10 SONGS, 10 CITIES

Japan has certainly been one of the leading nations for delivering quality noise rock and experimental music to the world on a surprisingly consistent basis. The band PANCSMILE was one of the bands that was instrumental in bringing this about after forming in 1992 in the southern city of Fukuoka and inspired by American alternative rock bands that eschewed the commercial slickness. While undergoing a few lineup changes over the past 30 years, the band is still together and has released an album as recently as 2020 in the form of "Real Life."

Founded by guitarist Hajime Yoshida, guitarist Jason Shalton and bassist Kenichi Yasuda, PANICSMILE has remained a popular act in its native Japan although somewhat obscure on the world's stage all the while fearlessly pushing the envelope with its unique form of progressive post-punk that incorporates elements of no wave, jazz and schizophrenic atonal episodes of Captain Beefheart infused chaos. Despite the band's notoriety in its native Japan, there is surprisingly scant info in English and i cannot even find databases that agree on the album releases. 

Whichever album this one happens to be, 10 SONGS, 10 CITIES appeared in 2001 after drummer and vocalist Eiko Ishibashi joined the ranks in 1998. This album of nearly 44 minutes of hotbed experimental rock action is chock filled with hypnotic no wave inspired grooves, avant-garde jazz detachment and bombastic punk rock heft. Given Ishibashi's cutesie girl vocals, the band reminds me a lot of bands like Deerhoof at key moments but PANICSMILE takes things further left field than even Deerhoof dared save the earliest anarchic releases as there are brash encounters with nerdy math rock, atonal adventures into avant-prog and even hypnotic groovy Krautrock moments a la Neu!

All in all it's actually quite difficult to describe PANICSMILE at all since the band really likes to meander. Obviously inspired by 80s acts like Minutemen, Cheer-Accident, NoMeansNo, Dog Faced Hermans as well as legendary acts such as Captain Beefheart and This Heat, PANICSMILE delivers a sensational cauldron of shapeshifting sounds on 10 SONGS, 10 CITIES which fearlessly throws experimental rock, noise, post-punk, psychedelia and even funk into the mix and let them fight it out who's in control. The effect is quite satisfying as the band never rushes too many ideas together unnecessarily. There is plenty of hypnotic groove time to chill, there are enough bizarre freak outs to jar you out of your trance and then there are moments of jazzy sax solos and post-punk guitar riffing.

PANICSMILE have been known to change up their sound often so any given release will result in a completely different experience, while Ishibashi's vocals were temporary at this point, her contributions add an extra layer of sweetness to an otherwise brash and wild roller coaster ride of an album. This is one for those who love highly unpredictable experimental music that loves to blend hypnotic grooves with unpredictable time signature shifts, outbursts of noise, crazy no wave angularities and even danceable moments of funk rock! Definitely recommended for those who love bands like early Boredoms at their most outrageous or even crazy bands like Ruins and Deerhoof at their most adventurous. My kinda music and definitely fits into the progressive punk world known as pronk!