Osaka. Third most populated city in Japan, legendary punk spot, historical epicenter of the crasher hardcore style and home to that massive plastic red crab. I only stayed there for a couple of days in 2018 for the All Crusties Insane Noise Victim festival because of its smashing lineup, along with rather cheap plane tickets, that prompted me to go there on my own, like a nerd armed with determination and resolve, with the desire to spend far more than reasonable in notoriously busy record stores. Before I traveled to Japan, I had been told Osaka was supposed to be a place where people were rather outgoing and a bit rough as well, something of a raucous, boisterous city as opposed to the more conservative Kyoto. It was described to me as the Marseille of Japan and you'd know what it means if you have been to the South of France. And of course, I had very good time, got absolutely plastered at the Konton bar (a very apt name for the place), got lost on my way back to the hotel, found a fellow punk randomly who kindly took me there (to my great embarrassment I realized the next day that he happened to be Framtid's drummer...) and obviously forgot to take off my boots when I came in the building. Proper French class.
But let's get back to more interesting matters. Beside the great music that everyone knows, I often associate Osaka punk with elite crust pants, vast knowledge of punk and with words, very specific neological phrases created to describe the sound of a band. These are combinations of familiar word commonly used in the punk world, that are, strictly speaking devoid of literal sense, but very rich in evocations and pregnant with meaning if you "speak punk". Know what I mean? This linguistic practice cannot be restricted to Osaka, of course, it's a national phenomenon and most crust or d-beat bands do it - they could be legally bound to for all I know. A quick glance at the Inferno Punx photo book published in 2003 and edited by influential Osaka punks, Jackie (Framtid and Crust War), Mitsuru (Gloom) and Jhonio (Gloom, Defector and others) illustrates what I mean: Deconstruction's sound becomes "Ultra collapsing noise crust", Collapse Society are referred to as "Ultra-scandi Tokyo crusties", Frigöra as "Scandi-magnum crusties torpedo" (I like that one) or Condemned as "Primitive blast crust core". There are many other telling examples of such imaginative portrayals in reviews, fanzines, on record's inserts and of course on bands' logos themselves, like the iconic Gloom logo for instance and Contrast Attitude's "Dis noise attack survivor", Effigy's "Grinding metal massacre", Death Dust Extractor's philosophical "Destroy death energy" and plenty more. In fact, this phrasing was adopted by a lot of bands outside of Japan, notably Physique and their "Disbones crasher" or Fragment's "Total noise fuckers". It can arguably get very redundant, if not lazy at times, but I like how cryptic it really is as these nonsensical phrases are coded for punks. It's fun, folkloric and validating I suppose. In my tiny mind it is very associated with the culture of that place.
And all that for some noisy punk bands. 混沌難聴大虐殺 (Konton Damaging Ear Massacre) (the word "konton" can be translated as "chaos" and it's also the name of a tiny punk bar where I lost my usual sense of moderation, so that gives you an idea) was released in 2005 on none other than Crust War Records. A pretty close knit affaire indeed as Jackie also provided some art, Framtid Takayama the text and Defector Toyo and Jhonio did the design. I have said it many times but I will reiterate because it is my blog: I love town-based compilations. They provide a fair but biased (there's always a curator) view of a specific scene at a specific time. The theme of the Lp is crystal clear: noisy hardcore punk for noisy hardcore punks. All the songs were recorded in 2004 so I imagine it had been planned well in advance to make time for the bands. The artwork reeks of classic crust punk imagery so the more timid listeners might be willing to avoid this one but it'd be a mistake because the Lp is more diverse than it literally looks like and claims to be.
The opening band is Framtid and I don't really need to introduce them at this point. In the second part of the 00's, they just sounded unstoppable as they maximised the traditional gruff scandicore formula, making it sound more aggressive than ever thanks to triumphant guitar arrangements and riffs, this manic ultra energetic Osaka crasher drumming style and intense vocals. Like Gloom covering Svart Parad and Asocial. Excruciatingly good. Framtid are a tough act to follow and Poikkeus have been picked to take this tricky spot. Poikkeus is the kind of bands that I am familiar with but never really cared for at the time. Japanese punks never show restraint when they get involved and like Frigöra sang in Swedish because they loved Mob 47, Isterismo in Italian because they took "Chaos non musica" very seriously, Desperdicio in Spanish because they overplayed Destruccion and Voco Protesta in Esperanto because they romantically believe in the power of language as a tool to unite people, Poikkeus went for Finnish because they revered Propaganda Records. It does take a lot of courage and dedication to try to sing in Finnish, I'll give the band that, and their distorted take on the traditional Finnish hardcore sound of Kaaos, Melakka or early Bastards must be commended. I like the amount of energy they put in, especially with the first song, but it is sometimes too punk-rock oriented for my tastes and the songs are a little long. I prefer my Finnish hardcore fast and furious with generous pints of snot but this is well-executed enough.
I had absolutely never heard of Kruw before playing this Lp and a damaging ear massacre they are certainly not. The band was active for most of the 00's and played tuneful, old-school hardcore, but the first number sounds almost like a late 70's punk band (like Anarchy maybe with the lyrics in Japanese). The second one is much faster, with still a clear guitar sound which makes quite a contrast with the rest of the lineup. High-energy hardcore with a slightly crazy punk vibe. I wouldn't listen to Kruw all night but I welcome these fresh songs in this context. Adixion are next, a band with an interesting history. They had been active since the early 90's and used to call themselves Addiction back when they were a very different animal. Originally, up until the mid-00's, Addiction played excellent UK82 influenced punk-rock with singalongs and great spirit and you could argue that they were one of the best bands - not to mention one of the earliest - working on that sound around in the 90's (let's remember it was the heyday of bands like Tom & the Bootboys, Discocks, The Kickers and the whole Pogo 77 Records scene). Their switch to Adixion was also a musical switch as they started playing a more experimental and dissonant, not as regulated you could say, kind of hardcore music. I am a man of recipes and while I can really enjoy Addiction, Adixion are not my cuppa. This said I appreciate the fact that they were included on this compilation and this is exactly what makes such endeavours interesting and even challenging.
The other side of the Lp is, undeniably, much more in line with the Osaka crust orthodoxy. And we start off strong with Zoe and their groovy blend of Amebix and Zygote. Zoe was very much Taki's (from Gloom and Defector amongst others) baby and a grand opportunity to rename himself "lightning baron" which makes him sound like a crust superhero I suppose. I have always loved Zoe and almost twenty years after their demise I realize how genuinely original they really were and I cannot think of a band really working with the same Amebix-as-language predicate. As for the songs you have two rerecorded numbers that originally appeared on The Last Axe Beat (that I covered extensively here), the very Zygotish "New world" and the supremely Amebixian "Zygospore". It's good stuff. Did I mention they loved Amebix?
The listener is then brutally attacked by two songs of Ferocious X, then still a relatively new Osaka bands immersed in a relatively old Osaka tradition: playing emphatically furious käng hardcore with a lot of distortion. If Poikkeus decided to sing in Finnish because they revered Riistetyt, Ferocious X went for the Swedish language because they dreamt of Disarm and Mob 47. Or - much - closer to home of Frigöra, the Japanese hardcore band that pioneered the notion that hardcore could very much be used as a second language in the 90's, that substantially singing in Swedish (or in any other languages tied to a legendary hardcore scene) was a way for you to sound closer to the source material. I think that it does make sense conceptually but it also does make for some odd syntax moments and I cannot wait for a Japanese bands to sing in French because they like Les Béruriers Noirs (they won't dress as clowns hopefully). To get back to Ferocious X, I only got into the band rather recently (by which I mean 10 years ago) and was unaware of them in the 00's. They are one of the oldest - if not the oldest - bands doing the blownout crasher käng thing still in activity, have produced some solid records throughout the years and even though they may not be as popular as other Osaka, these two songs are absolute hardcore tornadoes of anger, distortion and just plain dementia in the pure local crust tradition. The drumming, courtesy of Takayama from Framtid, is insane and the vocalist (formerly doing similar noises in Reduction) sounds like a howling rabid seal lion. If you know, you know as the kids say.
The second Suomi band of the record comes next under the guise of Laukaus and I actually like them better than their brother in arms Poikkeus. Laukaus were snottier, with a touch of UK82, maybe just punkier, with a clearer guitar sound and overall less effects. They are very reminiscent of Bastards and Kaaos (just listen to that bass sound) with a spontaneous sense of fun and a "two fingers in the air" attitude. This is hardcore to pick up your nose to while drinking cider outside of the venue if you know what I mean. The song "Poisiukaa" even made me want to pogo (briefly and just metaphorically but still more than usual). The band's three Ep's (on Distort Label Records, Putrid Filth Conspiracy and Pogo 77) are also very strong and let's just hope that someone will have the grand idea to release a discography because Laukaus could rightly be considered as one of the very best Finnish hardcore of their generation. Not a mean achievement when you're from Japan.
Finally Konton Damaging Ear Massacre ends on a very crusty note with two songs of Defector, the band vastly known as being "post-Gloom". There are elements reminiscent of Gloom of course but you could always tell that Defector craved to create something a little new and different, not to the extent of going free jazz as they still very much want to destroy your ears and the little sanity you have left. There is precisely an atmosphere of insanity, chaos, lunacy in their music as the band plays with song structures and paces, maybe not unlike Confuse's latest period but with still Osaka crasher crust tools. It might be a bit too chaotic and loony for some but I have always found the band very endearing and an interesting sequel to a legendary band whose legacy permeates the compilation textually and paratextually.
Is this a must-have, a classic, a compulsory record to own, a genre-defining moment? Not really. There are some brilliant moments indeed - the whole side B actually - but other songs leave me a little cold. However the album must appreciated for what it is, a snapshot of a portion of the Osaka scene at a given point in time so that it reflects what was happening there and then. Beside the bands included are quite diverse for a Crust War Records production and the album must be given some praises for it.
As much as the unreasonable part of me would have loved to be punished by crasher hardcore crust bands playing the exact same thing for 30 minutes, the reasonable one also appreciates some variety and the discovery of bands I did not know. That's what's called wisdom apparently.
