Just a quick update

As you may have noticed, I haven't posted in a while. I'm not dead (at least I don't think so), so don't worry. Your Japanese music fix will continue shortly. I've gotten quite busy in my personal life and I'm clearing some things up before I come back to blogging.

In the meantime, you can check out this interview I did with Phil at Just Try Catching Up Myself blog, where they post about a lot of cool Japanese stuff. But, it's all in Russian! So, tread lightly.

Interview with me

[Bandcamp] T.C.L - Demo 2011 [2011]

Some damn good fast, loud hardcore here. Again, don't ask me for what this sounds like (my brain is fried and inoperable at the moment), but it's really well played, heavy as shit and totally great.

Okay, I'm back (took a week long break). So, this has a lot of the feeling from 324 or some other crusty grind bands. But, they never go quite into the grind and take it more to a NYHC kind of place. Like I said before, heavy and fast. Totally free download, so you're not losing anything from getting down to this.

T.C.L - Demo 2011

1. Burst & Rise

2. Start It Up

3. So Why?

4. Weapon

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

And Believe - Moment Never Fade [2007]

This week I'll be posting some more "hardcore" releases. This is one of the CDs I got when FC Five was doing their US tour a few years back. I guess the guy from Alliance Trax was one tour and brought some of his releases. I grabbed this and a couple others just because they were Japanese. And Believe plays old school, fast, youth crewish hardcore. I'm not sure the best comparison, but it's pretty good.

You can buy this here for really cheap: Buy NOW!

And Believe - Moment Never Fade

1. Daylight

2. Questions Behind

3. Moral Hazard

4. Blood, Sweat and Tears

5. In An Agony

6. Mine

7. After The Collapse

8. Flag Day

9. At The Front

10. Grayed

11. Alive To

12. Hundreds of Justice, Hundreds of Contradictions

13. Boiling Point

14. Between Insistence and Sentence

[Bandcamp] Saisa - 1st EP [2011]

Wow, this was a true find. Jacob from Keep It Together Records sent me these guys. He'll be releasing a tape from them soon, and its going to be great. Saisa have put their first EP up here for free download, and it is a gorgeous thing. When I saw "post-rock" in the description, I was expecting something boring, but Saisa creates some of the most beautiful and heavenly music I've ever heard. The most obvious comparison is Sigur Ros, due to the high vocals and guitar sounds, but the song structures are much more traditional post-rock. It's pretty refreshing and completely unexpected from a small Japanese band. I even hear some envy influences, but mainly envy's more laid-back instrumental stuff and their reverb-y telecaster guitar sounds.

This is just really, really good and you need to get these three songs immediately. I'll update again when KIT has the tape out!

Saisa - 1st EP

1. Faith In Ordinary

2. Little Light Way

3. Lycoris

Bonescratch - Diaglam [1996]

Here's an oldie but goodie from the frozen wasteland of Sapporo (actually, not sure how frozen it is cause I've never been. But it sounded cool, right?). This three-piece played throughout the 90's releasing several albums as well as splits with bands like Sawpit and In/Humanity. After they dissolved, members went on to form The Carnival of Dark-Split, Black Film Dance, and eventually Discotortion. So, there's some pretty heavy pedigree here. At some point, one of the members, Hiromichi Kanno, died somehow, which led to the breakup of The Carnival of Dark-Split. I never noticed before, but on the liner notes of the Black Film Dance/Carnival of Dark-Split split CD, they have a goodbye to him. Pretty sad stuff.

Anyways, Bonescratch plays 90's style emotional hardcore. Anybody into Ebullition bands of that day would totally be into this. If you're not, I'd still check out the video below, because these guys seriously ripped.

Bonescratch - Diaglam

1. Ego

2. Diaglam

3. Dust Space

4. 8:2

5. Something Call

6. French Toast

7. Large

8. Why Are You Here?

9. Good Rising

10. Scratch

11. Sleep in Black

12. Little My Eye

13. Nothing Case

14. Promise

[Bandcamp] Lop Abuse On Somebody - Sanctify / Toy [2012]

Wow. Lop Abuse On Somebody are from Osaka and play really aggressive instrumental rock. I hesitate to say post-rock, because that implies lots of delay and slow build ups (to me anyways). These guys don't waste time on their songs, getting to the good parts immediately and then pushing them all the way into explosive crescendos at just the right moments. God, just listening to the first minute of Toy is just so satisfying. Ah... okay. I'll stop now. Sanctify is more laid back and pretty Toe-ish, but so, so good. These guys just really know how to craft some great songs.

These are their first two singles and they're free to download, so go ahead and grab them! Here's a trailer for both:

Lop Abuse On Somebody - 2 Singles

1. Sanctify

2. Toy