Styles: Slowcore, Psychedelic Rock | JPShizuka were one of Tokyo's most beloved underground bands in the city's Psychedelic scene. This is their only studio album, though before and after it they had many other types of full length releases.
十 [10] is a brazen opener led by Maki Miura's incredible guitarwork and Jun Kosugi's frantic drumming. Other instruments try to fade into the song at times but it's no use against the cacophony present. It calms down halfway through and helps transition into the next track, one more emblematic of the album. Pandora's Box is a dreamy song whose melody is slowly carried by the cello and Shizuka Miura wistful vocals. Her singing across this album is sparse but always a gentle presence on each track, shepherding every instrument along the way. This album especially excels at longer tracks, notably Plan For Solitude - having some of this record's most beautiful lyrics;
„Flowing into my wounds,
A beauty so close to death
A prayer in my blood
A cry in my blood
When my veins burst and everything crumbles,
When everything goes mad”
The guitarwork on this album is exceptional, not surprising considering Miura was a member of the legendary
Les Rallizes Dénudés and
Fushitsusha before this. It's constrained when it needs to be but at any moment can burst into something passionate and booming. The other members are of course important too, Hayakawa's bass and cello with the scattered piano by Nagahara along with everything previously mentioned combines to make something very brooding, often depressive.
6 Gram Star is a 10-minute ending, nestled by Shizuka's repetitive singing until the eventual crash into one finale noisy breakdown. It makes me wish there were more aggressive moments like that, but then they wouldn't be as special.
Heavenly Persona is one of the most beautiful Slowcore records I've heard, blending it with a Psychedelic direction along with masterful musicianship, vocals and production. Despite the sparse nature of many of its elements, it manages to feel incredibly dense with emotion.
9/10
See also: Les Rallizes Dénudés, Fushitsusha
- kreyzi
stillbeaches' rating: 4
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