Filed under: Reviews
Gauze -Binbou Yusuri No Rizumu Ni Notte (XXX Records (Japan) /Prank Records (USA) For over two decades, Tokyo’s Gauze have brought immense depth and technical precision to the world of traditional Japanese hardcore. Countless numbers have tried unsuccessfully to approximate their euphoric eruptions– zen-like bursts of punk ferocity and far eastern mantra, incorporating the fierce and dramatic into a dense, howling fray.
Over the span of five LPs and scores of compilation tracks, their frenzied, climactic kabuki thrash has yielded some of the more astounding speed-shifting clamor, hyperdrive ripping, and vocal savagery to grace a hardcore record.
With nary a sign of age or mellowing after twenty-six years of activity, Gauze’s fifth LP (and first in ten years) , “Binbou Yusuri No Rizumu Ni Notte” , howls forth with considerable power, brimming with the disorienting tempos, whirlwind velocity and rhythmic command that have defined the bulk of their repertoire. No less intense than what came before, this numbingly brief thirteen minute tempest hearkens back to Gauze’s most primal “japcore” roots, particularly the ear splitting damage of their oft touted “Equalizing Distort” LP and “Fuckheads” debut.
Where later recordings (most notably the band’s mammoth third LP, “Genkai Wa Doko Da”, and thundering fourth LP “Kao O Aratte Denaoshite Koi”) boasted denser, more involved arrangements, Gauze’s latest effort is more of a backwards-looking affair, with a prediliction for the coarser, less adorned songwriting of their earliest, crudest (but no less massive) punk sprawl. Replete with what may well be their rawest production values to date, the hissing, buzzing, slashing, distortion-saturated ebb and flow of this record greatly accentuates the aural tsunami within. The start-and-stop acrobatics of this barrage veils the intermittant bout of surprisingly anthemic (dare I say downright catchy?) mid-paced riff rocking, lending an infectious tint to the maxed out, razor-precise bombardment.
This is a welcome, if unembellished, addition to a deservedly lauded repertoire. Very highly recommended.-Mike Ramek
