Available at Amazon Japan
| Kuro Neko Chelsea - All De Fashion |
| As
of right now, there's not a whole lot of info out there in internetland
about Kuro Neko Chelsea. In a way, this doesn't come as much of a
shock: the band only put its first, self titled EP out in April of this
year. On the other hand, however, their official site has a Sony
copyright on the bottom (despite both EPs being released on DecRec,)
and posters for the band's most recent release, All De Fashion, are
plastered all over every halfway decent rock shop in Tokyo. Maybe
Sony's still working on how to sell 'em. Maybe the band is shy. Probably not, though. Kuro Neko Chelsea are the latest upstarts to carry on the fine Japanese tradition of sweat soaked garage rock, a genre that has historically managed to impose strict rules on the very undisciplined art of losing your shit on stage. After listening to All De Fashion, I'm guessing the lack of info might be down to the band's inability to calm down long enough to get the story together. From Teengenerate to Guitar Wolf to Thee Michelle Gun Elephant, fast, pissed, and noisy are the Holy Trinity, an orthodoxy KNC does nothing to subvert: they're certainly not spending an undue amount of time on originality, as All De Fashion also continues the fine garage rock tradition of just rewriting the classics. "南京錠の件" (" Nankin Jou No Ken," i.e. "The Case Of The Padlock") is a trashed up "Spanish Castle Magic," "廃人のロックンロール" is the umpteenth rewrite of "Loose" (the band's not big on political correctness either, as the track's title, "Haijin No Rock 'n' Roll," translates to "The Cripple's Rock 'n' Roll,") and "ロンリーローリン" ("Lonely Rollin'") is a friendlier (but equally noisy) "God Save The Queen." Which is just fine, as this stuff is all about energy and attitude anyway, two things the band has more than enough of. One crucial thing Kuro Neko Chelsea get right is the swagger, the swing jazz based yelp and jump that takes the band from knuckle dragging guitar jockeys to cocky trash rock gods, at least for half an hour. "オンボロな紙のはさみ" ("Onboro Na Kami No Hasami," i.e. "Worn Out Paper And Scissors") takes a fleet footed Louis Prima beat and adds the requisite sweaty crunch. The band's MySpace page lists their genre as "psychedelic," and while that's gotta be some kind of joke, the guitar chaos halfway through the track does have a bit extra in the trippiness department. "のらりのらねこ" ("Nora Neko No Rari," i.e. "Stray Cat Of The Field") likewise exhibits some comfortably spacey echo, invoking Les Rallizes Dénudés more blissful moments with its leisurely pace and bass line lifted from 60s Soul (in this case, "My Girl.") The expansion of rock music has undeniably led to loads of vital and important music, but at the same time any descriptor that encompasses both the MC5 and Radiohead is in serious danger of becoming utterly meaningless. Which is why the world needs bands like Kuro Neko Chelsea to remind everybody what the point is supposed to be in the first place: snot, noise and grit. They're not reinventing the wheel here, and they shouldn't, drawing a familiar but always welcome power from the same old well. |