Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust: Zyanose "Putrid Sick Society" cd, 2014

Let's refocus and balance our chakras a bit. Even if the present series was always meant to be an exploit in crust marathon, I have to confess it sometimes feels as if Terminal Sound Nuisance has now turned into a "crust-only" beast and I sometimes crave to be able to write about 80's poppy anarchopunk again. I'll just have to light a candle at the local crust ossuary to gather some strength.  As a reminder, Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust is not really about the top 100 crust works of the 2010's (though that'd be pretty fun to do) but about recordings and bands from the crust punk multiverse that I find relevant, meaningful and therefore worth investigating as they provide an interesting, albeit partial for exhaustiveness is impossible, picture about what happened crust-wise during that decade. And it has to be fun of course. They have to be fun to write about. Or at the very least fun enough to keep me from sobbing before Razor Ramon or Mister Perfect tribute videos on youtube. 

And Zyanose are really fun. Very serious and passionate about what they did, but also cheeky and brash and really quite delightful and entertaining to write and think about. Although they were already active in the second part of the noughties (Toyo said in an interview with the iconic Warning fanzine that the band played their first gig in 2003 but the "official" version often says 2004) and released three Ep's and a split cdr between 2005 and 2008, they were certainly more productive afterwards with four Ep's and three Lp's being released between 2012 and 2019. People who favour their earlier endeavours into love-4-noize will probably associate Zyanose with the mid-late 00's but I personally enjoy their later - and crustier - material better, hence their inclusion here in the series about the 10's. In the end, it is always pretty random to reason rigidly when it comes to decades anyway, especially with such a boundary-pushing act. What really matters is that this Osaka noise crust monster progressively grew to be an objectively crucial and even popular band from the early to the late 10's. It would not be irrelevant to venture that the band has known three periods with Toyo, Sakana and Illie as the three constant members: the first one from 2004 to 2008 as a four-piece with a distinct guitar player and Toyo only on vocals; the second from 2012 to 2014 when Zyanose were a three-piece with two bass players and Toyo switching to the second bass guitar; and the last one with the band back as a four-piece, Toyo back on vocals only and an actual guitar player. 

My own genuine appreciation for Zyanose did not start in the 00's (go on, take some hard-earned punk points away from me). I don't even remember reading that Warning interview (which you can read here) although I remember having that zine at home. At that time, this school of noise-loving Japanese crust did not really appeal to me at that time that much and I was satisfied with my Gloom and Atrocious Madness records and so did not really bother with Zyanose. I definitely missed the first bus, and even the Loveless Ep released on Crust War Records, a label I followed as closely as a French pigeon behind a messy sandwich eater, did not really catch my attention, but then, at that time a lot of the highly distorted and chaotic end of hardcore bands escaped me as I was more looking to the sound of Japanese stenchcrust bands like Acrostix, AGE or Revölt. Even upon first hearing them a few years later, I was not particularly impressed, which sounds a little strange because I was well into Death Dust Extractor or D-Clone for example, also rather demanding listens to say the least, but I did not bother exploring Zyanose. It may have to do with the fact that it is after all a German word (meaning "cyanosis", a "blueness lividness of the skin" which sounds pretty nasty and therefore did not look up on google) and learning the language for years at school scarred me for life and leaves me unable to make a proper sentence in German, although I can vaguely sing along to a Chaos Z or Slime song. Or give a convincing impression when pissed anyway.

My first proper encounter with Zyanose was when they did a European tour in 2013, promoting their Why There Grieve Lp on La Vida Es Un Mus if I remember correctly, and played in Paris. An unlikely lineup since they shared the stage with Traitre (the infamous autonomous oi band from Lille), Krigskade (our local käng unit at the time) and a streetpunk band from Czech called Climax, an unfortunate name considering they played along the very climactic Zyanose. So a decidedly diverse lineup and I remember most people came for the other bands so that when the Osaka misfits went on stage, people did not know what to expect exactly and were in awe, bewildered, disconcerted, flabbergasted even. The band played like there was no tomorrow, broke some of the gears they had been lent and one of the bass player forgot to plug his instrument for the first few songs which no one really noticed - even himself - because it was so intense and noisy and just different. In this specific environment, Zyanose looked and sounded like an alien species coming from a a world bent on deafening other civilizations through severe noisecore music. Sore-Throating the innocents to death as I call it. That was a very fun gig, one that taught me that I had definitely missed out on a good band.

At that point in time, Zyanose had switched to playing as a three-piece with two bass players - Toyo formerly of the mighty Defector and Sakana from Poverties - also sharing the "vocal duties", by which I mean reproducing the screams of a 19th century psychiatric ward, a rather daring configuration (the only other noisy/crusty band using it to my knowledge is Nulla Osta from Croatia). The transformation of the Zyanose lineup can be found easily on the internet so I won't be focusing on the pre-2012 period of the band, which is still well worth investigating. Putrid Sick Society is my favourite records of the two-bass-players era of the band, pretty much because it is the groovier, crustier-sounding of their works (but all of their 2012/2014 outputs comes recommended). I love how the layers of noise work energetically together on this one. Genuine "noise cruster hell" as they proudly claim on the backcover. If you have never paid close attention to Zyanose, you are in for quite a journey in noisiness. And in fact, it is not so unlikely that many people will have heard of the band (because of their European and American tours and because Japanese bands don't often play abroad) or even seen them live - a memorable experience no doubt - but are really not familiar with the genre they belong to, namely the Japanese crasher/noize crust tradition. This, as a result, has made Zyanose into either a common point of entry to said subgenre or even one of its only examples for some which confers them a special status. You will meet people who are familiar, to some extent, with them but have never heard of Defector or Gloom, although it also very much depends on where you live and on the local obsessions of your scene (needless to say that in Paris, practically no fuck is given about that brand of noizecrust). 

So what about Putrid Sick Society then? Well, as my crust sensei would say in his immense wisdom: "It's the dog's bollocks mate". If you were to get a Zyanose record that aptly stands for their two-bass players era, then that'd be this one. The decision to play without a guitar, whether it was by necessity or artistic choice, especially in a genre putting such a massive emphasis on distortion, was a rather daring move to say the least. If anything, it showed that you can sound as distorted, deafening and produce as much damaging feedback than with a proper guitar. The "hail noise" bass - as poetically referred to on the backcover - sounds like a transistor haunted by the bastard child of a fuzz pedal and a distortion one or maybe like a mean radio station broadcasting from Hell bent on punishing lovers of shoegaze music. Meanwhile the "bulldozer bass" unleashes Chaos UK/Confuse bass lines relentlessly. Zyanose is a band that is clearly aimed at noize fanatics, especially on records since their impressively convincing intense live performances can easily win punks of all creeds that are not particularly interested in the genre (and that's how you recognize genuinely great bands). 

There is a - proudly stated - sense of uncontrolled dementia and chaotic insanity in the music even though the listener can tell that the Zyanose boys know what they are doing and are in control of their furious output. Self-aware chaos. While some crusty noizepunk acts can sound a little boring and uninspired after the first three songs, Zyanose have enough tricks in their bag to keep things interesting. There are many tempo changes in the music from the classic cavemen crust beat, to 80's hardcore blast beats, mid-paced Bristol-loving tribal stomps or Kyushu-styled breaks so that the aural punishment does not feel monotonous. Of course, Zyanose's foundation is found in Osaka's legendary manic crasher crust pioneers Gloom but, if they certainly build on their predecessors's versatile sense of songwriting, they put a much greater emphasis on the noize side of Gloom's legacy. They lean more on the Confuse school of distorted texture but crust bands like Collapse Society, late Truth of Arize, Death Dust Extractor or Mindsuck can be relevantly mentioned as parts of the equation as well, not necessarily as direct influences, they have different sonic intents, but more as a background of the creation of noise. Some loving references to Chaos UK and Disorder's threatening tribal numbers and bass lines can also be found while Sore Throat are also invited to the loudest of parties (the typical opening noise on the opening of "The total arse" is obvious) and classic cavemen crust influences of early Extreme Noise Terror, Sarcasm or early Disrupt also circulate throughout. That the noisecore style - or what we have progressively come to define as "noisecore" - is included in Zyanose's recipe can be said to be an uncommon move as noisecore is more often associated with the grindcore scene, but it could just be a European thing not relevant to Japan. The vocals sound absolutely insane and rabid, with high-pitched straitjacket screams often seasoned with thunderous cavecrust shouts delivering a rare assault on your hearing. It is like anti-yoga music. 

The cd version of Putrid Sick Society is deceptively long, 8 songs in 19 minutes, with the last song, "The total arse" being a nine minute slice of old-school noisecore stench madness and actually a Zyanosed cover of a classic Framtid anthem. A great initiative as it turns the song into something completely different but still compelling.   

Zyanose, the self-identified "noise philia crusters", have been known through many subgenre monikers, so many that it is more like a game than anything too serious: "ditch crust noisecore", "crust hardcore speed noise", "crasher crust violence", "noise cruster hell", "antisocial crusher noise crust militia" or "insane noise raid". Make up your own noizecrust subgenre. The aesthetics of the record harmoniously reflect the music. A chaotic collage with the members proudly exhibiting the crust look, cruster rags, crust pants and some studs and a variety of signifying elements like "ear damaging 8 tracks", "Osaka punk never dies!!!", "Noise chaos kill your brainswashed mind" and a variety of referential nods that I will let the reader look for. The cd comes with an obi that includes a biography of the band if you can read Japanese (mine is well rusty to be honest). Zyanose have always been adamant about their own creative noisiness and their unshakable true punk identity and songs like "Our noise not yours" or "Poser must die !!!" attest to that radical stance but more serious, or typical, topics are also tackled. Putrid Sick Society was recorded in late 2013 and released on L.A.R.V.A, a short-lived cd-only - cd's are not deemed as "uncool" in Japan - local record label that also reissued Poikkeus and Ferocious X. Brain Solvent Propaganda put out a vinyl version of the work - in case you have a fetish - but I am confident that the post-2011 Zyanose saga will be reissued at some point (D-Takt Råpunk Records already took care of the early material). 

Sadly Zyanose stopped in 2019 and I am not completely sure what the members are up to nowadays, but Toyo now plays in the mighty Framtid and Illie joined the magnificent Disturd. Informants are welcome to add on to this. Noise Philia Cruster never dies.

Poser must die !!