Exceptionally produced, pit-exploding "Japanese" hardcore from Bastan (their 2nd / best EP). Arrangements are kept to a semi-minimum while not being minimalist, solos scream, guitar tones are fucking demolishing (no braindrill, the "Japcore" is traditional), and the extremely hoarse vocals utilize reverb so tight they nearly feel double-tracked. This is an MP3 conversion of the master for the EP, which was "secretly" uploaded as is by the band itself. The only negative to this entire review? Members are gemini as fuck.
Obliteration - "This Is Tomorrow" 7" Master 2009
Exceptionally produced, pit-exploding "Japanese" hardcore from Bastan (their 2nd / best EP). Arrangements are kept to a semi-minimum while not being minimalist, solos scream, guitar tones are fucking demolishing (no braindrill, the "Japcore" is traditional), and the extremely hoarse vocals utilize reverb so tight they nearly feel double-tracked. This is an MP3 conversion of the master for the EP, which was "secretly" uploaded as is by the band itself. The only negative to this entire review? Members are gemini as fuck.
Chaos Channel - Interview 2007 (?)
Before Damaging Noise was a blog, it was a micro-zine/newsletter. Right when Chaos Channel got going again (which took fucking forever, even when first announced), their singer Chatter / No. 6 was temporarily more social with the fanboys online. I managed to wrangle this admittedly half-ass (on Chatter's end) interview. Language barriers aside, he could have done a LOT better (a fact depressingly accentuated by Jun Kato telling me "he doesn't even make sense in Japanese"). So yeah, I released it as a front/back one-sheet to whoever I was trading with, and I believe it made it in as a supplement to another zine or two. This is nearly 10 years old, but have at it (or not). Clicky-clicky = biggy-biggy...
Disastrous Murmur - Rehearsal '88, Live '89, 2nd Demo '91
Decent to "good" sounding rehearsal, live soundboard, and the 2nd demo from Austria's cultest death-grind legends. The band has always displayed to me a dichotic medley of incredibly simple (and simply incredible) ugly death-grind that is then augmented with surprisingly virtuoso soloing. I'm not that hot on the 2nd demo, since it wanders into Roadrunner-tech territory, but overall this is one of the very few remaining O.G. bands that embodies "timewarp" in continued style and mindset.
Painkiller - "Collected Works '91-'94" 4xCD 1997 & "50/12" CD 2005
Shakily debuting as a dramatically stripped down (and much sloppier) clone of Naked City's "hardcore" phase, Painkiller rapidly transmuted into an aural odyssey of Middle Eastern dark ambient, industrialized dub, and sludge-jazz coincidentally similar to the Swiss band 16-17. The effect/loop experimentation on the instruments (mostly a dry bass, drums, and sax) is impressive not only for it's atypicality, but for the hallucinatory depth it achieves in each session's ambiance. I don't believe there's been any document of the band's collective mindset or goals, anything Harris or Zorn have ever said of the project were terse references to generic jamming...but the strange uniqueness they concocted refuses to show any hint of age or age-induced cringe. As Mick would have called it: "Proper". P.S.: And goddamn do their layouts still impress me. Stunningly beautiful morbidity!
Korpses Katatonic - "Sensitive Liberated Autistiks" Cassette 1983
Pre Zero Kama (ritualistic industrial supposedly made with human skulls and bones...I still can't tell). Quite a variety of electronic sounds can be found on this tape. Hypnotically looping Throbbing Gristle cloned creep-drones share (or overlay) equal time with arhythmic low-bit beats. Unlike Zero Kama, it actually resembles TxGx a great deal, but seems to rely less on improvisation than the interplay of preconceived sounds (electronic OR vaguely organic). I found it to be slightly indulgent, aging noticeably worse in that regard than other projects endemic in mindset to that era of industrial (faux intellectualism, forced shock value, art students in berets et al), but it still offers some fun timewarps back into what makes that same era so continually endearing: exploring minimalism at it's maximum to trigger the pineal gland.
Death Rattle - "Noiz And Peace" CDR 2015
Professionally recorded rototom noisecharge. It's heavy
as fuck, with the (still noisy) guitars having a thick body that belies
the band's overall crashing approach (there's also a slight similarity to Nerveskade, at least in speed and apparent song arrangement). I really...really...dislike modern
noisecore, but this is a project that impressed me enough to attempt to remember. Five
anti-songs in 12 minutes (with full scans...you can thank Phil for ALL of this by scoping out his very un-hipcore label).
Phil-anthropy 4: Japsnore
"Deserve To Die - Demo 2015 New grindcore band from Japan. Touches of PV. I predict this band will be getting heavy radio play in 2016 and selling out the House Of Blues." [They have a surprising resemblance to Endless Demise...with way weaker vocals. --S]
"Fortitude - Resist Til Death And Resisting After Death CD (2008)
One of the best Japanese grind releases i've ever heard...this and their 7" are superb. Love this Osaka band. Shame their not more prolific. Anyone who's not heard them and is into grindcore will blow their nutsack."
"Assembrage - Demo (2012)
Only demo from Assembrage, put out about a year before their 12" "
"13th Moon - CD-Single & Witch Hunt CD (2011)
Death Rock. [Not bad...but not Bauhaus. --S]"
"Chiba Last Warrior - Compilation CD (1993)
Highly obscure and seldom seen compilation from 1993 featuring a mix of bands, some known, some lost to the mists of time. The band Parasite on this is a different one to the metal punks that people know. Scum Blast songs are different to the split 7" with Ghoza, Gestapo also feature on the Museum comp tape series and are pretty cool,although why they sing about fucking dogs is anyone's guess.They come across as a bit of a joke band really. Their songs on here are different than on those tapes also. My favourite band on this comp is probably Soltic, never heard anything else by them other than these songs though. The Beni Tsubaki songs are better than on their 7" releases, but that's not saying much."
"Clown - Deadly Drive Demo CDR
4 track demo from Nagoya City (Traditional) Hardcore outfit Clown. It don't get more Japanese than this."
"The Epidemic - 2nd Demo
3 tracks of hard edged pogo punk from Japan. Sounds like a mix of Last Survivors and The Erections."
"The Geros - Demo (2014)
[Loud traditional garage in Friction's semi-fi style, with vocals not far removed from Watch's more controlled moments. --S]
"Humongous - Thrashing Punk Attack (2002)
Good shit, I'm drunk...make your own shit up." [VERY energetic traditional Japcore that doesn't mire itself in technicality or too much metal. I actually liked it. --S]
"One River - Demo CDR (Year?)
5 track demo that sounds like it was recorded in someones bathroom. Shame, because it's pretty cool ripping hardcore. This band also had a 7" release and an appearance on the MCR compilation 'This Is The Life Volume 3'."
"EVE - 2nd Demo (2004)
5 song demo CDR recorded a couple of years prior to their release on Blood Sucker Records. Everything is in Japanese on the packaging (except the date)."
Anathema - "All Faith Is Lost" Demo 1991 & FLAC Live 1991
This one's for the nigga Carlo. Dizoom from The Isle (not the Koala one). Contemporaries of Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride, Anathema brought absolutely nothing to that table other than being just as precociously talented, and rising in similarly high arcs (Classique!). What you get here is the second demo, which isn't my rip because the one I own(ed) has seemingly disappeared from the miasma that is my collection, coupled with FLAC files of a live appearance from 1991 (where they perform the first demo). The live show's sound isn't worthy of a lossless rip, but niggaz trip and nerd...TRIP. N. FUCK. ING. N-E-R-D!!!
A//Solution - "Butterfly" 7" 1989 & "Things To Come" CD 1992/95
Orange County's A//Solution channeled the U.K. crustcore sound with inspired passion. The EP feels the most traditional...I hear Antisect and early Hellbastard, with an attempt at Deviated Instinct's "Rock N Roll Conformity" style of production. The CD though has always remained my fave. I jokingly refer to it as the "Janes Addiction of crust" because it has such an impressively melodic backbone of melancholic alt-rock (even extending to some capable singing between the shouts). It was the Gen-X era, everyone decided to be bi, burnouts, and romanticized nihilists (more than usual), so one could argue that fad of monetized mass pessimism added some component to the CD's feel (don't trip, the musculature still flexes it's stenchy bladder). It's really it's own beautiful thing though, with a professional organic production that captured the band's soul flawlessly. There needs to be a serious campaign to get the CD onto LP, I really think it deserves that.
Larm / Straight Edge Kegger - Split 1" 2007
The world's shortest EP (not quite beating the Grindcrusher bonus split 7" in length, but certainly one-upping it's absurdity in physical size). S.E.K. sneezes out ten Seven Minutes Of Nausea style shitblurr tracks that sound like they're overlayed ala Anal Cunt's 5643 song EP, while Larm roasts a live chestnut with it's classic sobriety anthem "Up To You" (I would have chosen "Only Reality" for this brevity race). With enough finagling, you can get this to play. Useless Factoid: This was one of Damaging Noise's first uploads.
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