WRECKingCReW Yoru to Taiyou no DNA Mass of the Fermenting Dregs S/T Acidman Life Blotto Singles Collection 2004-2007 Boris Smile Electric Eel Shock/ASAKUSA JINTA Transamerica Ultra Rock/Sky ZERO Mugen Minus Shinda Hazu no Boku no Tabi BREAKfAST Classic Six Packs Sokabe Keiichi blue Pistol Valve Tsunamic Girls From Tokyo		Boom Boom Satellites On Released: 2006.05.17 (SRCP-401) Label: Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. Reviewer: Rich Dodgin (2006.06.02) Tracklist 01 - Kick It Out 02 - 9 Doors Empire 03 - Girl 04 - Id 05 - Play 06 - She's So High 07 - Pill 08 - Generator 09 - Beat It 10 - Porcupine 11 - Nothing 12 - Loaded Review Boom Boom Satellites are my all time favourite Japanese group – so when I heard that they were releasing their fifth album, On, a mere fourteen months after the previous one, (Full of Elevating Pleasures) it felt like Christmas had come seven months early! Over their last couple of albums, the band have been developing a more mainstream sound, and my main worry was that On would take the pop direction that bit too far. I needn't have worried. From the pounding drums and screeching guitars of opening track "Kick It Out," it's obvious that these guys still rock! The second track, "9 Door Empire," perfectly epitomizes the overall sound of this album. It starts with a repeating guitar riff, the pounding drums join in, and for a few minutes it sounds like a fairly standard rock tune - and that's when Masayuki Nakano's keyboards take over and everything warps into the realms of techno-trance. The sheer brilliance of it takes your breath away, and reminds you just how exciting and exhilarating music can be. "Generator" is a fast moving number, in which Michiyuki Kawashima's distorted guitar shreds and grinds over the layered keyboards and background techno beat. It sounds like something from the soundtrack of a cyberpunk movie – something that is helped by the fact that the vocals don't appear until 4 and a half minutes into the song, and consist of nothing more than ‘how many grave pits you need?' repeated several times. My favourite track on the album is "Nothing" - a guitar driven, angst ridden tune in which Michiyuki sings "...all I do is crawl in mud... I have nothing left... so sick of it all..." Amazingly, despite the bleak subject matter, it is insanely catchy, and impossible not to tap your foot along to. Masayuki doing a fantastic job of creating a frantic beat with the drums, and it's this that sets the pace... but it's the over-laying guitar work that really sets this song alight – the eerie soaring textures created providing both attitude and introspection. There are a couple of tracks that don't quite do it for me. "id" is not much more than some random drumming and keyboard sounds looped together for 90 seconds – it's reminiscent of the crazier moments of modern jazz that appeared on 2002's Photon, but here it feels wildly out of place. "Porcupine" is even stranger – sounding like the recording of an acoustic guitar played backwards, it's slow, mellow, and completely at odds with everything else on the album. All that said, it is good to see that the guys are still unafraid to experiment and are continuing to push the musical boundaries. And when the rest of the album is so good, it's easy to forgive them. This is without a doubt Boom Boom Satellites' best album so far. They've established their own unique sound, but they haven't allowed themselves to be shackled by anyone's expectations. After previous albums of jazz-fusion, and soul-tinged guitar-pop, they've created a heady masterpiece of techno-rock. Yet again they've shown that in the field of dance / rock crossover, they are clear leaders, not followers. At the moment, no one else comes close. back to reviews
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