I don’t know what it is about this band. Perhaps it is the atonal music, the uncoordinated rhythm or the utterly incomprehensible lyrics, but Bleachmobile just doesn’t sit right with me.

I am disheartened that I have to trash this band with my review, since nothing would be cooler than to be on the cutting edge of the “Asian fem-core” scene.

In fact, I still support this band, even though I hate their music, merely because their genre is so unique.

But alas, a cool genre does not a band make. Maybe I seem a little harsh. This is because I see so much promise ? well, hear so much promise ? but there is no execution or follow-through.

The first track, which is called “Field of Vision,” surprised me. From 1:45 into it until 2:05 there was melody. Not just melody, but pleasing melody.

Why would Kamma, Suke, and Sayuri, the three members of this Japanese Hardcore Punk group, taunt the listener like that?

I was actually bothered by the presence of the good music, because it meant that they could have, if they wanted to, created pleasing music.

Metal magazine Thrasher described them as “three short girls, cute as buttons, pure violence music.”

I don’t know what pure violence music means, but, apparently, it is all the rage in Japan. They were ? and may still be ? the No. 1 female band in Okinawa.

This means one of two things. They are either the only female band in Okinawa, or Okinawans are in more trouble than I thought.

Their image is great, and they clearly pay respect to some classic punk traditions, as the caricature of Kanna used as part of the CD’s leaflet has her wearing a CBGB ? a New York club with a strong punk heritage ? T-shirt.

Clearly this front man ? I mean front woman ? knows the roots of her music.

Track six, “Voice,” seems to be a temporary escape from their incomprehensible music style, and allows us to appreciate the incomprehensible lyrics.

When I say incomprehensible, I don’t mean, “I can’t understand them because they’re in Japanese” I mean, “No one, not even the singers, could tell you what language this is.”

When I can distinguish the different instruments being used, it seems as though the girls are proficient in playing them.

The problem is that any talent these girls might have had gets totally swamped by the overbearing image they have.

Most of the Asian punk bands that become popular here in the U.S. are already hardcore, so for this band to be hardcore by native standards, they basically have to imitate the sound of guitars, basses, and drums being destroyed by an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Which explains why the vocals, which I am sure are actually coherent, have to be shrieked over this hideous orchestration. The worst part is that, after listening to the album three or four times, some of the songs began to grow on me.

“Trip to Hell,” which is a pretty accurate title, is like a narcotic. I know I don’t like it, but I can’t turn it off. And, after the fourth time through, I start to feel their rhythm, hidden though it is.

The problem is still one of image drowning out artistic meaning. There is a subtle balance that will hopefully mature over time, because, hidden under all of the attitude, there is musical talent that wants to creep out.

Probably by their third American release they will have progressed to a more tolerable point, but they have a long way to go. The sound is harsh, too loud, too uncoordinated to make for good punk.

This is a band that I think might have been discovered a bit too early, but even the best can have rough beginnings.

Powell can be reached at lpowell@campustimes.org.



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