12 April 2010

The Search for Japanese EBM

You'd have thought there'd be more Japanese EBM bands, that this scene above all others might have taken off in a big way there, might have fit Japan like a leather glove...

I'm aware that I've never been to Japan, am seeing it instead through a terrible gauze of Occidental 'otherness', aware that even when I do go I'll probably still not be able to see things straight but... I'm still curious why I don't know much about the Japanese EBM scene; why it hasn't crossed over, made itself more obvious...

I mean, there's components there, a definite cultural imperative towards the kind of metal/leather fetishism, a definite body horror / man-ipulation vibe, right the way from Mishima to Tetsuo and then way beyond... EBM would soundtrack the Japan I think of well (Albeit the one I'm thinking of is perhaps a slightly attenuated Blade Runner)... and the likes of Merzbow and particularly Masonna have been churning the man-machine interface into pure noise for years now... it seems suprising that the beats have been less forthcoming, have mostly spun off into brighter tones, to techno, to house, to disco or trance or dub...

There must be a Japanese EBM scene...

You could start here, but it's hardly propulsive; doesn't seem like an organ of mass manipulation - doesn't seem like a big enough gateway - what have these bands got to hide?

A dark heart of Japan that they think shouldn't exist? Is EBM too obvious a move?

This place seems promising, but I'm struggling to find a leader of the pack; a Klinik or a Front 242. There's no one I can find that's willing to be Skinny Puppy and face the consequences.

That said, I like the look of these guys, though they're really a lot closer to Depeche Moded J-pop than you'd imagine by the company they keep:



and you can tell by their t-shirts that they are going for the kind of Emily Strange market rather than puff-powdered, ski-goggle wearing Neuro-Trashers:



Perhaps these guys are nearer the mark. I could get into this kind of stuff:



though I guess it's still more techno than EBM, more like a messier Prodigy than a tight-balled Front Line Assembly clone. Good stuff, but not EBM..

I've recently discovered 2 Bullet and have more than a suspicion that they might be more fun than a bag of hungry cats and, judging from their influences, might be as close to a 'true' Japanese EBM band as I'm going to get. I'm certainly digging the paramilitary look:




And this kind of storms along like a very breathless robot:

2 Bullet - Human Kind


A little odder, trancier and still more Gothic is SawDUST in me which have a strange awkward sordidness about them, like a Balthus painting, come to life.

Well, a Balthus painting come to life in the middle of a seriously tranced out space-room:

sawDUST in me - Heaven

sawDUST in me - Thirteenth


On the same theme, they look like Strawberry Switchblade, modelled by Belmer:



But, again, there's nothing really BODY BEATING about this. It's pummelling without the body. And the machine fetshism isn't really fetishism at all; where Front 242 et al seemed to view machines as something to be wrestled with, and then commanded... the Japanese seem to take a friendlier tone; the machines are our natural extension, something to be kissed on the head rather than wrestled to the floor until they submit.

The search continues... where is the Tetsuo of Japanese EBM? It's a monster waiting to happen...

10 comments:

Biff Manard said...

Stabbing in the dark, are we?

Check out DRP, who put out an LP in 1990 on Body Records, a sub-label of Antler-Subway run by Dirk Ivens of Absolute Body Control, Klinik, Dive etc.

Sonically speaking, it's somewhere between "Official Version" and "Front By Front"-era 242 with a dash of early/mid-period Front Line Assembly and some similarities to "Belief"-era Nitzer Ebb . Quite enjoyable, really, if you ignore the obvious rip-off tendencies.

http://www.discogs.com/artist/DRP+(2)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlxdFpOXfrc

Loki said...

cheers Bill, I'll check it out... and yeah; absolutely stabbing in the dark... thought this was a no-brainer and there are a lot of angles to follow...

invest4ff said...

Hm... Interesting post... lol!
............................................

Anonymous said...

well, its 2100 Berlin time and I was just wondering the same Idea :)


DRP sounds like nice dark wave. perhaps we stick to europe EBM ......

Gist Games said...

Those bands really know how to rock :)
Play Free Games To Play

Anonymous said...

There's no EBM scene in Japan. It only was a short-living thing of the late 80s/early 90s with bands such as DRP, 2nd Communication and Soft Ballet (try their songs "Virtual War" and "Optimal Persona").

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8USdIaqtTw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXWjWLd25ww

Other bands, such as Brain Drive, used EBM elements and the image of the European EBM/Synthpop scene. In the mid-1990s, the EBM movement was over (in Europe and in Japan).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP5ZrQvMnRI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5DvEYf7BXo

And forget this Barbie Girl crap from Aural Vampire... DJ SiSen and all these Raver fuckers can go to hell. Their music has absolutely nothing to do with EBM, Industrial or Goth Music.

Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

It is true that his music
has nothing to do with
EBM, but ...
Currently you have to:
Death Watch Asia on their side
and that is profit for you ...

Moreover, here I leave
download a free URL
some of my records I
share with you and your blog,
To Know the true
EBM and drifters, Greetings!

You can download free and post
in your blog my disc promo.

http://hellektro.ru/releases/va-dj-fixed-ex2v3-industrial-rave-for-the-dance-floor-2011.html

http://hellektro.ru/releases/va-dj-fixed-ex2v3-next-level-2011.html

Anonymous said...

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viagra online said...

This japanese really freaks me up where did you find it sweetheart?

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