jeudi 22 avril 2021

NO NO NO

 

picture by Teppei Miki

 

I really start to enjoy doing these little write ups about Japanese bands, it's a real challenge to get proper information and I love it.
No No No are a trio from Ibaraki, Japan, they started in 2009/2010 (taking influences from the Swedish band Nödslakt, maybe after they saw them live or met them, not clear but I read something about it), released a live tape, had a break of several years for personal/job reasons, got back together and have been seriously rocking for four years or something now. Sakai, the drummer, is also involved in Kili Kili Villa, a label and webzine covering the DIY scene, and in Vogos, another band in which drumming does not sound challenging at all.
No No No made the cover and were interviewed in El Zine #47 (THE punk zine in Japan, you can find a few old issues in pdf on archive.org if you're interested and read Japanese), if anyone got a link I'm interested.  

Ok let's give it a try!



No No No's four-track demo is the only release of the band's first period (roughly one year long between 2009 and 2010). It's obviously a live take but it does sound pretty good.
 


The trio delivers some classic Japanese hardcore punk, a bit shaky but full of energy and reminiscent of the classics that everyone quotes when it comes to Japan (The Comes, Lip Cream etc...) even if it doesn't really sound similar, but above all No No No recalls another female-fronted band from Ibaraki, the excellent 悲鳴 (Himei) which was active around the same time.



More than seven years later (early 2018), No No No self-releases Cutting Edge, a ten-track CD (whose artwork makes me think a lot of the Little Prince for some reasons).
Based on the first track only you could think that the trio took it off exactly where they left it so many years ago with a not-so-fast classic kind of hardcore punk, but, as the following songs quickly show it, the tempo has increased "a little bit".



You see speed, fastness, "velocity" (or whatever you wanna call it) is a state of mind in punk, there is the "normal fast", the "super fast", the "ripping fast" and the "insanely fast" (and probably others for that matter)... and the one we're facing today is probably close to the insanely fast level, the one you mostly meet in genre bearing barbaric names like grindcore or power violence (or quite simply fastcore). And of course when you got a Japanese female-fronted band playing at that speed there is only name that can pop in your mind: Melt Banana of course!
Yes yes yes Melt Banana... a band that totally destroyed the limits of the mental universe the word music was filling in my then teenager brain, many years ago now...


  But Cutting Edge is not just about super power-violence-fast tracks, there is also the slower and very good Sensitive Song whose "melodic" vocals are pleasantly surprising, the mid-tempo instrumental Shadow, the almost 2-minute long No No No which starts like an anthem and explodes in a more "conventional" hardcore punk way as well as Vanished (Into the City), the last track, whose slow and "scary" bassline beautifully concludes the album.
To be honest I've found this album a lot more surprising and enjoyable than what I was expecting, it's a good record!
 
 
 
 

A bit later in 2018 got out Live Fast, the first No No No 7", released by 悲観レーベル (Hikan), a label run by one of the member of 悲鳴 (Himei)
Eight tracks that finally allow the band to demonstrate their mastery of speed and anger, tracks that benefit from the best recording quality the band has had access to so far and that are, in the end, more than a demonstration but a proper lesson in technical mastery.
 
 
  Technical mastery yes, but not at the expense of spontaneity and real listening pleasure, No No No has perfectly understood the importance of "breaks", of pauses to let breath, of the "low" intensity parts that make the "high" intensity ones even higher and more efficient, in one word the importance of carving in full and hollow.
 
 
    And that's what totally blows me away in this record: ok it's insanely fast and angry but it's so much more than that! It's diverse, it's "melodic", it's sad and desperate but most of all it's not boring for a sec. I mean listen to the beautiful break of Live Fast, to the bass break of No End In Sight and of course to the so beautiful and surprising Upset which recalls the 90s grunge /  Riot Grrrl scene...
I'm definitely impressed... I don't think I've ever heard something like that.
 
 
 
 

  2019: No No No, 経血(Kei-Ketsu) and Eyescream (to not be mistaken with the indonesian or russian bands of the same name), three furious female-fronted hardcore punk bands from the Ibaraki and Miyagi areas, team up on a three-way split released by Break The Records and Foad Records and called Croon A Lullaby (and I absolutely love the cover artwork).
You should absolutely check out the whole record as all bands are quite good but I will only focus on the one I'm interested in today if you don't mind.
 
 
 
  Well I didn't think it was possible but it really does sound like the trio is playing faster than ever (these guys won't stop astonishing me). What can I say? 
Yes it's faster, rawer, crazier and probably better than ever!
Four tracks for a total of less than four minutes and a half, I think I can say that No No No know how to keep it nice and short. And once again it's well balanced, the breaks are just where they should be, the "insanely fast" parts are absolutely insane and just long enough and there is even a beautiful, but short, sung part on Silver...
It's just super good... once again...
 
   
  (the Fynal Tokyo project is an initiative of the punk photographer Teppei Miki)
 
 

 The Indonesian label
Gerpfast Record released this Raw Live Fast Tape in summer 2019 and it's exactly as described, it's a raw live recording of a bloody fast band. I'm not a big fan of live recordings but this one at least has the merit of showing (once again) that the band's speed is not a studio affair and that seeing this band live can only be a mystical experience. 12 minutes and 39 seconds, that's a decent show length.


 
  I'm glad I've wandered around that page though, thanks to the label recommendations I've discovered another Japanese gem, the all-female band Otoboke Beaver from Kyoto (don't dare tell me that you're not impressed by THIS!)... damn it looks like I have a lot of catching up to do on recent Japanese punk...
 
 
 
 
 

  2021: here is what is described as No No No's first full-length; released on tape by Gerpfast Record (with a collage artwork by Luna Kadima from the Spanish band Satélite) and on CD by Kili Kili Villa (with a different cover). It will also probably be their final release as they announced the end of the band in December 2020 (I hope I understood that right).
The label announced really clearly that there was no digital version (for now or at all, I'm not sure) so as surprising as it can sound in 2021 it means we will have to do with the two tracks (out of fifteen) which were posted on YT for now... 
And despite a small line-up change (new bassist), it doesn't sound like No No No has decided to give up and sell out...
 
 
 
 
 
Can't Live In The Past's video was made by Teppei Miki (him again!) with his own pictures and based on an idea taken from the Obliteration's Mind Ain't Right video
 
 
I will update this post if the digital version finally shows up by any chance...
 
 
 
 N,J'Oi!

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