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Blotto
Singles Collection 2004-2007 |
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Tracklist |
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01 - 弌（イツ） (Itsu)
02 - △（デルタ） (Delta)
03 - underground
04 - Fresh
05 - 漸 (Zen)
06 - サンキュー来春 (Thank You Raishun)
07 - 木蓮 (Mokuren)
08 - 「 」
09 - 暗闇と賛歌 (Kurayami to Sanka) |
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Review |
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I'll admit right off the bat that I didn't know a single thing about Downy, apart from the fact that they keep my shirts nice and soft. The band's 2004 album had been lying around for a couple years with only a handful of plays to its credit. Untitled (2004) was recommended to me as the band's magnum opus and it soon became their swan song with the band breaking up by the end of that year (the guitarist now plies trade with indie superstar up-and-comers Vola & The Oriental Machine). What I have figured out since this nascent beginning is that Downy is a caged bear, fierce and restrained. The music on Untitled (2004) walks a very thin line between anger, depression, and sheer madness-but all in a highly experimental and original way.
The album explodes out of the gates with "弌 (Itsu)," starting with a mix of crunching drums, heavily distorted guitar, and frenetic bass. After the initial shock settles in (but doesn't let up), we are led to notice a fragile set of melodic keys just under the surface as well as a saxophone laying down solid tones to contrast with the pure chaos of the bass. The vocals are soaringly dismal here as they are throughout the album; the vocalist, Aoki Robin, has quite a skill of making even the band's loveliest moments sound downtrodden.
Downy's modus operandi is very clear: the chaos and then the melodies that pierce through it are a consistent theme. Thankfully the band has a wide enough range to experiment within their own world and this keeps the album from being overwrought or too homogeneous. It is a thin line to walk with such ill-tempered music but the band performs it all with great tact and deft musicianship. The full sound of the post-punk/shoegaze/industrial approach is mechanical and gorgeous. Each song is a twisting and organic beast that knows how to accentuate emotion through a full range of soundscapes, bouncing back and forth between a rough and smooth duality.
Analyzing each song individually, it's clear to see that each member has a full bag of tricks on hand so that there are very few, if any, dull moments anywhere in the record's half-hour running time. Much could be said about the individual arrangements as well and the band should definitely be credited for an excellent ability for songwriting. Downy obviously spent time with each and every track. As a song progresses it constantly returns to the same idea or riff but always with an evolved approach. This theme of relentless song-craft tinkering is best exemplified by the track "Underground," which takes a break from the relentless pace of the first two songs by instead taking a moderate clip, slowly sizzling with a general mood of unease. The next track, "Fresh," is also worth noting as it is the mid-album instrumental segue piece which teases the nerves with a free jazz saxophone/electric guitar/drum freak-out. The result sounds surprisingly good considering how often these types of "stretch" tracks are out of place and simply condescending. The untitled instrumental track towards the end works as an even more effective segue, providing a calm to counter the raw vigor of "Fresh" but still within the band's darkly beautiful aesthetic. The second half of the record is a return to the off-kilter-but-hook-filled style with "漸 (Zen)" offering the album's best chorus and "Thank You 来春 (Raishun)" putting some strangely funky bass work front and center.
As I mentioned before, the album runs fairly short at just over half an hour. While it would've been nice to have a few more songs of this caliber to remember the band by, it's the short running time that keeps me coming back for more. We don't even have time to get tired of the relentless sadness of the music because it's gone before you even get a chance to react to all the ideas that Downy throws out one after another. It is the freshness and obvious quality of the album that makes it all the more lamentable that the band had to break up, but at least they did it at the top of their game. |
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