Ready for another Japanese invasion? If Part I of After the J-Pop didn’t provide enough music for you dollar, then Part II is likely to satisfy your thirsts. Hey, last time I checked The Silent Ballet was a free read, so I don’t think you can really complain, right?
This edition rocks the house with five new bands who are ready to play ball on your team. I’d say about one and a half of them could be considered your traditional “post-rock” band, leaving a healthy mix of sounds for your ears. If you aren’t already acquainted with Natsumen, Anoice, Euphoria, Green Milk From the Planet Orange, or Pochakaite Malko prepare to watch that all change before your very own eyes...
Natsumen
Website: Natsumen
Music: Natsumen
Natsumen is Japan's answer to Norway's high-energy, jazzy instrumental rock via Jaga Jazzist and Samuel Jackson Five. This octet features two guitarists, a drummer, a trumpet player, two saxophone players, a keyboard player, and one guy manning the bass guitar. Those enjoying the minimalistic side of things should stray from Natsumen, because the band's sound is full and it isn't afraid to knock out a few windows. Never Wear Out Your Summer XXX! is another example of the perfect relationship between blistering rock and uncompromising creativity and improvisation, calling upon a symphony of sounds and techniques to make this album an unforgettable experience. Instead of navigating through perilous landscapes filled with mountains and valleys, Natsumen opts for a more three-dimensional approach, letting the jazz influence be the band's guide to non-linear compositions. The album feeds off the band's live energy and starts with the one-two punch of "Newsummerboy" and "Atami Free Zone" which both feature a focused storm of chaos and intensity. Keys glide perfectly into the spatial holes created by the drums, and the two more than adequately create a foot-stomping percussion section. Meanwhile, the brass section tangos with the guitars, sometimes playing it very cool and collected, and other times erupting into a sheer wall of sound. Jazz wasn't invented to wake up the neighbors, but increasingly we are shown that it is able to do so with little effort. Never Wear Out Your Summer XXX! is the newest addition to that list, but it certainly won't be the last.
Although the band undoubtedly carves its own niche in the music world, Natsumen should be agreeable to fans of Jaga Jazzist, These Monsters, and Samuel Jackson Five. If you're only going to add one Japanese band to your collection this year, it should be Natsumen. The band excels with a musical talent similar to Mono or World's End Girlfriend, yet at the same time it covers entirely different ground in the Japanese music scene. An album this refreshing does not come along every year, so jump at the opportunity to let Natsumen into your ears.
Anoice
Website: Anoice
Music: Anoice
The much talked about Japanese sextet, Anoice, finally released its debut album RemmingsImportant Records. The band immediately draws a comparison to World's End Girlfriend, both in vision and sound -- classically supported songs with dark, haunting passages and a knack for disorienting the listener through jarring transitions. Ultimately I think it's fair to say that some listeners will quickly take to Anoice and love the musical adventure the band creates, whereas others will declare the album trite and worthless. You'd expect a band with six members to get loud and out of control (see Natsumen), but Anoice does entirely the opposite. The band’s elegance and restraint could easily be confused as the performance of one or two members, but three? four?...six! you must be kidding me. I can only imagine that some of the members spend a lot of time looking uncomfortable on stage as the rest craft the soundtrack-esque album for the audience. The thirty-five minute ride is a short experience, and even then it concentrates of four core songs and five untitled segues. However, there is really not much to find fault with in Remmings -- every move is intricately planned and executed, and the album flows together flawlessly, much as you'd might expect from Sigur Ros or Godspeed You! Black Emperor. "Liange" dazzles with beauty and elegance, "Aspirin Music" tortures and haunts, "Kyoto" mesmerizes and hypnotizes, and "The Three Days Blow" releases that cathartic tension that you knew was just hiding somewhere (it was close though--they almost made it through the entire album). By the conclusion of the album the listen simply craves more. I can only fault the album on it’s short span; added substance would make this album one for the history books.
In the end, the only objections to Remmings should regard personal preferences, not the band's skill or talent. Remmings is enchanting, emotional, and elegant--something that not many albums can claim to be. The band's beauty is not only aesthetically pleasing, but it also moves the listener in a forceful way much like Mono or Explosions in the Sky but without the physical support. This may be Anoice's claim to fame, and in time we'll see if the world applauds them on this skill or leaves them in the dust.
Euphoria
Website: Euphoria
Music: Myspace
It was a great surprise to me that a band with the name Euphoria would make music as mellow and collected as it does. The trio spends a lot of time building up a shimmering structure via ambiance, loops, and sparse vocals. It's the kind of music that you'd expect a California band to make--something light and fluffy with just enough variety to keep the listener awake. Eternal Gift From the Moment, the band's 2005 album follows exactly this line of thinking. Even the songs that do get a bit more adventurous, such as "Fairytale Landscape," "Ferriswheel (In a Morning Mist)," and "Seabed Curtain" with their scorching climax, barely scratch the surface, but instead simply apply strategically placed force on the sonic foundations. That's not really a fair assessment, for Euphoria does have some very cathartic passages, following the post-rock dogma, but when its all said and done you can't help but feel like the journey was much more important than the end result–something that is not always true for instrumental bands. The album has a good resonant feel, often indulging in the warm embrace of its own echoes and letting the effects drive the rhythm of the song. Songs like "Moment," "Spring Cycling" and "Happiness" are the highlights of the album for me, showing the band's softer, more melodic side. It's not that the rougher side isn't good or appreciated, just that we've seen bands harness the raw energy time and again, and Euphoria simply isn't putting any new ideas into the mix. However, when the band plays it safe, it's quite a marvelous site.
To try to sum of Euphoria's sound, it's a mix of Miaou, Below the Sea, and The Album Leaf infused with the likes of Caspian, Mogwai, or This Will Destroy You. Then, slowly wear away the rough edges until it's a shiny mirrored surface. Euphoria does well for itself by combining two schools of thought in Eternal Gift From the Moment, but there's till room for the band to hone this sound into a more precise audible experience. In the future we may see a bigger brighter Euphoria. Until then, live for the moment.
Green Milk From the Planet Orange
Website: Green Milk From the Planet Orange
Music: Myspace
The name doesn't have to make sense, trust me on this one. Green Milk is decidedly Japan's quintessential new-age stoner rock band. Didn't think Japan could have a progressive rock band that could hold its own to America or Europe's well known bands? Think again. Think even better -- think a progressive rock band infused with a needle filled with "fun juice," then add some topless girls, a beach full of LSD, and let the games begin...City Calls Revolution takes no effort to hide the fact that Green Milk will be jamming out for most of the album. The first track clocks in at twenty minutes, and the last track almost tips the forty minute mark. The two in between are nothing to scoff at either, both breaching seven minutes. You can expect pretty much all the standard things from City Calls Revolution--long exaggerated instrumental moments, spastic vocals, and even the occasionally break down into surfer rock (I kid you not). A bit of dub even gets thrown into the mix for good measure. What does all this result in? Some really great moments, that's what. It might be kind of a pain to go through looking these moments (especially for those who aren't jam fans), but City Calls Revolution is littered with some dazzling musicianship. "Demagog" is pretty much one of those moments, extended for eight minutes, so there's a lot to devour in that single track. The rest take a bit of time to digest, but when the going gets tough, the tough drink Green Milk From the Planet Orange.
As far as bands like Green Milk From the Planet Orange go, I can never be quite sure how serious to take the music. Jam bands often present very raw, scattered ideas that normally don’t hold up to intense scrutiny. Green Milk seem to have bypassed that problem in City Calls Revolution by implementing enough variation to keep the listener content the entire listen.
Pochakaite Malko
Website: Pochakaite Malko
Music: All Music
Pochakaite Malko make music for the end of the world. This shouldn't be confused for "apocalyptic" sounding music, but rather music that sounds broken and fractured beyond all repair. The band successfully incorporates avant-garde thinking into the instrumental genre, putting it alongside bands such as Tarantula AD and Miasma and the Carousel of Headless Horsemen. There is a bit of everything in the band's sophomore album Laya. Be it folk, progressive rock, classical, jazz, or hardcore, Pochakaite Malko lets it all loose. For a visual aid, imagine yourself in a circus at the end of the world surrounded by skeletons, only these skeletons have flowers blooming from their eye holes and drinking lemonade. Maybe that puts you somewhere near the sound of Laya, but inevitably it's a difficult task to sit down and pinpoint what exactly the band has set in mind for its artistic endeavors, for ultimately the trick is to juxtapose the different genres on top of each other--jazzy percussion with a folky string overlay, progressive guitars with classical string overlay, Piano with shredding guitars, you get the idea... Ultimately Laya challenges you, the listener. It challenges you not to write it off as another one of those "artsy" albums, but to really sit down and try to understand why things are the way they are. Unlike many bands I've come across Pochakaite Malko isn't a band that's strange for strangeness sake, but instead has a story to impart on its listener (think Tarantula AD's Book of Sand), and this is the cohesion that ties the album together. Several listens later the listener’s mind feels like it’s been in a blender for hours.
Listeners who fancy themselves a fan of the more oddball musicians will surely love Pochakaite Malko and openly add them to the collection of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Kayo Dot, and the various works of Mike Patton. Those who like their music a bit more motivated may find Pochakaite Malko a bit hard to swallow and will likely take offense to the raw chaos of the band's music. I can't claim that Laya is an easy listen, but it is something any music lover should claim familiarity with for sake of rounding out the obscure corners of one's musical knowledge.
~Jordan Volz