7586 Nagoyarock
(2006/Bridge-Inc/Coup)
From reading these pages you could be forgiven for thinking that all music in Japan comes from either Tokyo or Osaka. Of course this is not true by any means. There is an exciting scene in Kyoto that is entirely seperate from the Osaka-dominated Kansai scene, Sapporo has a vibrant music scene, and Fukuoka is home to many of the best new punk bands. This eclectic compilation gathers together a wide spectrum of Nagoya bands, almost none of whom have been heard outside their hometown.

Within the first three tracks 7586 Nagoyarock has careered wildly from the the near Shibuya-kei of Guiro, through the quite brilliant kraut-metal of 6eyes, to the squeaky-voiced steel drum dub of Ichi, whose band, Nohshinto, later provide one of the album's highlights with the Der Plan-like Desu To Roi (the title is a pun on "Death & Roy" and the word "Destroy"). What's refreshing about this compilation is not only the way that it flits across genres in a way that would be terrifyingly alien to most Tokyo bands, but also how natural it sounds. These bands and singers seem quite used to existing in such an environment, and the result is that each track feeds off the energy of the last, creating not an incoherent mishmash of unrelated sounds, but a cohesive melting pot that exists exhilaratingly free of genre. -Ian Martin, May.22.06.