Japanese CRUST (compilations) Against the Millennium (part 4): "Yotsuva - Japanese Noiz Cruster Comp" Lp, 2009

When a kid gets into punk, he or she often makes it very loud and very clear through dodgy hair dye, randomly drawn circled A on still pristine denim jackets, typically shit early attempts at a mohawk or the sudden disappearance of every safety pins in the house. Parents aren't exactly excited and not too chuffed to have to tell your grandparents aka their own parents - rather embarrassingly - that you're "going through a phase" and that they shouldn't pay too much attention when their once adorable grandson or granddaughter now cannot stop ranting about how the final bloodbath is coming and is just around the corner or some shit. Know what I mean? 

When it is indeed a mere phase, you can all laugh about it years later when the former snotty little punk has finally accomplished his or her destiny and become a mediocre accountant in a boring shithole and spawn two horrible children. Mum would be so relieved that you quickly dropped the bondage trousers and the torn Exploited shirts (although nothing could be done about the still half-infected tattoo of an oddly shaped skull that your mate Paul did during a party while on mushrooms) and became presentable and proper enough to be introduced to her own old high-school friends who grew up to be much more successful. When it is not a phase (meaning when you're still rocking the haircut by 25), well, things are more complicated, aren't they? Parents often beat themselves up, convinced that they must have done something terribly wrong and have basically failed dramatically at parenting. If not, why would their beloved offspring wear what can only be kindly described as a bum's rags, play in a dreadful band called The Riot Cunt Boys and stop eating meat. By that point, the grandparents would have already blamed the mother repeatedly (because in a patriarchal society it's always the mothers who take the blame) for the revolting hygiene of their grandkid and the neighbours gossiped relentlessly about the parrot-looking youth living next door who often gets bullied by "real men".

Why such subtle sociological analysis you might ask? Well, have you seen the cover of the Yotsuva compilation 12" Ep? What would the gran say? It has to be the crustiest picture of a human being that you have ever seen. There's so much hair you can't even see the face of that punk and he probably can't see shit either. It looks pretty much like a scarecrow who lost his comb or the hidden punk baby brother of Cousin Itt, the opposite of presentable. And isn't the creature a little scary as well? If I bumped into that crusty punk at midnight in a poorly lit dark street, I would maybe think that Sadako, instead of dicking around in old wells, just got into Deviated Instinct and is on her way to haunt fake punks who like shoegaze and Turnstile. In any case a mere cursory glance at the cover of Yotsuva is enough for even the least discerning of us to understand that it is an unhealthy, unmitigated slice of crust-for-crusties (noise-not) music. To make sure everyone got it the subtitle Japanese Noiz Cruster Comp was added. Just to be safe.

There are only four bands on this compilation (or would it be more accurate to call it a four-way split?) but the lineup is fantastic and I personally see the record as something of a classic Japanese crust record and a highly relevant snapshot of a time period. One of the most chaotic and noisiest bands of a subgenre already based on chaos and noise opens fire first: Tokyo's Isterismo. It did take me a few years before I understood what the hell they were trying to do first and second to genuinely enjoy them. Emphaticalness might be the key word here. Imagine early Gloom and Frigöra teaming up to create a band doing covers of Plasmid and Asylum and then make it noisier, faster, blow it out a bit more and add an obsession for the amusical side of Italian hardcore like London 77 or Fottutissima Pellicceria Elsa. An intentional fucking racket indeed from a band known and sought after precisely for that. Like Tantrum, Isterismo sang in Italian and these three songs belonged to the early years of the band, my favourite era as I always thought the later Lp was rather disappointing. These Tokyo crusties went on to play in bands like Solvent Cobal or Haava. I recommend the compilation Lp Tokyo Crusties (duh) which you can still find for quite cheap if you want your senses to be assaulted by the band's early period.

The humungous Death Dust Extractor grace us next with three horrendous noise cavecrust songs and it sounds exactly like it should. Do you love early Doom and Sore Throat? Have you always thought that Japanese bands Mindsuck or Abraham Cross did a magnificent job revering Doom and Sore Throat? Have you ever wondered what would happen if you threw a bit of Terminal Filth Stenchcore into the mix and a spoonful of unhinged Osaka crasher crust? Well, it's your lucky day and these three songs are tailor made for your sick tastes in music. A pretty unique band indeed.

Lastly are the third band to enter the crust arena and they are possibly the lesser known of the four stenchmen of the apocalypse. They were from Hida-Takayama, in the Gifu prefecture, a region known for its mountains and I wouldn't be surprised if the members of Lastly were all actual feral kids living in the wilderness of these mountains, eating roots, throwing shit at each other and communicating through noises before they learnt how to speak at age 20. In fact they might have learnt how to play crasher crust before the linguistic skills. This is savage relentless noizy crust praying at the altar of Gloom and Collapse Society and must clearly be seen in the same light as Isterismo, D-Clone or Zyanose. Nothing new here, it's all very well done, by the book, but you might argue that Lastly missed that bit of personality that would have helped cement their spot in the Japanese crust pantheon. You could say they were a mid-table crust bands but then the Japanese league was perhaps the best in the world at that time so it is already remarkable. These four songs (one is not listed) were the first appearance of Lastly on record and they pack a serious punch, I actually like them better than their first cruder more noisepunk Ep while the second one was closer to Contrast Attitude. 

Finally the listener is rewarded for his or her persistence with three songs of noise insanity by the mighty Zyanose. Thanks to a serious and globally solid discography Zyanose have definitely become a reference in the Confuse-meets-Gloom-at-a-crust-convention-held-in-a-mental-asylum. It's still pretty much a musical freak show but one that has become more respectable with time. I have written extensively about these Osaka nutters and I don't feel I need to reiterate because, by now, you know what I am talking about.

As a conclusion, Yotsuva (I haven't been able to find where the name comes from so information is welcome) will delight the most monomaniacal of us and if you are looking for variety then I suggest you keep away from it. However if you crave for your dose of crasher crust it is the perfect choice and a high quality product from the best noise dealers around. A perfect compilation as far as its intentions are concerned: in 15 minutes it succeeds to do perfectly what it claims to do on the cover. No bullshit, just crust pants. Another winning endeavour from everyone's favourite supplier Crust War Records.

YOTSUVA!

  

Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust: Neverending Mind War "S/t" one-sided Lp, 2020

I will try to keep this one short and sweet in accordance with the bloody racket that this ill-humoured three-piece is bent to unleash on our tragic world. With everyday life sometimes feeling about as exciting as a dad dancing contest or a a mobility scooter race, bands like Neverending Mind War sound strangely fresh and invigorating. They remind you that, if there may be no light at the end of the tunnel, there is always the slight hope of getting battered by shock waves of noisy grinding stenchcore from times to times.

I have already written enthusiastically about Philadelphia's brilliant bursts of crust/mangel/d-beat in the 2010's on three occasions in Live by the Crust, Die by the Crust (for a Pollen Ep, the Mortal War demo and an Alement tape) so there is little point in showering everyone with praises once again. Just know that NMW was (I don't know if that one survived the pandemics) made up of members of the aforementioned Pollen and Mortal War, but also Arseholes, Weald and possibly others that I have not even heard of. It is a common phenomenon but you will notice that, if the number of good band has been solid in the past decade, they were often created by the same limited group of people so that the impression that Philadelphia is overrun with tasteful punks might be misleading. I mean, it's not like their mayor wears crust pants or anything. But you could say that the said bunch of punks was motivated and keen on getting up their arse to play good music, which certainly contrasts with some local scenes that are made up of admirably lazy and morose bastards whose sole purpose seems to get a discount on the entrance fee because "the bands only play short sets so it's not value for money" (true story that).

I first became aware of NMW's existence because of an internet rumour. Words of a new American hardcore punk band replicating the raw sound of Scum-era Napalm Death were circulating among the most prestigious and elite crust circles. Not that the open worship of Scum or the 1986 demo is original in itself, far from it, as there are probably tons of grindcore bands trying to do exactly that, but NMW was said to be significantly different as the band did not sound like a grindcore act and instead focused and built on the 80's UK hardcore aspect of Napalm Death. That immediately caught my attention since I am a sucker for the '86-'87 period of the band. I cannot claim that early grindcore is my forte but to me the pioneering Brummies were originally a thrashing noisy crust hardcore band, an approach that is relevant if you do not take into consideration what they did from 1988 on. If they had not grown to be this legendary and well-respected extreme metal band, I am convinced that ND would mostly be talked about as a proto-grind noisecrust hardcore band in the same breath as Sore Throat or Electro Hippies and would be thought to be a perfect illustration of the early Peaceville/Earache sound. And this vision centred on hardcore instead of metal of the early ND sound is the specific foundation of NMW since they don't go beyond 1988 and stick to the pre-grindification of the band.

But anyway, once I got the confirmation of the name (which sounds like the title of a Prophecy of Doom song or perhaps a nod to the little-known Psychotic Mind Battle?) and understood that the workforce was made up of people from Pollen and Mortal War, the aforementioned approach made sense and I knew I was going for a treat. The two demo tapes (from 2017 and 2018 respectively) were very limited pressings and therefore I was unable to get the physical versions and had to make do with the bandcamp streams. So when Regurgitated Semen Records (I think I will never get used to that name which is really not a bad thing) reissued the two demos on one Lp, I was quick to act and jumped on it like a hungry vegan spotting a generous discount on some overpriced and usually unaffordable soy-made cheese, only without the disappointing outcome. 

The Lp looks gorgeous with a red obi strip, pretty much the equivalent of honey for hardcore nerds. The two demos last about ten minutes in total and fit on one side, which is convenient, although I suppose the whole thing would have fit on an Ep. The first demo is a bit noisier and more blown-out, with more distortion, which makes me think that Zyanose could be an influence too, especially when the Osaka nutters go full speed, but it could also just mean that both bands worked on a similar materials (given the popularity of Japanese noisecrust in the States, I would personally vote for the first option especially with the typical crasher-styled introduction to the first recording, "Nightmare"). The second one is a little clearer but also rawer, but I am splitting hair here. Dare to face a relentless and vicious noisy proto-grind hardcore crust tornado. 

I love the harsh gruff vocals and the old-school stench-oriented mid-paced metallic breaks while the guitar sound is perfect, aggressive, thick but filthy and with just the right amount of distortion for the style, more would not work as well. The earlier era of fast Napalm Death (the From Enslavement to Obliteration '86 demo especially beside the legendary Scum Lp) is clearly the band's obvious basis, but the first punishingly savage steps of Heresy (the '85 demo) and the great Electro Hippies definitely have to be mentioned here and I am also thinking about other lesser-known vintage UK raw fast crust like Mortal Terror or Senile Decay, not an irrelevant comparison either but it has more to do with the creative context of UKHC with bands sharing similarities at the time than a probable influence on NMW's music. As mentioned before, the faster side of the Japanese crasher school is my final ingredient to the recipe but there could be also be elements that I don't recognize because of I'm lacking in crossover hardcore. In any case that should undoubtedly be a success at your colleague's leaving do. 

Given the chosen template, NMW were perfect, I would not change a thing to those recordings.   

Neverending Crust War

      

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 !!