Available at Amazon Japan
| 9mm Parabellum Bullet - Revolutionary |
| Confidence
ain't easy. Never has been. Hard as it is in day to day life, actually
communicating it through an instrument is that much more difficult:
even veterans don't often convey effortless, relaxed focus in their
playing, instead going for everything from tight technical prowess to
unhinged energy and everything in between. Not saying that making it
look easy is any kind of requirement for music to be worthy, of course,
but there's an undeniable thrill to hearing a group of musicians
casually raise an ungodly powerful racket. It's a show of power that
can, delivered properly, speak louder than a million busted amps. 9mm Parabellum Bullet always gave me the impression that they sweat because they want to, not because they have to. There's a fascinating dichotomy at play in the band's best music, where an airtight, world enveloping frenzy is played with a casual, almost offhand confidence. It's as if they toss off this incredibly precise and fantastically huge stuff on the way to work in the morning, and the incessant, physical freakout of the band's stage antics are more for their own amusement than a byproduct of effort. They're just so sure of themselves. Revolution, the band's third full length, is a short sharp shock that has this trait in abundance. There are moments within its brief (33 minute) running time that sound like they're swallowing the universe, yet the band shows virtually no signs of strain: all release, no tension. The interlocked guitars of Yoshimitsu Taki and vocalist Takuro Sugawara play arguably the key role, as their precise yet manic riffs spray adrenaline every which way without betraying so much as a ruffled feather, and the duo's snakey, almost middle eastern riffage sounds like Michio Kurihara on fast forward. The rhythm section of Kazuhiko (bass) and Chihiro Kamijo (drums) is similarly smooth, yet powerful, navigating hairpin turns and hitting complex rhythms as if they were as routine as 16 bar blues. I'm normally not one to stress virtuosity, but the Yokohama foursome is so unassumingly spot on that it's impossible to overlook. Crucially, they know how to write to this strength, and Revolutionary is full of earworms that would probably still work in less skilled hands. They bring to mind The Mars Volta, if that band could somehow shed its fussy pretension and get to the damned point. These are songs, not showcases, careful constructions that keep the complexity firmly within the rules of typical song structures. It's worth noting that the majority of the album's ten tracks fall well short of four minutes, and this respect for brevity pays off. "Cold Edge" has enough ideas for a mini epic, but squeezing it all into three and a half minutes is part of the thrill: it goes by in a glorious blur. The downright surreal "Finder" sounds like it could be the soundtrack to a particularly manic clown troupe, dancing between cartoon chase music and the band's signature full bore pummel. If there's a criticism to be leveled at Revolutionary, it's extra-musical: nearly half its brief running time has been issued on singles over the last year ("Black Market Blues" was issued last June) and the album mixes don't change much. The running time is actually significantly shorter than some of those singles, which included full shows in lieu of B sides. That said, the album's brevity is a virtue: it keeps the sheer scope of ideas and easy ferocity of the playing from becoming too much. Quibbles aside, Revolutionary maintains 9mm Parabellum Bullet's status as Japanese rock's big mainstream hope. We could use another dozen or so. |