Tokyo Lungs – Tokyo Lungs (Kibou/Amok/Blown Out Media)
A new punk project from East Anglia blasts out 9 hardcore songs in 8 minutes with a huge nod to the scene across the water .
7″ Vinyl
Out Now
James from Kibou records takes the problem out of finding music to release by forming as many bands as he can. With Shouter-in-Chief James and Duracell bunny Simon from The Domestics* involved I looked at the name and artwork and guessed this was gonna be a homage to Japanese Hardcore (see Pissing on Perfection). I was wrong.
*James also does PI$$ER/Dis-Tank/Bring the Drones and Simon drums for Casual Nausea.
Whilst there are a few riffs straight out of 80s Japan, over all this is more in the vein of that 80s Boston HC sound exemplified by SSD and Out Cold. Take a deep breath, off we go. Rage, rage, thrash, thrash and in less than a minute we are done. Next song.
With the very British accent, it has something in common with Ripcord and Violent Arrest who pulled off the Boston sound so well with a UKHC signature. In fact, James’ vocal delivery does at times sound quite close to Steve Hazzard from those 2 bands.
Tokyo Lungs 9 Song 7″ (preview tracks only) by Tokyo Lungs
If I chuck in some West coast (of America) references like Off and Black Flag I should have put you in the right zone. There’s the odd injection of discordant yet oh-so-right guitar that Greg Ginn made his trademark and a lovely Sabbath style riff opens up the final track just to break things up. So it’s fast riffs and fast drums switching pace with short breakdowns and a lot of shouting. 9 songs in under 8 minutes is the way this stuff should be done. And a 7 inch is the perfect format for music like this – some would argue it is THE format that defines punk rock. Trying to stretch to an album risks a certain amount of repetition or filler.
300 copies were pressed up and a load went on pre-order so if you want it, get in quick. You snooze you lose!
Available from Kibou (UK), Amok (Germany) and Blown Out Media (U.S.A)
Tokyo Lungs are In Your Facebook (See what I did?)
Words by Nathan Brown. More from Nathan can be found over at his Louder Than War Author Archive.
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