Thursday, July 12, 2012

Low-Pass - Trimurti





For those who don't like to read: Holy tits this is fighting for album of the year.

Low-Pass is:

 So, Low-Pass. I'm having trouble thinking of a way to start this post off, so I'm just going to jump right into it:

HOLY FUCKING SHIT TRIMURTI IS REALLY FUCKING GOOD GUYS. Low-Pass play good ol' math-rock styled music. And now (and forever) when I think of math-rock, these guys will be the first band to come to mind. When I first tried getting into math-rock, I was seriously disappointed with what I was hearing (I ain't talkin about 90s indie/math-rock here). There just wasn't a lot of great song writing, and was a lot more "HEY GUYS, LOOK AT ME HIT MY INSTRUMENT WITH THESE COOL PEDALS MY MOM BOUGHT ME." Besides the Tera Melos/By the End of Tonight Split, most math-rock I heard just really sucks; learn to write an actual song.
And with that, Low-Pass basically shits on every band with incredible musicianship and awesome song writing ability.

I wish I could put it into words easily how great this band is, but every single member deserves a shout out for what they do. I don't really play guitar or drums at all, so even though I know that the two people who play them are without a doubt some incredible musicians, but I feel the need to comment on the bass player. Holy shit, this dude makes me feel worthless as a bass player. I guess I now have a life goal to learn this entire album on bass, although I'll probably never be that good because holy shit these dudes know how to fucking play.

If somehow, you listen to this album, and you aren't completely sold by the 2nd track, you probably just hate music as a whole.

Low-Pass - "Nitro" live
Trimurti

You can buy this for a lowly $4 from Keep It Together and Meatcube

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Forget Me Not


For those who don't like to read: Oh god, Oh goddddddddd. So fucking good. No time to describe, just download.

Forget Me Not:
Ba/Vo: Masashi Ikeuchi
Gu/Vo: Tetsuya Matsumoto
Dr: Akinori Ikawa

So I haven't written anything in like two weeks. Weird feelings when you want to listen to music, but you feel your own sense of falling out within it. I mean, I'd put on a band, and be sort of into it, but I just wasn't feeling that same grab that I feel whenever I can truly just get into something. It's a weird and (for someone like me, who spends the majority of his lonely days listening to music) sort of eerie, discomforting feeling just not feeling that same emotional connection you always strive to achieve through the notes and noise.

Fortunately my shit got kicked right back in gear when I finally found (and received) my copy of the latest Forget Me Not CDep, "3つの終り." What a sonic force of getting fucked in the face this thing turned out to be. I mean, I've had the rest of everything Forget Me Not has put out, but this CDep, it is probably going to forever rank one of the greatest CDeps that my ears will ever hear. It's that crazy shit where a band, for 26 straight minutes, manages to play the most perfect music possible, all while doing experimenting in the process.

I mean, everything on this ep is on-fucking-point. From the tracks fading out, to fading back in, to the absolutely pinpoint precision of every time change, every shift in a song; Forget Me Not manages to nail every single on to fucking perfection. It's a rare quality to see such a unsettling ep (goosebumps feeling people) be released like this. I would call 3つの終り an experimental hardcore ep. Sure, it's not experimental in the sense of "Hey, look, we can make all these crazy keyboards with this cool Casio my parents bought me." and instead relies on 3 dudes sitting together and feeling music out with each other and playing what comes to heart most.

The chilling qualities come from how well this band gels together, these dudes have played together for a while (off the top of my head, 2007 was their first release, so probably before that), and these dudes know each other really well, it shows through the musical quality. The ebb and flow of every track is really, just shit, it's causing me to ramble. It's just straight up, some of the most quality, perfect music that I've heard in a long time.

Forget Me Not - "君の顔に映す" live

Now, this isn't to say that the rest of Forget Me Not's material can be ignored. It's just that 3つの終り is probably the most focused work they've put out to date. The rest of Forget Me Not's output revolves around the crazy experimental hardcore shit they do (I'd honestly say they have a 90s influence somewhere in their sound, but that's just me). And it's with all this shit, and especially 3つの終り, that allows me to crown Forget Me Not as one of my favorite bands. They're still around I believe, but I'm not sure if they're playing shows. I just hope they manage to release more music.

I'm pretty sure the rest of Forget Me Not's material is out of stock, but you can pick up 3つの終り from 1020distro. Just send Hideaki an email, he is a super, super, superrrrrrrrr nice dude. And order some other stuff from him as well, get a cheap demo, it'll probably kick ass!


Pictured: Forget Me Not "3つの終り" ridiculously awesome packaging. The CD is below the foldout poster. But no really, the case is way larger than a DVD case.

Side Note: Their drummer, Aki, runs Impulse Records. Impulse is seriously at the forefront of releasing the best stuff from Japan right now, so if you find any Impulse stuff in a distro, just go right ahead and order it. It'll most likely rip your face off.