| King Brothers - The First Rays Of The New Rising Sun |
| "The
King Brothers are many things, but complicated is not one of them.
Actually, strike that. The King Brothers are not many things. They are
one thing: a loud rock band. A very, very loud rock band." That's the opening of our review of King Brothers' first, self titled LP (occasionally also called Bulb.) And at the time, it fit. That album is nothing if not a gloriously incoherent temper tantrum, a giant smear of low fi guitar scuzz and unrestrained hedonistic freakout blorping out into the world as a string of more or less indistinguishable songs. It came out just over a decade ago, and the band is still blorping, having just released The First Rays Of The New Rising Sun, their first album since 2004's excellent Blues. The six years between this album and the last is longer than the time between their debut and Blues, which for snot rock bands, can be an eternity. King Brothers have obviously spent some time refining their approach in that eternity, with a little less snot and a little more (gulp) brains, resulting in an album that is surprisingly dynamic…and not just for them. Unless you have the unrelenting, single minded charisma to be all in the the red, all the time (like, say, Guitar Wolf,) a little growth is to be expected, not to mention probably necessary. That said, you wouldn't have known it from their recent live shows, which are just as single mindedly riotous as you'd expect. But the studio, as it so often does, turns out to be a different story, and The First Rays Of The Rising Sun is surprisingly diverse, an expansion that works more often than not. Opener "Action!!!" starts with a garage blues that shows the band still has plenty of punch, and isn't afraid to get complicated; it's got more changes than a prog epic, but it's all squeezed into a punk friendly three minutes. The ADD approach is repeated in "気が狂いそう," ("Ki Ga Kurui So," i.e. "Going Insane") which crazy glues twangy blues, frat soul, and demented, stumbling-over-themselves vocals into a zippy, focused attack until it dissolves in a "Happy Trails" stagger. "Get Away" is more typical of the King Brothers we all know and love; trashy (but much better produced) thrash fuzz and a soaring chorus with glass shard gargling vocals courtesy Keizo (aka the "President of Nishinomiya," as the band's site helpfully tells us.) "XXXXX" splits the difference with an MC5ish fusion of rock grunt and jazz/soul chaos. So yeah, over time, the irrational flame of mindless directionless energy has to open itself up a bit (unless, again, you're Guitar Wolf.) Overall, The New Rays Of The Rising Sun finds new space in the bands roots, opening the creative windows to allow the air of classic soul and blues to emerge from the thick curtains of fuzz. What keeps the album moving is the their ability to keep the momentum while moving from one (like the Stonsey "Door") to another (the Stooges on even more speed of "死神のビート," or "Shinigami No Bito," i.e. "The Beat Of Death," itself another marvel of Frankensteined bits and pieces that coheres better than it should…dude starts OINKING halfway through, for God sakes.) So, it works. Mostly. The only misstep in this process in this semi-stream of consciousness approach is the seven minute "Romantist," which shoots for a Stonsey resignation, then loudens up in an attempt to up the emotion, but doesn't quite get there (it's also, weirdly, early in the album, which hobbles the momentum a bit.) Still…King Brothers started out as volume worshippers, and can now channel and steer the volume, instead of simply turning up and letting it out, resulting in an album that proves you don't have to be mindless and directionless to have the energy. |