自我 – 狂気の日本

Jiga (sometimes also transliterated as Ziga), meaning Ego, released this masterpiece of a flexi in 1984 on Gas‘ Jisatsu Label. They also shared band members with Gas: Jiga’s guitarist later played in Gas, and Gas‘ original singer later sang in Jiga (on the Jisatsu Omnibus tracks).

I find it a bit hard to describe just what makes this 7“ so damn good, and I’m afraid my description may come across like hollow phrases, but here goes: the songs may be pretty straight forward hardcore songs, but the riffs are catchy (in a good way!), the tempo is fast and the drums are driving, the playing is tight and aggressive, and the singer’s high pitched voice has a great amount of craziness in it. They really know what they’re doing, and the result is one of the best japanese hardcore flexis of the eighties.

What always gets me is the one missing bass drum beat in the intro. I doubt they meant to play a 7/8 beat.

I have no idea whether this awesome compilation has an “official” name, since none can be found on the cover, labels etc. Usually it’s called the Jisatsu Omnibus (自殺オムニバス), after the label that released it. Confuse and The Sexual are the “bigger” names on the compilation: Confuse deliver their trademark hissing, fuzzy and overdriven distortion insanity, while The Sexual sound pretty similar to their ep “The Last Days”: cool, simple and somewhat melodic hardcore. The B-Side starts out with 自我 (Jiga, sometimes spelled Ziga), the second band of Gas’ original singer. They play hardcore in the same vein as The Sexual, just a little bit more primitive sounding. Last are M-78, a project by band members of Ghoul, Gastunk, Systematic Death and Gas, who are a lot more metallic than the rest and never released anything else.

Why was the 8″ format popular in Japan, and seemingly nowhere else?

Category: 自我

自我 – ST 7“

v.a. Jisatsu Omnibus 8″