"Old Japcore", the proverbial stuff of legend...anti-melody that so early on achieved it's nexus that many of today's rabid obscure world-hXc followers breathlessly exalt it's PINNACLE of fucking untouchability. I'm one who tends to agree (some of the time), because even when one of their EIGHTIES bands "lames out" (too much wank, or Japanglish blatantly more horrible than usual), the energy and playing ability is so tight that even THOSE "crap" bands are still elevated to merely "average" instead of blowing light dollops of steamy Tootsie Roll resemblin' dog shit (UGH, grossed myself out on my own hideous metaphor!). Now, my interest in Japcore has predominantly been with their oi-beat/braindrill-guitar "chaos-punk" bands, being an extension of my love for the genre's progenitors CHAOS
BUT FIRST (*laughs maniacally...GOTCHA!), before one can understand ye Olde Chaos-Japcore, one has to understand exactly what DISORDER and CHAOS
Secondly, there really aren't "just" two Japanese equivalents, one band in particular (GAI) seemed to take direct influence for a longer period (also throwing in CHAOTIC DISCHORD's retardation), but they all essentially filtered in and died/transformed at the same time ('81-'84). Some were more proto crasher crust (CONFUSE) than others, but essentially even with the flux of mid-90s (STILL Japanese!!!) homage bands (who were EQUALLY as SERIOUS) the fundamentals of the style remained unchanged. That's NOT to say they all "sound alike" as there's subtle nuances or obvious levels of recording quality (even their boombox stuff is sharp) that gives each band it's own character. So FINALLY...LET'S KICK IT WITH THE FRIGHTENING JAPCORE DISAS-TERROR!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ONE MORE THING (*HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!!): Since everybody bitches "the snobs always brag about this stuff, but WHERE do they find this shit!!!", I'll tell you...DON'T BE LAZY. Do a few internet searches (half the time the Japanese shops WILL sell to you and AREN'T necessarily super expensive, and YES some of this "ULTRA CULT" stuff does NOT take that long to hunt...sometimes), check ebay, go on SOULSEEK (you'd be SHOCKED how much of this shit is on there IN PERFECT QUALITY!), network in general with tape traders (believe it or not, Japunks DO want to trade with you regardless of a language barrier! 90% of the shit I'm gonna talk about I either got the actual record/demo/cd or an AWESOME sounding copy straight from a Japunk's courteous and giving hands...but ya GOTTA make it worth their TIME!!!). YOU DON'T HAVE TO LEAD A NOISE-FREE LIFE YO!!!
Bands (I promise now): GAI has become the better known band since a small re-release of their "Extermination" flexi (on CD) and demos (onto LP and CD) in '97, and quite a few bootlegs of varying combinations of their material. They had 2 known full demos (one with a variant cover) on their in-house tape label VIOLENT PARTY, which many tracks didn't make it to the LP/CD presses in '97. Top it off with another in-house compilation LP appearance and (BAM!!!) the band turns into the MUCH less political SWANKYS. This is where it gets confusing, I've had a couple Japanese sources tell me one band or the other (and to further live the chaos, there's a THIRD band incestuously involved called SIEG HEIL) started before the other back in '81, but I dunno if this was like a name crisis or like different members rotated through or WHAT (SWANKYS retained a bit of GAI's sound at first and didn't seem to have a striking change in members...and SIEG HEIL, well christ they sounded EXACTLY like GAI but with longer, almost discore-ish songs!!!!!! They only had 2 demos, both A-W-E-S-O-M-E). But chronologically GAI seems to have been properly documented first. Okay, their sound: Even on the "superior recording" (LOLOLOLOL!!!) of the flexi they were blown out as fuck. Songs seethe with an abnormal hatred of the conventional (even for punk!). Singer Watch/Swanky Boy (ANOTHER THING, these dudes were always changing their stage names, so nailing down exact members is almost impossible) approached his vocals from a charismatic perspective, even doing pre-grind pukes (but a majority of the time keeping them rabid and screechy) or totally tarding out like a person with VIOLENT Down Syndrome high on HELIUM!!! Shit's just fucking insane yo...ESPECIALLY the parts with SWANKYS where he tries to "sing", but fails HORRIBLY...and doesn't give a shit cuz it's ALL punk fuckin' RAWK!!!
By the time they turned into SWANKYS (carrying over a couple of GAI songs, some re-recorded) the band had cleaned up production dramatically (TRUST me, it'll still blow yer head open) and changed lyrical focus to partying all night, getting layed, etc etc. Easily 75% of this older material is anthemic and musically structured amazingly (still chaos-punk, but seemed to have a severely minimalized SEX PISTOLS arrogance creeping in). The band only kept the chaos approach for a 7" ("This Is My Lifestyle" '85) and LP ("Very Best Of Hero" also '85) before changing AGAIN into a much more technically precise garage punk band. They DID hint at that direction with a few poppier songs (still simple) on the early releases, and there was an additional flexi and another 7" that were ENTIRELY those hints (the flexi, called "Rock N Roll History Fuck Off" has gotta be one of the snottiest things I've ever heard). The COMPLETE change of sound though...is shocking, I won't lie...but it doesn't suck, is catchy (hey, I sing along yo) and the shit is a lot more u/g than fucking GREEN DAY. What gets me is Watch didn't really change his vokes much! Yeah there's more "singing"...but it's so fucking glaringly awful-beautiful still! For the chaos years though, everything that could EVER be summed up about the band can be found in just 3 of their songs, "Lifestyle", "Fundamental Human Light", and "Damaging Noise" (*wink)...in a word, EXQUISITE. All GAI/SWANKYS is easy to find on CD (sometimes still new!) in
Oh, scope out 2 OTHER bands (and who knows if they are member-linked to GAI/SWANKYS too, because as with SIEG HEIL they have a HELL of a lot of GAI's characteristics) that were supported by VIOLENT PARTY TAPES, these were GESS and NO CUT. Essentially GAI's sound/vocals but songs were arranged as a more Pabst-swilling straight punk vibe.
GASMASK/COWARD are the 2nd set of bands to be linked, and a hell of a lot easier for newbies to figure out the discography. CRUST WAR RECORDS released a discography LP of both bands a few years ago that fetches HORROR PRICES on Yankee ebay (I'm a junkie, I shelled out the horror prices again yo, but it WAS mint! Japanese ebay it only goes for like 30), but damn when shit's THIS high quality it won't be money missed (there's a great sounding tape bootleg of the LP out there at WWW.OVERHEADDISTRO.COM so DON'T STRESS!!!). Anyhoo, COWARD started first and are extremely evenly-tempoed CHAOS
OUTO can make you pogo as all fuck (starting in '84...think they lasted till early 90s???) noisenheimers! Their debut 7"s (they had 3 total and an LP) braindrill guitars are seering like COWARD's, but due to the ultra-reverb production very demoralizing and claustrophobic like yer getting napalm rained on ya (this is a GOOD thing). Drums and bass sound extra thick and gnarly in the mix. Band is surgically tight and pretty fast for 1-2-1-2-tumpa-tumpa-tumpa-tumpa. They got MAD ROCK over a fairly long period of time (it was like 2 years between every release)...but it was even more hXc than SWANKYS transformation and still retained the unadulterated chaos of their debut. They had a few comp tracks and videos though that I've ignored so that tells ya how much I think the first ep ("Many Question, Poison Answer") reigns supreme. They had phenomenal cartoony artwork/layouts half the time and in color too! There's a legit truncated discography cd from a few years ago that has the songs either out of order or missing a few tracks, but it's transfer is great and THAT ART is there again yo!
CONFUSE is probably best known to the world now (is there ANYTHING more classic looking than the "3 Punks" cover pic?), and out of all the bands here THE most ferociously alien (or ahead of their time...I don't even think ATROCIOUS MADNESS got very close and that's NOT being mean duders!). Band mistakenly gets compared to DISORDER a little too much (most likely due to Brian/DROPDEAD pushing that in an article in MRR from over 10 years ago), when everything from the vocals to drums are straight up fucking discore-thrash (or what's now called "Crasher Crust" made popular by GLOOM). They had one song in particular ("Hanger") that is pure DISORDER, but outside of upping the noise-factor to NUCLEAR levels (man it's borderline POWER-ELECTRONICS yo!!!) they were their own unique deal. The drums have always stood out the most for me. There's just tons and tons of fucked up fills (sometimes the toms are reversed in order! likes it's rolling "up") or breaks into odd time signatures. Listening to the snare alone on their '84 flexi's version of PEOPLE ARE NUCLEAR POISONING will make your head spin! Oh and the guitarist was like a noisecore virtuoso wringing SCREAMING notes and FUCKED UP psych effects from multiple pedals hooked up at once. So yeah, they had a great raw demo in '83, an equally intense flexi, an ep that sounded like lame outtakes from the demo ("Spending Loud Night"...it really sucks yo regardless of a GREAT uber drugged-out psych/space rock song), a few comp trax, something I'm forgetting (I'm not perfect), and a "metal" (I consider it "experimental") 12" called "Stupid LIfe" (it's a catchy album, the reverb is deep enough to drown in! reaaalll MEGA dark psyche!!!). There's been a really well recorded live show from '85 (where they were strict thrash, but they fuck with the songs slightly and the guitarist has a field day with effects!) floating around on SOULSEEK so SNAP THAT SHIT UP NIGGAZ!
I got the heavy players in this exact style out of the way (except STATE CHILDREN, whose lone flexi is BORING. Noisy and pre-crusty, yes...entertaining, NO. Or SHA LONDON, who I have yet to ever hear)...SO...ya wanna hear about "newer" chaos-punk bands??? LET'S FUCKIN' GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
COLLAPSE SOCIETY more than likely kicked this wave off with their '93 demo, though the pre-CHAOS CHANNEL band DONKEYS might have existed at the same time (I know GLOOM started around this time too, but I think they're overrated). But yeah, COLLAPSE SOCIETY kind of started with a HEAVY crusty dirge but copped the old guard's distortion INHUMANLY (even on the bass, which is REPULSIONized yo!). It's the bizarre, almost plodding tempo of the demo that works alongside the noise...The combination grinds along until there's nothing left of your SANITY, let alone hearing! Trax want to be standard-paced crustcore, but seem oddly slowed to a point of nearly falling apart (but the band's NOT sloppy!!!???). Their follow up ep is a lot tighter and faster (many demo songs made the cut), probably becomes standard discore...but it still has tons of apocalyptic energy and smarm (the lyrics REALLY get into it with their "Emperor" caste system!) so it gets my honest vote for a classic of it's/our time. Had a few comp appearances (I've noticed writing this entire article that RARELY do any of these new band's comp trax want to impress me!).
DONKEYS/CHAOS CHANNEL: NOBODY has any decent info on DONKEYS yo except for the CHAOS C.H. connection (and a NOISY demo!). This demo is fuckin' TITS gang! Perfect combo of SWANKYS/DISORDER chaos-thrash (and sometimes "punk"!) meets dis-dis-dis ATTACK! Many memorable songs that SHOULD be anthems of our times ("FUCK'N ALL WORLD!" LOLOLOLOLOL)...if it weren't for the HORRENDOUSLY LAME PRODUCTION. This shit's BEYOND boombox duders...it's fucking MUD. BUT, if you have a properly trained ear (and crank the volume) the trax ARE definable. Long ass demo (lotsa trax)! Total value for money! As CHAOS CHANNEL they were on the scene with an ep (and split demo with ADDICTION) about '95, "cleaned" things up slightly, went more discore (there's the old chaos-punk "rolling" feel on a couple trax), and forged a braindrill distortion that could blow open the very gates of HELL! A comp track or two then BOOM they go ULTRA SWANKYS (garage rock years, in fact the fake "live" audience during this 2nd ep is a direct nod to SWANKYS own fake "live" double CD) and rock the audience the fuck out with mega clean production. It's a good ep though. A decent sounding farewell live tape (playing trax throughout their career) with singer "Chatter" drunkenly fucking up incessantly ended things grandly.
DUST NOISE ('98) I hold way close to my heart...and apparently STAY the only one. I've been trying to break this band for YEARS and have met like 6 people worldwide who know the band...even in Japan (!). They have 3 demos (numbered weirdly, like their only live demo says "4th" on it, but I was assured by the band's friend they only have 3), 2 eps (200-300 pressed each), and supposedly some unreleased songs (I can attest to everything except this last rumor here). PURE fucking GAI/DISORDER (both of whom they cover!)...a little wooden/rough sounding, but DAMN those hate-filled songs and SQUIRTING weird-ass hollow production (it changes NOTICEABLY per release, but keeps that basic feel). I like the bass a lot...isn't distorted to shit or rumbly, but tinnily timples along (it's kinda cute, like a PUG!) with the drums. Vokills are PURE PISSED OFF POPEYE!!! I LOVE the layouts on all their shit...SWANKYS' stylized bullshit made-up fonts, DISORDER's crude drawings, and burnt-out pics of spiky crasher crusties (not too punk to ALSO LOVE LARM) making snide faces.
DISLIKE ('97) BLOW MY GOURD RIGHT OPEN YO!!! I am SO fucking in LOVE with this band! Their '97 ep is PHENOMENALLY chaotic!!! FAST (like OUTO's speed/debut ep's style) hyper oi-beat/DISORDER-tone guitar/spastic vocals. They slow it down like once and get you to 3rd-eye trance from the cosmically-contemplative "spacy" notes and EXCITING drum surprises (there's this little thingy they do that sounds like fucking woodpeckers???). Production's ace, band is surgically tight, every song RULES! They did a just as minimalist longer demo-ep in '99 that got slightly dissier, but kept it mostly chaotic and inventive (it's one of my fave demos by any band). The vocals changed here to a fucking head-exploding shriek that makes my OWN head hurt just listening to it! Production was good even on the demo and could have been released as a 12". Songs seem more gloomy or jaded in tone. Awesome, AWESOME band. EVERYBODY needs to hear this band (ALL these bands!!!).
SCREAMING NOISE is NOT related to DUST NOISE, but are even MORE DISORDERIFFIC. Had a slightly muddy and SUPER BASIC debut ep in '95-'96 (fashioned once again, as most of the bands have to varying degrees of success, as a fusion of GAI/DISORDER's graphics). Very catchy, but the songs will blow you away in how simple the notation/mono-beat is. Very first track "Born To Media" is a memorable as hell pub-punk delight. Things speed up just a hair throughout the rest of the songs. By 1997 a 2nd ep was released on CONFUSE's in-house label ANARCHY CENTRE and features a really sharp (nearly perfect) production. The band sounds even more comfortable/tight/faster within their sound and takes a few extra chances (that work well) to cop as much of DISORDER's snotty persona as possible. Braindrill is sharper, vocals screechier (lots of stolen Disorder-AAAAAAAAHs), it's a brilliant ep! They had 3 equally as intense comp trax but I only have those taped. Band broke up when singer had a kid (you can scope him in the INFERNO PUNX book).
DEFUSE: I don't mean to be a smartass and leave a short description, but as DEFUSE is the all-girl answer to CONFUSE note-for-note, crazy drum beat-for-beat...what more can be said of perfection? They had 2 consistent demos ('98-'99) and weren't afraid to stray into even faster tempos (like as fast as DOOM on "Circles"), or to a plodding AMEBIX swirl...but mostly it was a total CONFUSE fest and amazing as fuck. Many trax from the 2nd demo became a split 7" with P.Y.S.V. from
RABID's single '98 demo should be the stuff of modern legend noisenheimers. Distinctly more "thrash" oriented hardcore than chaotic...but there's a lot of heart and adventure here (and the band is tight as fuck...with NOISE also to take on any other band in this article!).
WOO!!! I had a
PARTIAL DISCOGRAPHY FOR ALL THE BANDS COVERED HERE:
Chaos Channel -
"Serve You Right!" 7" 1995, "Just Say No!" 7" 1995, Addiction Split demo 1993, "Noise Hero" farewell live (color cover) 1995
Collapse Society –
1993 demo, 7" 1995
Confuse –
“Indignation” cd (official 1983 demo cd) 1997, “Old Master” cd 1989, cd (nightmare bootleg) 1997, Live 12/28/85, Live 2/24/84, Live At Doushisha University 1985
Defuse –
1998 demo Jap, 1999 demo ("What's Right, Don't Conform"), P.Y.S.V. Split 7" 1999
Dislike -
"Shock" 7" 1997 Jap, "Noise" demo '99
Donkeys –
“Serve You Right!” (pre Chaos Channel...same title as C.CH. 7”)
Gai -
"Damaging Noise" 7" bootleg 2002, "Damaging Noise" LP (demos) 1997, "Damnation" cd (demos) 1997, "Total Control" cd (demos) 1997, 1981-1985 demo, "Extermination" flexi 1984
Gasmask/Coward -
split LP 2003
Gess –
“Suffer Damage” 1983 demo
No Cut –
“Tragic Present” 1983 demo
Outo -
"Many Question, Poison Answer" 7" 1984, "Half Wit Life" 7" 1986, "No Way Out" 7" 1989.
Rabid -
"Total Chaos Attack" demo 1998
Refuse -
"Control Noise" demo, "Punk Save The World" EP 2001
Screaming Noise -
"Not Very Nice" 7" 1995, "Noise And Masturbation" 7" 1997, Trax from "Chaos Of Destruction" compilation.
Sieg Heil -
1st demo ("Nazism", maybe '83), untitled 2nd demo ('83?)
Swankys -
"The Very Best of Hero" LP 1985, "Best Of Lifestyle" 12", “Never Can Eat Swank Dinner” CD 1987, "Rock 'N' Roll History Fuck Off" flexi 1984, "We Are The Refined White Cats" "pro" cdr-bootleg 2001, "Tokyo" CD, “More Fuck” (A.K.A.: "Original Swankys") demo 1985, “This Is My Lifestyle” 7” 1985, “Very Best Of 2” 7” 1985, "Period The Noise Tour" Live 1985 CD, "New York Live Fuck U.S.A." 2xCD 1989.
Monday, December 26, 2005
Damaging Noise
Ok here is something that is supposed to be in the next issue of Goatkore, but since I have no idea when it is going to come out I decided to share it with you. Thanks to Seanocide for contributing this (love ya man!). Go and ask him about the cdrs he is selling. Some of those stuff are fucking awesome.
