Robyn Writes

J-Pop Sunday – The Gazette

Sitting here in a red Hawaiian shirt I feel far too brightly dressed to be writing about The Gazette, yet here I am. The Gazette is the sort of band that appeals very much to a certain faction of the Tumblr crowd: After all, attractive Japanese guys acting all edgy and dark while attacking guitars on stage make for a good .gif animation – I should know; my ex sent a few of them my way on many occasions. But we’re here for the music, so let’s rock.

And every 16 year old alternative girl in the room swoons.

Quick Guide:
Act Name: The Gazette
Line-up:
Takanori Matsumoto (松本孝則) A.K.A “Ruki” (ルキ): Lead Vocals & Guitar
Kouyou Takashima (高島宏陽) A.K.A “Uruha” (麗): Guitar
Yuu Shiroyama (城山優) A.K.A “Aoi” (葵): Guitar, Acoustic Guitar & Backing Vocals
Akira Suzuki (鈴木亮) A.K.A “Reita” (れいた): Bass Guitar & Piano
Yutaka Uke (受毛豊) A.K.A “Kai” (戒): Drums & Backing Vocals
Years Active: 2002 – Present
Genre: Metal
Kaito’s Choice Tracks: Silly God Disco (2006), Remember the Urge (2011), Shiver (2010)

The Gazette falls firmly into the J-Rock sub-category of “Visual Kei”. We’ll quickly touch upon that before we talk about The Gazette themselves. First appearing in the late 80s/early 90s – mainly thanks to rock band X JAPAN – Visual Kei is what would have happened if glam rock went all edgy and gothic and moved to Japan when it was a teenager. In the world of VK the look and style of the band is just as important to their success as their music is and VK bands – including The Gazette – often make regular appearances in glossy photo-shoots in fashion magazines as well as the Visual Kei subculture focused magazine SHOXX. You just need to scroll back up the page to the photo of the band to understand the concept of Visual Kei. Although blessing it with the word “concept” seems a bit far. “Thing” might be more appropriate.

On to the music! I find that most of The Gazette’s music falls into one of three categories: The first is catchy upbeat melodic heavy rock – these are usually the tracks that I like. The second category is typical heavy metal shouty noises set to heavy metal guitar noises. Those I’m not so fond of. The third category would be the ballads that are included in albums to break up the stream of heavy noises. In hindsight my three track choices for this edition of J-Pop Sunday all fit into that first category which doesn’t make for great journalism – and I apologise for that – but I’m not a journalist, I’m a columnist. So I’m allowed pick, choose and say whatever I like. Anyway, here’s my first pick “Silly God Disco”, from 2006.


I picked this track without watching the video beforehand…so…um…Enjoy those thighs, ladies!

Contrary to what you made be thinking, I did not choose “Silly God Disco” as a pick because it has a daft title. It’s the funky bassline that I enjoy as well as the challenge of trying to determine when Ruki switches between singing in English and Japanese.


We get it; cameras are bad.

“Remember The Urge” features a mix of The Gazette’s three styles in one song. The majority of it falls into the band’s melodic heavy rock category however it also features a shouty metal segment as well as a ballad section. Three styles come together to create one cracking song. As well as one obligatory nonsensical video.


Another video from the “Black & white looks soooooo edgy!” train of thought.

“Shiver” is my favourite track from the band. I love the chorus: I don’t know the lyrics, but I always try to sing along. The music itself also feels right, everything seems to come together the beat of the drums with the occasional tinkle of the ride cymbal, along with the ride and falls of the guitars which switch seamlessly between sharp staccato leaps and drops and more fluid changes in pitch and tone. It’s a fun song to listen to.

As always, this is just a small sample of what The Gazette has to offer. I’ll leave you with a few links to various official sites if you’re curious to find out more about the band and of course – with the band being so popular worldwide – there are no shortage of fansites, blogs and Tumblrrrssses devoted to the boys if you’re feeling adventurous which I’m sure you’ll be able to find using your internet search engine of choice. I just prey they don’t find this column; they’ll no doubt find something wrong with it. 16 year old girls are scary.

More on The Gazette:
Official Website (Japanese): http://www.pscompany.co.jp/gazette/
Facebook (English): https://www.facebook.com/pages/the-GazettE-Official/255684944526717
Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/gazetteSMEJ

Until Next Time!

State of affairs – August 2013

Hey everyone!

Quick note about updates this month. TBO will be operating on a reduced schedule at the moment. We’ll still be updating Wednesdays and Sundays (when I’m less of an idiot and remember to update it) but there’ll be a bit less stuff – probably just one article at a time. The reason being that I’m currently finishing my masters degree and it’s crunch time with regards to my final project. That’s going to get handed at the start of September, so we’ll be back to normal and more by then!

Thanks a bunch, everyone, for continuing to support us. You’re all wonderful, beautiful people.

xoxo – Robyn

Review: The Lagan – Where’s Your Messiah Now?

The Lagan are an Anglo-Irish celtic punk / rock band from Kingston Upon Thames in the UK – and Co Down in the old Country. And this is their debut long player. And you basically get exactly what it says on the tin. Featuring such diverse lyrical subject matter as drinking, fighting, lapsed Catholic guilt, manual work, drinking, a long history of social and economic displacement, drinking, maids with nut brown hair, fighting, drinking, emigration to the USA, drinking, redemption in the next life, and drinking – these ten songs make no pretence or attempt to go beyond the traditional Irish tropes. And yes, of course it had to end with ‘Fields of Athenry’. But this is utterly, utterly impossible to dislike.

There’s an honesty and a joy – reflected in the liner notes that essentially say thank you for listening, we just did this for fun – that is infectious. Some tracks – ‘Same Shite Different Night’, ‘Sailing East’, ‘Sunny Day in Southie’ – are front and centre Dropkick Murphys and Flogging Molly celtic-P fare. And pleasingly spiky. The rest is a more mainstream-sounding proposition, including several simply arranged trad Irish folk songs. Think the Dubliners with full colour tat sleeves, flesh tunnels in their ears and slightly more frisky politics. And you’d be about there.
These boys are currently on tour – a tour which, perhaps predictably completely avoids the West Midlands. It does however cross Yorkshire about four times and hit Luton in the Autumn. I guess the promoters in the second city – which has ever floated on a sea of plastic paddies and proud canal diggers, and where every second person on the southside of the city claims at least part Irish descent – must be a bit shit. More fool them. Get this lot at the Irish Centre, the Castle or the Dubliner in Birmingham and you’d be guaranteed both a sellout crowd and a fucking riotous celtic-P up of epic proportions.

Ultimately, this is the musical equivalent of ten straight pints of liquid craic. Like Guinness served properly – ice cold and with a shamrock neatly played in the top – it slips down easily. And just over half an hour later, even when you’re cut to the bone and fighting in the car park, you’re still smiling.

4.5 out of 5 high fives!

Circle Takes The Square – Camden Underworld, 31/7/13

Hot on the heels of surprise release Consanguinity, Pariso’s set is rammed with storming new tracks plus a few of their older and deftly speedier material.  Despite their best efforts and plenty of perspiration from frontman Mario, the local band are met with a stoically static crowd that refuse to budge despite a torrent of riffs that should indeed lay waste to the room but are instead responded to with warm applause.

Full Of Hell are an altogether darker prospect.  Desolate and putrid, their version of hardcore takes the genre into some of the deepest depths of aural depravity.  A two minute blast of furious breakneck punk is followed by coruscating feedback: like sandpaper to the ears.  Vocals flit between dry-retching and wicked gurgles, the possessed frontman’s intense and disconcerting glare slowly surveying the room with nothing less than abhorrence for everyone within its stale confines.  Those down at the front are eager to react with that oh-so-familiar violent physicality, repeatedly denied by a band who seems to take much pleasure in descending into extended bouts of white noise.  A My Bloody Valentine style noise holocaust ends the decrepit proceedings, glitches from tortured circuitry adding to a pulsating bout of terrifying sound.  It’s decidedly unhinging- sending everyone in the room into a state of trance, feedback tearing at the ears and low end transferring tremors through everyone’s innards.  Surely amongst the most uncompromising and unsettling thirty minutes of grating music you’re ever likely to witness.

With many propping up the bar or merch stall, Code Orange Kids start their set to a rather sparse room. Unperturbed, they dive headfirst into their savage take on metallic hardcore, their bodies soon lurching with instruments thrashed around, taking the full brunt of each member’s furious display.  A potent momentum is soon built, the energy of both the band and a swelling crowd on an upward trajectory, physically manifesting in a pit that drags in more onlookers with each crushing chug, letting loose their ritualized gestures of violent abandon.  Guitarist Becca delivers her guttural banshee howls through a wall of sweat-ridden hair as the boys in the band commence the ritual of stripping themselves of inhibiting garments. ‘Liars///Trudge’ is one half savage dirge, the other an atmospheric foray into inner turmoil with Becca swapping her howls for hushed singing and allowing the pit dwellers to catch their breath as the rest of the Underworld stares in awe.  At the final track of set the band have whipped up an electric tension within the room, those at the front form a heap of flailing limbs as more reserved onlookers can’t help but headbang in approval.  As the zenith of intensity is reach the impossibly young four-piece pull one of the oldest tricks in the book: leave the crowd hungry with an abrupt and unannounced finish.  A mass of impassioned screams for encore go unanswered.

Tonight’s headliners Circle Take The Square return to the damp squalor of the Underworld after a nine year absence, taking to the stage under some simple but effective atmospheric lighting, emitting a cold beam onto each individual member.  The least visceral of the evening’s acts, Circle Takes The Square’s are an incredibly polished live entity- as to the demands of their progressive and intricate music where subtleties and dynamics need to be as palpable as possible to be affecting.  Tonight though, the band’s progressions become its undoing with their obtusely extended song lengths and overly long set time verging on over-indulgence.  Circle Takes The Square seem to be the antithesis of the uncompromising adrenaline-inducing abrasion that came before- their measured approach and instrumental digressions proving too much for the casual listener which, judging by the steady trickle of people heading for an early exit, makes up a sizeable portion of the crowd.  A gaggle of hardcore fans lap up the old ‘screamo’ songs and guitarist Drew’s schizophrenic preacher on barbiturates vocal style.  The band’s insistence playing exclusively new material for the first portion of their set may contribute to their lack of impact- especially as an eager gaggle down the front lap up songs from 2004’s As The Roots Undo. By the time they leave the stage the Underworld is only half full.  Their performance may be flawless but it lacks the grit and feral intensity that many in the crowd yearn for.

There is little doubt that the show is stolen by those plucky young Code Orange Kids, the only band who leave the crowd ravenous and baying to be brutalised further.  They prove themselves to be a vital prospect, and along with Full Of Hell’s hollocaustal tyranny they provoke a disconcerting emotional response that makes you feel alive, leaving Circle Takes The Square looking rather meek in comparison.

Review: CB6 – Succession

Recorded in just five days last year at Bucks University, Succession is a debut borne out of passion, frustration and dedication. All of these have come together to deliver a solid, confident release that will no doubt put the band straight on the radar.

Given CB6’s young age (although the band initially formed when they were 11), it’s heartwarming to see some of the most well loved musical trends of the early 00s sneaking into their music and blending in perfectly with a hearty 90s thrash influence and hardcore fire. There’s little hints of nu-metal all over the place, from the layered vocals in ‘Illusion’ to the heavily effects laden instrumental that is ‘Penny’, but when the boys need to throw down, there’s no doubt about it. Opening track ‘Perfect’ is a tightly wound riff fest and Ryan Monteith’s vocals, not quite a growl but not quite a shout, complement that well, and ‘Elephant In The Room’ is a complete mosh anthem. Not completely constrained by genre sensibilities, there’s a lot of melody infused throughout too. ‘Cold Season’ combines all of the best elements of CB6 in one glorious bitesized chunk, and in closer ‘Eye Of The Magpie’, the chorus is a complete game changer, displaying a keen and confident talent.

What CB6 do well, they do very well. But there’s an overreliance on chugging riffs and repetitive structure that really starts to rear its head by the second half of the record. The same Pantera-esque sounds begin to dominate the record, and while they’re great for a while, it definitely becomes tiresome. Perhaps Succession would have worked well split over two EPs instead of a single record where it would be less apparent, but even so, it’s a record that shows a lot of potential, and with some relentless touring, the band will be capturing the attention of hardcore fans all over the country.

3.5 out of 5 high fives!