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Blotto
Singles Collection 2004-2007 |
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Tracklist |
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01 - coral reef
02 - my world
03 - from resonance
04 - M.I.Y.A.
05 - night light
06 - forget me nots
07 - violet penetration
08 - higher
09 - quake and brook
10 - real man's back |
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Review |
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The most difficult point in a band's recording career is the sophomore release, almost instantaneously put under scrutiny by critics, fans, and naysayers of the group's first work. the band apart's K. and His Bike won many people over due to its eclectic use of apparent opposites working so well together—loud yet soft bossanova and rock passages, complex yet simple intertwining guitar melodies, calm yet energetic vocals—making for a very hard album to followup. However, quake and brook not only does that album justice, but supercedes it in subtle ways.
It's not necessarily what the band does new that makes the release so good. In fact, there isn't all that much that's new. Guitarists Arai Takeshi and Kawasaki Nobukazu still lay on the polyphonic guitar melodies with Hara Masakazu navigating between melodic and rhythmic bass lines. Kogure Eiichi can still pound out some precise beats. Except for a couple power metal riffs in one or two places such as a minute into "from resonance"—a possible ode to their humble beginnings—much of the core sound remains the same.
Yet there's an easily apparent confidence found within the songs that shows these guys are masters of what they do. the band apart is possibly one of the most rhythmically exciting rock bands out there; each member is so solidly grounded in the beat that even when things seem to fall to pieces and a member goes off on his own, not long after they are right back in the pocket. You can clap out a simple 4/4 pattern and they'll follow it to a T. Pretty amazing considering how complex the instrumentation gets. Arai, Kawasaki, and Hara pull of some very melodic work with their instruments that each phrase on its own would make for a good song. Kogure revels in drum fills that don't necessarily follow a set pattern. Combining the three of them one would think that it would lead to a mess rather than harmonious bliss.
The songwriting has developed into something beyond that of the first album, with hard and soft parts fitting better for a more subtle effect. They can still rock hard, yet the groove is more dominant than before. Vocals don't need to be screamed to get their point across, and Arai issues much smoother delivery than before, though his English doesn't come off as well as it has in the past. Perhaps it has to do with the more ambitious singing; the newer songs attempt a wider vocal range. Keeping in tune while maintaining linguistic precision in a foreign language is a difficult feat.
The formula for a successful sophomore effort lies not in making significant changes nor producing more of the same, but in taking the elements that made the previous effort strong and refining them. the band apart has done just that with quake and brook. |
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