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）

[Bandcamp] Tetola93 - split with Visyaaa [2012]

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!

Tetola93 - split with Visyaaa 

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

[Bandcamp] Redskins - Trial By Stone EP [2011]

Their bandcamp introduces them best, so here it is in their own words:

"The redskins are an ambient black metal band from Tokyo, Japan.
In Tokyo, on March 12th 2011, three friends entered a rehearsal studio as a means to distract themselves from the previous day's tragic events. Over the following weeks all the fear, anger and loss that was experienced during the disaster was channelled into this project."


It's hard to follow that up. A band with a purpose reacting to a tragedy. Go ahead and hit play on the bandcamp player below. I think "fear, anger and loss" is exactly what I hear, wrapped up in a shell of ambient black-metal screamo doom. Despite the very rough recordings, the intensity and melodies appear behind a cloud of delay and noise. I think the likely comparison is to Wolves in the Throne Room, but they always bore me and their melodies are garbage. Redskins songs are much more concise and focused, lasting 4-5 minutes at the most, and there's real passion and humanity present in their sound.

Redskins guitarist is Jordan from The Black Line Fever. I spoke with him recently, and he said they should be making some new recordings soon. I can see the potential in these songs, and expect a lot of good things from the new ones. One of their early shows was played under a bridge in Tokyo. They were all shirtless with large upside down crosses painted on their chests. There's a photo album on their facebook page, with a very confused looking cop shutting down the show. Ah, would've been great to be there.

Check out the songs below and tell me what you think!

Redskins - Trial By Stone EP

1. Trial By Stone

2. Sleepless Tremors (live)

3. Santiago

4. Army of the Andes

[Bandcamp] Pastafasta - split with Swarrrm [2011]

I picked up the Pastafasta/Swarrrm split CD from CCJ Records for Swarrrm. I've been a huge fan of them since I grabbed their Swarrrm/Fugaku split CD back in 2002. In 2003 I even bough a shirt of theirs from Allman, which I still wear to this day. They've done amazing work as the band evolved from Against Again to Nise Kyuseishu Domo to Black Bong, their sound becoming more and more unique and inventive. But when I got this CD, I almost forgot all about Swarrrm because of Pastafasta's tracks.

Pastafasta is a three-piece from Tokyo with a horrible name. Maybe you like it, but to me, it doesn't sound like a band I would want to listen to. Their sound, though, is completely different. They play raging hardcore thrash that reminds me of The Futures, Youth Enrage, and Exclaim. The best of Japanese hardcore with a wicked sense of humor. These songs just hit all the right notes with perfectly played drums, wild guitars, rumbling bass, and dual shrieking vocals.

It's not often that I'm surprised when I get CDs or records. I usually know what I'm buying. Pastafasta was the best kind of surprise, and now they've put their tracks up on Bandcamp for you to listen and buy. Check out the video below and the bandcamp link.

Pastafasta - split with Swarrrm

1. GET STONE GO MAD

2. 狂乱

3. PYRAMID CORPSE

4. UNDER MY DOMINATION

5. SUMMER ENDS SUN

[Bandcamp] Elica - 2 songs [2011]

I'm not an expert on DC-style hardcore. I only dabbled in Minor Threat and Bad Brains. I bought a Fugazi LP from Hot Topic. So, when I say I'm probably not the best person to write about this stuff, I'm just being honest. I'm not even sure I can say this is "DC-style hardcore" or "No Idea" style post-punk. When I listen to it, it reminds me of the times I've listened to that stuff. Unfortunately, those were few and far between.

What I can talk about is how they are fairly unique in the Japanese scene. They hint at the melodic post-hardcore of 1000travels and Infro, but try to stay dissonant through most of their songs. Some of the dissonance and shouted vocals remind me a lot of There Is A Light That Never Goes Out. And their general sound owes much to their label-mates, This Time We Will Not Promise And Forgive, whom they cover in another song on their bandcamp. There are probably more influences that I'm not aware of, and possibly even a solid scene that they fit into in Japan (Snuffy Smile Records or Imomushi perhaps?). But, they mostly play with Tokyo screamo bands, so that seems to be where their loyalty lies anyway.

There are two-songs from their new full-length on Bandcamp, which was released in Japan by Oto Records.  You can pick it up from Go Forward Keep Distro (among others). They are friendly to send around the world, so just send an email. Reading the description in the distro, I can see that I wasn't far off from my understanding of the music.

If it sounds like your thing, check it out!

Elica - two songs

1. letter

2. AM 1:00

[Bandcamp] Sete Star Sept - Gero Me [2011]

50 songs, an exercise in desensitization. In many ways, the cover above pretty much sums up Sete Star Sept (SSS) (they do say a picture is worth a thousand words). But, putting a Shintaro Kago drawing on your cover (and a wild one at that) takes some pretty big balls. Kago is on the forefront of the insane manga wave and to liken yourself to his stature means you're pretty much setting yourself up for failure. Luckily, though SSS pulls it together and blows your face off, just like this cover.

Two people and a wall-full of noise. Between two instruments and a voice, they make the grindiest, power-violentiest concoction around. Most two-pieces usually go for fast stuff, but SSS takes it to a whole new level. As this 50-song album can attest, songs will be as fast as they can humanly be played and as short as one second (take that Napalm Death!).

SSS is on tour in the West Coast USA starting this Friday. Below are the show dates, so make it out if you can, or just check them out on the MRR radio show on Friday:

April 27 (Friday): San Francisco, CA
     Maximum Rock and Roll Radio show http://radio.maximumrocknroll.com/
April 28 (Saturday): San Francisco, CA at Parkside
     w/Tragedy, Needles,Permanent Ruin, Stressors
     more info: http://theeparkside.com/event/39664
April 29 (Sunday): Portland, OR at Brickshit House
     w/Transient, Honduran, Worthless Eaters
     more info: https://www.facebook.com/events/407627449249490/
April 30 (Monday): Seattle, WA at Club M
     w/Same Sex Dictator, Sidetracked, Spirit Of Radio, Exogroth
     more info: https://www.facebook.com/events/159298387524190/
May 1 (Tuesday): Arcata, CA at Mex'N'Wow
May 2 (Wednesday): Bakersfield, CA at Munoz Gym
     w/Runamuck, Mobius Dick, Whore Scent
     more info: https://www.facebook.com/events/238768366221759/
May 3 (Thursday): Las Vegas, NV at Yayo Taco
     w/God's America a.k.a. The Seeds Of Rape, Nests, Vihan Rytmi
     more info: https://www.facebook.com/events/159906597464857/
May 4 (Friday): Los Angeles, CA at Rito's house
     w/Suffering Luna, deadissue
May 5 (Saturday): Concord, CA at Greenhouse
     w/Godstomper, Your Enemy, Queffer Sotherland, Striations

Their full-length from last year is available on bandcamp (and amazon and probably iTunes), and the whole thing can be streamed on the site:

Sete Star Sept - Gero Me

1. gero me

2. social insect 

3. all time low

4. schizop hrenia 

5. prayer prayer

6. absolute zero 

7. supporters of euthanasia

8. waiting room

9. endless path 

10. gas chamber executions

11. lethal injection

12. enshrining

13. forty minks

14. water parks

15. lush

16. me lush soft

17. lush end 

18. active immunity

19. u.f.o

20. suck a dummy

21. counter productive

22. scoliosis

23. bein a haze

24. shi talks silence

25. dust bowl

26. windswept

27. vamoose 

28. zip zag

29. mollusc 

30. playing craps

31. system of govemment

32. fill one's stomach

33. sensory aphasia

34. vocal apparatus

35. motion sickness

36. counterattack

37. press restraints

38. fairy forest

39. fuck1

40. fuck2

41. fuck3

42. fuck4

43. fuck5

44. fuck6

45. fuck7

46. fuck8

47. he needs a lesson

48. lesson charge

49. lseeo7

50. multiple personality

[Bandcamp Week!] Schedule for Week of 4/22/2012

Tetola93

Well, I said I wasn't going to do another theme week, but I wanted to catch up on the backlog of bandcamp posts I have to make. To add to it, Sete Star Sept will be doing a West Coast USA Tour, so I thought it would be a good time to profile them. The dates for their tour are April 27 - May 5th. They're basically landing in California, playing up to Seattle and then heading back down to California. So, check them out if they pass by!

In addition, Pastafasta has tracks up from their split with Swarrrm which totally blew my mind. And Tetola93 just upped most of their discography!! Those guys really impress me with some intense but epic screamo-violence, reminding me of Killie & Louise Cyphre in a knife fight.

So, this week should be fun! I'm excited! Are you excited?

Monday - Sete Star Sept - Gero Me [2011]
     - 2-piece power-violence, noise, grind unit. On tour in the USA this month!
Tuesday - Elica - self-titled [2011]
     - Post-hardcore influenced by No Idea bands.
Wednesday - Pastafasta - split with Swarrrm [2012]
     - 3-piece psychedelic thrash freak out band. Great running music!
Thursday - Redskins - self-titled [2011]
     - Ambient black metal ala Wolves in the Throne Room. Members of Black Line Fever.
Friday - Tetola93 - split with Visyaaa [2012]
     - Insane emo-violent screamo. These guys rip a-holes!