HUNDRED SIGHTS OF KOENJI

After single-handedly ushering Japan into the wonderful world of French zeuhl with the brutal math rock laced band Ruins, Tatsuya Yoshida didn't stop there and forged a secondary branch of his love for the zany proggy jazz rock style brought to our planet by the Kobaians and adopted by Christian Zander. KOENJI HYAKKEI was born in 1991 and continued Ruins' brutal prog wild assault on Magma's classic sound but in addition other Japanese artists got the zeuhl bug and soon bands like Happy Family and Bondage Fruit were born. The band's name KOENJI HYAKKEI means HUNDREDS SIGHTS OF KOENJI which in English is the title of the band's 1994 debut. KOENJI is considered one of the hippest neighborhoods in all of Tokyo that has amazingly avoided the tourist circuit and remained a little insider's gem.

With a propensity of fortifying the classic Magma inspired sounds with the most brutal progressive rock accompaniments imaginable, HUNDRED SIGHTS OF KOENJI is a chaotic and wild ride through both the familiar stentorian vocal performances that all four members contribute to however it's the female charm of keyboardist Aki that gives the proper French connections. While the bubbling rhythms are clearly out of the classic zeuhl playbook as are the repetitive cyclical grooves, KOENJI HYAKKEI delivered a sliced of Japanese zeuhl that bombastically assaulted the senses with the energetic drive of a death metal band. A much more streamlined instrumental approach than many French zeuhl acts, KOENJI HYAKKEI featured only one guitar, one bass, one keyboard and the wild man drumming wizardry of Yoshida himself.

With song titles seemingly derived from the Kobaian lexicon, likewise it's unclear what the indecipherable lyrics rattling off a light speed mean or even what language they are. The guitar heft is as powerful as any alternative metal of the 90s but delivered more like an anarcho-punk band fully adrenalized which a freakishly stark contrast to the operatic vocal effects whizzing by simultaneously! Add to that touches of psychedelic organ runs as well as the occasional nod to Western classical artists such as J.S. Bach on the track "Zoltan." On top of delivering the zeuhl goods to the Japanese audiences, Yoshida is also considered the pioneer of what is now known as brutal prog, a style of prog that is incessantly over-the-top with super complex time signatures delivered at the fastest speeds possible and add to that the most abrasive distortion and contrasts that the human mind can muster up! Clearly a major departure from the sensual approach of the French scene.

To call this quirky and manic would be a major understatement! This is a relentless wild ride through crazy roller coaster speed cruises through zeuhl laced King Crimsonian prog attacks like there's no tomorrow, you know the kind of music that will awaken Godzilla from his peaceful slumber and cause him to ravage Tokyo! While it's hard to quantify music like this as it's so wickedly wild that the extremes are what makes this unique, it is fair to say that despite being a fascinating journey into the depths of frenetic Japanese noise rock tamed only by the scaffolding of the zeuhl structure, the compositions aren't quite as sophisticated as they would become on the band's second album "弐 (Ni)" which took the stylistic approach laid down on this debut and refined to include more dynamic song structures. This is truly the kind of prog that only the most hardened extremists will seek and out and enjoy of which i am one. While not as perfectly constructed as future releases, this debut is nevertheless a compelling head banging journey outside the world of extreme metal and one you will either love or utterly loathe.