weeks ago they released their first cassette, but also had the foresight to put it up on bandcamp as well, which is great for us that don't live over there. You can even name your own price!
I don't have a lot of background in this sort of dissonant, post-punk stuff, so I had John from The Song of Delight help me out. I'm just going to paste our conversation:
John:
its a very 90s emotive hardcore vibe for me, Shotmaker or something like that
honestly getting a huge Ambassador 990 vibe
So there you have it, folks. 90s emotive hardcore. It pretty much hits the nail on the head, I think. It reminded me a lot of Union of Snakes, just as my most recent reference. It's good and has a fat recording. It's seems like the band's only been together for a few months now, so I'm excited to see what they do next. If this sounds like something you're interested in, you should definitely check it out.
[I wrote this at the bus stop, so sorry if I ramble]
Four bucks, four songs. An easy transaction, like an Internet drug deal. Itunes, amazon, pick your poison. Toe's newest ep is as accessible as their first ep was inaccessible, the difference of a decade changing more than just their sound. Maybe it's some sort of consolation prize that they released their first ep on all those new-fangled stores at the same time. What can be said for sure is that ten years later Toe is calmer, but they still have that spark that makes them one of a kind.
Let's talk history. I think I loved Toe before I'd even heard them. They were just a mention on the catune website when I emailed them about a show they had scheduled in kyoto that fall. Had I heard a sample off their debut ep? Maybe. Still, I was curious and subsequently disappointed when they told me the show was canceled. I was only in Japan for four months and the only show that would come close to me had slipped through my fingers. Still, I hunted down their ep and found it, probably in a Tower Records or HMV. The sharply designed yet nostalgic art set the stage for the best instrumental CD I would hear for the next ten years. Everything about it was a calling, a major raising of the bar that would stand the test of time. Was I hooked? Holy shit yes.
I kept listening through a compilation, album, and another ep, but they lost me on For Long Tomorrow. Something about it just seemed lost in between two worlds. There was Toe-the-former, purveyor of mad instrumental skills and drumming that dropped my jaw (literally. When I saw those videos from their RGBDVD and watched that drummer's hands move, my mouth hung open for about 2.3 minutes). Then there was Toe-the-middle (which only exists because there is a different Toe-the-present now), who seemed unsure about how to proceed now that they'd hit indie darling status. They seemed more focused on doing vocal cameos than crafting sharp, other-worldly instrumental tunes. So I tuned out and forgot about Toe, thinking they were done.
Well, four bucks is a damn fine selling point, like I said. When I see something I'm curious about and the price is right, my impulsive side always gets the better of me. So, seconds later, my bank account four dollars lighter, I started listening to the new Toe ep.
There's this perception in my mind of what Toe should be. I demand certain things from my Toe and get pissed when those aren't fulfilled. I want absolutely perfect production. It may seem shallow, but I want my shit sparklingly clear. Second, I need some guitar riffs that are so sharp I can cut my teeth on them. And they need to be something that I could never realistically expect to play myself. Yes, I want guitar work that is so good it's unrealistic. Third, the drumming doesn't have to be insane, but it also has to be perfect. I don't need to describe perfect anymore. In some ways, if you really notice the drums, then they aren't perfect. I'm not saying that they should disappear in the background, but with perfect drums, everything should become one big gooey glob of perfection. Finally, and this is true with every instrumental band, the songs should speak to me, without words. That means the song needs direction and purpose. I don't just listen to your music because I've got nothing better to do. I could always just go and listen to that new Big Freedia collection. Instead, Toe puts direction in these songs and paints these moods with each song. 4 songs, 4 distinct moods in each. And, as I'm sure you gathered, they also deliver on all my other pre-requisites with this new EP.
So, the future is now, apparently. Is this what we can expect from Toe moving forward? Certainly, although I wonder if this will feel as good when it's a full album. Four songs is the perfect space to explore themes and paint a picture of exactly what your band is capable of. 10 years later, Toe is proving they are still the masters of the instrumental rock medium, and all others should cower at the example they've set.
Pick the new Toe EP up at iTunes or Amazon. If you want a physical copy you can easily get them overseas from CDJapan or YesAsia, although it will cost you quite a bit more than 4 bucks then, and that makes my review irrelevant (:-().
I picked this demo up recently, and totally enjoyed the epic, metal-influenced screamo hardcore mashup. It's really hard to describe wombscape in words other than that. At each part of their songs, they're playing a different style than the previous part. It all comes together over the length of their two songs on this demo. It kind of reminds me of this old band Womb, which is, y'know, part of this band's name. Kinda weird.
I think the model setup here is totally ingenious. I've often struggled with a way to get Japanese demos available outside of Japan. Usually bands are selling them for 200-300 yen (around 3 bucks), which is hardly even worth the shipping over here. If I were to try and get them wholesale, the band would essentially have to give them to me for free for me to sell them at a reasonable cost. Web-based distribution, like Bandcamp, for demos makes more sense in order to get your music out to people who aren't able to come to your shows.
With that being said, you can grab this demo for 2 bucks American, which is a steal. One of the songs is listenable on bandcamp, but the other only comes with a purchase. The second song is a lot longer than the first, at around 9 minutes, so you're getting a chunk of music. And actually, the second song is a lot more epic and post rock-ish, with a little later-Deftones-like vocals, which I am 100% behind. Pick this up, it's a nice view of a Japanese band doing something a little different.
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!
Another week has passed. Now here's Friday where I post something I really, really, really love.
Infro has been playing for years, but this is their first album. 7 songs of emotional, fun, hardcore punk stuff. For fans of 1000 travels of Jawaharlal or Turbostaat. If you haven't heard of them yet, you're a nut, so please download this now. Anyways, back to playing video games. Have a good weekend!
Midnight Parade has definitely been making the rounds. They've released stuff on Say Hello to Never Records, Further Platonix, even showing up on the Love the Fate compilation. So, they've definitely been busy and all, but I have none of these and had never heard them before. So, on top of my normal pleasure at finding a Japanese band with uploaded songs on bandcamp, I finally get to hear a band that has been on all those distro pages for so long.
The songs available on bandcamp are scattered, only one is off a release I could find available. Still, there's 3 studio tracks and 2 live tracks, and you can get a good sense of their sound. They have a bit of a Toe influence with the instrumentation, a little 3cm tour in some of the songs, and something else that I can't think of. Each song is plenty long and goes through lots of different moods before their epic endings. My favorite song of the three is 8cm先の憂鬱, which has a more aggressive tone than the others, and definitely reminds me of 3cm tour, or maybe Birth.
Check them out, and get their releases if you can. Now I have to add them to my list of stuff to buy in those intermittent orders to Japanese distros. Man, wouldn't it be great if there was a distro in the US that was trying to bring over Japanese stuff...
I have to say though, this video below, which was one made for the release of the unripe split, is so frickin' boring. These guys are just standing around, only playing their instruments. No emotion guys? Oh well, the music's good, so that's fine, I guess.
I'm not going to embed all these songs (they're all listed separately), so you can just visit the link below:
