Gai – 狂気の日本

29. February 2020

v.a. Pinch And Ouch

Pinch And Ouch is an all Kyūshū compilation album from 1985. The big names are obviously Kuro and Gai, and the Aggressive Dogs to a lesser degree. Gai sound a lot more like the Swankys on these tracks; they’re still dirty and raw, but it’s a far cry from their legendary 7“ and their tapes.
Gedon lean more towards punkrock, one of their tracks (Today Is Happy!) is a very happy and bouncy number, but Entertainer is a pretty cool, dark dirge.
Gess go from rocking, almost 77-style punk to really fast hardcore, which sounds a bit too happy for me.
No-Cut are slower, also more on the punkrock side, sadly not very special imho.
After them, the Aggressive Dogs offer some faster paced punkrock, but sadly also not very aggressive.
Lastly, Kuro show some changes in their sound compared to their first 7“ and 8“ releases. Not nearly as dirty, with a pretty clean and very tight sound, and even some competent metallic guitar wanks. Still very cool, just different.

Ouch! No pinching!

7. November 2019

Gai – Damnation 12“

Gai originally released this noisy monster on tape in 1984, this here is a vinyl re-release from the late nineties. The recording is a lot noisier than on Extermination, and the playing is somewhat faster, so here Gai sound a lot more unrestrained than on their vinyl debut. The songs are also somewhat more „diverse“; there’s slower songs and a rough version of the „melodic“ I Love You. Some of these tracks would later be released on the Swankys’ debut „This Is My Lifestyle“ (which means they also made it onto this bootleg). Rip Off, Sell Out, Money Grab?

You decide! 😉

2. November 2019

Gai – Extermination EP

The bootleg of this 7“ was one of the very first records I had posted on this blog, here’s the original now. This 1984 flexi was the only record Gai originally put out during their time; their other releases were either tapes, compilation tracks, or post-humous (boots). Enjoy this true masterpiece of genius, primitive Kyūshū raw punk. Note the cute flower on the artwork, which IS cut off like this. Great photocopying skills?

Enjoy! ENJOY! That’s an order!

28. October 20197. November 2019

Gai + Swankys Split 2×7″

Gai (Outsider/outside or maybe harm/injury) from Kyūshū were one the original japanese noise-core/raw punk bands. Together with bands like Confuse and ジイクハイル they developed their own style by completely dropping musical ability and songwriting, ignoring production values, and replacing them all with lots of distortion and fuzz. In their time they recorded several tapes before releasing their first flexi 7″ called “Extermination” in 1984. Later they changed their name to “Swankys” and kept going for a couple more years. This bootleg 2×7″ includes Gai’s Extermination 7″, The Swankys’ Lifestyle 7″ plus a couple more tracks.

FZZZZZZZZZ!