 Panta,
he of Zuno Keisatsu and solo fame, is a man who has been making music
for longer than many of his fans have been alive (next year, Zuno
Keisatsu will celebrate its 40th anniversary, and that wasn't even
Panta's first band.) He is in many ways defined in terms of his
politics, and indeed, Zuno Keisatsu saw its first two albums suppressed
as a result of their left leaning rhetoric. When I started digging
through his enormous catalog, I was warned that, with the heavy
political focus, the lyrics were the thing: having limited Japanese,
I'd miss the point. There is, naturally, some truth to that. Which is
why P.I.S.S. is such a good entry point for the uninitiated.
The context: Panta had just completed "Kristall Nacht," a concept album
about the Holocaust that was the result of a decade long gestation
period, and which he still considers to this day to be his most
important work (he tells the story in a Jrawk interview, found here.)
He began having ideas about resurrecting the equally serious Zuno
Keisatsu, who had broken up thirteen years previous, but had to wait a
year for co-Keisatsu Toshi to finish his commitments. So with time on
his hands and a huge, emotionally wrenching project finally in his rear
view mirror, he called up Roosters/Rock 'n' Roll Gypsies guitarist
Hiroyuki Hanada and set about making a straight on rock album.
With all
the politics and anecdotes
flying around, it's easy to miss the fact that Panta knows his way
around a hook, and in fact has quite a successful side career writing
for such pop artists as Keiji "Julie" Sawada. On a purely musical
level, he has a singular talent for
conveying dramatic despair, underscored with a dark, angry heart, much
like Bruce Springsteen at his most anthemic. It's
one of the reasons his political songs are so revered, as they dig into
the heart as well as the head. But the last time he tried dropping the
politics, it backfired in a big way, resulting in "Kiss," a well
intentioned but ultimately disastrous collection that annoyed critics
and baffled fans (more here.)
With that failure's title in mind, he called his second go at
apolitical rock 'n' roll "P.I.S.S," and the result is an immeasurably
more successful slab of unpretentious.
The title track kicks off with the best Stones riff Keith never wrote,
Panta's rough hewn vocals sneering with the rage he denied
himself on "Kristall Nacht." He shows he can convey urgency in any
situation with "Jin Jin Jin," an amped up blues rocker that takes the
well worn story of a frustrated lover and laces it with just the right
level of anger. Then there's "フェロモンの誘惑" ("The Temptation Of
Pheromones.") Panta's vocal crosses the line from rage to pleading and
back again, dancing across the divide with the slightest changes in his
delivery as guitarist Hanada barges in with an unstable, driving
solo. It's not the kind of track that hits on the first listen, but
repeated plays reveal new twists and clearer rage until the whole thing
sounds like one long, cathartic rant.
Panta indulges his pop instincts with the closing track, "One Night
Lover," a duet with Jpop vocalist Miki Matsubara. Skillfully avoiding
schmaltz while still keeping it sentimental, it's a surprising end to
an album with more piss (sorry) and vinegar than tenderness. Yet it
somehow fits, the one night stand being the ultimate conclusion to the
hormonal setbacks of the previous nine tracks. After getting this off
his chest, Panta and Toshi would rejoin in secret for Zuno Keisatsu's
reunion album "7," and Panta would return to the seething rage he's
best known for. But "P.I.S.S." is more than a breather, or a tossed off
filler between political statements. It's a chance for its creator to
show off a side that is oft neglected, and serves as a good entry point
to see what he can do when the ills of society take a backseat to
matters of the heart.
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Available at Amazon Japan
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