| CD REVIEW Japanese Voyeurs |
 |
|
Band : Japanese Voyeurs Aaach...I've really dreaded getting started with this review. Put the music on my mp3-player like a little more than a week ago, and started giving it its first listening sessions while still reviewing other albums which took precedence...must've played it at least 13-15 times now, and still don't feel an inkling of that feeling of wanting to put it behind me! Must admit, I'm a sucker for girlie-sounding female fronted bands! That confession done, shall we get into the band's history? Based in London (UK), this Alternative Metal quintet (consisting of lead singer/ guitarist Romily Alice, guitarist Tom Lamb, keyboardist Rikki Waldron, bassist Johnny Seymour, and drummer Steve Wilson) was founded in 2007, and self-released its debut EP Sicking And Creaming in 2009...which spawned the singles Smother Me and Milk Teeth in 2010. Later that same year the band released the double a-side single That Love Sound/ Blush, which the band used to attract the attention of labels and music producers. Quite some producers responded, but only Gggarth Richardson (whom you must know from having produced Rage Against the Machine's debut album, as well as having worked on albums by The Melvins and Jesus Lizard, to name but a chosen few which come in handy in this story) took the trouble to travel all the way from Vancouver, Canada to meet up with the band and get personally acquainted, to come and see what makes this band tick first hand (going as far as stepping off the airplane, getting straight off to a party at the bassist's place, and outlasting everyone). In March of this year the band then traveled to Gggarth's country place in Vancouver, finished the pre-production, and then secluded themselves with the producer at Vancouver's Warehouse Studios, recording the album in only two weeks. Which brings me back to the music...and the confession that halfway the former paragraph (written yesterday morning just before 9:30) I was again sucker-punched by it (spending the rest of the day doin' all kinds of things in the house – mainly taking macro photos of my fossil finds – while continuing to enjoy the album over and over again until somewhere around 9 in the evening...giving the album 15 more listening sessions in the process!!!). Well, the music alone is enough to keep one's mind busy for some time and, luckily, the band provide us with a perfect means to describe it by confessing to be influenced by Stoner Metal acts Kyuss and Acid King on the one side, and such alternative heavy Grunge acts as Jesus Lizard and Fudge Tunnel...adding a constant heaviness to the whole...which is alternated with calmer passages to enhance the heavy feel even more effectively. Still, the heaviness is not the most important thing about JV's music, the melody is...and that's why the band's music is so captivating. I must say that, for a band counting a keyboardist in its line-up, there's surprisingly little keyboard I can hear on this album. There's some cello sounds in “Feed”, piano and strings in the wacky-sounding, Ambient-like “The Heart Is A Fist” (to be considered the album's ballad...a somewhat dark one perhaps, but at any rate a delightful calmer passage on the album, alongside the overall calmer “That Love Song”), and there may be some synth additions to the opening of “Double Cheese” and the noisy ending of actual album closer “Blush” (there's still also the wacky hidden track “Stupid Snake”, which sounds very much like a demo recorded by Romily with only acoustic guitar), but I've found it an impossible mission to find any keyboard incursions on the rest of the album. Of course, and I've said this before, I'm an absolute fan of those girlie vocals, but that wouldn't do me that much if it wasn't that Romily put down some really weird tales in her lyrics, stuff which are small explorations into shadow side of the human psyche, and things everyone has to deal with while trying to be a generally speaking “good person”. I'll not elaborate on that (more for you to discover on your own) but just say that if this band had come along with the usual Pop lyrics, I'd most definitely have finished this review 24 hours ago! Besides, as you can imagine, a nice girl also comes across disappointments and bouts of rage or loudly expressed indignation...things which are all reflected in Romily's vocal stylings, which switch from nice girly to furious vixen in a heartbeat, depending on a song's needs. Right, so where do you go to get a taste of this band? Just log onto the band's own site (www.) japanesevoyeurs.com and go to the “video” section, where you'll find clips for “Milk Teeth”, “That Love Sound”, “Godzilla” (non-album track, and actually you only get the music, no images), “Get Hole”, and “Cry Baby”. The latter, very much to my liking, is styled to the Tank Girl movie, which I simply lóve...as does the band, apparently, because they've styled a t-shirt with the Tank Girl tank on it! Ooh, audio for “Milk Teeth” and “Godzilla” can also be found at the band's facebook page, as it the additional track “Smother Me”. The band has promised itself to be out there on the live circuit as much as possible to promote the album, starting the year in early February, putting in a 25-show UK tour prior to traveling to Canada to record it. In the 2 months that followed their return from across the Atlantic Ocean, the band played another 18 shows up and down the UK, and started the Summer festival season at the Download Festival. The guys (oops...and honorable lady!) did their album release show in Paris, then continued to play a couple of lone shows in the UK, as well as playing the Sonisphere and 2000 Trees festivals in the UK, and the Bilbao BBK Live event in Spain...before playing support on the 4 shows on Slash's UK leg of his European tour at the end of July, and also accompanied him to shows in Milan and Rome. Following a short rest, the band did the Frequency Festival in Austria, played at Belgium's own Pukkelpop(and all you who've actually séén JV at that event...you lucky ones, eh!?), and put in a show in Holland. As we speak, the band started another run of the British venues (lasting at least until Nov. 9 so far)...you are so lucky this is home turf for this band! Anyway...I've got myself another favorite band to follow! Of course Yolk gets into my personal year-lists!!! 99/100 Tony. |