Available at Amazon Japan
| Mosquito Spiral - In The Crowd |
| Looking
at the covers of Mosquito Spiral's catalog, you'd be forgiven for
expecting a healthy dose of stoner doom. Two of the four feature
vocalist Baki (ex-Gastank) surrounded by vivid, demonic colors, one
(2008's acoustic Gravest Hits) has a tombstone, and In The Crowd, their
most recent, looks like it came straight from Southern Lord's
warehouse: an ominous birdlike thing with a fleshless skull cradles a
swirling ball of light in its unsettlingly human-like claws (the rest of the artwork
follows in the same demonic vein.) On top of that, there's the song
titles, like the wisely monikered "(Don't Forget To) Boogie" and
"Rebirth," not to mention a cover from one of stoner rock's patron
saints, Pink Floyd ("The Nile Song.") But look closer: that demon bird
isn't destroying anything, it's offering up a ball of light. It's
therefore slightly less surprising when the opening blurt of
"Reflection" sounds more like The Didjits than Danzig...there's a hint
of sinister, and a lot of pummel, but the music's far too light on its
feet (and the chorus far too catchy) to be called heavy. Even "Fear" sounds more like a dragstrip race than anything to be afraid of: the shout along arena rock chorus rides atop of a tune that begs to soundtrack footage of squealing tires and souped up muscle cars. Guitarist Kasuga is similarly more stinging than brutal, as comfortable with "London Calling" style guitar chunk ("Nick's Bolero") as he is with sleazy swagger ("Sakebeodore") and unambiguously positive fist pumping arena rock ("Rebirth.") There's the requisite, furious cover of "The Nile Song," but the closest the band comes to doom and gloom is "Darkside Moon," although even that is balanced with a strong spark of positive defiance (and an opening that repurposes Pink Floyd's "Let There Be More Light" to a more frenzied effect.) The band has said that when they formed, the keyword was the Damned: while they didn't end up sounding anything like London's finest, the contrast between the dark and the light remains. But where Vanian and company were playfully theatrical, Mosquito Spiral are far more earnest: for a band with such pervasive death imagery, In The Crowd contains an unmistakable spirit of optimism that belies the shadowy murk of their image. "Rebirth" in particular is a powerfully anthemic, uplifting song, an open invitation to hoist your lighter in the air and sway along. "Nick's Bolero" (reportedly written as a song of encouragement for newborns, which is about as un-doom as you can get) is more glam than gloom even without taking the lyrics into account, and "(Don't Forget To) Boogie" takes a trippy riff straight from the psychedelic garage and couples its acid tinged snarl with one of the album's few English lyrics: "Good Luck, good luck/I don't care/Don't worry/You don't care/Be Happy." Once it all sinks in, the darkness recedes, and the gothic imagery reads more as comic book cool than ponderous gloom. Baki said, in an upcoming interview, that he wants "to express both the positive and the negative," but Mosquito Spiral's negative seems to be there as a call to action. The live shows confirm this: as a rule, Japanese audiences are much more reserved than their Western counterparts, but last month's live performance in Kichijoji saw enough inebriated grins and gleeful moshing to chase the monsters out from under the bed forever. "Just enjoy the show," as the final lyrics of "Nick's Bolero" instruct, and the sunrise will chase away the shadows. |